Brilliant Plugins Which Create Space, Air, Width, Depth, Clarity
In this article, Julian identifies his favourite plugins which can answer requests to “make it more (insert adjective)”. Whether you’re being asked for ‘deeper’, ‘clearer’ or more ‘spacious’ one of these might be just what you’re looking for.
Variously attributed to Frank Zappa, Elvis Costello and many others, actor-musician Martin Mull is probably the originator of the famous quote “Writing about music is like dancing about architecture”. It’s a pithy line but using words to describe music isn’t quite as daft as that.
Using words to guide your choices is perfectly legitimate and unless an alternative becomes available language is going to be the primary way of giving mix feedback. If someone wants you to make it “sound more purple” you’re on your own but here are some suggestions for tools that might help if you are asked for more of any of the following common adjectives:
Space - Liquidsonics Cinematic Rooms
If someone is asking for space around a sound it might be as simple as a panning move but more often than not it is a request to put some space around the sound rather than move the sound into a clear space in the panorama if one is even available.
The ear is very good at detecting and interpreting spatial cues to allow us to perceive the environment in which they occur. The desire for dry recordings and the use of close miking both conspire to strip away these spatial cues which, when done well, give an upfront, attention-grabbing sound but when less successful can lead to a congested or even claustrophobic sound.
An excellent solution is to use the artificial early reflections from a quality reverb plugin with either no or very little of the reverb tail giving lots of spatial cues without the “wetness” of reverb pushing the sound back in the mix.
The early reflection sections of professional reverb plugins can be intimidating places but far and away the best sounding and easiest to navigate I’ve found is in Liquidsonics peerless Cinematic Rooms. If you think it’s just for surround work you’re mistaken, this is the best stereo reverb I have.
Air - Maag EQ4
If someone asks for more air, they are clearly asking for more top end but exactly where and how much is of course open to debate. Opening up the very top end can, on the right material, be transformative but if it’s done wrong it can bring out a fatiguing sizzle which is far less seductive than the silky top end lift people usually mean when they use this word.
The issues are twofold. One is that exactly which frequency you’re looking to lift is important here. A common choice is 16KHz. I suspect that the reasons for this might be historical as, although many people choosing that frequency might not be aware of it, the highest frequency available on the classic Pultec EQP-1A is 16KHz. Given its long history and classic status is not unfair to assume that the Pultec has been the solution to more requests for “air” than most.
That’s not the choice here, though it is an excellent choice. Instead, we’re choosing the Maag EQ4, which has a specifically named Air band for which it is justifiably famous. The important thing when choosing an EQ for this task is that some EQs stray from sweet to brittle more easily than others. We’re not saying you can’t make the Maag Air band sound brittle but you’ve got to try pretty hard!
Width - Polyverse Wider
Width isn’t hard to understand, It’s also easy to dial in but it isn’t without its pitfalls. There are various techniques that can be used to widen stereo material or to create a pseudo-stereo effect on mono sources. Delays, EQ and phase can all be employed to create stereo where previously there was none and mid-side processing can be employed to extend stereo out beyond the speakers.
However, addictive widening is (and it is) the effect on mono compatibility has to be taken into account and even if you think mono compatibility isn’t important to you over-widening and out of phase information can be unpleasant to listen to.
There are lots of excellent tools for widening but our recommendation is the excellent Wider from Polyverse. It’s as good as you’ll find and best of all it’s free!
Depth - Leapwing RootOne
Bass is where the fun is. Everyone knows that. Individual sounds that are lacking the deep stuff can be revived in all sorts of ways but on more complex material the results can vary.
Introducing extra oomph on a kick drum is pretty straightforward but for a more complex source, there are fewer acceptable solutions beyond conventional EQ.
RootOne is one of the best solutions for synthesising new bass information which wasn’t present in the original audio that we’ve tried. Sub-bass synthesis processors exist and are typically based on the hardware DBX 120xp, the bx_subsynth is one such example. Leapwing Audio’s RootOne takes a similar approach but uses a custom algorithm designed to offer improved results, most significantly, using dynamic phase rotation to ensure that the synthesised sub stays in phase with the original audio for the cleanest possible results.
Clarity - Sound Theory Gullfoss
Lastly, we come to clarity. Clearing the clutter and helping intelligibility is of course about good arrangement and the use of mix automation to tweak static levels with changes through the track. But judicious use of an EQ can also be a great help. With mixed stereo as opposed to multitrack material, EQ and multi-band dynamics processing are the tools of choice, but just pushing the upper mids is as likely to introduce harshness as it is to improve clarity.
Our tool of choice is the indefinably effective Gullfoss from Sound Theory. Tweak the Tame control and just hear what it does on stereo material. Run some commercial mixes through it and you might be surprised what it does!
What About Other Adjectives?
There are of course other adjectives that we could have chosen instead. What should we have chosen if we had included Warmth or Punch? Share your thoughts in the comments.