NUGEN Audio MasterCheck Plug-in

A Must-have Tool for Today's Loudness War

As yesterday's volume wars give way to today's loudness standards, the need for beefier dynamics processors has been largely supplanted by the need for detailed loudness meters. Nugen's MasterCheck doesn't just give you the accurate loudness metering you need to prep your mixes and masters for iTunes, Spotify, and mobile streaming, it lets you hear what your music will sound like when subjected to their standards. What's more, MasterCheck lets you easily compare multiple processing chains to see what effect they'll have on your mix after compression, so you won't be surprised when your 24-bit master is reproduced as a streaming AAC file.

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• Standard loudness measurements go far beyond the volume of your material
• Loudness monitoring that lets you mix for today's streaming and compression codecs
• Easily A/B processing chains with matched loudness to provide accurate comparison

Just as the era of the CD and tape are over, so is the standard of mixing to -3dB. On the plus side, this new age of mixing is finally putting to bed the practice of squashing the life out of every mix with brutal dynamics processing, but on the minus side, and serious mix engineer has to master a whole new scheme of loudness metering, and yesterday's -3dB is today's -16LKFS. Luck for you, Nugen's MasterCheck plug-in makes that easy. Strictly from a metering standpoint, every important metric for loudness, whether it's program loudness, PLR (Peak to Loudness Ratio), short-term loudness, or true peak, you'll find all the metrics you need onboard MasterCheck.

MasterCheck is far more than just a metering plug-in, and while its metering is impressive in its own right, it's the ability to apply and monitor through the loudness schemes of various compression codecs to hear how your mix will sound as, for example, an iTunes AAC file or streaming from Spotify that makes it a must-have mixing and mastering tool. Loudness presets for iTunes Radio, mobile streaming, and international standards such as EBU R128 and the ATSC A/85 Calm Act let you instantly check how your material will sound on most popular platforms, so there will be no ugly surprises down the road. And thanks to functions such as Offset to Match and color banded target zones for precise metering, checking your mix and tweaking it to meet your expectations is remarkably easy.

As we mentioned before, the coolest aspect of MasterCheck is its Offset to Match function, which applies the reference loudness standard you've called up to your material. But what really blew away the engineers here at Sweetwater is the way you can combine this function with MasterCheck's Send plug-in. Insert the Send plug-in at the beginning of your processing chain, and you can effortlessly A/B your unaffected signal with your processing through the loudness standard of your choice, providing you with an instant comparison along with a loudness comparison meter. What's more, you can use this same external input function to check your mix against reference material.

• A fully-loaded loudness metering and comparison plug-in designed for streaming and compression standards
• Mix and Master directly for Apple, Spotify, DAB Radio, and other modern music consumption formats
• Offset to match function lets you hear what your audience will hear, so you can to produce with confidence
• Standards include Apple iTunes Radio, Spotify, EBU R128, ATSC A/85 (Calm Act), and mobile streaming
• Measurements include program loudness, PLR (peak to loudness ratio), short-term loudness, and ITU-compliant inter-sample peak
• Color banded target splits let you zero in on specific zones within the bar meters
• Included Send plug-in and external reference function let you A/B processing chains for quick comparison
• Check your mix compared to reference material to more easily achieve your loudness goal
• Compatible with AAX, VST, AU, and RTAS/AS plug-in hosts on Mac and Windows PCs