PROS:
I use this baby in almost any piece of audio software I own (Ableton Live 7, Sonar 7, Pro Tools, Sound Forge, CD Architect, Fruity Loops, etc...). It's a great plug-in adding clarity, deepness, or both in a hot second! Don't mistake this for replacing good use of EQ though! When used properly, in addition to good mixing, it will add brilliance and life to your music! What's also nice about having this software plug-in as opposed to the hardware version, is that you virtually have an unlimited supply of this "rackmount gear" to put on as many tracks as you want, at a much lesser cost! Up to as many as your computer can handle. Instead of buying 1 piece of hardware, and recording through, or even re-recording all your tracks through that 1 piece, it's like having a whole room full of Sonic Maximizers ready to have individual, or even multiple signals pass thru them and all ready to be maximized. Think of the hassle with hardware...If you want the clarity or deepness the hardware provides, then you have to either record, or re-record thru it with possibly different settings for each part of the song to get your desired result! And while you're tinkering with those settings for each take, don't forget to keep track of those settings for all your previous takes that you think you want to keep for now...You may have recreate that same sound if have to come back to one of those takes later...YEAH RIGHT! Jot it all down with pen and paper?! Heck even using Windows notepad is too much for folks like me! Activate this plug-in on any track you want, set it and move on, saving you time and energy! If you don't like how it sounds later, come back and readjust until you do. Simple! No re-recording, no notepad, no paper and pencil! Most of all, programs like Pro Tools or Ableton let you save the settings should you need to load them later! Can hardware do that? I don't think so! All in all, less time fiddling with gear, more time making music!
Cons: (The reason I only gave it 4 stars)
If you haven't figured out by now, my main DAW is Pro Tools, so when I installed this plug-in I noticed that Pro Tools would blast this really loud distorted noise almost every time I opened the projects it was used on. It was like the snow sound on TV with less low end, played at 60+ dB and louder. (Yeah imagine my surprise the first time I heard that in the headphones...I almost had to clean the seat I was sitting in!) This would happen for anywhere from 5-10 seconds and then it would stop, and all was fine again. So I have learned to open my projects with the headphones and monitors turned all the way down or off. Even then you still faintly hear it since it is so loud. That's how I know when it stops and to turn everything back up again LOL! Also, if you use this on an audio track, as opposed to a send or bus track, it seems that the output of the plug-in will boost the gain of that track, instead of just leaving the track at the same level. Just a little annoying sometimes to have to go back to readjust the level of the track to keep your mix the way you want it.
Anyway, it plays well with all the other software I mentioned above. I haven't noticed the loud blasting distortion problem on any other program but Pro Tools, and anyone who has used Pro Tools knows that Pro Tools has its own quirks at times. Since I have the VST wrapper by FXpansion, maybe I'll uninstall the RTAS version and wrap the VST version to work in Pro Tools, and see if that gets rid of my loud distortion problem! Hope this helps someone in their decision making! Despite the cons, I consider this to be one of the best tools in my arsenal! Learning how to this tool won't make you good...IT'LL MAKE YOU DANGEROUS!!!!!!!!!Get more detail about BBE Sonic Maximizer Plugin Software.
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