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- #BEST UNIVERSAL AUDIO PLUGIN FOR THE MASTER BUS UPDATE#
- #BEST UNIVERSAL AUDIO PLUGIN FOR THE MASTER BUS UPGRADE#
- #BEST UNIVERSAL AUDIO PLUGIN FOR THE MASTER BUS FULL#
- #BEST UNIVERSAL AUDIO PLUGIN FOR THE MASTER BUS PROFESSIONAL#
- #BEST UNIVERSAL AUDIO PLUGIN FOR THE MASTER BUS FREE#
The original EQ uses a tube amp to create gorgeous harmonics, but it’s for a hefty price tag of almost $5,000 ?. The Manley Massive Passive is renowned for its ultra high end quality & brilliance for shaping the tone of a track. One of the most iconic pieces of mastering gear ever.
#BEST UNIVERSAL AUDIO PLUGIN FOR THE MASTER BUS UPDATE#
Waves audio also sells it & it’s pretty solid however, they recently switched over their plugins to needing yearly update plans, so just be prepared that you may need to repurchase this plugin once a year if you buy it from Waves. Our favorite is the one from Universal Audio, but if you don’t have the UA hardware, you can still find it on the SSL site. There’s a few different companies that sell this plugin.
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This is a great way to avoid the low end triggering the compressor & causing a “pumping” feeling. This allows you to set a frequency range in the low end that the compressor won’t react to.
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One of our favorite features this plugin has to offer is the SC filter. It also does a great job with making your track hit hard! The SSL comp does an amazing job with creating a cohesive sound while maintaining clarity. There are lots of options when it comes to bus compressors on your master channel & we even switch between a few ourselves for different songs, but if we had to only choose one, we’re going with the SSL Bus Compressor! This compressor has become iconic & is known for its “glued” sound. Pro-MB is powerful & will instantly become your go-to for multi-band compression! This plugin is also great to have for mixing as well. Pro-MB is filled with a bunch of other excellent features such as M/S compression, side-chain compression, & the ability to solo out frequency ranges. This lets you be more precise & only compress the frequency range that needs it. One of our favorite features is - unlike traditional multiband compressors that spilt bands over the entire spectrum with crossovers - Pro-MB allows you to place bands anywhere on the spectrum independently of each other.
#BEST UNIVERSAL AUDIO PLUGIN FOR THE MASTER BUS PROFESSIONAL#
Multi-band compressors are a must for lots of professional mastering engineers & this brand is hands down our favorite! Like all FabFilter plugins the design is elegant & smooth. That’s a true win-win! The T-RackS Classic Clipper is one of the best soft clipper plugins out there & it’s so affordable! Only $49 & if you keep an eye out, it goes on sale for $25 a few times a year! 8) FabFilter Pro-MB That’s right, with soft clipping you get more headroom while also gaining more perceived loudness. Because of this, soft clipping is highly effective with lowering the overall RMS gain - giving you more headroom - while somehow enhancing the overall perceived loudness. Hard clipping squares off the edges of a peak in a waveform whereas soft clipping rounds off the edges of a peak in a waveform. Soft clipping is one of the best cheat codes to enhance the overall perceived loudness.
#BEST UNIVERSAL AUDIO PLUGIN FOR THE MASTER BUS FREE#
The free version by itself is enough to do what you need it to do though! 09) T-RackS Classic Clipper
#BEST UNIVERSAL AUDIO PLUGIN FOR THE MASTER BUS UPGRADE#
There’s a “Pro version” you can upgrade to for only $37 that includes measurements for all platforms (Spotify, YouTube, HBO Max, Disney+, Netflix, etc) and it also lets you drag & drop other songs into (like a Travis Scott record for instance) & it will analyze the loudness of that record, so you can compare it. The LUFS meter does a better job than VU or RMS metering of measuring the perceived loudness.
#BEST UNIVERSAL AUDIO PLUGIN FOR THE MASTER BUS FULL#
LUFS (Loudness Unit Full Scale) is the industry standard for measuring loudness especially when it comes to streaming platforms. The YouLean Loudness Meter is a great metering plugin that’s… free! This plugin measures the LUFS of your audio source. It’s also good practice to get to know your DAWs stock plugins before investing in expensive mastering plugins however, the more you get into mastering, you’re eventually going to need to invest in some more powerful tools & since we just released our brand new online course - The Art Of Mastering- we thought we would write up a list of our favorite mastering plugins ever! 10) YouLean Loudness Meter We always recommend getting things to sound right during the recording process & in your mix first before mastering. Mastering is the final stage of the music making process before we upload it to the world to hear.