This list is inspired by a plugin I’d not heard of before. I recently tried Low Control from Black Salt Audio. It’s a plugin that allows you to:
“First, compress the low frequencies independently without affecting the rest of the signal, then use the enhancer to beef up the rumble or give your bass more size on small speakers”
So it’s a plugin, which combines multiband compression, only compressing the bass frequencies with a saturator? Simple enough I thought. Why would I need a dedicated plugin for that?
I downloaded a demo and I found it did pretty much what I imagined. I’m not sure whether the low pass filtered bass band which goes to the compressor is in parallel or not. The saturator adds odd-order harmonics, which seem to be filtered too.
Even though it’s a great plugin, I haven’t seen anything it does which I couldn’t do myself using a multiband compressor, saturator, some filters and a bit of mixer routing. While it’s a different effect, you could also check out this post on how to do the Compounder Trick.
It was only then that the penny dropped - By using quite a few plugins, a good knowledge of mixer routing and quite a bit of know-how I could reproduce this effect, but lots of people don’t have the time, the inclination, or both to do all that when there is a plugin that can do it for you. And there are probably even more people who don’t have the knowledge to be able to put it together at all.
This all shows that plugins which make complex tasks simple are useful. Here are 5 examples that prove the point.
Black Salt Low Control
We should probably start with the aforementioned Low Control from Black Salt. This plugin offers a useful way to firm up and add weight to the. bottom end of tracks using a combination of split band compression and saturation. Check it out in the video above.
Slate Digital Fresh Air
Fresh Air was a surprise giveaway for Black Friday 2020 and we found it to be a properly useful plugin. The fact it is free didn’t come into it, it’s just a great plugin. Exactly how it does what it does is shrouded in appropriate amounts of mystery. It’s an enhancer, Slate say it’s based on “vintage exciter circuits” so it probably creates additional harmonic content and the reference to a modded Dolby A noise reduction suggests some amount of multi-band companding is involved but I’m doing it again… it doesn’t matter how it does what it does, What is important is what it does.
Slate Digital say that Fresh Air “adds brilliance & excitement to your top end without even a hint of brittleness”. It certainly does and that is a problem all of us face in mixes from time to time. Try it!
Waves OneKnob Pressure
Waves have been invested in plugins that seek to make mixing simpler for a long time. Possibly the most obvious choice for a collection like this is the Waves OneKnob series which reduce common mix tasks to a single knob. However, this single knob controls multiple parameters. The task each plugin performs is made apparent through plugin names such as “Wetter”, “Brighter” and “Louder”.
The example I’ll highlight here is for that most elusive of tasks - compression. Waves OneKnob Pressure offers everything from subtle level control to mad “Distressor on Nuke”, all from one knob and one button. Of course, none of this would mean a thing if it didn’t sound good but, slightly depressingly for someone like me, it sounds great…
Accusonus Voice AutoEQ
Accusonus make a variety of “simplifier” type plugins. Using clever tech behind simple interfaces offering just a few macro controls which simultaneously adjust multiple parameters behind the scenes these plugins offer a thoroughly modern take on longstanding audio issues. The use of AI, something which is becoming more and more prevalent in plugin design means professional sounding results are more available than ever.
The plugin I’ll highlight here is Voice AutoEQ. EQing a speaking voice sounds simple but the sound of humans speaking is just about the most familiar sound there is to all of us and if something isn’t right we’re extremely sensitive to it.
This is a case where bad EQ is probably worse than no EQ at all, so having a macro that allows the user to balance between three descriptively titled directions in which the sounds can be tipped - Air, Body and Clarity, suggest particular frequency ranges but this plugin’s Learn button enables some clever tech to fine-tune these parameters to the voice being processed.
Antares Auto-Key
All of these plugins so far have been involved in processing audio to make it sound better. No so for the last of these plugins. Auto-Key is an automatic key and scale detection plug-in, designed to enhance your Auto-Tune workflow and save valuable time in the studio.
A question as simple as “what key is it in?” involves an awful lot of prior learning. It’s often a very simple question to answer if you have a basic grasp of music theory but as so many producers have no background in music theory that isn’t necessarily something which you can safely assume.
If the music is simple and diatonic then it’s probably a question that anyone who can play can answer. However playing an instrument and creating music haven’t been things which necessarily go together for a long time.
To be able to effectively use tuning plugins and the MIDI features of a DAW involves being able to tell the DAW the key of the music. While Autotune has a Chromatic mode, anyone who has used it for any length of time knows that it is best avoided. Auto-Key detects the key of audio played through it and can automatically share that information with instances of Autotune in the session. Easy!
What About You?
There are 5 “Simplifier“ plugins to whet your appetite. What Simplifier plugins do you use and why? Do share your thoughts in the comments below.