I’m often asked, “What are the best plugins for mixing and mastering?”.
Well, if a beginner were to ask me, I would say that the plugins that have come bundled with your DAW (Pro Tools, Logic, Cubase, Reaper, Studio One, etc.) are good enough to produce some nice mixes.
The main reason for this is that I have spent a small fortune on. plugins over the years and most of them I never ever use. What I have found is that there is a small number of plugins that I use every day and these are the plugins that I find to be essential.
Therefore, if a more experience mixer were to ask me the same question, I have a list of plugins that I think are fantastic. Some of the plugin manufacturers I love are Soundtoys, Fabfilter, Audio Ease, iZotope and Krotos, but the big new this weeks concerns Universal Audio/UAD, so let’s start there.
Previously, it wasn’t easy to recommend UAD, as they were not available as native plugins, but would only work on UAD devices that had external DSP, like their range of Apollo interfaces, or Satellites. However, recently, UAD have made their plugins available as native plugins via their subscription service. This has been met with a mixed reception, as many of us audio professionals hate subscription services. Personally, I still tolerate Pro Tools being a subscription service, but I parted company with Adobe years ago because of this model.
I’ve owned a UAD-2 Satellite for years and most of the most important plugins in my mixing and mastering are UAD, so, now as everyone can own them without the up front cost of an Apollo or Satellite, I thought I’d share them with you here.
Right now, there are some heavy discounts on these UAD plugins at Plugin Boutique, so I will add links to them there.
"Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are "affiliate links." This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. However, clicking on affiliate links adds no extra cost to you and is a great way of supporting these tutorials”
A plugin I always have after my analogue chain on my master bus is the Oxide Tape Recorder. I push into it until the needle is just in the red, which is where I find the perfect balance of saturation and transient control. sometimes I’ll use this one on my drum bus too.
Tape saturation. Yum!
I love this one! Get it here!
Also in my mastering chain, just before the limiter, is the UAD Oxford Inflator. This doesn’t seem to be native yet, but many friends swear by the Sonnox version here.
The Oxford Inflator is an essential plugin for producing big, fat sounding mixes.
The Universal Audio 1176 collection is indispensable for mixing. Yes, everyone makes a version of this compressor, but I haven’t found one better than UAD’s.
Probably the most famous compressor ever, the Universal Audio 1176.
Once you have a good 1176 plugin, the perfect companion is a Teletronix LA-2A. I love these on vocals, often in conjunction with the 1176. They can be very nice on bass too. And you know what? With only a Peak Reduction and an Output Gain control, this may be the easiest compressor to use ever.
The Teletronix LA-2A is a must have compressor.
If you are going to buy a “character” EQ, then the Pultec is a no brainer. Pultecs have a very musical EQ curve, but are not really precision notch EQs. However, the EQ bundled with your DAW should be more than capable of dealing with notching out problem frequencies.
Try cutting and boosting at 60Hz and marvel at how that can clean up some of the mud from a messy mix.
One popular trick with the Pultec is to cut and boost at the same frequency, which creates a very pleasing EQ curve. I like to boost and cut at 60Hz to clean out a bit of muddiness from a master bus.
There are a bunch of other UAD plugins that I love, but aren’t available as native plugins yet. I’ll update you as soon as they are.
You can get many of the great UAD plugins in a bundle by clicking below.
Get one song master for free at rockandmetalmastering.com