Studio 101 – Putting Together a Personal Studio: Plugins, Part 1

In the days when studio hardware was king, signal processing in the studio was typically built into the console as well as available in the form of outboard (standalone) hardware processors. Consoles incorporated EQ on every channel, and the larger format boards also included per-channel dynamics (compression, gating) as well. Outboard gear—typically rack-mounted analog and digital boxes—provided everything from delay-based effects to distortion and special effects (pitch shifting, etc). Mechanical reverb devices (plates, springs) offered artificial ambience, eventually giving way to digital reverb generators.

In the modern era, the bulk of our studio processing work, from EQ to compression to reverb and beyond, is primarily done with plugins—especially in the mixdown stage.

For the following two columns, I’ll be talking about, you guessed it, plugins. This month I’ll look at formats, including third-party plugin options, installation and troubleshooting, effect chaining and preset management. Next month I’ll talk about different types of processing, from basic mix tools (EQ, compression, delay, reverb) to more specialized applications (time/pitch-processing, mastering, audio repair), as well as virtual instrument plugins.

Please note that for an even deeper dive, last year’s entire Studio 101 column was devoted to processing and effects, both hardware and software, with a significant focus on plugins.