My Top 10 EQ, Dynamic, and Harmonic Plug Ins

Every engineer has their “go to” plug ins. And these are mine. (EQ, Dynamic, and Harmonics)

10. Maxim- Easy to use limiter, can be used in AudioSutie and RTAS. It processes the signal quickly and efficiently. A must have for anyone who has clients that want to hear a mix at a good level, without much hardcore compression from the Limiter.

9. C1 Gate- Gating (along with filtering) is one of the most important parts in cleaning up a mix. A lot of times it is skipped by some beginning engineers because it can crush and create all new sounds, as opposed to get getting ride of unwanted ones. But the Waves C1 Gate makes it really easy to do just that, hold the part of the signal you want, then shut the door on the rest.

8. Renaissance Bass- A psycho-acoustic plug in for your lower frequency sounds. Perfect for throwing on a bass guitar to bring it out in a mix. With the frequency slider, you can pretty much decide where you would like the bass to sit in the mix. Whether you want it higher up so your bass can pop on computer speakers, or if you want to throw it down to the sub, it can be done with Renaissance Bass.

7. Focusrite d2 EQ- It is a must for all engineers to have a liner-phase distortion EQ in their arsenal. Intentionally introducing degrading distortion into a signal is not something that sounds correct when you think about it. But, it is something that we, as long time music listeners, have become accustomed to because it has been used in mixes of millions of records. Perfect for getting that “pro” sizzle on drum cymbals.

6. Ampeg SVX- Don’t have an SVT Classic head and an 8×10 cab to run your bass through? No problem. As soon as you throw this on your bass track, it instantly sends you into the world of Ampeg. With all the different combinations of heads and cabs and stomp boxes, you can get your dream bass set up all with this plug-in. Only complaint is, I wish there was an option for more of a room sound.

5. RCompressor- My go to compressor. Straight forward design , very fast compressor, will deffinetaly pump up the sound of any drums (specifically kick and toms) and guitars. I have not be able to find an application where it does not work great.

4. Inflator- Charles Dye said of Lo-Fi “the way to make a good sound BAD.” Well Inflator is the opposite. Not happy with a guitar sound? Vocals need something extra? Throw inflator on it and you will be very impressed and satisfied with its ability to turn any recorded round into “what it should” sound like.

3. Tube Saturator- Wave Arts Tube Saturator brings that warmth that is associated with running a signal through a series of tubes. Perfect for a kick drum, bass and electric guitar, also you can get a really nice vocal distortion if you desire. There is also a setting “Warm-up a mix” that, if thrown on entire mix, really does just that!

2. Analog Channel AC2- Hands down the best tape emulator on the market today. Lately I have been hitting my drum sub mix with it, and it brings that delicious tape saturation and compression that rolls off a tiny bit of the highs, and really helps clean up the bottom end.

1. EQ-3 7 Band- The staple EQ for me. As an engineer that uses subtractive eqing, there are little to no complaints what-so-ever. It has a phase switch, filters, make-up gain, very narrow Q’s, and lots of attenuation for all bands. Rock solid EQ.