The effect that this has is often so subtle as to be literally inaudible, but it can be useful for working in a touch of brightness and drive, depending on the mix. These variations largely affect the frequency response and time constants, and although the differences are incredibly slight (we’re talking analogue realism here, not sonically disparate ‘modes’), the four models are certainly always worth flicking through to see which works best for your track.Īnother interesting feature is the ability to adjust the Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) up or down from its default setting of -60dB by up to 20dB either way. It’s not entirely single- minded, though, as Brainworx have employed their TMT (Tolerance Modelling Technology) process to effectively supply four different versions of the same compressor by modelling the variations in physical tolerances that you’d inevitably get with a quartet of identical hardware compressors. All of that good stuff is done for you, serving up a suitably gentle compression profile that just feels ‘right’. The collar around the Comp Mix knob meters the gain reduction for the left and right channels separately – activate the Comp Link button to have both channels compress evenly, should you ever need them to.īx_masterdesk’s all-important compressor is entirely preset behind the scenes, with no user-facing controls for adjusting the ratio, attack, release or knee shape. Once again, the options available are deliberately narrowed - from 85-100% wet, or Off - so as to keep everything mastering-appropriate, and it’s handy for reintroducing a bit of dynamic range. The Comp Mix knob dials the dry signal back in alongside its compressed counterpart for parallel processing, or bypasses the compression altogether. However, there are a few other tweaks that can be made if required. The dynamics-shaping processes going on within bx_masterdesk are set up and calibrated so that you should rarely need to reach beyond the Volume, Foundation and Tone controls to get your master sounding loud and consistent. The coverage is very much as expected, though, with quite a bit of crossover between bands for ‘musical’ EQing. In the interest of keeping the interface as unintimidating and ‘muso-friendly’ as possible, the EQ looks like a guitar amp tone stack, and the centre/corner frequencies of each band aren’t specified.

This enables up to 3dB of cut or boost to be applied to Bass and Treble bands, and a broad mid-range bell filter and up to 6dB of cut/ boost (with a contrary boost/cut in the high- mids) to the high-frequency Presence band.

Next comes the Tone section, home to a four- band EQ.

Plugins like brainworx bx meter