Another One Knob Mastering Plugin

[HardSinc]

An LA-2A has one knob, unless you count post gain.





I think people that kick up a fuss about these kinds of things are either not too educated with hardware ....

[pixel85]

An LA-2A has one knob, unless you count post gain.





I think people that kick up a fuss about these kinds of things are either not too educated with hardware ....

So, do you put la2a in your mastering chain? Also, as long as I know, single opto compressor is not equal to whole chain of effects

[HardSinc]

An LA-2A has one knob, unless you count post gain.





I think people that kick up a fuss about these kinds of things are either not too educated with hardware ....

So, do you put la2a in your mastering chain? Also, as long as I know, single opto compressor is not equal to whole chain of effects

I don't but people do. Not sure how that's relevant .. I don't like marmite before you ask.

It's not a whole chain of effects, it's a multi band compressor, based on a hardware multi band compressor, with some filters for a bit of eq, it's not even half of a channel strip. I wonder why people are being so dramatic over it.

If it works, that's a good thing right? If it doesn't, don't use it? I'm not sure where the anger flows from, anyone who want's an "easy master" can just pay an ME, for instance, Abbey Road offers named staff online mastering for £140..so I'm lost at to where all this pain and suffering comes from.

I would understand if people commented "not for me" but it's more like "oh my god how dare they!!!!"

[ghettosynth]

I don't but people do. Not sure how that's relevant .. I don't like marmite before you ask.

It's not a whole chain of effects, it's a multi band compressor, based on a hardware multi band compressor, with some filters for a bit of eq, it's not even half of a channel strip. I wonder why people are being so dramatic over it.

I can't speak for everybody, but, for me, there's no problem with one knob plugins that just simplify an operation, but, the problem with the Greg Wells plugin is that there's too much behind the hood to control effectively with one knob.

Even this plugin is more than one effect. The key effect here that is perhaps oversimplified is the EQ. You have "Air" + presets.

If it works, that's a good thing right? If it doesn't, don't use it?

Someone always says this and it's silly. This is KVR, we talk about plugins. If you like to talk about plugins, then come to KVR, if you don't, then don't use it (KVR), right?

I'm not sure where the anger flows from, anyone who want's an "easy master" can just pay an ME, for instance, Abbey Road offers named staff online mastering for £140..so I'm lost at to where all this pain and suffering comes from.

I don't think that it's anger, people just don't like the product and are expressing their displeasure. Again, this is KVR, we come here to talk about plugins and music.

In terms of just pure opinion, I think that this is better than the greg wells thing. It's not really being marketed as a magic process behind a knob. It's a specific emulation of a compressor combined with an EQ with presets for specific styles. At $75, it's probably not too expensive for most people.

[JJ_Jettflow]

I think it is ironic that people are appalled by these "one knob" plugins for engineering but appear to have no problem with music made out of construction packs, stems, pre-made midi files and store-bought presets. What's the difference? If you are going to let technology write your music for you, why not let technology do the engineering too?

[pixel85]

I think it is ironic that people are appalled by these "one knob" plugins for engineering but appear to have no problem with music made out of construction packs, stems, pre-made midi files and store-bought presets. What's the difference?

Simply, I'm so far away from this 'pre-made music world' that it barely exist on the edge of my consciousness.
I wouldn't even compare this with serious music production. In 90's I've had some fun with eJay with similar concept: good thing for kids

If you are going to let technology write your music for you, why not let technology do the engineering too?

Sure. I pray for day when machines will do all creative work and all humans will have boring jobs only

Ps. I'm not against this plugin

[HardSinc]

Well, my opinion is it maybe be a little more than the sum of it's parts, but not much. I will definitely test it at some point out of curiosity. TBH, I was a little gutted when I saw the interface, I wanted an emulation of the genuine article.

It's clearly aimed at beginners, because if you're experienced and you need much help achieving any of the named presets...I'd consider how well you were managing your time Also, the price suggests it, softube are not really known for low prices.

If it helps people not make narrow, flat sounding music, I'm all in favour of it and at the end of the day, it should do good things if it works as intended, because for some it will be a huge amount better than nothing. Sorry if it seemed I was against people stating their opinions, maybe I just read too much aggression in it, but then I had joined gearslutz for a while so I think that's understandable.

[robotmonkey]

I think it is ironic that people are appalled by these "one knob" plugins for engineering but appear to have no problem with music made out of construction packs, stems, pre-made midi files and store-bought presets. What's the difference? If you are going to let technology write your music for you, why not let technology do the engineering too?

I tend to agree even though I understand to some degree why some are bitching about one knob plugins. But I would not consider using one knob plugins cheating because in the end who cares how many knobs a plugin has as long as it does what it is supposed to do. I definitely see the benefits. One knob plugins that have all the "magic" happening intelligently behind the scenes make job easier for pros and novices alike. Pros can use those tools for both quick and dirty results and for fine tuning and polishing while novices can get decent results with less likelihood that they are screwing something up.

