5 Free Plugins For Better Mixes And Workflow
Sometimes you don’t have to spend a lot of money to get better results with your projects. There are a lot of tools and plugins out there that are free and will benefit your workflow.
This is a list of 5 plugins that I personally use in all my client’s projects
1.) Brainworkx bx_solo
I use this plugin to collapse stereo files into mono. I rarely try to increase the stereo width with it as this comes always with phase issues. You could pretty much create a template and put it on every channel so you could decrease the stereo width and check the Mid and Side channels
2.) Voxengo Span
Sometimes it’s great to not only listen to music with your ears but also have a visual representation of the frequencies. If you don’t have a spectrum analyzer inside your DAW or if you’re not a user of Fabfilter Q3 I strongly recommend this free tool
3.) HOFA 4U Project Time
Especially if you have clients and doing several revisions of a song or a mix, you need to know how many hours you spent on a project. Sometimes you make several revisions and forget the time aspect which will reduce your earnings, especially if you charge on a project basis and not for XX$ an hour. Another use of this plugin is to train yourself working faster. You could set a time limit for a mix or a song you’re working on
4.) MConvolutionEZ by MeldaProduction
If you’re a fan of impulse responses of some hardware reverbs and your DAW doesn’t have an impulse response loader inside take a look at the MConvolutionEZ. What I like about these plugins is the simple interface and ease of use. You could also provide your custom path with all your impulse responses and browse through them
5.) Youlean Loudness Meter 2
Looking for a reliable loudness meter plugin? Try out the Youlean Loudness Meter 2. It supports four metering modes which are LUFS, LRA, DR and true peak. There is also a Pro version that adds presets for the most common streaming services like Apple Music, Spotify and more
Download Youlean Loudness Meter 2
I hope you get some benefits out of those plugins.
Drey Andersson
Music Producer & Founder Of TheMusicProducersBlog
Hi, I’m Drey Andersson, producer, engineer, guitarist and sound designer. Starting out at the age of 18 I always developed new skills and techniques in the audio field. From early youtube remixes back in 2007 that got millions of views, freelance work for indie artists up to 2018 where I won the SAMA Album Of The Year for Shekhina’s “Different” that I produced with my production partner Mae, I am always striving to deliver the best results. This also includes educating fellow producers and engineers about audio with my blog @themusicproducersblog
If you want more there is a free monthly “Bag Of Goodies” that I send out to all of my subscribers. Every month I try to come up with new interesting content for the audio community. For example, the January 2019 edition had an eBook on networking in the music scene written by me just as some new Serum sounds, royalty free melody samples, coupons and more