DAWs were invented, plugins were created and computers got powerful. Things change of course but were the last ten years punctuated by really significant developments or are we all still using RVox and Filterbank the same as we ever were and is the new stuff just noise?

It can sometimes be difficult to appreciate the progress being made in the pro audio space unless you take the time to review and reflect. Here are what I consider to be some of my top plugins of the last ten years, with one highlighted for each year. There will be some worthy contenders which don’t appear, principally because it’s my view and I haven’t tried everything. So in reverse order…

2023 Universal Audio Capitol Mastering Compressor

When I was sketching out the contenders for this list the entires were looking a little utilitarian. Problem solvers which save time but not many things which appealed to the heart rather than the head. Looking to 2023, which after all is only halfway through at the time of writing the missing fun factor returned in the shape of the Capitol Mastering Compressor. I’ve been lucky enough to see one of these in the room of the man who designed it at Capitol. The existence of such a device harks back to the glory days of big studios when equipment was designed in house.

The plugin is an emulation of this high end valve compressor which, being designed specifically for mastering has some gain structure quirks. But when set up right it’s absolutely gorgeous, with the ability to make stuff sound better just by being there. When I use it compression is an optional extra, often the meters aren’t moving but just bypass it and you immediately hear what it was doing. It’s not a free lunch, if you push it too far you find that you can have too much of a good thing but it’s heartening to know that a plugin can still impress as much as this one did when I heard it!

2022 Waves Clarity Vx

AI driven plugins which do difficult things faster, easier and better that we can using conventional tools have been coming for a while but the first one which really caught my attention in a new way, the first of the current crop to make me realise that things had just stepped up a gear, was Waves’ Clarity Vx. I’m sure there are other contenders, these things usually happen simultaneously and in parallel but one always cuts through first. For me that was Clarity.

Available in two versions, the pro version wasn’t the one for me, it was the simpler Clarity Vx. One knob. Amazing results. As someone who remembers thinking the Dolby C on my friend’s cassette deck was impressive it just goes to show how far we’ve come! Single ended noise reduction has been around for years. Plugins which don’t need clean noise to create a noise print from aren’t new but just being able to turn a knob and have it do what you meant is where I want to be for tasks like this.

2021 Synchro Arts VocAlign Ultra

Take a task which is possible but long-winded to do manually. Give ease of use and fast results and the result will be the kind of product people actually use. VocAlign has been around for many, many years. This timesaver for ADR was quickly discovered by music producers but the relatively recent overhaul Synchro Arts gave it with the creation VocAlign Ultra has moved it on significantly. The ability to match the timing and pitch of doubles with just a couple of clicks, or the timing of harmonies, and with control so you can allow the drift in timing and pitch which keeps things sounding real make this essential for anyone who works with vocal stacks.

I’ve only recently started using this on doubled guitars, great for someone like me, not the most accurate of players, and the usefulness of a tool like VocAlign is one of this things I really, really value but haven’t yet taken for granted. Everyone needs this!

2020 Oeksound Soothe 2

Soothe was the first incarnation of Oeksound’s big hitter plugin but it was the version 2 which I think elevated it. Control when you need it but instant results from that big depth knob. Soothe 2 does exactly what it sets out to do and does it well. I confess I haven’t used quite an few of the controls as just dialling in the right amount of depth in Soft mode, focussing the effect using the target curve and checking the results using the delta button usually gives me all I need. There’s more to it than just ‘de-harshing’ but this very sophisticated dynamic EQ really excels at that task.

2019 Sonnox Oxford Drum Gate

Something of a one-stop-shop for tidying drums, I’ve been a huge fan of this plugin since its launch. A perfect example of not knowing you need something until you try it, when I first heard about it I thought a new gate sounded rather pedestrian. Then I tried it and realised how many hours I’d wasted chasing the sweet spot between the hits and the bleed.

An early example of AI or Machine Learning being used to differentiate between wanted and unwanted audio, I can usually get what I need in seconds, the plugin can be ‘taught’ to catch any rogue hits which it misses, the built in leveler evens out performances more transparently than a compressor could and it is both quick and accurate at creating MIDI for triggering samples. This plugin is on every session I work on which has real drums in it, which is most of them.

2018 Sound Radix Auto Align Post

If you haven’t yet spotted the theme of identify and problem and make something to fix it quickly and well, that sums up the majority of the plugins on this list. And so it should. That is a good description of most of the most successful products in history. It also describes everything Sound Radix have ever done.

I could have chosen other products from Sound Radix but I’ve chosen Auto Align Post because it’s the purest expression of this. The phase issues which occur between a moving boom mic and a lavalier are common and difficult to fix. Auto Align Post fixes them elegantly in seconds!

2017 Liquidsonics Seventh Heaven Professional

If there’s a category of plugin which really shows the difference between OK and great, for me it’s reverb. Reverbs are complicated. I’m happy using channel EQ and compression plugins which are well over a decade old in my mixes but one category which has completely changed in the last ten years is reverb. It’s not much more than ten years ago that I was using a TC hardware reverb as the only remaining piece of outboard with my Pro Tools system. These days 90 percent of my reverbs are Seventh Heaven.

Lush, expensive sounding reverb with a simple control set. I’m usually a tinkerer when it comes to plugins but reverb is an exception where I dial in a preset and give it the briefest of tweaks, if at all. Just like I used to when using hardware reverb and the fact that Seventh Heaven is basically a Bricasti in software form adds a pleasing continuity to that.

2016 McDSP 6050 Ultimate Channel Strip

So far the plugins have been rather grown up. Where the fun? McDSP’s ‘Ultimate’ series started with the 6030 Ultimate Compressor plugin and I was sold on the concept immediately. A collection of alternative plugin modules, designed to sound different, which you can swap between freely with the settings persisting between swaps. Fun!

The range was augmented with EQ and multiband variants and an ‘everything’ version as well but it was the 6050 Ultimate Channel Strip which really appealed to me. All the compressors and EQs with expander/gates, and saturation and distortion. It’s a playground but can also be exactly what you need. Most importantly, and unsurprisingly coming from McDSP, it sounds excellent.

2015 Nugen LM-Correct

Until you’ve had the problem, you don’t know you need the tool. I had a similar experience with a DIY task and an impact driver I didn’t yet know I needed to buy…

Mixing to loudness specs is something which takes time to get the hang of. A good meter is essential and Nugen’s VisLM is as good as is available. However we’ve all had those near misses and LM Correct is what you need at these times. Dial in your target and LM-Correct… Corrects. As the name gives away LM-Correct 2 wasn’t the first version but 2 added some important functionality and in an area like loudness compliance guidelines and targets change with time. If you’ve ever found yourself manually tweaking to bring your bounce into spec, this is what you need.

2014 FabFilter Pro Q2

It’s a surprise to me that Pro Q2 is ten years old. I see the, not all that different, Pro Q3 as the definition of modern plugin design. FabFilter’s all-conquering EQ showed the world that while we might like skeuomorphic vintage plugins with vibe and mojo, what really matters is workflow. The EQ has to sound good but that isn’t necessarily the same thing as coloured. But the slick UI which shows you as much as you choose and dispenses with the idea of fixed numbers of bands and filter types and instead makes it easy to create the EQ you need to do the job you are doing at the time is a masterstroke.

Pro Q3 adds functionality but the thing which makes FabFilter’s EQ as popular as it is is right here in Pro Q2.

What from these would be on your list and what is missing? Share your thoughts in the comments.