What are your favorite “glue” plug-in’s?

[peterdh]

Maybe you recognise this situation. Your track is finished, but somehow there is lack of unity. The separate sounds match nicely, but they need some “sauce”. That’s where a glue plug-in comes in. I use The Glue compressor of Cytomic and TB Reelbus tape simulator of ToneBoosters for this purpose. What are your favorites?

Thanks for your time

[adl]

UAD Ampex and UAD SSL Bus Compressor are practically living on my Master Bus.

[krabbencutter]

If I want to bring more unity to all the different parts of a track, I prefer Reaper's inbuilt 'Glue' feature. This works pretty well.

[dubguy99]

U-He Satin & Klanghelm MJUC.

[MogwaiBoy]

Softube Tape
Reviver
T-Racks Opto
Softube Tape
Devil-Loc
SlickEQ
Softube Tape

[tesselode]

is it bad that i reach for ferricTDS before anything else

[andymcbain]

TDR Kotelnikov or more recently, the surprisingly brilliant Airwindows Logical4. Both free!

[peterdh]

Thanks guys for such a quick response! Keep 'm comin'

[TIMT]

SDRR with a very low amount of gain into it (peaks registering below 20dBFS)on the desk setting.doesn't seem to sound as good in SDRR2.you can get a similar sound with TBReelbuss as well taking the same approach

[simon.a.billington]

Gluing... god I hate that term, isn’t really about any specific plugin, but a process.

Sure a decent compressor on the mixbus can help, but its all the little things you do in common that what gels a mix together. From processing sounds together on the mixbuss, or a submix, to choosing to process all the guitars with the same eq as an example. The more you have in common across your tracks, the more it contributes to mix cohesion.

There is a limit to this though, too many of the same processors makes things too muddy and dull and nothing ends up standing out. So it’s about finding that balance that works.

As icing on the metaphorical cake, personally, I do like the Cobalt Saphira, NLS Buss, Black Box, and One from IK on the master. Not all together, it’s either-or.

[simon.a.billington]

[Double Post]

[Neon Breath]

Call me ignorant if you want, but if the elements overall don't seem to 'glue' nor feel that they stick well together in the final mix, isn't a problem that should be taken care of at the source? Meaning, the sounds themselves with correct EQ, balance & mix? How can a compressor or a saturation plugin can magically 'glue' unbalanced things that don't mix well together?

[thecontrolcentre]

BX_XLv2 & Ableton's The Glue getting much use here.

[funky lime]

Call me ignorant if you want, but if the elements overall don't seem to 'glue' nor feel that they stick well together in the final mix, isn't a problem that should be taken care of at the source? Meaning, the sounds themselves with correct EQ, balance & mix? How can a compressor or a saturation plugin can magically 'glue' unbalanced things that don't mix well together?

Hush now, people want to buy new plugins, not learn proper techniques with the ones they already have.

[dubguy99]

Call me ignorant if you want, but if the elements overall don't seem to 'glue' nor feel that they stick well together in the final mix, isn't a problem that should be taken care of at the source? Meaning, the sounds themselves with correct EQ, balance & mix? How can a compressor or a saturation plugin can magically 'glue' unbalanced things that don't mix well together?

Hush now, people want to buy new plugins, not learn proper techniques with the ones they already have.

Pretty much every professional engineer in the world will use certain gear for 'glue', what the hell are you on about?

The primary point of 'glue' isn't to fix a mix that isn't properly balanced (although it can help in situations where the source can't be fixed, ie. mastering), it's to provide a final finish to a mix that's already good. When you feed multiple signals into a compressor you get a dynamic interaction between the signals that wasn't there previously, certain compressors can do this in a very musical way, which can make the mix more lively and interesting. Saturation (which also compressed) on multiple signals at once can provide a musical, uniform smoothing of transients, making the signals sound more uniform in a musical way and harmonic thickening, which gives the signals more harmonic overlap, leading to a denser and warmer mix (although it can be overdone, obviously).