As far as ITB, FabFilter all the way. ProQ3 does all the mid-side EQing you need.

If you have enough scratch to look at outboard gear, I strongly suggest the UBK Fatso. It's a color box, but the heavy comp settings mean you can back off the gain to maybe 1 and keep it clean if you like.

Print 3 mixes:
1. "Smooth" (the brickwall) just barely feathering the peaks off, to simulate tape. Should sound like no compression at all but sitting better.
2. "Glue" which is like a blue stripe 1176 pre-dialed in. Get this one sounding like a record.
3. "Splat + spank" pretty deep in the paint. Like a cranked EMI compressor.

Mix these three to get the final balance. For a little extra dynamic pop, get Mix 3 EQ'd as close to pink noise as possible.

RE: airwindows

seby wrote: Fri May 07, 2021 4:06 am None of this is explained in any one place, but I can show you if you are curious.

I'd love to hear how you use his stuff. I have never spent the time to get into his Console plugins.

Leeplusplus wrote: Wed May 19, 2021 11:48 pm RE: airwindows

seby wrote: Fri May 07, 2021 4:06 am None of this is explained in any one place, but I can show you if you are curious.

I'd love to hear how you use his stuff. I have never spent the time to get into his Console plugins.

Easy! Here is the short version....

Each console system/environment (Console6, Console7, Purestconsonsole, Purestconsole2.... etc.) contains two plugins, a channel plugin, and a buss plugin. Let's use Console7 as an example.

In the Console7 environment, you have Console7channel, and Console7buss. In short, you put an instance of Console7channel at the very end of all single tracks and busses (except for the master buss), and a single instance of Console7buss at the very front of all buss/group tracks (including the master buss).

But there are some details, so here is the less short version.

Let's suppose you have a simple mix, of four tracks, all of which are sending to the master/2buss.

You put a single instance of Console7channel at the very end of your plugin chain on each of your four tracks (but not the master bus). You put a single instance of Console7buss at the very start of your master buss. This way, all four instances of Console7channel are speaking directly with single instance of Console7buss that you have at the front of your master buss. Here is the very important thing. LEAVE YOUR DAW'S FADERS AT UNITY GAIN. Do not move any your daw's faders at all. If you move your daw faders, you will break the console environment. Instead of your daw's faders, use the faders the are INSIDE the console environment. So use the faders in Console7channel to adjust the levels of your tracks, and use the fader in Console7buss to adjust the level of your master bus. It sounds spectacular.

Now let's consider a slightly more involved mix. You have some sub mixes going to various group busses etc.

In this case, all and any individual tracks that are sending to the master bus get treated as above. For the tracks that are being submixed to a group buss, you put a single instance of Console7channel at the end of the plugin chain of each of them. For the group busses themselves, you put a single instance of Console7buss at the very start of the plugin chain of each of them (if you have more than one group buss), and a single instance of Console7channel as the very last plugin in their chains. This is the case for all group busses with the exception of the master/2bus

You get the idea. Again, C7c at the end of all tracks and busses (except the master buss), and C7b at the start of all buss tracks, including the master buss.

Now let's think about Purestconsole/Purestconsole2. This is as above in all respects, except that there are no faders in the Purestconsole environment. For Purestconsole, you can use your daw's faders on the tracks.

But here is the great thing. And this really is great. You can mix and match Console environments! Well sort of. Console Channel/Buss pairs that are speaking to each other, such that the instance of Consolechannel in question is driving the instance of Consolebuss in question, do need to be of the same environment/type. But otherwise you are free. So you could send a bunch of acoustic guitar mics to a group buss with a Purestconsole channel/buss combination, but then come out of the group bus with an instance of Console7channel and send it the the master buss where and instance of Console7buss is waiting for it. In this case, you would use the fader inside Console7channel to adjust the level of the group buss.

There are Airwindows plugins like the Channel and Busscolors plugins. Do not confuse these with the Console environments. They are not made to be switched out with each other (with the exception of some earlier versions from some years ago now). They can still be used together however. The way to do this is to place the instances of Busscolors and/or Channel plugins directly after instances of Consolebuss. So, suppose I wanted to use Channel9 with Purestconsole2 (as I often do). Then I would put a single instance of Channel9 directly after the instance of Purestconsole2buss that it is the start of the master buss. I might also put other instances of Channel9 directly after some or all instances of Purestconsole2buss that occur on various subgroups within my mix. Ditto for Busscolors - put it after instances of Consolebuss.

Okay, I hope that this was not too much of a fuddle!