This plugin is great for special effects, like filtering down a vocal or making an intro sound tiny. You can vary the intensity of the effect by controlling the volume of different types of noise, the degree of wear and tear, and the decade your sound is from. The results range from subtle filtering to Edison phonograph. Vinyl will make tracks sound like they’re being played on a turntable. Sometimes a little crackle is a good thing. Turn the knob to the left to soften tracks and push them back in the soundstage. Turn the knob to the right to add punch to drums, enhance the pluck of an acoustic guitar, or boost the consonants in a vocal performance. This simple plugin can achieve a wide variety of effects. It can produce results on par with studio mainstays like SPL’s Transient Designer and Waves’ Trans-X.

Flux BitterSweetīitterSweet is among the best transient shapers out there.

If you’re looking to fill some holes in your plugin library, this is a great place to start. They range from workhorse tools like a compressor and EQ, to less common effects like a ring modulator, flanger, and oscilloscope. The MFreeFXBundle contains 30 free VST plugins. They’ve earned the praise of many notable engineers, including mastering guru Ian Shepard. MeldaProduction makes some great plugins. The timer automatically stops when you close the session, and starts when you open it up again. Add it to a track, and it will start counting. The first step towards more efficient mixing is to track how much time you spend doing it. Without this information, it’s easy to get lost in a black hole of endless tweaking. You’ll get to the finish line faster, retain more objectivity, and ultimately, craft better mixes. This is one reason I recommend mixing quickly and impulsively. Given enough time, even the worst mix will start to sound decent. This makes it progressively harder to make good mixing decisions. The more time you spend on a mix, the more attached you become to what it sounds like. It’s great to have this one around-you never know when you might need it! The mid and side solo buttons are also useful.

While I rarely push the stereo width past 100%, collapsing it to zero is an easy way to check for mono compatibility. While it’s the least sexy of this bunch, it can still be pretty useful. Brainworx bx_soloīx_solo is a no-frills, stereo-imaging plugin. They’re worth checking out too, but SPAN is my favorite.) 3. Voxengo has a few other free VST plugins. You can even route multiple tracks into SPAN and compare their frequency content. You can control the ballistics and response of its graph, which makes it flexible enough for a wide variety of tasks. It plots the frequencies of sounds out on a graph, which allows you to “see” what tracks are comprised of. Tools that provide visual feedback, when used properly, can help you make better mixing decisions.Ī spectrum analyzer is one of these tools.

How to use vst plugins in pro tools 9