As I got the Drawmer S73 for free I have been giving it a try and must say that it is quite useful and nice sounding plugin. It works equally well on inserts and group busses for polishing individual instruments or instrument groups and on master bus for finalizing a track. I do not do final mastering myself as I'm not competent enough and it's always better to let someone else do it anyway, but I can see S73 being useful for putting some final shine on the tracks that are released without proper mastering (demos, stuff for Soundcloud). And it's obviously useful for proper mastering engineers too. I would put it into same box as BBE Sonic Maximizer, Aphex Aural Exciter and such. None of those have that many more buttons and you have to use them sparingly for best results. So in the end it does not matter how many buttons the plugin has but how you put it to use.

[JJ_Jettflow]

I think it is ironic that people are appalled by these "one knob" plugins for engineering but appear to have no problem with music made out of construction packs, stems, pre-made midi files and store-bought presets. What's the difference? If you are going to let technology write your music for you, why not let technology do the engineering too?

I tend to agree even though I understand to some degree why some are bitching about one knob plugins. But I would not consider using one knob plugins cheating because in the end who cares how many knobs a plugin has as long as it does what it is supposed to do. I definitely see the benefits. One knob plugins that have all the "magic" happening intelligently behind the scenes make job easier for pros and novices alike. Pros can use those tools for both quick and dirty results and for fine tuning and polishing while novices can get decent results with less likelihood that they are screwing something up.

As I got the Drawmer S73 for free I have been giving it a try and must say that it is quite useful and nice sounding plugin. It works equally well on inserts and group busses for polishing individual instruments or instrument groups and on master bus for finalizing a track. I do not do final mastering myself as I'm not competent enough and it's always better to let someone else do it anyway, but I can see S73 being useful for putting some final shine on the tracks that are released without proper mastering (demos, stuff for Soundcloud). And it's obviously useful for proper mastering engineers too. I would put it into same box as BBE Sonic Maximizer, Aphex Aural Exciter and such. None of those have that many more buttons and you have to use them sparingly for best results. So in the end it does not matter how many buttons the plugin has but how you put it to use.

Yeah I have the demo at you are quite right about it being more for adding some polish than doing any real mastering but I would not put it in the category of tools like BBE sonic maximizer; those effects add harmonics to the signal whereas from what I can see, the S73 is a multiband comp (or perhaps dynamic EQ) that merely follows some eq curves. From the widening effect it would also be safe to say that there is some M/S settings as well. And yes again, used sparingly!

So far I like it over the Waves MixCentric even though I own the other two GW plugs. MixCentirc sounded too slick and compressed for me and even the few options the S73 has, makes it much more useable.

I ran a mix through the S73 and ran the same mix through Landr and Landr is doing much more "mastering" to the song than the S73.

[MogwaiBoy]

Added to the Softube Time and Tone Bundle so Focusrite audio interface users get this free.

I must have missed this fact/news and tonight when I was installing 64-bit versions of my Time & Tone bundle (came with my Focusrite 2i2 that I bought late last year) I received a very nice surprise!

What's more this is such a fantastic compressor. The 'Clarity' settings are ace. Now I just need the perfect limiter to pair with it.

Also this isn't a "one knob mastering" plugin at all.

[ontol]

[pixel85]

If you are going to let technology write your music for you, why not let technology do the engineering too?

Sure. I pray for day when machines will do all creative work and all humans will have boring jobs only

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObuBGQQT2do

[Sparky77]

This time, it's from Softube. What is it with these companies and new releases of one knob plugin? Did they discuss together and decided 'hey, let's release one knob stuff to make more money from dummies'.

According to the email i got from them this product is basically a multiband compressor, with different eq curve on each preset.

" The Drawmer S73 Intelligent Mastering Processor is an enhanced multi-band compressor plug-in featuring a simple Style parameter to switch between readymade mastering processing techniques using multi-band compression, equalization and mid-side processing. "

http://www.softube.com/index.php?id=drawmer_s73

It does look intriguing, I hope its not difficult to demo.

[MogwaiBoy]

I am really loving Softube's Drawmer. Sounds cliche but it just makes everything sound better. My favourite compressor plugin by far, and I suspect this is not simply the honeymoon phase talkin'

Pairing with TB Barricade limiter = passable DIY mastering even for a dummy like me.

[ftech]

As I got the Drawmer S73 for free I have been giving it a try and must say that it is quite useful and nice sounding plugin. It works equally well on inserts and group busses for polishing individual instruments or instrument groups and on master bus for finalizing a track. I do not do final mastering myself as I'm not competent enough and it's always better to let someone else do it anyway, but I can see S73 being useful for putting some final shine on the tracks that are released without proper mastering (demos, stuff for Soundcloud). And it's obviously useful for proper mastering engineers too. I would put it into same box as BBE Sonic Maximizer, Aphex Aural Exciter and such. None of those have that many more buttons and you have to use them sparingly for best results. So in the end it does not matter how many buttons the plugin has but how you put it to use.

Well said. I would add Kush Claraphonic in your short list as well. I know it's more EQ than compression, but both can give a pleasant "Sheen" to a track if used sparingly.
The challenge for anyone doing their own mixing is to learn when and how much of these effects are required.
And I can see your point with using it on inserts or busses; could be useful for working on those muddy old breaks.