Before the digital age that we are now in, audio was a totally different ball game that didn’t boast the streamlined and time-efficient workflow that we now enjoy.
Cumbersome large format analogue consoles, racks and racks of outboard processing gear, miles and miles of cable, and actual, physical patching. This is what audio engineers in ages past were used to.
If you wanted a compressor inserted into an audio chain, you would literally have to plug it in. The thought! However, as simple as that sounds, there were obvious pitfalls to the process, most notably the time it takes to do so and the fact that once it’s plugged in, that was it – the processor was occupied. It makes the mind boggle that a unit costing R30 000 could only be used once on something as simple as a bass guitar track for the rest of the production.
But then came the move into digital. The digital audio workstation revolutionised the way we work and gave us such things as a non-linear workflow, unlimited track counts, virtually zero signal degradation through generations, low noise floors and, of course, the power of the audio plugin.
Audio plugins are basically DSP code contained within a file that can be hosted in audio application and manipulated via a graphical user interface. On their own they are merely incoherent collections of data but used within a DAW, they become powerful processing tools; the use and instance count of which is only limited to the available processing power of your system. This has obvious advantages, not least of which they can be applied at the click of a mouse (negating the need to ever touch a cable), and spread across as many tracks as you like. We are now in an age where we can have the “sound’ of a Pultec EQP1a or a Fairchild 670 on every track.
Or can we?
The question is, are plugins as good as hardware? This debate has raged, is raging and will continue to rage in the future with no foreseeable end in sight.
Many professionals, particularly those with their roots in analogue, claim that plugins come nowhere close to hardware and many detest them. On the other hand, there are many current professionals closer to the cutting edge that use nothing but plugins and hardly ever touch a hardware processor.
Oh, but that doesn’t stop the luddites. From their end the going argument is that this too has pitfalls, such as too many options and the fact that it promotes over-processing and endless tweaking instead of focusing on getting a good sound from the beginning.
In the favour of plugin proponents, DSP coding and emulations are getting better as time goes on, rendering them highly useable for most purposes. Someone must be using them successfully. The tough part is that both camps are capable of producing great sounding work and because the end listener remains oblivious to the inner workings of the production process – which is possibly a worsening scenario – the issue remains wholly dependent on the taste of the engineer. As we know, taste is entirely personal.
The choices are endless too, as there are literally thousands and thousands of plugins available on both the commercial and freeware side of the spectrum. Also, we have many different formats that only work on specific platforms. For example, VST and DirectX plugins for Windows; Audio Unit and Mac VST plugins for Mac OSX; LADSPA and LV2 plugins for Linux; and then there are proprietary plugins, such as TDM, RTAS and AAX, which only work in Avid’s Pro Tools.
We also have varying plugin flavours. These include strictly digital incarnations of traditional audio processing tools and then digital emulations of classic hardware, supposedly complete with the analogue character that they are famous for. These plugins include emulation code of non-linearities particular to that unit, internal gain structure and sometimes even the operational quirks of the originals.
It doesn’t end there. Audio plugins are not limited to processing or effects such as compressors and reverb. There are also instrument plugins which are complete electronic instruments in their own right. This is another way that the DAW has enhanced our lives and enabled performers to have a plethora of sounds at their fingertips. Gone are the days of lugging around multiple keyboards and synth modules because now they’re all contained within your computer’s hard drive.
I had the opportunity to catch up with a few local producers and engineers to talk to them about their favourite plugins and how they use them. The results were interesting to say the least but, just like microphones, everyone has their favourite go-to specimens and opinions are myriad and varied.
Let’s see what they had to say.
Darryl Torr
Grammy Award-winning record producer Darryl Torr is one of the most recognisable players in the industry. As owner of Openroom Productions, he has worked with almost every big name in the industry from the Soweto Gospel Choir, to Zebra and Giraffe and Louise Carver.
EQ – Massenburg EQ “For vocals or anything where I need a lot of character and headroom, I use the Massenburg EQ.’
EQ – Focusrite ISA 110″If I want to give more character to a sound, the Focusrite EQ is great.’
Compressor – Fairchild 660 or Bomb Factory BF76″The Fairchild 660 and the Bomb Factory BF76 are the two compressors I use constantly. Depending on the instrument or what I’m trying to get out of the sound – because they both have very different characteristics – I’ll use either. For something that’s smooth like vocals I’ll use the Fairchild, but for drums, where I want a more aggressive sound, I’ll use the BF76.’
