I have used Magic AB and Reference by Mastering the Mix. I started with Magic AB and loved it. I then moved to Reference because it had some similar features to what this new plugin has. I still like the concept of the Reference plugin but it has a few bugs and weird things about it I started not liking. I really like this new plugin but at the time I did this video the price hadn't been released. I have now seen the price today and I am now unsure what to do. I really want to buy the plugin but the price is a little steep for what I was hoping. The plugin can be used as a loudness meter and other meters but I have those already. If I didn't own a loudness meter then I think this is a great buy for the price but I am not sure. I do have a $25 voucher with them in my account which will help but is it enough. I am also based in Australia so I need to factor in the dollar conversion, so a $129 plugin actually costs me around $180.
Right, I see it the same way. And the $129 is an intro price...they plan for this sell this at $200...and right now, this minute, you can get Magic AB for $25 ...It looks like the makers of Metric do not think they are in competition with Magic AB, presumably because they think theirs is so much better - 5 times better, apparently(!). I am just off to assess Magic AB, and I think I can say right now, that if Magic is adequate - even if it isn't quite as good as metric - this will be an easy decision for me.
Magic AB is a great plugin but here is a rough idea of what it doesn't have that this new plugin has. Magic AB is just a simple AB referencing plugin. You can manually set levels for each song but it doesn't have an automatic level matching feature. You can't drag and drop songs into the plugin. It can't compare frequency bands or show a spectrum analyzer. It doesn't do correlation, stereo imaging or have any loudness meter functions. If you don't want any of those features then Magic AB will be fine for you. Check out Reference from Mastering the Mix as well so you can compare them all. Reference isn't very expensive either. My suspicious mind tells me that Magic AB is on sale at the moment because of these new plugins that have more features. Magic AB has not been updated or changed for a long time, but if it works and does what you bought it for then it doesn't need to be updated. I am on the fence paying $129 with a $25 voucher bringing it down to $104. There is no way I would $200. It might be a good plugin to wait for the Black Friday sales and see what price it is then.
@@kdwmixingmastering Can you elaborate on the bugs and weirdness of Reference by MTM. I've been awaiting the price on Metric AB with interest and am disappointed that it's not closer to Reference. Magic AB is too basic for what I want to do and I also have some very good third party metering tools. I'm especially interested in the Trinity display in Reference which has a similar visual functionality to the Tonal Balance Control in Ozone 8 Advanced but if the program is buggy and doesn't work properly then it's pretty pointless to buy it. BTW, I have already downloaded it to demo for 14 days but the bugs and weirdness may not show up in the trial period which is why I ask the question. Thanks in advance.
What I noticed is that I would load up a few songs into the plugin and save it as a preset. When I load that preset it would for some reason load every song twice or even three times. So if the preset contained three songs it would load six or nine songs when I open the preset. I would then have to either ignore them or remove the extra songs. I also loved and hated the automatic leveling feature. It works really great to start with but then unlike the Metric AB which does an analysis and leaves it there Reference keeps adjusting as the song plays, so I found if my mix has a quiet part and the reference was in a loud part it would drop the volume really low. Of course, I could just turn off the auto leveling function and manually adjust the setting but why not use it if it is there. I do need to go and have another deeper look at Reference again now that I have used the new Metric AB and try using it more. You know when something just does something wrong a few times and it annoys you and then you stop wanting to use it. I got to that point and I think I need to give it another shot and refresh my memory of why I liked it previously and see how it truly compares to Metric AB. I probably should check their website as well and see if there are any updates to the software.
This plugin sucks, the playback modes all do random things that aren't useful... none simply sync the tracks and allow you to jump around the SYNCED tracks. Also the gain matching does NOT work... the ONE point of this plugin and it doesn't even work.
I have this one, plus their Streamliner plugin, with both some varying features, but I will probably use this one more, for referencing. I found a s/w program that can convert a song off a CD, and then can download it onto my hard drive. But I then have to put each song into Audacity, and then convert it into a WAVE file, but it works great. And what other VST has 15 ref tracks? I use Waves WLM Plus loudness meter as well as an added check and I like that vst alot as well and match it up with Izotope's Ozone 9 Advanced for mastering, and especially their Tonal Balance Control, for which I cannot do without. IF I need to adjust one of TBC's 4-bands, I then use Waves Q8 EQ, and a GREAT Template I got from an Ian Shepherd's course last yr. ONLY thing ---- it might be nice for you to have explained the waveforms and why and what results the different BLUE and YELLOW lines MEAN and what you might need to do to FIX something. More so since the Blue was usually always below the Ref track's orange line. OTHERWISE, two good Videos!
Only thing that woulda been more helpful was on the Correlation Module. And what the two main colors represented, and more so, the RED below the line. Thanks for your previous response.
