I've lately been seeing many debates about this topic and have mixed feelings about this.
A lot of engineers have this attitude that plugins don't seem to matter to them at all when mixing.
Obviously a good engineer will have a much better mix than many because he understands what to listen for.
Basic things like EQ etc. should always come first but there seems to be so much more for me .

Often when I mix I have plugins like Gulfoss in my mastering chain which seem to be unreplaceable.
Even with good mixing I think those plugins cannot be replaced because they seem to change the sound drasticly in a good way.

Do you guys have any similiar Plugins and feel that way aswell?

 

Last edited: Sep 28, 2022

There are a TON of plugins that have no hardware equivalent, so yeah, of course.

 

plugin quality doesn't matter, as long as they are nearly all Fabfilter. (incoming)

I'm funny? hey, I'm not the one with a synthesizer in my mastering chain.

 

Last edited: Sep 3, 2022

Well that's something you don't hear everyday

Well i have my favourites, sure, but if you told me i can't use them for some reason, i'm okay with that.

I thing that's what the "engineers" you talk about really mean. It's not that plugins don't matter, but if you need an EQ, it doesn't have to be the best, most awarded EQ ever. Sure, the second option might give that "extra" thing, but it's not nearly as impart as the fact that it's an EQ that can do EQ-ing.

 

Most other workflow/bundles all accomplish the same thing. But a lot of them install so many options for the user, that they often begin using the various processors in unpredictable (and not repetitive) order.

Even if Waves only win an award for 1 in every 20 plugins, you'd still have like 20 more installed.

 

I actually meant gulfoss no damn clue why I wrote omnisphere hahaha

Holy shit Omnisphere in mastering sounds terrible :D

 

I've heard some great tracks mixed by very skilled engineers using nothing more than free plugins. Admittedly, they did send the signal through an SSL Big Six mixing console, but still! Everything else they used was free.

 

When it comes to Gullfoss specifically, nowadays I only use it if I don't care and need to quickly churn out something.
While Master variant can glue the mix in an interesting way, otherwise it destroys the details, messes up transients and frankly sounds too harsh to my ear, always adding too much highs. I prefer to use DSEQ on individual channels if the sounds are really too resonant and do the rest by hand and ear.
Honestly, I think there's only one category of plugins that can't be compensated by good mixing - it's a category of really bad plugins. Like, W.A. Production or Soundspot level shitty. I can't make a good sounding mix with these. I'm not sure if anybody can. Their "quality" can't be compensated with mixing skill, because they mess up the sound badly.

 

Last edited: Sep 28, 2022

It does beg the question as to how anyone could have made a good mix prior to 1998 or so

 

There's mixing and there's mastering, traditionally each carried out by different people. I know what the two roles are but who is considered an engineer today?

 

When that happens, you suck at mixing and/or monitoring. When we mix, we do our best to get the best sound. There should be no case in which slapping a plugin will drastically (and surprisingly) improve the sound (if you wanted that sound you'd made it without G). When this happens, either your vision is not clear enough (not enough mixing experience) either that plugin revealed something you couldn't hear (due to lack of experience, lack of taste, or bad monitoring).

And here's the dilemma: if you lack experience or taste to mix or have a bad monitoring situation - how do you know Gullfoss is making things drastically better? In reality it will not.

Think about it: you have a mix - let's say you nailed the instrumental perfectly but you didn't nailed the vocals and you have resonances here and there, uncontrolled dynamics and you feed that mix to Gullfoss. And Gullfoss (according to the manual) will reveal the areas that make sense to human ear and dial back the others. Now, whatever G will do, whatever boosts or cuts will do - they will either enhance the vocal but dehance the instrumental, either try to compensate for the bad vocal, either enhance the instrumental and further destroy the vocal. There's no scenario in which operating on a full mix with wrongly mixed elements, you can improve one without destroyig something else.

Many people routinely use Soothe on lots of sounds, while the best engineers use it as a last resort to save a sound (yes, Soothe is linear phase and prerings, same for Gullfoss). Preringing sounds "smooth" and pleasant to the ear because is messing up transients but as soon as you put a soft sound against a top40 mix you'll notice how lifeless it sounds.

So no, there is no plugin that can outdo lack of experience. 95% of a mix (and master) at any professional level can be done with just proper levels, eq, compression and saturation. But there isn't a best eq, comp or saturator that will make or break a mix.

 

Easy peasy. This is my mastering chainpion:

Gulffoss -> DSEQ ->Soothe ->God Particle -> Denise Audio God Mode -> smartComp -> smarterEq

I don't need to mix or master anymore
I do need some track that doesn't sound like utter shit...

 

Gullfoss is a crutch, but crutches can be useful. If it makes the mix sound good, fine, it sounds good, no need to spend hours fixing things to get back to the same place. That is, if it's subtle. I tend to put it on an instrument sub buss for sheen. I never put it on the master because it does fck up vocals, to me. But all the tape sim and transformer "analog!" stuff- almost always more harm than good imo.

 

Last edited: Sep 28, 2022