ConclusionĮach of these plugins represents a free version of another, certainly more expensive version. The integrated loudness of a master is incredibly important whether it’s being released on a streaming platform, or for any other medium. If you aren’t familiar with a plugin like this one, yet you want to master music or have been mastering music, this is something that you’ll need to become acquainted with. Resizing the plugin is as easy as dragging the window from a marker in the lower right-hand corner.

You can also easily access the manual by clicking the DP button. On the top panel of the plugin, you can alter the measurement type, a DAW sync function, automation, channel configuration, the incoming gain, the reference level, your signal’s level as compared to your reference level, your RMS mode, and sample size the RMS measurement takes into consideration, and the filter type used for measurement. A peak meter in dBFS is shown on the right side of the plugin for your stereo output as well as two additional stereo outputs should your choose to set up the monitoring in this way. It shows the true peak and max peak of your signal, as well as inform you if any distortion of clipping occurs. The top bar of the plugin allows for immense customization to ensure that you’re mastering your project to the correct levels. Lastly, two equalization knobs control which harmonics are more prominent, with the low rotary increasing the amplitude of low order harmonics, and the high rotary increasing the gain of high order harmonics. The XFMR mode enables 1 transformer emulation when the plugin is in track mode and 2 transformer emulations when the plugin is in bus mode. The Bus and Track mode alters the routing as does the XFMR mode. The plugin also 3 various model modes including Grey, which is the cleanest option, Blue which creates high order harmonics for a crisp and bright sound, and black which creates mid to high order harmonics for a full sound. With these two functions, you can easily create saturation and harmonic generation by increasing the input and decrease the output. An input rotary introduces up to 24dB of gain, as does the output rotary. The Konsol models one mono or stereo channel that you’d find on a summing mixer. At the bottom, you can switch between multiple model types and amplify or attenuate low order or high order harmonics.

Best free mastering plugins 2020