In Summary

Many engineers will have a small clique of trusted tools to get the work done. Although sound and workflow define the keepers from all the rest, some products just keep on adding to their worth with free features and updates. Here are some of our favourites.

Going Deeper

Despite the plethora of audio tools out there, few engineers attempt to make use of anything more than is necessary to get the job done. Whether hardware or software, most important is the sound these things make, and of course whether or not they are quick and intuitive in use. Many will pay what it takes to get these two things right, however any user must consider what they’re getting for their money.

Developers and manufacturers must tread a fine line between their own margins and what their customers get in return. The most successful usually have a loyal following of users who trust that the minds behind their favourite tools are also on their side when it comes to value and the return on their investment. Time again we hear a common theme: The most trusted products add value over time at a reasonable cost to the user, or sometimes with at no extra cost at all.

These ‘easter eggs’ can land in the form of new software features or updates that unlock functionality that was lying in wait. Not limited to software, anything that uses DSP can keep on giving in this way, making its presence in the studio all the more valuable. Here are six of our favourites.

1 - Metric Halo Audio Interfaces

The one piece of peripheral gear that will make or break any session is the audio interface. With the task in hand varying greatly from studio to studio, these are available in a variety of sizes accommodating the smallest of project studios right up to complex multichannel setups for post production work. Some say it’s wise to buy the best you can afford with future need in mind, and for that some form of modularity or expandability will go a long way. But what if it’s the type of job rather than the size of it that changes? The last thing studios want is to re-buy gear.

Metric Halo have a good reputation for high quality modular boxes with reliability and longevity at the fore. In 2020 Nathaniel Reichman wrote about how his Metric Halo LIO-8/4p was reconfigured to absorb the increasing amount of immersive mixing he found himself doing at home following world events. Thanks to the scalability and reconfigurability of his B-chain at the LIO-8 end of things, his interface was already up to the job the day he bought it. Also praised by us was Metric Halo’s 3D upgrade system by which owners of legacy hardware can install hardware upgrades to bring their interface up to current specs.

2 - Softube Console 1

For those working in any DAW, there’s now a good choice of hardware controllers that let engineers roll up their sleeves to drive their sessions using their hands. These can be split up into those that specialise in controlling the DAW mixer, those that concentrate on a second ‘layer’ that sits across plugins, or those that do a bit of both. Here on the blog, between us we’ve used them all, each with their own distinct advantages and disadvantages.

One system claiming haptic supremacy is Softube’s Console 1, which is designed to be used as a plugin layer that happens via the inserts of the DAW mixer. This layer is controlled by a dedicated hardware surface with purpose-designed software that maps perfectly to the controls every time.

Following an overdue system update on my part, I wrote about how pleased I was to get a whole raft of new functions for my system after nine years on a perpetual licence. These included hardware control of width, new peak and RMS metering on inputs and outputs, plus the ability to load any Softube saturation flavour into the Drive section. Delicious!

3 - Universal Audio Unison

Engineers have a choice solutions for DSP-accelerated performance, with the main advantages being increased firepower and nearer-to-zero latency. For anyone recording real sources with mics or instrument outputs, one of the only disadvantages of recording digitally is any delay experienced from input to output, although less talked about is the reactivity of recording interface inputs. The best of these can mimic the correct loading of the source so that it behaves in a given way; when software claims to recreate an existing hardware input stage, this behaviour also needs to be there wherever it’s implemented.

The introduction of Unison technology some years ago unlocked existing input functionality that ensures the right feel and behaviour for instruments and mics plugged into Unison audio plugins covering channel trips and instrument amps. From that point owners of existing Apollo hardware could take advantage of enhanced authenticity for the front end of their choice, combined with the improved processing bandwidth and low latency of hardware DSP.

4 - Spectrasonics Instruments

Veterans of the VI with titles such as Keyscape, Trilian and Omnisphere 2 under their belt, Spectrasonics are a company with long-lived products that enjoy a loyal following. As well as having a hand in classic hardware synths and digital drums made by others, the company also gained early ground in developing the virtual instrument form factor known to studio musicians everywhere. Favourites such as Omnisphere, and Trilian were later joined by Keyscape to find their way onto many film soundtracks as well as countless mixes across the board.

With playability and spontaneity at the top of musicians’ wishlists, standalone users of Keyscape, Trilian and Omnisphere 2 were given a free gift in 2022 when Spectrasonics introduced Flow Capture. For those times when the DAW gets forgotten in the white heat of creativity, this tool lets standalone users press a button to make simultaneous audio and MIDI recordings to save all aspects of the performance. Also saved is the patch whose .omnisphere, .keyscape or .trilian file can be easily recalled by dragging straight into the instrument GUI, regardless of DAW.

5 - Avid Hybrid Engine

Most reading this will be aware of Pro Tools’ HDX hardware acceleration that cemented it as a pro solution for low latency, scalable recording and mixing. With DSP (including the mixer itself) happening on dedicated cards in towers or chassis, this sets it aside from natively powered DAWs (including Pro Tools Studio).

Traditionally, making the most of this extra firepower could be interrupted by mixing native and DSP audio plugins in the Pro Tools mixer. Where previously the Pro Tools mixer would be running either on hardware DSP for HDX systems, or in the computer for native versions, the Avid Hybrid Engine solves the “where is it happening?” head-scratcher.

Those using Avid’s Carbon interface get a native mixer with channels that are switchable onto DSP on a per-track basis. For those using a mixture of native and DSP audio plugins, Hybrid enabled tracks automatically bypass native plugins to preserve the system’s smoking-fast performance. Just click the lightning bolt in the track without having to think about it.

6 - LiquidSonics Seventh Heaven Professional

For many engineers, reverb is the closest we get to an effect that is used inherently in 99% of mixes. Mostly replacing the rack reverberators from last century is the all-conquering audio plugin reverb that can sound almost exactly the same as algorithmic hardware, or go one better using convolution tech that can be indiscernible from the real-life acoustic. Seventh Heaven Professional (SHP) is LiquidSonics’ reverb that conjures the sound of the Bricasti M7 hardware reverb to the DAW using their Fusion IR reverb engine.

Aside from its crowd-pleasing perpetual licence, engineers using Seventh Heaven Professional got not one, or even two new features, but six extra reasons to use it in 2023, all as a free update. With stereo work being only one area of interest, SHP went immersive with 7.1.6 support. Alongside utility improvements including support for iLok Cloud, Apple Silicon, and 4k displays, SHP also gained its stablemates’ ducker allowing engineers to compress its output in the same window. Rounding off the sextet of sweeteners were two extra algorithms covering more Lexicon-like flavours, plus a non-linear option evoking classic AMS RMX16 spaces.

How About You?

These are just some of our favourite products that are in it for the long game… What are yours? Let us know in the comments.

A Word About This Article

As the Experts team considered how we could better help the community we thought that some of you are time poor and don’t have the time to read a long article or a watch a long video. In 2023 we are going to be trying out articles that have the fast takeaway right at the start and then an opportunity to go deeper if you wish. Let us know if you like this idea in the comments.