Waves Vitamin Sonic Enhancer Plug-in-- recommend?

[mikehamm123]

Recommended by a friend... has anybody used this?

Waves Vitamin Sonic Enhancer Plug-in
Parallel Multiband Harmonic Enhancer Plug-in with Punch Control and Per-band Stereo Width Control - Mac/PC AAX Native, VST, AU, AudioSuite, SoundGrid

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail ... er-plug-in

Mixing is the weakest part of my skill set and I'm wondering if this would be a magic bullet.

Thanks!

[Susanstunes]

Hi Mike,
I want that one, after using a few other great tools from Waves ( still practicing those...practice practice)
I have been watching this guy at waves tutorial who is obviously a major mixer/producer. It's either this link or when you go there he has another one right next to this. He goes thru how he uses it. Love how he teaches!
https://www.waves.com/prepare-hip-hop-for-mastering

But, of course, there is probably no magic bullet. It just takes a lot of production and practice. I'm sure all the experts here will say that's true.

Susan
www.susanhillmanmusic.com
www.soundcloud.com/susanhillman
www.instagram.com/susanhillmanmusic

[mikehamm123]

Very cool. I need all the help I can get with mixing.

I'll check it out--thanks!

[Susanstunes]

Very cool. I need all the help I can get with mixing.

I'll check it out--thanks!

Here is the other one where he works with Vitamin Plug In.
https://www.waves.com/mix-808-and-kick-like-a-pro

Susan

[ResonantTone]

Hey Mike,

I’ll preface what I’m about to say that I’m no expert.. this has just been some thoughts regarding my experience with mastering my own tracks and the waves vitamin plugin.. as well as a few other “all in one” mastering plugins.

When I really started mastering my own stuff, I relied heavily on a few go to plugins that basically functioned like the vitamin sonic enhancer. The results were not bad by any means in many cases, but the problem I ran into was that I was relying on the plugin to do the work for me that should have been done in the mixing stage. What that led to was inevitably getting less than stellar sounding tracks because a bunch of pre-fabricated algorithms and effects does not work for ever track or every scenario. As soon as that happened, I would think “Hmm... maybe I need the Chris Lord Algae Mixdown plugin! THAT will solve my mastering woes and just make everything sound great with little to no effort”

What eventually got me taking it with a much better approach was never relying on mastering at all. Aside from mixing into some master bus compression (which is just a personal preference... some people prefer nothing at all), I keep my master buss completely clean and pretend like it’s non-existant. I want my mix sounding stellar by how all the individual tracks are eq-ed/saturated/compressed/panned in and of themselves. This takes time and practice! Critical listening is so important here, as well as a good method for using reference tracks.

Finally once I’m happy with how the song feels, I use some very minimal effects at the end. I usually don’t use any of the “packaged” plugins like the vitamin or CLA mixdown any more, simply because I don’t need to. I make some tweaks to my master bus compression, use a limiter to push the track a bit of needed, and possibly some very VERY minimal eq tweaks to give a track that final 3-5% of what it’s lacking.

Long story short, I don’t think the package type plugins are bad by any means, but you just want to be careful that your not relying on them to make you tracks sound good.. that will eventually backfire. Better to work at increasing your ear and hearing and correcting stuff in the mix to really make your tracks pop.

Hope that helps!
Andrew

EDIT: So I just realized that I was TOTALLY thinking of the Waves Infected Mushroom Pusher instead of the Vitamin. I would still lump that in with the CLA Mixdown as good in certain scenarios, but not something to rely on for a "one stop fix" for any mix. The Vitamin looks like you need a little more know-how to use well, since it functions like a multiband compressor with some exciter effects. May very well be worth the investment! (Sorry for the extremely long post about something that wasn't what I thought it was! lol)

[Len911]

Of all the Waves plugins, it wouldn't be on my list, especially if mixing is a weak point. Enhancer? Stereo width, punch control, multiband compression, these are things that not only are available in other plugins, but these are probably the effects
that could really mess your mix up if they aren't used judiciously imo.
If you want to improve your mixing, I think if you watched the Harrison mixbuss tutorials on youtube, it would be of much more use and understanding and perspective. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtL1SA ... D_mILAx3Zg

[mikehamm123]

Thank you both. Pondering this....

[cosmicdolphin]

I must confess I have this plugin and forgot about it. It is good if you know how to use use it but nothing that can't be achieved with other plugins which you may or may not already have. It's not a magic bullet.

If it's your weak point then I would say work on it, my first semi formal training was the book " Mixing Secrets for The Small Studio " by Mike Senior and I would recommend it to anyone, all the other mixing books I had read up until that point assumed you had access to high end studio whereas this is very much aimed at getting broadcast quality from typical home studios. You can't learn this stuff overnight though it's a gradual process I think.

If you want a quick fix I have watched a couple of videos for the new Izotope Neutron which is an AI assisted auto-mixing plugin that actually seems to get you pretty close without any need for learning the finer points of mixing.

[waveheavy]

Andrew is right on.

The idea of a single unit that would give a finished record sound was a debate held long ago in the analog days, with outboard gear like the Aphex Aural Exciter and the BBE Sonnic Maximizer. It's not that those pieces of gear didn't sound good, it's that they didn't always help.

That kind of thinking has continued into the plugin era. Got to admit, it's an easy sale to those new to mixing and mastering. They might work on some mixes, but eventually, as one learns to properly mix, they'll just become small occasion type plugins sitting on the hard drive.

[teleblaster]

There aren't any magic bullets. If they did exist, what would be the fun in using one?
That said, I have that plugin, and really like when I need a multi-band comp. Waves C6 is another nice MB comp. IMO, these tools are like the bull-dozers of music production. In the right hands they can do a lot of work. In the wrong hands they can do a lot of damage. I've achieved both types of results with it.