The gear doesn’t matter. Blah blah blah. Doesn’t stop you from being curious what guys are using.
For those of you who don’t know, Alan Meyerson is a top film mixing guy. And those @bozmillar plugin libraries seem to be finding their way around A-lister plugin libraries quite nicely …so well done Boz.
Keep in mind Alan is a film score mixing guy. Not an orchestrator, arranger, or composer.
I guess I thought one of the top film mixers in the world (and by the way, film stuff is 99% in the box) would have had a ridiculous huge library. But he doesn’t.
I was very surprised izotope isn’t in there. And I assume the Sonnox is only there for the Codex plug, as all the others are completely redundant if you own the UAD suite.
I have never heard of DMO, Plague, or Kush. I did notice there was nothing from Slate.
Its a good list actually, not surprised to see Waves, Lexicon or Fabfilter. If I had to choose on set only, it would be Fabfilter, because those plugins are just gorgeous. A nice surprise to see Kush there. Gregory Scott is the guy who runs Kush Audio, and I’ve been listening to his Podcast (UBK Happy Funtime Hour) which is simply brilliant. If you haven’t tried the Clariphonic plugin, grab a demo of it right now - it’s one of the better plugins to put on your mix bus.
Hmm. Kind of the like the UAD transient designer, and a more controlled and gentle version of the Slate CS lift. The focus works a little bit like the Slate bomber with the drive knob turned let, about 8 or 9 o clock. Interesting.
I could see this getting used when the CS lift is too aggressive. It seems like they put a lot of work into designing this thing. Whats cool is they appear to have started with a very well loved piece of analog hardware. Overall, I think this thing is pretty cool. I don’t know if I really need it, but its certainly a fabulous plugin!
You don’t NEED it…but you’ll grow to love it, I think.
I did!
Use it on a harmony vocal bus, it’ll get sweet and airy but not harsh. Watch out, though. It’ll allow you to put way too much on way too fast. That’s definitely a need-to-do-a-before-and-after-check sort of plugin.
It’s also great on snare drum when hihat bleed isn’t an issue and killer for adding top back to ribbon mics as overheads or rooms.
I was thinking about this some more. I suspect this will really shine on an orchestra and choir bus, and I’m in bad need of something I can dial in super super fast. I spent over hour on Monday fighting with a church choir summing bus and ended up having to jerry rig (I think it was) Massive Passive -> C6 multi band -> UAD transient designer -> Slate CS-lift then god knows what after that.
All because the damn cymbal swells from an orchestral percussion section were crushing the sopranos. I tried to beat the cymbals swells down with the C6 multi band, then release it when they decayed, but I just couldn’t find the balance. My deadline ran out, and I tucked my tail between my legs, crossed my fingers, and sent it. The whole problem with the Slate CS-lift was it dug too damn hard. I couldn’t find a sweet spot between the abrasiveness of the cymbal and the airy top end I needed out of those soprano mics.
On some of these broadcasts that are live performances getting post-production enhancements and headed for regional TV, I have absolutely no control over where the in-house technicians place mics. I can make recommendations, but they often get ignored because the in-house techs are much more concerned with whats right infront of them at the moment. Namely the church congregation sitting in the pews.
My system is down and I can’t recall the session until after i get off the phone with Avids tech support later today. But I think this would be a perfect test for that plugin. As well as the Yamaha grand piano that was in the room.
@schmalzy Tyler, do you run this before or after the bus compressors on backup vocals? Does it play just as nicely with dirty mangler comps like the LA2A’s, TubeTech CL1b’s, and 1176’s all buttons in? Have you tried running it behind hybrid comp-saturators like the R-vox, Nectar, or the Inflator?
This is certainly an interesting concept. Another interesting thing is that they modeled their own hardware. @bozmillar could probably correct me if I’m wrong, but I imagine some plugin companies are more interested in slapping the Neve or Teletronix blog on the front of the plugin, than ACTUALLY getting it right?
I’d think a company like Kush wouldn’t let this out the door unless they themselves were sold on the emulator.
From what I know of the company (listening to 90 odd episodes of the podcast) is that Kush are in the business of creating hardware that is of exceptional quality. I’ve caught a couple of Mix with the Masters videos and seen a whole lot of Kush audio gear and plugins appearing - it seems like the company is building a reputation for itself.
And you are correct, Kush audio make hardware, and then build plugins in model their own hardware.
I’m running it after bus compression oftentimes to bring some brightness back in case the buss compressor knocked it down.
Into character comps/saturation? Sure! If I’m looking to emphasize those frequencies and draw harmonics out of them or make the compressor react to that frequency content, then running it into saturation/character compression.
I don’t typically do much boosting prior to compressors unless I’m looking to then even it back out or tame a portion of its character - like use “Lift/Diffuse” setting on Clariphonic to drag up some mids and top but a darker compressor to tame the harshness that might pop up depending on the source.
Ok. I have my system working again. The whole thing was down yesterday because the DSP cores on my mixer keeps crashing.
I tried it on 3 lead vocals, a piano, and couple different choirs, an orchestra bus, a drum bus, then on overheads alone. I put it on a 2 bus but I didn’t like what it did.
