MasterMagic

After putting together numerous instrumental and vocal tracks, adding plenty of effects, and making them all sound good together through mixing, it all comes down to the mastering process. During this very important post-production phase, a song is polished until it’s ready for the whole world to hear it. And a good audio engineer will know that the world listens in very different environments and on very different devices – from massive sound systems to cheap headphones.

The point is that mastering should be (and usually is) done in a professional environment and by a producer or engineer with a pair of well-trained ears and more than a few efficient plugins in their arsenal. One plugin that could be of use is aptly called MasterMagic.

Despite its name, MasterMagic won’t magically master a track by itself. In fact, it’s very likely that you’ll need plenty of other plugins, such as compressors, EQs, limiters, maybe even a reverb. Considering such a list, it’s pretty difficult to put a label on MasterMagic. Nevertheless, it’s a very effective tool that allows you to adjust both low-end and high-end frequencies by just turning a few knobs.

Essentially, the plugin has two main sections. The first one is called Air and, as its name suggests, it adds more room around the higher frequencies. Interestingly, you can also adjust the central frequency for this parameter somewhere between 30 and 40 kHz, which is way outside the human hearing range but does provide a very wide frequency bandwidth.

The second section has the less imaginative name of Mono/Stereo Split Filter, and you can use it to make the kick and bass sound tighter. Once you set the knob to a certain frequency, anything below that frequency will become a mono signal (which is how lower sounds are usually mastered, because they don’t contain a lot of spatial information).

It may seem hard to believe that such a simple plugin can actually improve your mix significantly, but the truth is that MasterMagic does make a difference. It can certainly make a worthy and affordable addition to your plugin collection.