Limiter – Chandler EMI compressor/limiter”A plugin I use a lot is the Chandler EMI compressor/limiter. I don’t use it so much as a compressor but mostly as a limiter. When Zebra and Giraffe got their stuff mixed in England by Cenzo [Townshend], the vocal chain was the EMI compressor and a Pultec EQ. It sounded perfect.’
Reverb – Revibe”I use Revibe 99% of the time. Although what I do is up an initial sound and then I use EQs and compressors after that to dirty it up and to pull out sounds in different ways, so I’m not just using “Big Room’. I never just use a reverb unit on its own as it’s always in conjunction with other stuff.’
Delay – Massey TD5″The Massey TD5 is incredible, especially for the price. I think you’ll pay like R200 for it. Cenzo showed it to me and he uses it on all his mixes for delay. It can emulate tape delay in Retro mode but it also has a modern mode, which is just a straight delay. Often I have it in Retro mode so you get that break down in quality.’
Johan van der Colff
Johan van der Colff is owner and chief engineer of Master Max Productions in Midrand and winner of the 2012 South African Music Awards Best Engineer Award for the album Lolilwe by Zahara.
EQ – DIGIRack EQ3 “The DIGIRack EQ3 is one of the nicest EQ for me in terms of my base EQ.’
EQ – Waves Q8 “When I want to do bus EQs I quite enjoy the Waves EQ8 because it gives me the graphic [EQ] feel for notching specific frequencies out. I like to use it in a side chain as well.’
Compressor – Waves C1″I use the C1 on a lot of my tracks but what I tend to do is send the signal out of the box and compress with my Summit TLA-100 hardware.’
Limiter – Waves L2″One of my favourites of all time is the Waves L2. I’ve got a really good relationship with mastering engineers and they have some really nice hardware units that in my opinion are better than the L2, but what I do is that I use the L2 in the box to give me a simulation of what my mix will sound like after it’s mastered. It’s also what I play the client. Obviously, though, when I bounce it out, I bounce it out without the L2.’
Reverb – Reverb One”My favourite on drum kit is Reverb One. We’ve got a nice room to track in so we get a good [room] sound, but if I track in the smaller rooms to get more of a dead sound for the poppier stuff, I will then use Reverb One to create my drum room. I usually start with the Wood Room preset and move on from there.’
Reverb – Waves RVerb”For my vocal reverbs I like RVerb. I’ve got my own presets that I’ve created which I really enjoy. There is so much to play with in RVerb that you don’t really need anything else.’
Neelan Parshotam
Neelan Parshotam has over 20 years’ experience in the South African recording industry. Starting at Heritage Studios in 1991 fresh out of high school, he eventually secured a position at BOP Recording Studios in Mafikeng, first as an assistant audio engineer, and eventually as studio manager and chief audio engineer. He has worked on major projects with world-renowned artists and producers such as the Lion King II soundtrack with Jay Rifkin, Kevin Shirley, Tony Sheppard, Koffi Olomide, Hugh Masekela, Lucky Dube, Sibongile Khumalo and Lebo M. Neelan now works for himself as an independent mix engineer from his home-based studio in Mafikeng.
EQ – DMG Equality”This EQ has so much versatility in it. When I deal with bad tracking and I need to get into the finer detail this is my go to EQ. On vocals it gives me a really nice air on the top end and it is just like using one on a Neve or SSL.’
EQ – Focusrite Forte ISA110 “This plugin is also a huge favourite. It brings very subtle warmth and openness and feels like working on the console itself.’
Compressor – Focusrite Forte ISA 130″This plugin just has a great versatility and is very musical to achieve what is needed.’
Compressor – Fairchild 670 “The sound of this plugin is very difficult to explain in the sense of words…but it’s smooth and warm and you don’t hear it working. With a highly dynamic track it doesn’t destroy the dynamics but is very smooth and musical.’
Limiter – BF-3A”I use this more as a limiter than a compressor and love it especially on keys as it has a very nice smooth way of limiting.’
Gate – Focusrite Forte ISA 130″I use the ISA 130 a lot on drums as the gate works very musically.’
Reverb – Reverb One”The Reverb One plugin reminds me of the Lexicon 480 and 300 series. It has some really great presets to work with.’
Robin Walch
Robin Walch is a Johannesburg-based engineer/producer who has been nominated twice for “Best Engineer’ at the South African Music Awards.
