I talked about my love for my stock compressor in yesterday's email.

Some premium plug-ins don't allow you to tweak all of the settings you need to get the sound you want.

Yesterday's example was about the LA2A and how the only thing to do on the LA2A is to increase or decrease the gain reduction.

No attack, release or ratio. Don't get me wrong, that's perfectly fine because that's an accurate emulation of that particular plug-in but sometimes you want more options.

Sometimes Simpler Isn't Better

The same thing happened yesterday with a different plug-in for a mix I was working on.

As far as easy-to-use, slap-on-and-see-what-happens plug-ins go, the CLA Signature series from Waves is my favorite.

I probably overuse those plug-ins, especially on vocals and guitars.

But the reverb settings on the CLA Guitars tends to be problematic.

It's exactly because of the lack of customization. It's so simple and usually sounds so good, but sometimes simple just doesn't cut it.

You might find a one-size-fits-all plug-in that works most of the time but sometimes you have a Cinderella guitar that needs a special kind of treatment.

(Technically that analogy is backwards because the shoe didn't fit anybody EXCEPT Cinderella but you catch my drift. This isn't a blog about fairy tales...).

But back to the EQ problem at hand

Take this acoustic guitar track I was tweaking yesterday. I thought I could get away with using the CLA Guitars but there was just too much high-end on the reverb so I just couldn't work with it.

And since I can't EQ the reverb on the plug-in I had to use it the old fashioned way: with a send (which is probably what I should've been doing all along but whatever...).

So I deactivated the reverbs on the plug-in, sent the acoustic guitar to a different reverb and added an EQ filter on the high-end.

Instant, spacious sounding guitar without the sharp sounding reflections ruining my perfectly shimmery guitar track.

That's why critically listening to your tracks and what your plug-ins are doing to them is so important.

Tip for Today?

EQ your reverbs.

It always pays to make sure you're not adding unnecessary frequencies to your mix. Leaving your reverbs un-checked is a surefire way to both clutter up your low-end with extra space, causing boominess, or adding high-frequency hiss, sibilance or slap that's distracting and harsh to the ears.

Take that to heart in your mixes over the weekend.

If you want more in-depth EQ tricks to get rid of your EQ problems once and for all, check out EQ Strategies - The Ultimate Guide to EQ:

www.EQStrategies.net