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Hatsubai « Very nicely made »
Published on 06/26/11 at 04:58CLA Drums is part of the CLA bundle that Waves has to offer. These are plugins that were created by/for Chris Lord-Alge, the famous mixer who's done everything from Rocky IV to Slipknot. This plugin is meant for mastering drums, obviously. It's laid out very nicely in an easy to understand manner. You have slider for input, bass, treble, compress, reverb, gate and output. On top of those sliders, you also have specific buttons you can adjust for certain frequencies. Finally, you have a small knob to adjust depending on what type of drum you're mixing/mastering. To use this, you simply enable it on your drum busses and start adjusting. I didn't experience any compatibility issues, so I can't comment on that. I never read the manual, but I don't think it's really necessary for these plugins. It's very easy and simple to use, so no issues there.
SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE
Waves plugins have always been some of the most stable plugins I've experienced. They're cross platform compatible, so they'll work with both PCs and Macs. As a Mac user, that's a huge advantage for someone like me. They run in 32 bit mode, but Logic uses a wrapper-like application that runs so you don't interfere with your 64 bit interface. I've tried this on various different buses, and it seems to work on anything with ease. It even works nicely on MIDI, which I found a bit surprising. There are no performance issues at all, and that's a huge plus when working in a DAW filled with all kinds of synths and tracks running tons of plugins. These plugins came with my Mercury package, and I've had that for a few months now.
OVERALL OPINION
Mastering drums is very hard. In fact, I find it to be one of the hardest parts of a mix to do simply because it spans so many frequencies, and there's so much going on in terms of overall dynamic range. This plugin definitely helps when you have to compress and adjust certain frequencies in a mix. I recommend trying it out if you get the chance.
SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE
Waves plugins have always been some of the most stable plugins I've experienced. They're cross platform compatible, so they'll work with both PCs and Macs. As a Mac user, that's a huge advantage for someone like me. They run in 32 bit mode, but Logic uses a wrapper-like application that runs so you don't interfere with your 64 bit interface. I've tried this on various different buses, and it seems to work on anything with ease. It even works nicely on MIDI, which I found a bit surprising. There are no performance issues at all, and that's a huge plus when working in a DAW filled with all kinds of synths and tracks running tons of plugins. These plugins came with my Mercury package, and I've had that for a few months now.
OVERALL OPINION
Mastering drums is very hard. In fact, I find it to be one of the hardest parts of a mix to do simply because it spans so many frequencies, and there's so much going on in terms of overall dynamic range. This plugin definitely helps when you have to compress and adjust certain frequencies in a mix. I recommend trying it out if you get the chance.