izotope is a bit risky, if you use the automated tools while binge producing you might settle with a really bad mix/master... if you mess it's decent, although I don't like the interface and I'm stuck with Izotope 5 legit, meaning I don't like their upgrade policy.

Waves L1 applied to my individual tracks was night and day compared to Ableton stock utility/limiter... The track had much more stereo depth and felt more alive.

 

I am glad they both exist.

 

I don't like Billie Eilish, her music rubs me the wrong way (maybe that's the intention) but I respect making it big in the music industry like that. Would have been unthinkable just 15 years ago. Did she mix/master it too? That's talent and dedication.

I think artists are realizing that they don't need the huge overhead that comes with a professional production. Most people listen on crappy bluetooth speakers or earbuds anyways, they won't know the difference. It's also entirely possible to make pretty good audio out of very crappy sources. I recorded some of my earliest acoustic/vocal tracks with my cell microphone. I've revisited some of it recently and tried to polish up that sonic turd. With the right EQ/saturation/multiband compression/expansion I got it sounding a world away from what it was. It would probably pass as a decent mix unless you're listening on a very precise system. So you really don't need the fanciest equipment, you just need good music and some basic things to record and mix it with. All these fancy plugins are to give it that extra something that very few listeners will appreciate.

 

Last edited: Jun 12, 2020

don't body shame plugins