Brainworx bx_masterdesk

[emasters]

Did they send out the August vouchers yet? The last one I have is the July voucher sent out on July 3. What day were the August vouchers sent out?

I also did not receive my August Voucher (which I typically do early in the month). I checked with PA support yesterday, and they said there was a issue with some of the Vouchers this month. So I got mine via PA Support (which BTW did a great job following-up quickly). Probably best to check with PA if you're still waiting to get yours.

[DJErmac]

I confirm I got mine, so if you haven't received it, indeed you should contact them, they've been sent.

[superscan]

Nowadays there's a lot of competition in the dsp domain...$299 for that kind of plugin with such restricted options is too expensive considering Ozone elements and good chain combinations you can do on a low budget. I ain't the type of guy who likes to jump in the "price debate" but this time I feel like it should have been priced differently.

Well it will likely be $99 at Christmas, if you're ok to wait for it.

As for restricted options, I'm no mastering expert, but I was able to match Ozone 8 Advanced sound on three tracks within just a few minutes. I just used my ears, and landed it dead on with A/B. On one track I didn't match the volume, but once I did, it was a solid match. Don't get me wrong, I've been an Ozone fan since v5 and owned them all since, but $49 with my voucher and heavy hitter discount was a Must Buy in my book. Especially since I controlled all of the knobs myself and got the same result. That was worth the price of admission in my book.

[dbender]

August, 10.

Thanks

[MogwaiBoy]

I got the Heavy Hitter code

Heavy Hitter aka "here's your reward for overpaying on so many other plug-ins"

j/k good job. People who pay the full price will feel heavy hit tho.

Not me, man! I've never paid full price on Plugin Alliance. I think the email just said I own over 20 of their plugins. They were all either secondhand or heavy discounted purchases. Don't think I've paid more than $50 for any single PA plugin.

[simon.a.billington]

Nowadays there's a lot of competition in the dsp domain...$299 for that kind of plugin with such restricted options is too expensive considering Ozone elements and good chain combinations you can do on a low budget. I ain't the type of guy who likes to jump in the "price debate" but this time I feel like it should have been priced differently.

Well it will likely be $99 at Christmas, if you're ok to wait for it.

As for restricted options, I'm no mastering expert, but I was able to match Ozone 8 Advanced sound on three tracks within just a few minutes. I just used my ears, and landed it dead on with A/B. On one track I didn't match the volume, but once I did, it was a solid match. Don't get me wrong, I've been an Ozone fan since v5 and owned them all since, but $49 with my voucher and heavy hitter discount was a Must Buy in my book. Especially since I controlled all of the knobs myself and got the same result. That was worth the price of admission in my book.

It’s $99 now if no-one has mentioned that. Otherwise there is still Black Friday and/or Christmas.

[p_wats]

I received the heavy hitter code (also having never paid full price for a plugin), but didn't get a code initially. I reached out to support to clarify what the difference was between a heavy hitter code and the regular vouchers (being totally fine if I was below a threshold for the vouchers, as I haven't bought much recently). They replied with a $75 voucher.

With that and the heavy hitter code bringing it to $24 I can't really resist.

[plexuss]

I received the heavy hitter code (also having never paid full price for a plugin), but didn't get a code initially. I reached out to support to clarify what the difference was between a heavy hitter code and the regular vouchers (being totally fine if I was below a threshold for the vouchers, as I haven't bought much recently). They replied with a $75 voucher.

With that and the heavy hitter code bringing it to $24 I can't really resist.

Same here. And... masterdesk actually works very well. It's not really a one-knob mastering tool but it does allow me to dial in something closer to what I'd aim for with a full mastering chain.

My workflow usually involved building up a mastering chain while I am mixing. Then when the mix is done, I render it without the mastering chain, import the mix into a project with the mastering chain and then carry on with mastering from there. I think masterdeck could change this workflow for the better where I could use it in mixing instead of a mastering chain and this way still have a target for the sound I am aiming for and save me the time of managing a mastering chain while mixing. I do this because for me mixing and mastering go hand in hand so I prefer to do them simultaneously.

Also I am finding masterdeck useful for quickly sprucing up a mix sketch or even when demoing plugins just to clean up the audio a bit for a more pleasing experience.

[p_wats]

Hmm, I just got the email of Labour Day deals and am tempted to use my voucher on some of those instead.

There's also a pretty great deal at Audio Deluxe for Ozone 8/Neutron 2 standard that is tempting from both a mix/master side, not to mention the IK groupbuy that's poised to hit 6-for-1.

I also quite like the TDL Limiter 6 when I do my own mastering, so do I NEEEEED an all-in-one like bx_Masterdesk?

[Gamma-UT]

I also quite like the TDL Limiter 6 when I do my own mastering, so do I NEEEEED an all-in-one like bx_Masterdesk?

I'd say, try it out and if you like the results from bx_Masterdesk better than your own, send your mixes to a mastering engineer.

[bmanic]

I'm actually tempted to buy the masterdesk for all other tasks except mastering. The way the stereo enhancer works is really slick (especially narrowing things, awesome on various reverb busses) and I REALLY like the compression action on this. I just wish we got a more fully featured compressor that one could actually tweak properly.

Still I got super nice resulst with this on various individual sources. With my voucher it'd cost me 50$ which seems a bit steep for such a limited plugin.. so yeah, I'm not completely happy about the situation. It's going to piss me off if they release another version of it that is "pro" or based on the same compressor with more controls as that's what I really want.

Anybody have experience selling PA licenses? If I get this maybe I can sell it later if they release something else?

[p_wats]

I also quite like the TDL Limiter 6 when I do my own mastering, so do I NEEEEED an all-in-one like bx_Masterdesk?

I'd say, try it out and if you like the results from bx_Masterdesk better than your own, send your mixes to a mastering engineer.

I already do use a mastering engineer for "proper" releases, but like to have my own mastering chain for things that won't necessarily be as widespread.

[Gamma-UT]

I also quite like the TDL Limiter 6 when I do my own mastering, so do I NEEEEED an all-in-one like bx_Masterdesk?

I'd say, try it out and if you like the results from bx_Masterdesk better than your own, send your mixes to a mastering engineer.

I already do use a mastering engineer for "proper" releases, but like to have my own mastering chain for things that won't necessarily be as widespread.

For quick and dirty it's probably a reasonable bet - that's its intention. But a lot is going to depend on whether you can set up Limiter 6 to do as good a job, how long it takes to get there and whether it's worth 99 bucks to cut down on that time.

[p_wats]

I also quite like the TDL Limiter 6 when I do my own mastering, so do I NEEEEED an all-in-one like bx_Masterdesk?

I'd say, try it out and if you like the results from bx_Masterdesk better than your own, send your mixes to a mastering engineer.

I already do use a mastering engineer for "proper" releases, but like to have my own mastering chain for things that won't necessarily be as widespread.

For quick and dirty it's probably a reasonable bet - that's its intention. But a lot is going to depend on whether you can set up Limiter 6 to do as good a job, how long it takes to get there and whether it's worth 99 bucks to cut down on that time.

To clarify, the only reason I'm tempted is because I have a $75 voucher on top of the $99 price, so it's only $24. Otherwise I wouldn't bother. Though I could also put that voucher toward something else that's on sale this weekend (like one of their consoles).

[DJErmac]

I've finally purchased it with my heavy hitter code. Within 15 seconds I've been able to improve my master, for a quite low CPU usage, and the other solutions to get the same result would have been way longer. I think they've made something useful here.

Of course there's no way it's a complete total mastering solution, but as an extra master plugin, it can replace several others. And it sounds superb.