Back in the pre-DAW days of studios, all mixing was done on big desks with lots of channels. In those days you had two choices of processor - the compressors and EQs that were built into the desk, and (hopefully) some tasty outboard equipment in the racks.

The options in the desk were normally of reasonable quality and there were a lot of them - normally a compressor and EQ on every channel. The outboard options were generally far fewer, but as a rule this was the ‘posh’ stuff - expensive valve compressors, super high-end EQs, the sort of stuff that you couldn’t afford to make a whole desk out of, but that was fine as you could patch a few of them in - a UA 1176 compressor on the vocal, a GML EQ across the mix bus, a Lexicon 480L reverb on an aux send, that sort of thing. Your desk-bound EQs and compressors were your workhorses and the outboard was to add flavour.

Does this sound in any way similar to how you use your plugs-ins? If you’re anything like me you have a pretty good idea of which plug-ins in your arsenal are CPU-light and can be used all the time, and which ones are a big drain on your processor (and too many instances make your DAW fall over). While it’s easy to see the CPU-light plug-ins as the equivalent of the desk processing, and the CPU-heavy ones as the outboard, in the real world it’s often more nuanced and complex than this.

CPU vs Character

While the simple answer to the question of which plug-in I choose is that I pick the one with the character that I’m trying to apply to the sound, life isn’t simple. CPU load does have to be considered, so I must bear in mind how critical the sound is to the mix. The lead vocal, the bass, the kick and snare - these elements will be prominent throughout the mix and I’ll be uncompromising in using exactly the processing I want on them, regardless of the load on the computer. But the triangle hit that comes in twice in the second verse? I’m not going to be throwing a huge amount of CPU power at that. 

However, while it is often the case that the plugins that have the most character to them - the detailed modelling of the valve compressor, the stunning convolution reverb - put the biggest demands your computer, there are plenty of great ones that break this rule. Personal favourites include the PSP Old Timer compressor and the UAD 1176 - great sound and bags of character. I’m also a big fan of the FabFilter ProQ 3 EQ, which isn’t about delivering tons of character because it’s very transparent by design, but it is incredibly powerful and ideal for surgical EQ and filtering, mid-side work etc. This is where we get into the nuance and complexity of the issue, and it’s something that’s great for us users. While the ‘CPU vs character’ issue is often a trade-off, there are plenty of plug-ins where this isn’t the case, so load up on these as your go-to processing. 

It is easier to take than to give

EQ is slightly different in that there is one more consideration to bear in mind. You may have noticed the character of a particular EQ plug-in is much more easily identified when boosting frequencies compared to when you are cutting them. Boost the bass, and does it sound warm to you or muddy? Boost the top, and does it become airy or hard? While the source material clearly has a big part to play here, so does your choice of EQ, and this is true of all EQs - plug-in or real-world. When it comes to subtractive EQ though - taking frequencies away - it’s not such a big deal. Removing frequencies puts much less reliance on the character of an EQ compared to when you are boosting them. For this reason, I tend to use a simpler, CPU-light plug-in to take out the frequencies I don’t want in a sound. I might use the EQ that came free with the DAW, or one that I know won’t be putting a strain on my processor. Then to boost frequencies I’ll reach for something with a bit more character that I know I like the sound of. Which one I pick depends on what I’m doing - there are some that I particularly like on electric guitars, some on pianos and strings, some that I like on bass etc. My favourites do change over time as well to be honest, and I can be just as excited by the shiny new plug-in that I’ve just downloaded as anyone else! The point being that I’ll save on CPU load for subtractive EQ, and then be greedier with processing power when I need to boost some frequencies on an instrument. 

Efficiency - why use ten plug-ins when you can use one?

Having described the compromise of CPU vs Character, let’s talk about a way around it - bus processing. If you are in love with the top end of a particular processer-devouring EQ, and definitely don’t have the power to put it on all your tracks, bus those tracks together and then put one instance across the bus. That beautiful boost is now on everything that you choose to send there. Equally, the breathtaking plate reverb that you would have on every channel if you had the computing power of NASA can still be on every channel. Just set it up on an aux send as if you were working on an old analogue desk - then you’ll only need one instance which every element can send to. Some smart routing and sharing can go a long way to reducing CPU load, which will free up your choices across the mix.

While the processing demands of plugins continues to rise with the processing power of our computers, our plugin choices will often have as much to do with CPU-usage as sound quality. But with a combination of a few pre-DAW mixing methods and finding those CPU-light plugins whose sound you love, you can keep your compromises to a bare minimum. 

More Recording Resources From Dom Morley

Dom is the founder of the Mix Consultancy, a zero-risk (money-back guarantee) way to get notes on your tracks to help improve the sound. Whether you're an artist who likes to mix all their own work, a composer putting together a pitch on a limited budget, or an engineer who wants a discreet second opinion before sending a mix off to a client - we're here to help.

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In addition to the one-to-one advice Dom has produced some excellent online courses;

• Everything You Need To Know About Recording Vocals
  Preproduction, DAW set-up, preparing the studio, psychology, equipment. Literally everything you need to know.

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  This is a short, free, mini-course on the four things that you really need to know in order to get great mixes and the four things that you really don't!