Toontrack, in partnership with software developers Overloud, have recently released an interesting-looking plug-in processor. EZmix appears to be a kind of channel strip, but one that (as its name suggests) places its emphasis on ease of use rather than tweakability.
The idea is that you insert an instance of EZmix into a channel in your DAW, and then select a preset in the plug-in depending on what type of channel you’re processing (drums, bass, vocals, and so on). The plug-in has three sliders, which control different parameters depending on the preset you’re using, so a vocal preset might have adjustable delay time, delay mix and compression threshold (for example).
While the ‘cookie-cutter’ approach may not be to everyone’s taste, there are undoubtedly times when a rough and ready mix is required but you haven’t got time to get lost in the minutia of detailed plug-in editing, and for those occasions, EZmix would seem to be ideal.
Available to buy now from the Toontrack web site, EZmix comes in VST, AU and RTAS flavours, for both Windows and OS X, at a price of £45 including VAT.
