Pro Tools: Pro Series Plug‑ins

The Depth control on Avid’s Pro Compressor allows you to set a maximum amount of gain reduction.

Learn the secrets of Avid’s Pro Series dynamics processors, and you might not need to invest in third‑party plug‑ins!

The Avid Pro Series plug‑ins have been around for many years, and they remain very capable utility processors. If I have one criticism, it’s that some of their most useful workflow features are easy to overlook. It can be tempting to buy the latest ‘must‑have’ third‑party plug‑in, but the plug‑ins you already own may offer powerful features you’re not using.

Plug‑ins that emulate analogue hardware are appealing not just because they offer a familiar sound, but because they offer a focused set of controls. By contrast, well‑specified utility plug‑ins such as the Pro Series can offer more control, but that extra flexibility can also make them appear complicated. I’ll focus on three Pro Series plug‑ins and show how a few easily overlooked controls can solve common mixing problems.

New Depths

When it comes to mix bus compression, it’s hard to ignore classic hardware. For example, if you want the familiar SSL‑style bus compressor sound, there are plenty of excellent emulations available, including Avid’s own Impact plug‑in, which is included with the Complete Plug‑in Bundle.

Increasingly, though, I find myself reaching for Pro Compressor instead. For me, it comes down to intent. I’m less interested in recreating the precise sonic fingerprint of a particular piece of hardware than I am in achieving the musical effect that makes bus compression so useful in the first place.

Rather than relying on the overused term ‘glue’, I’d describe good mix bus compression more specifically as creating an interdependence between the different elements of a mix. It introduces movement that makes the arrangement feel more involving, but it’s easy to go too far, and this is where Pro Compressor’s Depth control can help.

One of the biggest strengths of Pro Compressor is the amount of control it gives you over how bus compression is achieved. Low‑frequency energy often dominates compression, and while many dedicated bus compressors include a high‑pass filter in the side‑chain to mitigate this, Pro Compressor’s side‑chain filter is considerably more flexible. And for times when the side‑chain filter gets the detector responding in the right places but occasional events still cause too much gain reduction, Pro Compressor also includes a Depth control. You adjust the threshold and side‑chain filter until the compressor is reacting exactly when you want it to, then use the Depth control to limit the maximum amount of gain reduction. It’s an elegant way of refining the compressor’s behaviour: you can set the threshold to get the compressor to react in the way you want, then use Depth to prevent occasional peaks or low‑frequency weight from pulling the whole mix down too far.

As a starting point for mix bus compression, I’ll typically select a 2:1 ratio, and set an...