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

[jbarish]

If only they made an Elmer's plugin....
I can't tell you how gunked up my PC is from using the real thing.

[plexuss]

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).

All we are talking about here is "pushing" the audio that is louder "into" the audio that is softer in order to make the whole thing sound more cohesive. you can use any compressor for this however some do a better job than others - "better" meaning sounding better or being more "musical".

[Nielzie]

ReaComp. Works great as transparant mixing glue.

[himalaya]

My favourites are:

The Glue
Titanium
Soniformer

Between these three I have it all covered. Although I do a few other plugins which are also used for this purpose.

[kb420]

Fabfilter Pro C2
Ozone 8's Compressors
PSP Vintage Warmer 2 Or Master Compressor (This thing is GREATLY underrated.)
Waves SSL Master Bus Compressor

[Jonny Quest]

For me, aside from dynamics, glue is about getting the right balance across the frequency spectrum...so EQ comes into play, both on the individual track and the 2 buss level.

I use a Izotope Insight to check the EQ balance. And Fab Filter Pro-Q 2 to get the master balance right.

Also, the stereo field contributes to a sense of glue. Tracks that are too wide combined with ones that are too narrow can "unglue" things. So I use stereo field tools, like the one Ozone 8, to work with the image on both track and overall mix context. In general, I tend to narrow the low-low mids on all instruments to the center and push the upper frequencies wider.

Similarly, the application of reverb and delay plays a role in the glue process for me. Obviously, fully wet long reverb tracks put up against fully dry "dead space" tracks creates a divide between the two. So finding the appropriate balance of space dimension is important.

Finally, after all that, comes the notion of compressors and limiters on a 2 bus. I like the Pro-L2, Ozone 8 and the recent SoftTube Weiss DS-1 a lot.

[plexuss]

I should have answered the OT:

I have a lot of compressors - I do not have The Glue (but hoping to get soon). I have Waves, IK, FF, PA, DMG...

But these days the only one I use is SSL's buss compressor plugin. It does what I want and so far is the best sounding of what I have - or, rather, it gives me the sound I want.

I do try for some consistency in my production work so I don't use a plethora of plugins on the mix or master buss.

[lelderkin]

I like to compress submixes, but for the 2bus I never got in the habit of compressing. I prefer saturation for "glue," SDRR2 on the console mode with just a touch of drive is my current go-to.

If it really needs some more character I'll use Decapitator. I find Decapitator adds a lot of saturation even before you touch the drive knob, so I keep drive at zero and adjust the mix knob to taste. I find the second and third modes (E and N I think?) work best for the 2bus. The second mode is very euphoric sounding, to me.

[Aiynzahev]

Sometimes one or the other, but

SSL Bus Comp, from SSL
Vari-comp from NI
Elysia Alpha <- this one almost always, I've been using it for years.
Vertigo
Pro-C2

[sl1200mk2]

Softube Tape
UAD Fatso (usually in parallel)
PA Vertigo VSC-2
UAD SSL G comp (recent demo for comparison -- very nice)
Cytomic The Glue
Waves SSL G comp
UAD API 2500

A little OT, but relevant... I just got a hardware VCA comp (Tegeler Audio Creme) that heavily resembles an SSL G comp and have been comparing it to VCA style plugins as closely as I could the past couple nights. I was really impressed (kind of shocked) how well some of the plugins hold up in overall quality, especially the UAD SSL emulation. In reasonable usage (mastering type scenario) I could get the UAD nearly indistinguishable from the Creme. The Creme was maybe 5-10% "better" (subjectively depending on settings) being very slightly more present and round (best I can describe it). 1-5% better in less compression, lower ratio and 5-10% better in higher/harder settings. The Waves emu was very good as well, but for my taste/ears didn't do as well as the UAD emu. Different overall, but also very good was the PA Vertigo VSC-2. When pushing to more extremes the Creme never sounds "bad" (using it at those settings is a different story) whereas the plugins start to show more of a difference.

I like a hybrid setup for a variety of reasons, but doing this for myself really reinforced to me how good plugins are in recent years. It's to the point of minor sonic differences (you want that last 5%), workflow and personal preferences as to what you want to use.

[morelia]

My preference is Kush UBK-1 but I also use Novatron and The Glue. UBK-1 is the standard here though.

[acousticglue]

My ears

[mister-rz]

My current favs,

Prime studio charly limited pre, with the evil switch engaged, over to the angelic side,
Henry olonga all you can eat avalon library for neb3
Lindel audio 354e
Blackbox hg-1
Sir audio tools standard clip
Softube Tape
Vertigo VSC-2
Kush Novatron
Sknote dola 3rd button setting usually and marconi
Gullfoss
Black rooster veq-1p

[sl1200mk2]

My preference is Kush UBK-1 but I also use Novatron and The Glue. UBK-1 is the standard here though.

Gah! I seem to forget to add Novatron to lists like these... it's not my #1, but man is it good and hugely versatile.

[funky lime]

Convolution reverb? I find a nice room IR can really help glue different sound sources together by giving them similar early reflections, maybe with a separate algo reverb for tails, to sort of homogenize everything to an extent by placing it in the same sonic space. Or maybe I missed the memo and don't know what glue is.