RECORDING Techniques – Essential plugins for every mix

This month, I’d like to talk about the plugins I use most. My approach to plugins is shaped, at least in part, by my background. When I started working in studios, it was the era of consoles, tape machines and a room full of musicians. EQs lived on the console, and most studios I worked in only had a limited number of compressors. If the artist or producer wanted a specific sound on tape, they had to get it right at the source—performance, mic choice, placement and so on. There weren’t a lot of tools available to fix it in the mix.