Plug-ins

The sound of magnetic tape stems from a hugely complex set of interacting factors. Slate Digital’s VTM is the most detailed attempt yet to capture these in digital form.

Audio files to accompany the article

With so many virtual guitar amps already on the market, can newcomers Scuffham Amps bring something fresh to the party?

Paradoxically, adding distortion in mastering can make tracks sound clearer. That’s the idea of Brainworx's clever multi-band plug-in.

Making similar signals play nicely together sometimes requires more than just a polarity switch. Enter Waves’ phase-manipulation tool.

Linplug’s innovative plug-in has one aim in mind: to create fresh sounds from pedestrian drum loops.

Controlling harsh 'ess' and 'tee' sounds in a vocal can be surprisingly challenging, but SPL's technology aims to make it easy.

Audio files to accompany the article.

Having wowed the professionals with their Native PCM and LXP reverb plug-ins, Lexicon now turn their attention to the financially challenged!

Eventide are among the last of the big-name hardware manufacturers to offer their wares as native plug-ins. Has it been worth the wait?

Izotope’s do-everything mastering suite expands again, with a new Advanced version offering even more user control.

Achieving a smooth, even bass part in a mix can require hours of tedious automation — unless, that is, you cheat!

IK Multimedia are the latest plug-in manufacturers to bring us their take on two iconic compressors.

Dynamic convolution can be used to ‘sample’ any piece of audio gear. Have Acustica succeeded in giving this advanced technology a friendly face?

PSP’s latest equaliser seeks to combine analogue smoothness with digital precision.

Soundhack’s powerful algorithms can provide high‑quality pitch‑shifting — or sonic mayhem!

Having already given us a virtual studio multitrack tape recorder, the boffins at Universal Audio turn their attention to mastering machines.

Alan Tubbs reviews the Cakewalk Z3TA+ 2.1 plug-in for PC VST, Sam Inglis takes a look at the Dada Life Sausage Fattener plug-in for Mac AU & VST and Windows VST as well as the Waves The King's Microphones plug-in for Mac AU, Mac & PC VST & RTAS.

After much hard work, Yamaha and Steinberg persuaded Rupert Neve that they could faithfully model his latest hardware in plug-in form. We pit the virtual Porticos against the real things...

Audio files to accompany the article.

Waves’ latest equaliser can be five different virtual analogue designs at once — and it has some other neat tricks up its sleeve too.