Plugins for a DAW, a plugin host or a console's rack
Small tools for the signal path, each doing a job I'd otherwise be doing by hand.
Each of these does one job in the signal path, usually one an operator would otherwise be doing with a fader, an EQ and a lot of attention: riding a presenter who leans into the mic, keeping the bass where it was tuned when the noise limit pulls the show down, or getting an automixer onto a desk that hasn't got one.
They build as VST3, and as AU on macOS, apart from VoiceLevel, which is VST3 and CLAP. Several run as a standalone app as well, so you can try one without opening a session. All of them are free and open source, and every page says what has and hasn't been tested, which is worth reading before a show depends on one.
6 plugins · 3 with a demo in the browser · 5 with a video
Measures how loud the room actually is, from a calibrated measurement mic or an SPL meter's live output, and applies the ISO 226:2003 equal-loudness correction needed to keep the tonal balance the system was tuned to as the show level moves about.
A plugin for Waves SuperRack Performer that lets you run the Dugan Automixer across a desk's channel direct outs and bring the automixed result back summed to a single stereo pair, into a group's external input, with every insert slot left free.
A one-knob EQ that makes a recorded voice sound the way you hear your own, anywhere from your ears as they are up to foam earplugs in. The curve is fitted to the acoustics of a plugged ear rather than being a low-pass with a name on it: your own voice, bone-conducted and trapped in the ear canal, plus the plug cutting down the air path, relative to the open ear. Each setting is trimmed so the speech level stays put and only the shape changes, and 0 is a bit-exact pass-through. VST3, AU and a standalone app, with zero latency.
A one-knob proximity effect compensator for speech and vocal mics, as VST3, AU and a standalone app. It measures the balance between the energy under 250 Hz and the energy above it, holds that balance at or under a ceiling the knob sets, and takes off the excess with a first-order low shelf shaped like the effect it's undoing. The shelf deepens and reaches further up as the talker leans in, and backs off as they step away. It only cuts, adds no latency, ignores level, and holds still through pauses.
An automatic microphone leveller for live sound that only ever turns things down, as VST3, CLAP and a standalone app. It's a virtual fader with an operator's hand on it. When the talker is over the target level it's pulled down at a set speed in dB per second, it holds still while they pause, and it eases back up more slowly and stops at unity. It never adds gain, so it can't push a channel into feedback, and it has no look-ahead, so it adds no latency. Learn listens to the talker at the soundcheck and parks the fader where it puts them on target.
Parametric EQ with zero added latency, dynamic EQ with an external sidechain, band-isolated harmonic generation and a compressor, plus meters with accurate ballistics and a full preset system.
Nothing matches that. and try again.
Every release has an installer for each platform: a .pkg or .dmg on macOS, a setup .exe on Windows for x64 and Arm, and .deb and .rpm packages on Linux, plus a zip if you'd rather put the files in place yourself. Restart or rescan the host and the plugin turns up in its list.
MixerReturn is the odd one out. It's written for Waves SuperRack Performer, and its page explains the routing it expects at the desk.
Everything else
This is one corner of it. The full index covers audio, video, RF, content management, show control and the networking underneath.
