I'm not a big fan of drama, but I sure am a big fan of comedy.

Don't have anything against AP Mastering, but his over the top sensationalism and clickbait titles have made me avoid him. Even more than that though, his insane ego has kept me further away.

Unfortunately, I watched his video "The Compressor Plugin Industry's Worst Nightmare", and holy cow, this guy is bonkos.

He released a $49 compressor plugin that mimics curves of a ton of types of compressor plugins. It seems cool, and offers 2 weird curves (one based on some financial mathematical equation), but after seeing Studio Life test it, it has crazy volume jumps, glitching and seems a bit poorly coded. Credit to AP tho as he seems to be the only person who did the coding and obviously has some skill.

Here's the comedy tho,

The dude genuinely seems to believe that the plugin industry has "coordinated an attack against him" because of all the negative feedback and comments he received upon releasing his plugin.



Dude can't possibly wrap his head around the fact that people might dislike him because of his "holier than thou" attitude towards others and how any time he responds to criticism from his audience, he always knows best and corrects them in the comments.

Almost every comment on this video is someone telling him how amazing he is. I wonder if he is removing any of the critical comments (sorry, I mean the coordinated plugin industry attack).

I wish I had this type of personality in a way. The amount of noise and attention you get by being so overconfident and egotistical is impressive.

At the end of the day tho, he's just another YouTuber salesperson from what I can see.

I also sell some stuff I've made, but I really dont have much confidence in what I do, and I try not to be a know it all clickbait whore.

Whatever, good luck AP Mastering
Hopefully the Plugin Alliance doesn't coordinate an attack against you for releasing a plugin lmao.

 

This guy has a very funny business model. Some kind of mixture between trolling and scamming. As a response to his supposed "haters" he has now released an upgraded, payversion of his formerly free gain reduction analyzer. So the "haters" are expected to buy his analyzer so that they can prove themselves wrong

I listened to a demo of his paid compressor plugin and wasn't too convinced. To me the good old Klanghelm DC8C sounds much better and is more reliable (without crazy volume jumps and indistinct parameters) at the same (or better) sonic flexibility.

 

Oh god, I know he mentioned his analyzer plugin being updated, but didn't realize he's now charging for the fixes

Really "exposing" the "greed" of the audio software industry.

I noticed in the comments on the video that any time someone comments something like "Hey other companies have made compressor plugins that model a bunch of different units/curves"

His response is basically "show me the black scholes compressor that it can do"

Which is his gimmick math equation curve that sounds like dogshit for professional compression uses.

If the selling point is the weird curves, and you're not disproving that other companies have modeled a ton of different comps within a plugin, aren't you kind of accepting that other companies have already made your plugin sans the shitty Black Scholes curve

 

So you are saying he should make a collab plugin with Acustica?

 

Dude, Acustica was one of the first things that popped into my head while watching the video haha.

Your ego can overshadow your product, even if it's a decent product.

Not sure if I'd say AP Mastering or Acustica make great products tho
(I say as Acustica plugins eat up 25GB on my boot drive).

 

Dude literally looks like he's been hitting the glass pipe for a bit too long and that paranoia is starting to get to him heh.

 

Hard to say what he believes. Maybe he just wants attention.

 

This is clearly the face of a man tormented by the Big Plugin lobby

 

Apparently if you speak ill of Big Plugin, this guy shows up in your dreams and tells you that your mixes "don't sound expensive enough".



Truly terrifying.

Maybe AP Mastering is our only hope...

 

As someone who got recommended the first video that made him "big" and stuck around to see what would happen, I can say with confidence that he doesn't need to delete any comments, most of the people are brainwashed enough already. He has some great points about a lot of stuff, some terrible points for other stuff. It's some kind of clever twisting of definition to make him right about everything.

As for his compressor, I don't really care, and I don't think he can change my mind about that. If you're buying compressors left and right, what needs fixing is your mindset. His plugin won't fix this issue.

Edit: also worth noting that this whole "I'm under attack by the plugin industry" thing is either some kind of publicity stunt, or he actually smelled his farts long enough to believe that. I hope it's the first one.

 

Wonderful thread... was it created for a discussion or just to insult some random guy from YouTube?
Maybe it's just me, but it seems to me that AP adopted this format deliberately. It's a conscious pastiche and a joke on many levels: a joke on the plugin industry that pushes digital EQs packaged in retro GUIs; a joke on audiophiles and gear experts who can distinguish digital from 'analog'; a joke on marketing that sells everything as unique, all sprinkled with a conspiracy theory. If someone takes this seriously, I feel for them.
Regarding ego, there are EXACTLY THE SAME PEOPLE here, they usually speak up on almost every thread on every topic. You know them

 

add this russian secret AI reverb guy to the list... and maybe roger nichols. dream team!

 

Hey AP Mastering,

No, this isn't a thread to insult the guy. Rather, this is a thread (in "humor" mind you) because I found it hilarious that this guy seems to think so highly of himself and what he's doing, that he seems to GENUINELY BELIEVE the plugin industry has coordinated an attack against him on social media.

He seems to believe that what he's done by selling a digital compressor that mimics the curves of other compressors, is so important and such a market disrupter, that the plugin industry is trying to silence him. Didn't seem to be joking about this in the video I saw.

That is hilarious and delusional.

You say he's playing in to the joke? Its intentional? I would at least give him enough credit to say that not everything he does is a joke, but maybe his paid plugins are also an elaborate joke?

The dude can't possible fathom why anyone would criticize him it seems, so it must be a coordinated attack from the industry, but that could also be an elaborate joke and is honestly a pretty good one if thats true.

