Whether you treat mix finalising as a self-contained production stage in its own right, or prefer to mix through a mastering chain on the 2-bus, each of these self-contained bus processing suites give you everything you need to get amazing results in a single plugin.

Brainworx bx_masterdesk

Brainworx’s ambitious plugin is designed to not only bring all the processors required for effective mastering together in one place, but also make using them so simple that even the timid newcomer to mix finalising should be able to get great results in minutes. This simplicity and user-friendliness manifest as a concise three-stage core workflow, with the Volume and Foundation knobs dialling in compression and bass (tilt) EQ, and the Tone section offering four bands of fixed-frequency EQ. There are quite a few points of adjustment beyond that, however, each of them similarly reductive in their presentation.

The brickwall limiter at the output can be treated to an optional 1dB boost for a ballsier master, for example, while a pair of filters enable notching out two of four available preset resonant frequencies. Then there’s a low-frequency (20-300Hz) mono-iser, a fabulous stereo widener/narrower, a de-esser, a dry/wet mix knob for the compressor, and even boosting/attenuating of THD. Brainworx’s proprietary TMT (Tolerance Modelling Technology) gets a look in, too, yielding four subtly differing variants on the analogue modelled compressor circuitry. Excellent visual feedback is provided via the completely foolproof Dynamic Range VU meter, plus collar metering of compressor and de-esser gain reduction, and ultimately, bx_masterdesk sounds superb and more than lives up to its promise of exemplary ease of use.

iZotope Ozone 10

Now in its tenth generation, the industry standard for in-the-box mastering is more powerful and sonically superlative than ever. The AI-driven Master Assistant has become a headline feature in recent versions, building a mastering chain for you based on analysis of the source track and comparison to a genre-based reference; but the real draw is the collection of 17 stunning dynamics, EQ, imaging and other processing modules that can be freely arranged to create whatever signal path you need. Highlights include the amazing Maximizer, Dynamic EQ, Match EQ, Stabliizer (iZotope’s answer to Oeksound’s Soothe), Imager and Impact ‘microdynamics’ processor, and the four Vintage modules (Comp, EQ, Limiter and Tape) are just the thing for adding a touch of analogue mojo.

Having sat at the top of its particular tree for over two decades now, Ozone really has nothing to prove. If you’re after an all-in finalising solution for your mix bus, this is as comprehensive as it gets.

Softube Bus Processor

Released mere days ago at the time of writing, Softube’s analogue-modelling plugin is an SSL-inspired bus compressor with adjustable saturation and spatialising, aimed at gluing and colourising the mix bus, not to mention drums and other channel groups. The compressor is based on the G-Series but boasts a number of empowering improvements over that revered hardware, including knee shaping, continuously sweeping (as opposed to detented) knobs and tempo-syncable release time, and tweaking of the sidechain response in terms of stereo detection and frequency response. The Saturation section enables analogue distortion to be applied in Tone or Harmonic mode, pre or post compression, with the Tone Shift knob controlling a tilt filter for low- or high-frequency emphasis; and the Stereo panel houses controls for boosting high-frequencies in the mid and side signals, balancing the mid and sides, and mono-ising the low end.

Presenting a tightly conceived, thoughtful take on SSL-style bus compression with some very worthy extra bells and whistles, Bus Processor stands as a fine option for dynamics control and stereo imaging, with a sonic character that spans the spectrum from supremely transparent to wonderfully warm.

Waves Abbey Road TG Mastering Chain

Modelled on the legendary EMI TG12410 Transfer Console found in Abbey Road’s mastering studios, Waves’ faithful emulation lets you use as many or few of its five processing modules as you like – TG12411 Input, TG12413 Limiter, TG12412 Tone, TG12414 Filter and TG12416 Output – in stereo, dual mono or mid-side mode, with the signal flowing through the middle three in any order (Input and Output are always first and last, of course). Input and Output offer various pre and post processing functions – levelling, stereo balance and phase adjustment – as well as a Tape Equalizer with four intriguing frequency response curves. The Limiter adds to the authentic Zener diode compressor/limiter of the original with the transparent VCA-style Modern mode, and three bands of linear phase sidechain filtering; the Tone module comprises four bands of ‘musical’ EQ with detented centre/corner frequencies; and the Filter module brings high- and low-pass filters and a further bell filter into play. Also included is the Abbey Road TG Meter Bridge plugin, which apes the VU, PPM, peak and phase meters of the TG12410, and can receive input from any instance of TG Mastering Chain running in the project – handy!

If that rich, vintage Abbey Road sound is something you covet in your masters, there’s no easier – or cheaper – way to get it than by sticking Waves’ gorgeous plugin on your mix bus.

Musik Hack Master Plan

Another new entrant on the bus processing scene, Musik Hack’s debut plugin – launched at the end of March – is a self-contained mastering solution centring on a transparent limiting/clipping circuit: simply raise the Loud knob to get the Integrated and Short-term LUFS meters into the green. Arranged around that central control are a handful of knobs, sliders and buttons governing Low and High EQ, stereo width, fixed-frequency multiband compression, analogue-style and tape saturation, harshness reduction and more.

Master Plan is clearly a plugin looking to get away from traditional dynamics processing terminology and operation, instead going for an intuitive control set steering various carefully calibrated processes behind the scenes – and we love what we’ve heard from it so far, which is a range of audio styling and treatment far more expansive than the interface might suggest.

What’s your go-to plugin for quality mix bus processing? Let us know in the comments.