Although one-stop mastering processing in a single box isn’t new, simple audio plugins providing the same thing are fewer and further between. We take a look at one solution for engineering producers that aims to cover all bases…

In Summary

Aimed at the engineering producer, MasterMind from United Plugins is a multifunction mastering audio plugin. Features such as its unique Match EQ feature for referential shaping, as well as two harmonic enhancement stages set it apart as a simple alternative to a chain of single devices.

Going Deeper

Maximising Masters

For a number of years several hardware manufacturers produced boxes intended as all-in-one mastering processors. Contrasted with audio plugins, these made sense where budget and rack space were (marginally) more limited than drive space at the time. Aimed at smaller professional facilities and more ‘serious’ home studios, some notable units were DBX’s Quantum and TC Electronic’s Finaliser range which could make or break audio depending on the operator… Larger studios continue to use dedicated devices on a per-stage basis whether in the rack or in the box.

Slimming Down

Without hardware limitations, the audio plugin lends itself far better to chains of devices that can be easily auditioned, swapped out, and re-ordered, for example. This is often cited as a strong point, however too much choice and deliberation can also dilute the drive to get the job done.

In the video, we try MasterMind from United Plugins. This unified ‘multi-processor’ brings the MO of the one-stop box to an audio plugin, but adds some welcome features. Perhaps most significant (and absent from the units of Old) is its Match section that allows the engineer to imprint the spectra of a reference track onto the target audio.

We use MasterMind on more familiar ground by using it to raise level and add some shelving EQ moves for weight and sparkle. We also check out its loudness and spectra with a little help from MLoudnessAnalyzer and MMultiAnalyzer.

Using a tool such as MasterMind keeps things pretty simple and could give producing engineers a slice of school one-box simplicity for very little money.

United Plugins On MasterMind

MasterMind is a swift mastering tool which allows you to optimize your tracks in a second, match your track’s EQ with a reference track, and boost the master gain. [MasterMind] is not only to make your signal louder but also better and simply to sound right. To make this sensitive job easy for you, we created MasterMind, which can do most of the tasks for you automatically.

MasterMind Key Features:

• Optimizer - Controls the level of a “special intelligent optimization” algorithm. United Plugins say its purpose is to make the track “sound bigger and better”.

• Match EQ - Designed to shape the track’s spectra to that of a reference. The amount of matching can be adjusted to avoid over-processing.

• Stereo Width control

• 2-Band Shelving EQ - Features a variable tube drive block based on a famous US tube equaliser. Post-EQ gain regulates how hard the EQ’d signal hits the limiter.

• Limiter - this is an auto-makeup design with both input trim and threshold provided. This also has a saturation stage

Production Expert readers can get a 25% discount using the code PXPRT-MMND-25. This is valid throughout May, and can be used on top of the half price MasterMind sale that is on the United Plugins site from 1st to 14th May 2023.

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.