But yeah I agree that there's a ton of BS stuff in the analog emulation plugin market. Many people have discussed this is a less annoying and clickbaity way than AP mastering. Those people aren't also trying to sell me their products like there the best thing since sliced bread, and are taking the industry down. Every industry uses BS marketing to sell their products and it's been that way forever.

I use mainly 3 compressors (excluding multiband and special comps), and AP Masterings plugin doesn't seem like it will replace any of them, even if it was nearly match their curves. Workflow and visual feedback are important too.

I completely understand why people are so critical of him, and I'm definitely not endorsing a hate mob. I just wish AP would realize why people seem to dislike him. If he changed his attitude though he'd probably get less views on YouTube.

It might be a bit of a mental health issue with him though and that would make me feel a bit bad. You said what he does is mostly a joke tho so I'm not really sure honestly.

 

Last edited: Aug 16, 2025 at 2:43 PM

There's a type of person who sees any criticism or adversity as a sign that they're absolutely right. Maybe so sometimes, and good on them on not giving up, but to quote Carl Sagan:

“But the fact that some geniuses were laughed at does not imply that all who are laughed at are geniuses. They laughed at Columbus, they laughed at Fulton, they laughed at the Wright brothers. But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown.”

As for this AP compressor reveal video, any title that has all uppercase "DESTROYS" in the title is one that I can safely ignore. Maybe it's great, maybe not. My loss, I suppose.

 

People have different personalities. You don't have to like everyone, but writing personal, hateful posts is beneath a certain standard.
If AP had to adapt to satisfy your needs for aesthetic communication, you'd have quite an ego. Additionally, you're questioning someone's mental health because they decided to turn criticism into a joke: "look, the whole industry is attacking me." Sometimes certain jokes are said with a serious face.
You're nitpicking one statement that was clickbait and using it as a basis to create criticism that doesn't concern his products, his "research," or his opinions, but is instead a personal attack, all while hiding behind a "humorous" approach.

 

Doesn't really look like he's joking, though.

http://youtube.com/post/UgkxazAZQ4VsAFqMSRs-Mjn2jPeyoQkSgaEm?si=G0ZKcZUR_0TIH7EN

Since I'm a subscriber to his channel, I saw that before he made that video you call a joke

 

This is just more evidence of his grifting, his haircut is not the only major red flag

 

I just can’t believe it’s serious.

 

From the post Shinjiya linked to -

AP Masterings exact words:

AP Mastering
7 days ago (edited)

"First I demonstrated that analogue style EQ plugins sounded no different to a competent digital EQ. "Yeah so what?"

Then I start saying that all those expensive and extremely limited analog style compressor plugins were all pretty much doing the same kind of stuff. "Well he can't prove it"

So I made my own analyzer plugin to prove it. "Analyzer isn't high enough resolution, he can't prove it"

So I made a completely new analyzer with insanely high resolution and then proved it. "OK but then what?"

So I made my own compressor plugin which does everything other compressors do but with crazy features that have literally never been seen before and I'm getting amazing feedback rendering pretty much all other plugin compressors obsolete for anyone who isn't just fooled by pretty graphic design...

Now I've started to piss people off. I don't know who is pissed off. But people are.

I'm like an annoying little woodpecker pecking away at a tree. Everyone ignored me but now the tree has smashed into the side of the house. Oops. Sorry.

Well now, because we aren't in some kind of John Wick movie, instead of the bad guys turning up with guns and knives, they are starting coordinated character assassination campaigns against me online. It's quite hilarious seeing this unfold. How much effort people are putting into this. How people have dug through my mastering credits to find videos from unofficial YouTube channels who uploaded vinyl rips of random tracks I mastered, using unknown gear, without knowing what the original mixes sounded like, and then proceeding to write long, genius level worm-tongue propaganda, that I am the worst mastering engineer ever. I never claimed to be the best mastering engineer, but does it seem realistic that someone can build a successful career as a mastering engineer for well over 15 years, with many long standing good relationships, if you are woefully shit at your job?"

Ok now I feel bad.

I didn't know much about AP Mastering before my post. What I called him out for (which was not a personal attack, rather a criticism of his YouTube content and action on YouTube), seems to be a behavioral pattern for him.

This just seems to be how he acts. Narcissism is a mental health issue. I don't know the guy personally so I don't know if how he acts on YouTube reflects how he acts in real life.

This guy wonders why people dislike him?

I listened to some of his mastering work. It was just mid techno from what I remember. Nothing special.

I also do semi-pro mastering and its infinitely easier than being a recording engineer, songwriter, producer, or mix enginner. I get why people can be more critical of mastering as it's a fairly simple treatment that is open to more criticism due to it being a much smaller part of a larger product.

AP Mastering seems to be quite defensive and potentially in serious denial about his work abilities. Just my interpretation of course.

Idk he makes content that attempts to "stir the pot", but all of the criticism he receives are just targeted attacks from the industry. I can't help him there.

Good luck AP

 

Last edited: Aug 16, 2025 at 4:47 PM

I really don't know man.

I really cant tell if its just a YouTube persona or the way he actually is.

Im not trying to personally attack the guy. What he said in the 1 video I watched was hilariously delusional if it was serious. I dont know about the research he does, but he doesn't seem like a comedy channel.

I think he takes himself very very seriously and has a grating personality which leads to trolls. He also doesn't seem particularly open to feedback or others opinions judging from how he responds to comments on the video.

I thought it was funny, but after seeing a bit more about the guy I feel bad for him.

I cant rule out that its all a joke though.

Edit: Also, I dont troll him on YouTube. I recommend that people just ignore him and don't engage with him. He seems to have a group of sycophants who think he's a revolutionary or something. Maybe that's a joke too, but he hearts and responds too all of the positive comments thanking them.