EQ – UAD Cambridge”The Cambridge is a great EQ that I suspect was based on the Sony Oxford EQ. It’s really surgical. I love the top and bottom filters; you can really get them sharp and they don’t add a bump. Often in a lot of the stuff I mix, not much attention has been given to the bottom end in the recording. So, you still want the warmth but you want to just take out 30Hz, 40Hz. You don’t want to touch the rest of the bottom end. There I’ll use the [Cambridge] filters.’
EQ – Steinberg / Yamaha RND Portico EQ”The RND Portico EQ is the only EQ I’ll boost with. I find that it’s about the only EQ that if I really need to boost something, it sounds like an analogue EQ.’
Compressor – Steinberg / Yamaha RND Portico Compressor”The RND Portico Compressor is beautiful. It’s a very interesting thing because it hasn’t had as high a rating as the EQ for the one simple reason that it’s a really good, transparent compressor. If you use the feed forward mode it can clamp but it’s not a fast compressor like the 1176. It’s a lot smoother. I find that slapping that on guitar tracks, where the 1176 can get a bit edgy and bright and grind things a bit, the Portico doesn’t. On strings it’s also beautiful.’
Reverb – Sony Oxford Reverb “The Sony Oxford reverb has got a great EQ section, which I like. I wish more developers would put a proper EQ section in [their plugins]. The Sonnox Reverb has almost got a full Sonnox EQ in it. I use it for very short rooms, because my room is small. I don’t like it for longer stuff because it’s an older reverb and it’s a bit grainy.’
Reverb – UAD Lexicon 224″The 224 is a really lekker old sound. It’s really nice if you want that “reverb sound’. I think a lot of the algorithmic reverbs are great and I use them a lot.’
Delay – Waves Hybrid Delay”I really like the Waves Hybrid Delay; the orangey yellow thing. It works well for nice guitar effects. It’s got modulation, ping pong, all that sort of stuff. It’s a really, really nice delay. It’s a digital delay that you can get dirty.’
Thabiso Ramahlo
Thabiso Ramahlo is chief audio engineer and studio manager at Soul Candi Studios, Johannesburg. His work has garnered two SAMA nominations and five wins.
EQ – Izotope Alloy 2″My favourite EQ plugin is the Izotope Alloy 2. It just does the job for me. It also does compression and transient shaping but I mostly use the EQ. Sometimes I’ll just click on a preset and if I’m happy with it, I’ll go with it. If I’m not I’ll tweak it until I get the sound that I want.’
Compressor – Waves RComp or Sonnox Dynamics “I find myself running away from emulations because I prefer transparent compression. So, the RComp would be the compressor I use, or the Sonnox. I like the Sonnox for sound shaping and I can push it quite a bit without getting distortion.’
Reverb – Altiverb “The Altiverb is an impulse reverb. It has a vast range of reverbs that you can tap into for post. Although, most of the time when I’m in Altiverb I use the Lexicon impulses. For me the Lexicon room emulations are very classic.’
Limiter – Waves L3 Ultramaximizer”I was looking into limiting on the net and watched a video where they were using the L2. They pulled down the threshold and ceiling at the same time, which limits the peaks at the given threshold without increasing the level. It’s quick and easy and when you want a plugin that’s not too complex, it just works.’
Matthew Fink
Matthew Fink began his career in radio advertising in the mid 90s. Since then he has worked as an engineer with groups ranging from BLK JKS to Steve Hofmeyer. As a producer he has recorded critically acclaimed albums for The Sick Leaves, Jim Neversink, The One Night Stands and Tailor. He is currently co-writer and keyboardist in the group, The Black Hotels.
EQ – UAD Cambridge “I’m very fond of the UAD Cambridge. One of the main reasons I like it is because of the Eliptical high pass and low pass filters. It’s pretty amazing when you want to get that porridge out of there.’
EQ – UAD Neve 31102 “This is an EQ [emulation] from one of Neve’s newer consoles and there’s something in the midrange that I like on guitar tracks. The midrange sounds a lot different to the midrange on the 1073. There’s something about it that does something crazy on guitars that I love.’
Compressor – Sound Toy’s Decapitator”The Decapitator is nice and crunchy. I’ll put it on drum bus to grit up the drums a bit. I read an article about Chad Blake who reckoned he used it quite a lot on the Black Keys vocals for some distortion. I was quite happy since I just used it on Shadow Club’s Guns and Money album. I’d been using it on his voice for most of the tracks and the cool thing – and this really is the selling point – it has a mix control.’
Compressor – UAD Fairchild “The Fairchild can make the vocals sit really well. I can’t stand the sound of compressors biting, you know. The Fairchild is quite gentle.’
Transient – UAD Transient Designer”I use the Transient Designer quite oft
