Masters at work

The lines differentiating mixing and mastering plugins have never been more blurred – which is great news for mixers! Used with care, core mastering processors such as multiband dynamics and loudness maximisers can be great for finessing submix busses, while stereo widening/narrowing plugins can help rebalance the spread of your mix. Let’s look at three superb ‘smart’ mastering plugins that can help you in various ways.

Ozone 8 is the latest incarnation of iZotope’s powerful mastering suite, and this impressive collection of plugins (which includes EQ, Dynamics, Imager, Dynamic EQ, Exciter, Spectral Shaper and Maximiser) can all too easily suck the life out of a mix if used carelessly. Fortunately, though, it has a number of helpful features to keep you in the pocket. Some of these (Tonal Balance) are identical to their counterparts in Neutron 2, while Master Assistant is a mastering-orientated version of Neutron 2’s Track Assistant. Both of those are covered on p28, so here we’ll focus on two of Ozone 8’s exclusive features: Spectral Shaper (Ozone 8 Advanced; an analysis and processing tool that helps tame and sculpt harsh frequencies) and Track Reference (Ozone 8 Standard; play back reference tracks from within Ozone itself).

Newfangled Audio Elevate uses the same filterbank as its sister plugin, EQuivocate. This multiband device then employs artificial intelligence to set parameters for each band, which can be adjusted via three Adaptive settings: Gain, Speed and Transient.

Finally, Softube’s Drawmer S73 keeps the vast majority of its complex inner workings hidden away under the hood, favouring a straightforward four-control interface. Don’t be fooled by its apparent simplicity, however, as this is still a very powerful processor.

“Used with care, core mastering processors can be great for finessing your submix busses”