The 10 Best Mixing Plugins
Hey, what’s good? Colony here. Listen. I know that in 2023 you’re probably overwhelmed by the amount of information on the web about music production. You’ve probably come across more lists and articles claiming to be the silver bullet that you need than you can shake a stick. So. I’m going to level with you.
Music hardware and software technologies are advancing at an unprecedented rate, the likes of which we’ve never seen before. The average smartphone has more power in it now than a recording studio 40 years ago did. Software is gonna continue to be innovated, iterated, and expanded upon. By the time this article goes live, there’ll probably be some new plugins claiming to do things in a newfangled way that changes the game. Still, for the most part, sticking to the fundamentals of what makes mixes tick, using tried and tested tools, and protecting your ears are going to ensure that you have everything you need to make your mixes pop while avoiding GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome) as much as possible.
This is a list compiled of a mix of free and paid plugins that I stand by. I don’t claim to be the definitive voice on anything, but I HAVE been doing this for over a decade. At the absolute least, having these tools in your toolbox will set you up to do solid mixes with very little NEED to have anything else.
All of the plugins I’ve chosen here I consider to be primarily used as “mixing” and “engineering” plugins. This doesn’t mean that some of them can’t be and aren't used for the purposes of sound design or creative processing, but that would be a whole other list, to be honest. Finally, this list is in totally randomized order, EXCEPT for the number 1 plugin which I’ve now come to view as a holy grail plugin that is perhaps one of the best purchases I’ve ever made as a producer. (Don’t skip to number 1, no cheating.)
10) SPAN by Voxengo (free)
Most DAWs should come with their own Spectrum Analysis tool but SPAN from Voxengo is really one of the more industry-standard ones. On top of that, it’s free! Being able to monitor the frequency spectrum of the various tracks in your song is basically a necessity and SPAN lets you do this reliably. Additionally, it’s got a lot of cool features like multi-channel analysis; perfect for looking at the space that multiple sounds take up simultaneously and figuring out where there’s masking happening, or mud being created. For the price of zero dollars, you REALLY can’t go wrong with grabbing this one and using it.
9) OTT by Xfer Records (free)
If you’re a dance music producer, there’s a good chance that you know the name Xfer Records. Creators of the industry-defining softsynth, Serum, this company basically directed the sound of a generation of electronic producers. Even today, Serum is still one of the most-used synths in the dance space. Along with the rise of Serum in this modern space came the rise of OTT. Short for “Over-The-Top” compression, this was basically a multiband compressor preset actually native to Ableton Live. Multiband compression, when used aggressively results in loads of energy and brightness being added to sounds, something that became commonplace among various subgenres of dance music.
The sound of OTT became SO commonplace that the people over at Xfer Records created a dedicated plugin that replicates the sound of OTT multiband compression for those who didn’t have Live. They then put that plugin out for free. Again, if you’re doing modern music, especially modern dance music, this is a staple that you should straight up just have in your arsenal.
8) Supermassive by Valhalla (free)
It’s actually REALLY insane that this is a free plugin. Valhalla makes some of the industry’s best-sounding reverb plugins and they’re worth every penny. So. I’m sure it baffled everyone when they just dropped Supermassive for free. But, there it is. Supermassive is actually a dual-purpose unit being both a delay and reverb unit in one. Tweaking the settings on this beast and messing about with the various modes can get you from super lush reverbs to cascading, insane delays depending on what you do and how far you push this. This is actually one of those plugins that could easily be used for very creative sound design but, used subtly is a perfect mixing reverb. Keep in mind that Supermassive is bombastic by design, it’s not attempting to replicate the sound of plate or room reverbs. The nature of this one is in the name itself. Still, from a pedigree that speaks for itself and a cost that you literally can’t beat, there’s no reason to not cop this one.
7) Fresh Air by Slate Digital (free)
Almost halfway through this list and we’re still talking about game-changing pieces of kit that you can get for nothing. Crazy, right? Let’s keep going. Slate Digital is one of the highest authorities in the mixing plugin space. That’s just the bottom line. The Slate Digital subscription service is one of the best values for producers, hands down. Their emulations sound stupidly authentic. That’s not just MY opinion; throw a rock into the air backstage at any major music festival and you’ll probably hit a successful producer using Slate Digital plugins.
Okay but let’s talk about Fresh Air. So. You don’t need the All-Access subscription for this one. You can have it right now for nothing. It’s a gorgeous-sounding plugin that artfully allows you to brighten up the top end of sounds without adding harshness or artifacts. This goes beautifully on lush pads and leads like you won’t believe. Grab it. Now.
6) Car Test by Rocket Powered Sound (free)
Just about halfway through the list and, sorry to say, this is going to be the last free option on this list. Keep in mind that there are more advanced plugins that give you more options for this kind of thing but if you’re on a budget, you really can’t go wrong with this. So. Familiar with the “car test”? This phrase refers to the common practice of having to bounce your mixes and masters down and then take them to the car to “test” them. In essence, it’s long been a standard practice for professionals to try to see how their mixes present on various sound systems. Studio monitors can be indispensable gear but the truth is that the whole point of mixing is not just to fix technical balance issues but also to allow the song to shine and sound good across a wide variety of systems.
