![]() Since there wasn’t really much in the way of competition on the DSP card side of things, AVID’s TDM cards were de facto.įirstly, once we hit 64-bit Pro Tools 11, AAX became the only plugin format Pro Tools supported. ![]() Prior to AAX, one could rely on both a native CPU hosted version of a signal processor and a TDM build, so as to facilitate real-time use of software whilst tracking, with low latency. Any and all plugins I used had both Native and DSP support in-built up until 8 years ago. There’s one plugin feature that might not even be a ‘feature’, per se, but it really does seem as though at one point in history it was. I can’t think of anything more redundant than manual gain compensation. Because we certainly don't want a boost in volume from EQ or compression to mislead our mix decisions.īut doesn't manual gain-staging seem sorta antiquated at this point in digital audio? Why don't all plugins auto-compensate for gain adjustments internally? Technology’s role in our world is to eliminate bottlenecks and redundant behaviours. Any engineer or producer worth their salt knows it's important to match gain pre and post-processing. Lastly, for me, automatic gain compensation is a "must-have" plugin feature. But developers like iZotope have managed to sort out their own licensing software without taking up valuable USB ports. And those developers deserve to protect that investment. Of course, developing a plugin requires vast amounts of time and resources. So the idea of sacrificing a USB port for a dongle that does nothing more than grants me permission to access the plugins I’ve already paid for feels a bit absurd. These days USB ports are harder and harder to come by (at least on new Mac Systems). And thank goodness Waves has finally enabled this for their fleet of legacy plugins. ![]() So why not give users the choice of deciding how big or small a plugin should be for their screen size? Fabfilter, Valhalla, and Acon Digital all do a great job with this. While newer plugins often hoover up every square inch of a screen!Įstimating a "one-size-fits-all" has to be impossible for plugin developers. Older plugins were often far too conservative in size, requiring lots of squinting to know what you were looking at. Scalable UIs are a blessing for managing screen real estate. My favourite plugins are favourites for 3 reasons: She co-owns Audio for the Arts with her business partner, Buzz Kemper, where in addition to their acoustic music projects, they produce podcasts, radio shows, advertisements, and do post-production for film. I wish everyone did that!Īudrey Martinovich’s interest in recording was sparked from her background as a classically trained singer who, through experimenting with recording voice lessons and performances, fell in love with engineering. I love when I can hover over a parameter and get a little description of what that control does, often called ‘tool tips’ like Valhalla does with their plugins. I want to be able to either option-click or double click on anything to reset that control to default. I kind of expect that most things can be automated so it's always an unfortunate surprise when I go to automate something and have to find a workaround.Īlso, if there's no quick way to reset a parameter to default. Additionally, you can reverse the polarity of the modulation by using the ± button to the left of the slider, and switch it off using the bypass button in the top right corner of the 'slot'.Probably the biggest thing that drives me crazy is when I can't automate a parameter. To the right of this slider, a drop‑down list shows all available destinations, should you decide to change the routing. This disappears once you have chosen the destination, to be replaced with a horizontal slider showing the destination name, which controls the modulation amount. To attach a source to a destination, you click and drag from the source's 'drag' button to the destination using a visual patch cable. ![]() Depending on the plug‑in, you can add up to 30 modulation sources into this area, each of which can be patched to up to eight destinations for each source. Modulation routing is handled in a section towards the bottom of each plug‑in window, which is scrollable, left to right, should you need it. So how do you offer multiple modulation options while still keeping things visually tidy? One possible answer lies in FabFilter's brilliantly titled 'What You Use Is What You See' system, which is also common to all three plug‑ins in the Creative suite. Extensive modulation capabilities are par for the course now, but some implementations are cryptic, at best! Some companies use a virtual patchcord system, and while this is pretty foolproof, it can also get untidy, particularly on a small plug‑in window.
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