Favorite Mixing Plugins Video... includes some good ideas...

[James Steele]

Came across this video on YouTube while looking for ways to blow more money on plug-ins... and found some interesting tips with recording. Just tried one now: the combo of Waves RBass and MV2 on a bass guitar track and got some good results.

Also interesting is the e2 Deesser which the video says you can get through Slate Digital, but I could only find it there via subscription. But I did some searching and it looks like Fabrice Gabriel (who I think is brilliant and is behind FG-X) started his own company and the e2 Deesser is available directly for $69. It has a spectral display which seems very useful as well: https://www.eiosis.com/e2deesser

ANYWAY here is the video that I think is worth the watch... got some good ideas out of it:

[mikehalloran]

There are some good ideas, indeed, and I have many of those plugs already. I've been looking for a great deesser a long time and will try the Eiosis. With the type of choral projects in my archive, no doubt that I can put it to the acid test like few others — well worth the $69 if it does the job for me.

I've always found Waves to be a PIA to manage, however, and removed them from my system years ago. Rbass doesn't excite me but MV2 on bass… hmmmm... Perhaps I have something else that does that job already.

[bayswater]

Rbass is the reason I’ve stuck with Waves since V3. It makes everyone sound like Donald Dunn, which is what they really want anyway. If you want that particular sound, it will deliver every time.

[James Steele]

I've been looking for a great deesser a long time and will try the Eiosis. With the type of choral projects in my archive, no doubt that I can put it to the acid test like few others — well worth the $69 if it does the job for me.

Yeah... I'd be very interested in trying it. I'm pretty sure there's a demo period. Fabrice Gabriel is something of a DSP rockstar/genius, too. I remember when slate introduced FG-X (the "FG" was for Fabrice Gabriel) it hands down became one of my favorite mastering limiter plug-ins, although on some material it seems Ozone is now eclipsing it. Speaking of which, all the hyping iZotope has been doing about how great the imminent Ozone 10 is going to be and how you can get it free if you buy/upgrade to full Ozone 9, convinced me to cough up $149 to upgrade my Ozone 9 Elements to the full Ozone 9 (although not "Advanced") in order to get the free Ozone 10 upgrade.

Seems like Ozone is really starting to be a good tool and I like using the "Assistant" and letting it "listen" to the most intense bars of a song (usually the chorus) and come up with some good settings to start out with.

[James Steele]

Oh... just now I tried the regular Ozone 9 and it sounds good, but not dramatically better than Ozone 9 Elements on on this current piece of music I'm working on. O9 Elements hits about 5% CPU in DP's Effects Performance meter... where as the full O9 is about double that at 10+%. I was going to uninstall the Elements version, but now I think I'll keep it around and use it for works in progress since it has a lighter CPU hit. Save the full version for final mastering.

[mikehalloran]

Oh... just now I tried the regular Ozone 9 and it sounds good, but not dramatically better than Ozone 9 Elements on on this current piece of music I'm working on. O9 Elements hits about 5% CPU in DP's Effects Performance meter... where as the full O9 is about double that at 10+%. I was going to uninstall the Elements version, but now I think I'll keep it around and use it for works in progress since it has a lighter CPU hit. Save the full version for final mastering.

Installing the full version of Ozone 9 overwrites Elements and vise versa. Likewise, Advanced overwrites the other two. Whichever version you install last is the one you’ll find in the plug-ins list in DP. Because of the various packages I have, I’ve made that installation mistake — freaked me out that Advanced was missing after I installed Elements. Easily corrected but still…

Speaking of which, Advanced installs the Ozone modules as separate plug-ins. Although most have additional functionality, the CPU hit is generally less since you are only loading the tools you need. RX works the same way though I’ll be the first to admit that the full versions are so good that few need Advanced anymore. The packages I have include Advanced in one and Full in the other so I have to be careful how I install.

[James Steele]

Well that’s really strange then, Mike, because I installed the standard version of Ozone 9 and I now have BOTH Ozone 9 (Standard) and Ozone 9 Elements in DP’s plug in list and I can choose to open either one.

So not sure who to believe here? You, or my lying eyes?

[James Steele]

Here's the video of me opening an instance of Ozone 9 Elements, then choosing to replace it with an instance of Ozone 9 Standard. Maybe iZotope changed the behavior of the installers recently? I appear to have both now, which I actually like as I can choose to use Elements when I want less of a CPU hit.

[James Steele]

Looks like I just threw my money away. Native Instruments just announced Komplete 14 (which I suspect is why they were dragging their feel on AS-native support) and I’ll have no choice to upgrade… and it will include Ozone 10 Standard. Sigh.

[mikehalloran]

Maybe iZotope changed the behavior of the installers recently? I appear to have both now, which I actually like as I can choose to use Elements when I want less of a CPU hit.

I haven't looked at this in awhile but I do recall it was Ozone 9 and RX 9 where I observed it. I did contact Support afterward but never heard back. The Product Portal has been updated a few times since then.

Also interesting is the e2 Deesser which the video says you can get through Slate Digital, but I could only find it there via subscription. But I did some searching and it looks like Fabrice Gabriel (who I think is brilliant and is behind FG-X) started his own company and the e2 Deesser is available directly for $69. It has a spectral display which seems very useful as well: https://www.eiosis.com/e2deesser

You can buy it through a link from Slate @ $69 but the 15 Day Trial license is only available by going to Eiosis directly—which I did—they email you a temporary iLok code. Holy cow! I wish I had this for the last 2 1/2 years of choir projects. Every one is going to be re-bounced with E2Desser in the Master buss (after I pay the $69, of course) when I have some spare time.

One thing nice about having the number of plugs and suites that I do is that I've been able to audition many de-esser plugs just in the past year without having to spend money just to find that they just couldn't do what I needed at all. None even measured up to the MOTU De-esser in DP. Actually, the MOTU De-esser isn't bad at all but E2Desser is much, much better for my use. I didn't check the CPU hit but I heard no artifacts that I associate with heavy use.

[crduval]

I have been watching videos by Dan Worrall. He did a few training videos on using Falcon that were really good and helped me get up to speed. He's also done several of them for Fabfilter and other plugins, and what's he's been able to do with them is pretty amazing - I would never have thought of some of these techniques on my own. His channel has lots of great information. His videos are extremely content-rich and very nicely done.

Many of the EQ and other ideas are applicable to other plugins with similar functionality, so don't let the Fabfilter oriented content put you off if you don't own those plugs - although I am planning now to get some of them after seeing some of these videos, they are really great plugins.

His two part videos on stereo mixing so that the mono mix doesn't suck are really fascinating. Here's a link to part one:

https://youtu.be/spaqBr-cCFw