The Car Test plugin basically uses a bunch of environmental and speaker modeling, smart eq, and filtering to recreate the listening environment of a car. This is a really good tool, allowing you to roughly approximate what your track is going to sound like outside of the studio environment, and can help you spot glaring errors being hidden by your shiny monitors
5) Pro Q-3 by FabFilter ($170 USD)
Honestly, I’d put the entire FabFilter bundle on here but that would feel too much like cheating. Seriously though, the entire bundle is completely worth it. FabFilter plugins are industry-standard and run the gamut of everything you’d need but for this list, we’re talking about their brilliant Pro Q-3. Having a solid EQ that you can rely on is instrumental for getting your mixes to be clean and you can’t do much better than this one. On top of a very friendly GUI, this beast is very CPU optimized. This means that even on older machines you can use quite a lot of instances of this plugin running simultaneously before you start to encounter chug. This one has everything you could possibly need as standard features plus its own unique quirks like dynamic EQs and its EQ Match feature.
4) Decapitator by Soundtoys ($200 USD)
Soundtoys is another company out there whose bundle of plugins is industry-standard and, as a whole, are staples if you can afford them. However, if I had to pick just ONE, my favorite, that I think makes the biggest functional difference in my mixes, it’d be Decapitator. What is it? A saturation plugin. Before you roll your eyes, hear me out. Decapitator is a REALLY good one. This plugin models, very accurately, several classic saturation machines. It can also be pushed beyond the point of breaking with its “punish” knob to get really aggressive effects. Arguably that’s more of a sound design tool.
Still. This plugin, when used subtly and smartly, can literally transform your mixes. If you’ve been curious about the reason why your mixes tend to sound digital, flat, and lifeless, this is it. The difference is in saturation. The best tracks in the world are typically run through mixing boards and analog equipment that can easily cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Most of us don’t have casual access to that sort of gear. A good saturation unit will infuse your sounds with the analog warmth and undeniable feeling of “life” that can elevate your track.
3) Oxford Inflator by Sonnox (Retail $156, currently on sale for $39 USD)
I don’t know what in the world is going on under the hood with this plugin to even begin trying to explain it so I’ll fall back on the good ol’ reliable “black magic”. Seriously, this is a MUST have and a secret weapon of many modern producers. I’m not sure if the sale is still on, but as of the writing of this article, you can get this plugin for a ludicrous $39. Trust me when I say that, at its retail price, this is worth it so being able to grab it for just about forty bucks is just ridiculous and a no-brainer.
So. What does it do? Well, quite frankly, the thing just gives weight and presence to sounds. It adds to the perceived loudness of a sound without actually increasing the volume of the sound massively and without adding compression, thereby lowering the dynamics. As I said before, I have no freaking clue how this thing is achieving these results but the results speak for themselves. Get this.
2) Soothe2 by Oeksound ($219 USD)
This is an, admittedly costly, but indispensable piece of software. This one is another secret weapon of many modern producers and well worth the price of admission. Formally described as a “dynamic resonance suppressor”, this is one more of those plugins that feel like voodoo to me. In essence, you drop this on a track and soothe2 will find areas of harshness and unpleasant resonance then work to tame those by a variety of means. The end result is that with a relatively small amount of tweaking you can instantly make sounds sit more neatly in a mix and play nicely together with other sounds. Gone are the days of having to spend mind-numbing amounts of time trying to carve sounds into submission.
1) VSX by Steven Slate Audio (starts at $299 USD)
This. This is it. The holy grail. What I think is THE best plugin that should be in your kit. I’ll fess up right away by admitting that this one is a bit of a cheat because it’s actually a plugin and hardware combo. You NEED the hardware it comes with to make effective use of this plugin. The plugin itself isn’t even sold without the hardware. This is all done by Steven Slate Audio, a sister company to Slate Digital.
So. What is VSX? To cut to the chase, it’s a pair of headphones that works with the VSX software. VSX acts as a model for several studios and the equipment within them. Think about what the Car Test plugin does but then turn it up to 11. And then turn that 11 up to 22. I can’t overhype this plugin enough. Really. It’s that good.
Somehow, the wizards at SSA have modeled the listening environments AND the various speaker models within the space. I was lucky enough to actually have some sort of frame of reference for at least some of the monitors these guys are emulating and, I can say from my part, they NAILED the sound of them. While I’ve not been able to be inside any of the world-famous studios they modeled, the feeling of being transported to a different space the second you put on the headphones is incredible, magical, disorienting, and game-changing.
Acoustics are a huge deal when it comes to getting proper mixes. You can have the best speakers in the world but, if your room isn’t treated, you’ll never be able to trust what you’re hearing from those monitors to make objective mix decisions. However these people did this, VSX represents a massive step forward for engineering technology and the coolest piece of kit I’ve added to my arsenal. The implications of it are mind-blowing, allowing producers to mix on incredibly expensive speakers in incredibly constructed spaces no matter where they are.
So. There it is. People can fight on the internet all day long about what the “best” of anything is but, point for point, I think this list represents ten absolutely essential plugins that your mixes will benefit from having on them. There’ll always be more plugins and, I’ll admit, I had to leave a couple of my faves out of this one but I stand by each and every one of these tools. So should you. Okay, now, go grab at least the first five of these that are free and start implementing them into your mixes. Happy producing.
Written by Colony