HELPFUL MASTERING PLUGINS

Before I delve into today's content, I'd like to first of all introduce myself; My name is Howard Ziwa.
I have been involved with music in various capacities for approximately 15 years now. From performing for the Queen of England and various Heads of State for the Common Wealth 2007 Meeting, a record deal with a Grammy Nominee Recording Artist all the way to present day where I focus on Mastering Audio and Music. I do the occasional recording and mixing and still love that.

I would like to briefly mention a couple of plugins that are worthy of any mastering chain. My preferred Analog Mastering chain consists of the Prism Maselec MEA 2,  Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor, Neve Portico Master Bus Processor (Portico II) , the Antelope Pure 2 AD/DA convertor, Kush Audio Clariphonic , Elysia Envelope as well as other pieces I will talk about some other time. Side note: Don't be fooled by Analog gear... it can be costly and does need maintenance. On the other hand, Plugins are quite capable of giving results that match, or I dare say supersede, Analog Gear; but the sauce is in the application. Gear can never replace or mask poor application or technique; I have learnt that the hard way. I was chasing the so called industry sound and thought buying all the stuff the Pros use was the only way to get it; I was very disappointed a lot of times. I always left with that thought "What was all that hype about?"

Anyway,  enough of that here is the list of Plugins I deem worthy of any mastering chain.

  

FabFilter Pro Q2

This I love for the Mid-Side capabilities: I use it to mono the bass and widen the Stereo Image. Otherwise, this is a completely versatile EQ. Auto-Gain Compensation, Up-sampling and Linear Phase features are always a plus. There are a ton of reviews on it. Grab the demo and try it yourself.

Eiosis Air EQ Premium

 This my friends, is indeed premium and well suited for mastering and definitely has that touch on the low end sculpting I like. As for the companies "Beyond Analog" slogan, I endorse it.

Melda Productions M-AutoDynamiq EQ

A beast of an EQ. It can easily become your go to EQ. The Dynamic EQ is a necessity in mastering.

BeatSkillz SLAM DAWG

This comes as a new addition to my set of processors from a new company on the market. I only use the EQ sections on this one to get a quick idea on where the track could go. Mud-Out, Thump, Boom and "Airzz". Heat , Pop and Crush go too extreme (really quickly) for my taste and thus I desist from using them. It would have been nice to have an Automatic Gain Compensation function on this for sure.

Kramer Master Tape

For this, the reviews are endless. Demo it.

Melda Productions M-Compare

M-Compare is quite comprehensive in terms of being able to use references during Mastering work. This is vital in today's world; It's great to be able to AB between the processed and unprocessed sound at equal volume so as not to be fooled by changes in gain during processing.

 Slate FG-X

This is a great tool for Maximizing volume. It has a transparent Limiter which has a transient recovery section that in my opinion contends very well with Izotope's Ozone's. I use it mainly for it's accurate RMS meter even on days that i do not use it as a limiter. 

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