rockmixengineer Archives - Visionary Music Group

Top 5 Compressor Plugins

Here’s a list of our top five favorite compressor plugins we use daily to help craft our sounds!

Remember, these are our favorites (and in no particular order) so let us know yours as well!

Here’s our YouTube video on the same subject as well:

Number One: UA 1176 Blue Stripe

“Bluey” as mix virtuoso Chris Lord Alge refers to it is my go-to compressor for vocals, especially in a rock track. It brings the vocal right to the front of the mix and keeps it there. It also adds an excellent tonal character.

Number Two: UA Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor

This compressor is my go-to for any source with low end. I have a send/return with the Shadow Hills comp in every session to glue the bass and kick together. It’s also excellent for beefing up thin vocals and voiceover tracks.

Number Three: Empirical Labs Arouser

The plugin version of the mighty Distressor plug in! I had four Distressor hardware comps, until designer Dave Derr came out with his software version.
It has way too many uses to list here, so get the demo and check it out!

Number Four: Waves CLA LA3A

A great comp for many sources when 1176 may be to heavy. Vocals, bass and always the go-to on electric guitars. It’s seems to always be on sale for
$29.99 too!

Number Five: Brainworx Vertigo VSC2

The hardware Vertigo unit was their take on a VCA SSL buss style comp. The plugin version is great and glues a track together like the SSL, but leaves a little less sonic character, in a good way!

That’s our top five favorite compressor plug ins. You can check the video for more details on YouTube:

We would love to hear any of your favorites, so feel free to let us know.
Thanks for your support !

Top 5 Plugins To Use Every Day

Here’s a list of our top five favorite plugins we use daily to help craft our sounds !

Remember, these are our favorites (and in no particular order) so let us know yours as well!

Here’s our YouTube video breaking them down:

Number One: Sound Raddix Auto Align

Auto Align will automatically find any phase and sample delay differences for you, then correct them. A polarity flip button on a console or plug in can only flip your phase 180 degrees. Auto Align adjusts sources that are less or more than 180 degrees out of phase. Before Auto Align you would have the time consuming task of moving these manually.

It’s fast and easy. I put one in every part of the drum kit then set one of the overheads as the master and the others to receive. Just play 8 bars of the track and you are done!
In less than a minute your drums sound more focused, have more low end and feel like you have EQ’d them already. I find it helps us get a better drum sound much faster.
We also use it on a bass DI and amp.

Number Two: Oeksound Soothe

Soothe is a multi band compressor that magically finds harsh frequencies in your signal for you and reduces them. It’s a complicated plugin if you feel the need to deep dive into all the parameters, but in 15 seconds you can have it make an amazing difference with just two parameters. Just set the resolution to “ultra” and adjust the one large knob until you feel you have gone too far, then back it off and you are done.

Soothe is fantastic on vocals, acoustic guitars and drum overheads.

Number Three: Fab Filter Pro Q2/3 EQ

Pro Q is a great tool for any situation where a precise surgical EQ is needed. It is also great for high and low pass filtering. I have one on every channel when I start a mix to clean out all the unnecessary high and low frequency material that can build up in a large mix. I also usually have another band ready to cut any offensive frequencies.

The GUI is super fast and easy. It also has a handy has a frequency analyzer to help you visually AND a solo button on each band to hear the frequencies you are processing.

Number Four: Brainworx SSL E/ J Channel Strip

This plugin is really a game changer. You could buy one plugin and put it in every channel and have a super pro-sounding mix.

The actual tone is fantastic, giving the session the glue and harmonic feel of a console. The compressor is true to the console comp and the gate is as good as many of the top stand alone gate plugins. Not to mention a super smooth EQ and the sound of all the hits for the last four decades! We have tried all the other SSL emulations, but this one has it all, it doesn’t burn all your processing and it was on sale for $29.99!

Number Five: Soundtoys SIE-Q

A great emulation of the Siemans EQ. Super smooth, silky high frequency boost and a surprising mid range. Boosting 2.5k on a vocal can create harshness in many equalizers, but not the SIE-Q. This brings it right to the front of the mix !

That’s our top five favorite plugins .
You can check the video for more details on YouTube: https://youtu.be/a27pl17MalU

We would love to hear any of your favorites, so feel free to let us know.
Thanks for your support !