Brainworx® bx_masterdesk
Customer Reviews
Brainworx bx_masterdesk
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D. Pierce
Game changer
Wow! It can make everything sound better. The filters are dope, the eq's are dope, the TMT is amazing! It only takes a little and it really does go a long way!!!!
M. Sigmon
Don't confuse convenience for compromise
This is an excellent mastering option. It's designed to master material that was recorded within a wide margin of "acceptability", but if you need to do some serious RX to the mix, throw a couple other plugs in the chain before Masterdesk and get it in the ballpark - something you'd have to do anyway. Once you're anywhere near having the kind of mix you want, this thing will let you get the rest of the job done in a heartbeat, with guidelines for what's happening in your process so you wind up with exactly what you're looking for. I've used Ozone for a lot of masters over the years, but I see no reason to use anything other than this now. Can't recommend it highly enough.
G. Piazza
Easy but limited w/ one unique fantastic feature
I have the Native version.
I want to give it 5 stars, & despite some limitations, a unique feature almost outweighs any shortcomings.
Here are the 'Pros' and Cons':
Pro: I opened a mastering session I did a few months ago and replaced the high end limiter with Master Desk. The mix just opened up! Wow! Doing an A/B, the mix sounded 2 dimensional with the other limiter - flat as a board; Master Desk provides that Analog sound rarely heard from in the box mixes / masters. Plugins have incrementally improved since @ 2000 in various ways, but most manufacturers would still implement one channel and copy it, so even e.g. UA's excellent VariMu still didn't quite sound like the hardware. I realized they were still missing the subtle component variations that a stereo hardware unit has and give 'dimension' to a stereo signal. Other designers (UA included) should take note of Brainworx's TMT modeling (I have other TMT plugins, but this is the 1st that sits well on the 2 buss).
The Stereo Width / Mono Maker is very good when needed - at least as good as the BX Digital V3. The width supposedly works differently than standard M/S balance. I've heard it sound great on some mixes and not as great on others; more time will tell.
The Cons:
The 4 compression choices (and associated TMT models) are a bit limited & may not be right for every mix / genre. And most of the TMT flavor comes from the comp, so that is the most important section for my uses. A few more options would be nice.
The Comp mix knob should go a little lower, which would help w the previous point.
Though the filter freq choices are good, they always cut the same amount (which seems too much for my taste). I find the low filters in particular frustrating; they hit the common problem spots, but they take too much away. The highs are also aggressive, but they are so narrow and well tuned, they work well for mixes w distorted guitars, cheap cymbals (and or overheads) & mediocre converters.
The Foundation & Tone stack combo is interesting; it can surely help a skewed mix, but don't expect to fix gremlins - it's a broad brush combo.
Last complaint: I'll probably lose more mastering work as people get their hands on this. The TMT 'analog' imaging is very impressive; to have it in a good mastering tool is the main selling point for me. Would that UA implement the same for the VariMu, MMP, 33609, SSL G Comp & other plugins I use for mastering.
J. Kujawka
Not bad
not bad for a plugin...good quality, easy to use but bit pricy.
O. Lbs
JUST DO IN A FEW CLICKS A LOVELY MASTER
IM SO SURPRISED USING THE DEMO PLUG, I CAN MAKE A FASTER MASTER FOR MY MUSIC WITHOUT CALL AN ENGINEER... THIS IS THE MOST FINALLY CRAZY MASTERDESK I EVER SEEN
L. Vogle
good
love it
M. Eliot
Pleasantly surprised and very impressed with the Masterdesk
Just loaded the demo of this up into Cubase with a track I had only lightly touched qwith the mastering to see what it could do as I have nothing new to test it on. It works very well. I make Electro Dub and House based beats with quality gear like Moog hardware and Spectrasonics software and this brought everything out beautifully. I could not use the settings that will most interest me as I had already done some widening, but the width is really excellent. I don't know how it will perform with other genres, but it will do nicely to finish off the music that I make. It's actually really lovely. It has balanced my mix out very nicely better than I could without it. Yep, this is 10 out of 10 useful to me. I will be buying it when I have some cash next week.
A. Whiting
Perfect for DJ Mixes
I've been searching for a simple mastering tool for my DJ mixes, and this looks like it could be it!