WaveLab Elements can give you a fresh perspective on your mix, as you’ll be using an entirely different platform to finish the job, rather than your DAW. This particular mastering tool won’t be free forever, but Steinberg is offering out 60-day licenses for WaveLab Elements, its comprehensive mastering suite. You can get OTT in AU, VST2, AAX for macOS and Windows. The only real downside is a lack of more in-depth features – but that’s possibly why so many producers gravitate towards it.

The Time knob is a swift way of adjusting attack and release times, and the visual reference on the plug-in gives you realtime feedback on how the sound is being affected. It features upward compression and downward compression, with a depth control knob to adjust the amount of applied compression.

This is likely due to the effect it has on higher frequencies, brightening the overall sound of a track. In a lighthearted quip, it’s been referred to by some in the music tech community as a “sound-goodizer”. OTT is the brand’s freeware multiband compressor, which is actually a combo of two separate compressors each with three EQ bands. The scrolling display tracks integrated measurements and if you regularly upload to streaming platforms the paid-for Pro version offers presets for streaming platforms like Spotify, YouTube, Apple Music and Tidal.Xfer Records, the brainchild of deadmau5 and Steve Duda, has a selection of plug-ins that have become favourites for many producers in a range of genres. The Youlean Loudness meter provides all the metrics you need to get meaningful measurements in LUFS. You can only accurately judge how your track will translate onto streaming platforms if you have a loudness meter, something DAWs have been slow to include as a stock plugin. This so-called ‘loudness penalty’ means that if your track has sacrificed dynamic range for maximum level all that will happen is that your track will be the same level as everyone else’s, just with less dynamic range. The major streaming platforms are all on board with loudness normalisation and if your track is too loud it will be attenuated to meet the loudness specs of that particular streaming platform. Loudness measurement is no longer something that only people working in post-production need to worry about.

Best free mastering plugins 2017