Apologies for this question as I'm still cutting my teeth with a lot of these early mixing concepts. But in part 1 of your video, in the playback tab of the plugin, you matched the gain of your reference track to the gain of the track on your stereo bus, so as I follow, turning down the gain on the reference track. Would this mean then that all the later analysis in for example, the Dynamic or Loudness tabs was made in relation the the lower gain level of the reference track? And if so, would this be a true reflection of lets say the real dynamic and loudness of the reference track, if you had indeed turned it down in the first instance? I'm just trying to understand it. Thanks for your kind reply. Lee.
Happy to answer questions if I can. I just did a test to be sure of my answer before I responded and from what I noticed, doing the gain matching did not have an impact on the dynamic tab results but it did impact the loudness results. Based on this I would use the gain match mainly for when I am not worried about matching volume yet and mostly wanting to make sure I am hearing the difference between the songs at the same volume. This would be more during mixing rather than mastering. Once I get to the point of getting the loudness right and comparing that then you would need to not do any gain matching in the plugin. Great question as I hadn't thought of that.
@@kdwmixingmastering Thank you for the taking the time to check that out. That really helps me get a clearer picture of how I am using the plugin, especially like you say, at the stage of getting the loudness right. Thanks a million !
I agree but the price is what I am struggling with. Especially considering I already have several loudness meters. If I didn't have any of the other metere then it might be a different story.
Thanks for the breakdown. I just installed the trial version of this plug-in and have been really impressed so far, but it's nice to get a breakdown of some of the features!
Ok so these are my conclusions. This is considerably better than Magic AB, but that costs $25 as I type this. Reference is about $70 and has more than Magic. Metric AB, is much more thorough and functional than Reference, but it costs $129 intro price, right now, and $200(!) normally. Having seen Metric, I can't buy Magic - it's just too basic. And, to be honest, I am sort of thinking the same thing about Reference. Metric *is* a much better piece of software. I think I am going for it, despite the price. Better $129 now than $200 later...
Thinking along the same lines as you but I can't justify spending this amount. Reference is actually $50 at the moment over at Audiodeluxe if you have an account so it's looking the most likely.
As I suggested if you can wait there is always the Black Friday sale possibility. I obviously don't know if this plugin will go on sale but there is always a chance. Also if you have other plugins you want to purchase from Plugin Alliance they do offer discounts for bulk purchases. Here is my issue, I already own Magic AB. I also own Reference but now I want this plugin, as it beats both the others. There is always something new that beats the last purchase you made. Deciding when it is right to purchase a replacement is the hard part.
Sorry for the late reply. RU-vid has decided to not email me about comments anymore. I am still on the fence. I really did like it and wanted to buy it but I held off because I also have Reference. I decided to give Reference some more attention and make a decision later on down the track instead of rushing in. I find I do that a lot because of the time limited prices. That is obviously the reason they do the time limited pricing. To me, it really depends if you need the other features like the loudness meters etc. If you don't need those then it is only a layout and workflow difference. They both perform a similar function in the end.
It all depends on what you want the plugin to do. If you need a loudness meter tool and like having the songs showing a loudness comparison side by side then this plugin is great. If you already have a loudness tool like iZotope Insight or Master the Mix Levels then it might not be worth it. The Dynamics section again is useful but not if you already have a tool like Dynameter or DR Meter. The correlation section I have never used a plugin before that can give that detail across the frequency spectrum but them I wonder really what I would use it for. I am sure there is a valid use for it but it might turn out to be a bit of a useless feature for me. Same with Stereo Width. Do I really need to know the stereo width of each individual frequency section? Obviously using separate plugins for loudness and dynamic range is not going to allow you the side-by-side or the dual-layered view but you can switch between the two tracks and look at the meters one at a time on each song. I think this is a great plugin but I am still not convinced about purchasing either because I have all these features already just not in one plugin. If I did not have a reference plugin, a loudness meter plugin, a correlation meter plugin, a dynamic range meter plugin, and a stereo width meter plugin then I would buy this plugin without a thought. But if I have all those plugins already then you need to decied is it worth the oney to get them all condensed into one plugin.
Thank you for this great 2-part review. I recently bought this - it's much better than the Magic A/B & Mastering the Mix Reference. In my experience it's much more accurate and stable on the loudness matching - I feel like I'm hearing the reference mix much better with this on the master bus. By the way, those strings in your tune sound awesome - which synth is it?
I didn't use those two tracks for any real purpose other than they were on hand and didn't cause any potential copyright issues on the video. I would generally reference similar styles of music as you are thinking but this was a run through of the plugin more than the process and the music. Thanks for watching and thanks for the feedback.
You bounce out your song as usual in your mixing/mastering software. This is just a metering and reference plugin. It does not change or bounce out any audio.