Its funny that I have a lot of stuff that can do what this is doing, but nothing does it as fast. I was worried that it was a one-trick-pony until I realized how different all the modes are. It did exactly what I was hoping it would…it opens stuff up and almost magically knows how to do without fucking everything up in the process. I have to fight with the Slate-CS, and often have to follow it with something to counteract the damage it can do. The Manley Massive Passive probably has one of the most amazing HF lifts, but its all or nothing and you have to set up an entire chain to run it parallel.
I’m sold. I’m gonna get it. I’m sure I’ll get good use out of this one a weekly basis. 20% off now also.
Hey @Chordwainer, you may want to at least demo this Clariphonic too. Just throw it on stuff and start turning knobs. I would be curious tog get @ColdRoomStudio thoughts on this one too.
If you haven’t purchased it already, I’d suggest demoing some of their other plugins.
I liked what the couple I demoed did so I just signed up for the subscription. I know have 6 plugins I use in a few spots on every mix and 2 others that I use fairly regularly but not necessarily every mix.
They all work in that same sort of way: do something cool without screwing anything up too much…
Except Pusher. That thing will screw everything up (in a good or bad way) until you use the blend sliders inside the plugin to add a little of the good stuff (that you sometimes have to get to by completely mangling your track then blending it low) to the existing track. It’s a really complicated-to-understand plugin. As long as you’re listening and not only looking, you’ll get something cool out of it. Seriously, check out their website for some plugin demo videos. That plugin is wild but so is the brain behind it all.
The Hammer EQ (modeled after the A-Designs Hammer under guidance and blessing from the A-Designs people) does some really cool things, UBK-1 is a go-to for me, the transformer plugins are really cool, plus Electra is frickin’ special when you need a “clean” EQ that gives you more than just frequency volume adjustment.
I hate to sound like a fan…but I am. That subscription changed how I mix. It gave me better tools for doing the things I like/want to do with the sound sources I have.
Whoa, two hundred bucks for an EQ plugin??? Don’t think there’s much point in even demoing it, I just can’t see dropping that kind of cash, and even with 20% off that’s still pretty spendy for a single plug with a fairly narrow range of applications (at least from what I’m reading it doesn’t seem like something I’d get a lot of use from). Ilok required as well, and that’s kind of a deal breaker for me, I hate that Ilok shit!
Thats what I thought then I realized that’s not at all whats actually going on here. This is the closest thing I may have ever seen to a magic ‘fix-everything’ tool. I’ve been playing with it for several hours, and I can’t believe what it actually does. Its an eq that only boosts. You can’t even cuts. It has 8 fixed types of boosts, but the way its preprogrammed to do it in a way that just sounds good on everything is wicked crazy.
I have a overdrive pedal called the analog man king of tone. Its one of those rare pieces of gear where no matter how you twist the knobs, its always doing something really interesting, usable, and musically cool. This thing is just like it in the sense of how usable it is.
Its cool though. Just raving about a new favorite toy lol
I’ve been demoing plugins all day and worked my way through most of that Kush stuff.
I’m glad you’re getting your money’s worth out of that subscription. I spent took a very close careful listen to the Kush Neve and APIs. They’re usable, and they work. They’re certainly not bad plugins, but I’m pretty confident I’m not going to use them - I favored the UAD ones quite heavily one next to the other.
That was the one I was actually looking close at. It was sort of an over-the-top transient mangling. I could see this being useful if you were doing a lot of really creative music, but its not for me right now. I do admit its different. Maybe its because my ears are shredded and worn out at the moment,but this one isn’t screaming “Buy Me Now Damnit!”.
I’m gonna play with that UBK some more tomorrow and if its as useful as it was today I’ll buy a license. I’m always on the lookout for sweetening and polishing tools. Especially for stuff that really shines in a subtle and parallel way.
My thoughts on the hammer is that it was nice, but I swear I’ll shoot myself if I buy another EQ. My go-tos for highly musical sounding uber expensive sounding plugs are the Manley Massive Passive, Dangerous BAX, Millenia NSEQ2, Pultecs, API’s, and that @bozmillar Hoser XT, because for whatever the hell reason, its super easy to find sweetspots on the Q curve on that Boz plug. Oh yeah, and the other one I’ve been using a lot is that Chandler Curvebender. I’m not like…refuting anything you’re saying. Don’t get me wrong. Its really interesting to talk to someone about this, having just spent 6 hours playing with Kush stuff (among some other things). I think the reality of the market today is there’s a TON of shit that does a lot of stuff very very well.
I use specialty EQ’s. But I’m using them less these days, but primarily because quick surgical fixes are so lightening fast from the mixing desk. The stock EQ’s in Nuendo, Logic, and Pro Tools will always map more efficiently to the control knobs on a mixer. But for the EQ’s like the Electra (which again I think is very nice), I need to avoid using them in subscriptions, because a lot of little $100 and $200/yr subscriptions add up very quick. I’m already over $1000/yr in these so I need to keep that under control and outright buy stuff.
…so well done Boz.
