IK Tracks 5

guitarfishbay

Appears as well as being plugs, there's a standalone version that operates like a mastering suite. 

Pre-order prices seem pretty fair - UPGRADE from any previously purchased product(s) of a value of $/€99.99 or more for €199.99 excluding VAT / €239.99 including VAT... for an example I own zero T-Racks plugs but since I bought Amplitube ages ago I'm eligible for the upgrade price.

http://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/tr5/

Cirrus

I've got a few of the plugs as standalone purchases, and I have to say I think they're great. In my personal "amazing" catagory, the SSL "Bus Compressor" and 33609 "Precision Comp" are both fantastic sounding and their individual characters really come through. The Master EQ 432 is the best plugin EQ I've ever heard.

I also really like a number of their other plugs - I've got both Neve EQs and use them a lot, the 1176 is great, the "British Channel" SSL channel strip is something I use quite a lot for when I want aggressive sounding high end boosts - think kick drums etc.

They're not all amazing - I'd say the De-esser is "ok", but I'm idly looking round for a replacement because its threshold doesn't go down far enough unless you're dealing with strong signals*, and the fairchild comp model I've never got to work for me - just never really known what to do with it, beyond using its transformer modelling to introduce a little haze round vocals.

* This is, to be fair, my one criticism generally with them - the plugs don't all seem to deal with the same 0VU reference level but DO model the effects of signal strength hitting the front end - so if you record at typical sensible digital levels and, say, slap on the 1176 model, if you want to kick the front end you've got to raise the signal volume before the plug. But then, if you use the SSL Bus compressor and set its threshold to 0db, you find they've picked a very sensible calibration point and if you're slamming the input with peaks up at -3dBfs you'll be hitting it way too hard.Not a deal breaker, just something I find I need to be aware of.

Cirrus

Oooh, their new metering plug has a LUFS meter. Handy for anyone mastering for streaming services that apply volume leveling.

And I like that they've added the ability to sequence masters and encode the metadata - ISRC codes etc too. That's really handy.

guitarfishbay

I've definitely been interested in their LA2A and bus comps for a while, but just never picked them up.  That EQ sounds interesting, until the past year I never really thought it mattered much but as my ear develops more I'm definitely seeing the value in different EQs.

As always there are a whole load of things also on 'the list', some of which I should decide on pretty quickly as otherwise it won't matter (bits related to upcoming tracking).

The pre-order price is pretty good though, and I'm sure that particular price level will return again but whether or not it will do so at a time where it will matter to me right now remains to be seen. It seems a pretty good deal on paper 

Cirrus

guitarfishbay said:

I've definitely been interested in their LA2A and bus comps for a while, but just never picked them up.  That EQ sounds interesting, until the past year I never really thought it mattered much but as my ear develops more I'm definitely seeing the value in different EQs.

As always there are a whole load of things also on 'the list', some of which I should decide on pretty quickly as otherwise it won't matter (bits related to upcoming tracking).

The pre-order price is pretty good though, and I'm sure that particular price level will return again but whether or not it will do so at a time where it will matter to me right now remains to be seen. It seems a pretty good deal on paper 

The thing I like about it is that it's the only EQ plugin I've used where a 1db boost or cut is easily audible, yet a 6dB boost or cut can still sound good if it's called for - usually it's one or the other; I've got plugs (including IK ones) where 1dB is basically unnoticable and a +10dB boost sounds great, and others where a 1dB change is noticable but 6dB is way harsh/boomy etc. It's just really easy to hear what the 432 is doing, which means you can work out what setting the music's asking for easily.

guitarfishbay

Cool.

Right now I mostly use Pro Q2, and switch mode if necessary, and primarily approach from a subtractive mindset.  For example I find natural phase mode sounds a huge amount better on distorted guitars than the zero latency mode if you're cutting a couple of problem frequencies.  And cymbals for that matter - basically anything with a lot of harmonic content that extends quite high the phase modes become pretty different sounding.

I've found that sometimes for boosting I seem to get a more pleasing result out of analogue modelled plugs, such as the Slate Neve and SSL eqs, even when I've pretty much matched the settings in Pro Q2.

But it also does come back to workflow for me, as my natural state is to try and do things at 100mph on a computer. 

Daft as it sounds, the IK EQ plugins being horizontal, rather than vertically stacked as in VMR for example, does make a lot of sense to me.  Something resembling a 500 series rack doesn't mean anything to me, as I've never owned one.  May be silly I know, but little things like that do affect how quickly I see things which does affect whether or not I feel like I'm being creative in a flow or stopping and trying to think, if that makes any sense. 

Drew_TNBD

I'm a big fan of the T-Racks stuff. I have the deluxe bundle. Will probably upgrade at some point.