Review: IK Multimedia T-RackS 3
The fine folks over at IK Multimedia were nice enough to send their T-RackS 3 software. The entire suite is a fantastic set of mastering plug-ins.
Edit: In accordance with some new FTC Regulations we want to make it explicitly clear that we received a free review copy of T-Racks 3. However, we were not paid for our review, nor was or editorial content directed by IK Multimedia.
Side Note: You may remember that I wrote about a promotion that allows you to get the T-RackS Singles plug-ins on the cheap. Read the article here.
The beautiful thing about this suite is what you see at the top: T-RackS 3 can run in a chain-type of operation with some very nice presets or you can use each of the plug-ins separately in your own chain.
The main window in the T-RackS 3 is extremely clean. It has a Peak meter, a Perceived Loudness meters (which is a very nice touch), a Phase scope, and a Frequency Spectrum. All of this is very useful when you’re mixing or mastering, but that doesn’t mean that you should stop listening to your mixes! If it sounds good, it probably is good.
When you load a preset, it will load a compressor, EQ, limiter, and whatever else might be in the preset. Or you can select each module in whatever chain you’d like, up to 8 different slots. This makes it easy to not flip back and forth between plug-ins. You can have one plug-in hosting several at the same time, allowing you to focus on the task at hand and not flipping back and forth between two, three, or more plug-ins at once.
The T-RackS 3 suite comes with the following plug-ins:
- Classic Compressor
- Classic Multiband Limiter
- Classic Clipper
- Classic EQ
- Brickwall Limiter (love this thing!)
- Linear Phase EQ
- Opto Compressor
- Vintage Compressor 670
- Vintage EQ Program 1A
- Mastering Suite
The plug-ins sound extremely clean. The compressors can be subtle or harsh for effects. The EQs are pretty amazing too. Definitely better than the stock EQs inside Live 7, and on par with with the stock EQs inside Pro Tools 8 (and man are those EQs great). My only real problem with the EQs is that it’s a little hard to get surgical with them, so I personally would use another EQ while still in the mixing stage.
However, during the recording and mastering stages, these EQs are pretty killer. I’d like to use it for tone shaping sometime, and I might just do that.
A less-surgical EQ is often desired in a mastering situation as most garbage-frequency removal had ben done in the mixing stage.
The Linear Phase EQ is great, but may be a little too heavy for those just jumping into the mastering arena. That’s not to say it’s not amazing, however. After hearing it for myself on my own mastering, I don’t think I’ll be going without it in the future. And considering we can’t all afford a Weiss, this will have to do!
The multiband limiter is amazing, as well. I’ve been looking for a solid multiband comp/limiter for awhile, and I do think I’ve found it with this suite of software. It has three bands (low, mid, high), as well as a very handy crossover control which I happen to love (and I think you will too). My biggest complaint about multiband plug-ins is when they come without any sort of crossover control. Other than that, the multiband limiter also comes with an “Overload” control which sounds like it adds some very nice saturation. I played around with it and it added some very nice character to my mastering. You could easily skip your cheap tape simulator in favor of something a little better sounding, like this.
The other shining, compression-coated gem of this entire suite is the brickwall limiter: it’s simple, effective, and sounds fantastic. If you know anything about compression or limiting, you will be at home using this limiter. Once again, put away your stock limiter and just buy this. You won’t ever regret your decision.
This suite of plug-ins will make your world of mastering (and mixing) so much nicer, cleaner, and more streamlined that you really need to try these out. With the current promotion that IK Multimedia is offering, you really should look into buying at least a few of these, if not the whole suite.
The modular plug-in (pictured in this review) also has some extremely useful features that may not be completely obvious when you first open it up. The first one I noticed is the “Show Chain” feature which shows you the exact chain in which your signal is processed, making it a breeze to make any adjustments to your signal chain. My only wish is that you could simply drag and drop components into the empty slots like you can do in Propellerhead Record/Reason.
There’s also a slew of options to customize your Peak and Perceived Loudness as well as your Phase and Spectrum graphs. And from a mastering stand point, this has go to be a much beloved feature.
Oh, and did I also mention there’s four banks in this plug-in? That means you’re able to have four completely separate mastering chains going at one time, giving you the ultimate in flexibility. You can even copy one bank to another.
There’s also some built-in DAW automation features, but it takes a bit of programming. It’s not hard by any means, but it will take a second to set up. It is very nice that you can control any parameter inside T-RackS 3 within an automation lane in your selected DAW.
Last, but not least, Sanjay was kind enough to create a fancy little image for our coveted Ask A Sound Guy Editor’s Choice Award! This software deserves it. It’s stable, it’s slick, and most importantly, it sounds amazing.
I won’t ever give products a dead-set rating (ie. stars, “8.5,” etc), but I will recommend software that I really like. And I really like this software.
T-RackS 3 Suite is available now for $499.99 from IK Multimedia. It comes in RTAS, Audio Units, VST, and stand alone. It’s compatible on both Windows (XP and Vista) and Mac OS X (both PowerPC and Intel). You can download a demo version (or read up on the system specs) here.
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