Musik Hack Master Plan - Loud & High Quality Masters
I'm sure you're aware of many different clippers, limiters and other Mix Bus & Mastering processors. We can all agree that there's something available to fit everyone's budget. However, there's a new one that just blew my mind. I'm talking about Master Plan from Musik Hack.
The problem people usually deal with is: What processor to use first in the mastering chain, the order, gain-matching, hearing the differences... I understand all of that since I'm a mastering engineer. That's why I'm talking about Master Plan. It's much easier to learn & educate yourself about mastering through Master Plan. Not only that, but you can create ready, clean and loud masters within minutes!
As I said, this is where Master Plan steps in and changes the game!
The topics we're going to cover:
1. What is Master Plan?
2. How To Use Master Plan?
3. All Features
4. Using Master Plan as a AD/DA converter
5. Before & After Master Plan
6. Master Plan Pricing
7. Pros and Cons
8. Our Brutally Honest Thoughts
1. What Is Master Plan
Master Plan from Musik Hack is an innovative tool using a revolutionary technology that helps you to achieve clean, crisp, wide and loud masters within minutes.
At first, I wasn't really sure if this processor will impress me, but I decided to give it a try, why not? Musik Hack staff were very kind to me and presented everything well, so it was my time to finally try it in my mastering session, and I'm really glad I did since from that day, Master Plan can usually be found in some of my chains and also on some Mix Busses.
However, keep in mind another thing. Since I'm a mastering engineer for years, I'm not saying that you shouldn't use other processors & that cool analog gear. Master Plan is ideal if you're a beginner that just started out, an intermediates who know about mastering and have decent masters and for pros that really want to add that special flavor to their masters. It's for everyone. I personally really enjoy their clipping & limiting circuit while still tweaking some analog saturation. But, let's explain everything about Master Plan and its features!
2. How To Use Master Plan
Believe me or not, Master Plan is probably one of the simpliest tools to use.
The way of using it is pretty straight-forward. Open your Mix Bus or Mastering chain, insert Master Plan... and that's it. You're ready to start mastering using Master Plan.
But, what if you want to use it in an already existing mastering chain? Well, if you're a bit advanced/pro, you'll need to consider its place depending on what you need from Master Plan. If you need clipping and limiting, keeping it at the last place will help. If you want width and some coloration, keeping it somewhere in the middle of the chain will give good results. If you're looking for additive EQ, keeping it either at the front or somewhere in the middle of your chain will be okay.
It's all about how it sounds and your taste, so no strict rules.
3. Features
Input & Output gain adjustments
This is very simple - you have individual knobs to control input & output gain. This is very useful when you need to match the gain of your plugins, but Master Plan has another great feature for that which you'll read about in this blog post!
Loud & Wide knobs
"Loud" knob activates & controls Limiter/Clipper circuit designed to maximize loudness while still keeping the clarity and preserving the dynamics of your mix. I don't endorse loudness wars, but if you got into one of them, YOU WILL WIN.
"Wide" knob works as a stereo widener, but guess what? A mono-compatible one! Yes, it's 100% mono-compatible and sounds insanely well. The way it spreads the stereo spectrum while still keeping everything mono-compatible is on another level, like no other plugin similar to this can do. These two knobs destroyed all the competitors that Master Plan has!
2 Individual EQ Bands
Musik Hack made it really simple with Master Plan, and that's exactly what I like! You have two individual EQ knobs. One focused on low and another focused on high end. You can use them to lift or attenuate those frequencies, which depends on your taste.
Personally, I like using them as my additive equalization method to introduce that beautiful coloration that Master Plan's inbuilt EQ offers.
Unity Gain - The Feature We Needed!
You know that feeling when you're working on a master, and it's a bit hard to hear if you're making any positive changes because your ears are constantly tricked by increased loudness? Well, one way to fix that is to gain-match using input/output knobs, but that's also time consuming when it comes to clipping & limiting.
Well, Master Plan solved that issue with their "Unity Gain" button! When you want to avoid getting tricked by loudness, engage this button and listen to differences without changing the loudness. Just don't forget to turn it off once you're done comparing your results so you can get back to that loudness before you export your master.
Saturation, compression, EQ, multiband processing...
Master Plan features tons of possibilities for adjusting & enhancing the performance of your mixes & masters. So, let's go through each one:
1. Thick - this feature will introduce fine-tuned, analog-inspired saturation. Using the slider below the button you can control the amount.
2. Clean - this reminds me of a bell filter placed around 200Hz to clean the mid in the low end. Does an amazingly good job.
3. Multi - when you enable this feature, use the L, M and H sliders to control the amount of gain reduction in the low, medium and high bands of your mix.
4. Smooth - enables you to gently tame dynamics and add subtle glue.
5. Calm - this features is great! It helps to tame harsh high frequency buildup. You even have that 2x knob that help to double the effect.
6. Tape - are you a fan of tape? Well, this button enables analog tape glow. At low levels, tightens up the bass. As you push it higher and harder, it adds subtle saturation and tames the high end.
Metering Section
Master Plan also features all the necessary metering you need in order to monitor the performance of your master.
Filter Section
The filter section on the far right of the interface emulates different playback systems, so you can hear what your mix will sound like in different environments and on different listening devices.
UI Adjustments, Oversampling & More
Master Plan is fully customizable in terms of colors, themes (Dark & White) and it also features amazing oversampling, which I find as a very nice touch to the plugin itself. This actually makes it stand out from the crowd and be unique!
4. Using Master Plan's analog saturation like an AD/DA converter
This idea sparkled my mind a few times, so I decided to try it, and it worked much better than expected! Try running your audio through Master Plan on your Mix Bus channel AT THE START of your mix, and watch the magic happen!
5. Before & After Master Plan
This picture is the final mix we received from our client. As you can see, it's a pretty dynamic mix with multiple instruments going on. Let's see what happens after we apply Master Plan.
This is what happened after applying Master Plan. As you can visually see, the waveform looks well clipped and limiter with enough headroom provided for streaming platform uploading purposes.
6. Master Plan Pricing
Musik Hack Master Plan features 3 types of possible payments.
Let's break down each one:
- Rent-To-Own - $35/month for 5 months
- One-Year - $75
- Forever - $175
7. Pros AND Cons
Pros
- The sound: From all the one-plugin processor I tried, this one has the best sound. I was comparing it to the bx_masterdesk and The God Particle which are the plugins I also like, but Master Plan just stands out and really does the job amazingly well.
- Very affordable: If you don't like paying all at once, you have multiple payment options which I find very affordable for such plugin.
- Not limited to certain genres: This plugin isn't limited to certain genres, which means you can master anything.
- Extremely easy to use: The way you're able to master your track within minutes shows how great Master Plan actually is. No additional words needed really.
- Responsible & Supportive Customer Service: Their team is always available for any questions. I was talking to their staff multiple times, and I really like their customer support and how responsive they are.
Cons
- None really: Personally, I didn't find any cons yet, and we believe we won't be able to find any. Again, I'm not their new users. I'm actually using Master Plan for quite some time and I didn't find any cons.
7. Our Brutally Honest Thoughts
As their long-time users, our studio can definitely recommend using Master Plan, and we confirm it's a 100% legit company with an incredibly passionate team behind everything they stand up for. With all of that being said, again, we highly recommend trying Master Plan. Huge shout out to their CEO & Founders Stan and Sam. They were very kind to me in explaining everything I need to know about Master Plan & their company.
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