Sponsor Content Created With
Introducing MIXVAULT – the fast and smart way to approach EQing
As music-makers ourselves, we know how momentum-sapping having to spend hours staring at EQ curves can be. But, it’s the bitter pill we all have to swallow after those gleeful hours of boundless creativity. If you want to actually release your track, getting your EQ sorted is pretty essential, right?
While there’s been numerous EQ plugins and tools that have made the process easier, there’s often a degree of assumed knowledge that is expected of users. For newcomers to production, the terminology of the EQ domain can be perplexing - so too can the consequences of getting it wrong…
Isolating and rectifying problem frequencies is just the beginning, re-balancing the mix volume once you’ve corrected your issues can cause recurring headaches, and, unless you’ve got a comprehensive understanding of how frequency ranges intersect, can devour your time trying to fix.
This is why we’re excited by MIXVAULT from Mastering the Mix, which brings a whole new simplified attitude to EQing that prioritises keeping users within their creative headspace.
Operation of the plugin is extremely simple. All you need to do is ‘pull’ a frequency closer to emphasise it in the mix, or the reverse - ‘push’ it away to reduce its volume. All the Q values (the width of a frequency range you are boosting or cutting) are already optimised, enabling greater scope for using EQ as more an immersive creative tool. MIXVAULT delivers the exact frequency response of a market-leading linear-phase EQ, at its maximum quality setting - with 36x less latency.
As Mastering in the Mix tell us, MIXVAULT is built upon four pillars;
Simple: The fact that the Q-optimised bands are pre-optimised means that the lion’s share of EQing is achievable via some relatively basic moves. Intuitively pulling or pushing frequencies makes for a tactile, hands-on approach to the process. Up to 95% of the essential work can be done without it eating into your previous music-making time.
Fast: The visual interface of MIXVAULT is designed so users can stay on their creative rails. The ability to grab parameters as opposed to having their head filled with numbers - and requiring endless scrolling through menus - is a gamechanger.
Smart: MixVault can smartly listen to the target audio and serve up a series of Smart Presets, tailored for vocals, bass, drums, music or the full mix. All you need to do is trigger the built-in ANALYZE function and MIXVAULT will do the rest.
Honest: Those pesky volume considerations we mentioned earlier are no longer a worry as every action you take in MIXVAULT is level-matched in real time.
That ANALYZE function is a particular draw here. It works when users play the loudest section of the track so that MIXVAULT can get a handle on the broadest frequency range.
Once that’s done, clicking ANALYZE will allow its intelligent internal algorithm to ponder the best route forward.
It’ll first ask a few basic questions about what it’s listening to - namely, whether you’re working on a full mix, vocals, music, drums or bass, then what genre you’re working in - and then it’s ready to get to work…
Before long ANALYZE will dish up a platter of ready-to-go Smart Presets. These aren’t your run-of-the-mill set curves however, these presets have been tailored to your track based on the information provided, and a forensic analysis of the audio.
There’s more to MIXVAULT’s ANALYZE function than that, however. You can also use this intelligent technology to reference match tracks that you want your mix to emulate in terms of balance and punch. Simply importing the audio file and clicking it as a reference once you’ve analysed your own track will instruct the algorithms to pivot your frequency balance to snap into line with it.
Used in conjunction with its Mastering the Mix stablemates, MIXVAULT’’s value becomes even more apparent, particularly for mastering. Mastering the Mix stress that the following signal chain yields the best results;
RESO > STEREOVAULT > MIXVAULT > FASTER MASTER
FASTER MASTER is the ideal complement to MIXVAULT, being able to caress transients, compression, loudness and those final bells and whistles. Mastering the Mix stresses that if you’re not a FASTER MASTER user, then a simple limiter should be adequate at the end of the chain.
MixVault launches on August 4th with a special introductory price of £41.30 - that’s a full 30% off the £59 - until September 7th. Head over to Mastering the Mix's official site to learn more.
However, if you already own MIXROOM or BASSROOM, you automatically get 50% off, bringing that cost way down to just £29.50.
Existing MTM customers on a loyalty tier get an additional discount on top of the intro price, applied automatically at checkout. Loyalty and upgrade discounts don't stack, so you'll always be given whichever works out cheapest.