It's no secret that the music mixing world has been overrun with insane apparent loudness.

Harsh, look-ahead limiters are the main tool for cramming as much energy in the upper dynamic range as possible. By squashing anything that approaches 0dBfs at an infinite ratio, you can essentially push your whole mix to the upper reaches so that your loudest snare drum and softest breath are competing for the same dynamic space.

The resulting sound is rather like a delicious meal...liquified in a blender. But don't breakout your straws just yet.

Massey Plug-ins has something you should try... Don't get me wrong, there's certainly an excitement that can be achieved by compressing and limiting the mix, but only in moderation. When the opening tinkles of a piano are as loud as the full band in all it's rocking glory, it can both add a cool contrast to what you might expect and seriously annoy your listener's ears. We've battled this demon over the years. Everybody wants their record to be as loud as their favorite commercially mastered CD. It's not a very fair comparison since a mastered CD has been...well...Mastered.

That means it's been optimized for playback with EQ, compression, and limiting in order to keep a comparable level from song to song. Many tools are available to help us get our levels up. Some do a great job. Some are terrible. One plug-in that I've come to enjoy using for this purpose is the Massey L2007 (www.masseyplugins.com). It operates like any other gain maximizer/limiter in that decreasing the threshold increases the apparent volume. What I love about it is that it doesn't make the upper mid-range sound harsh and the mix maintains its integrity rather than getting mushy.

I can actually crank it down and get a ton of that level that everybody seems to want without it giving me ear-fatigue. And the best part of the L2007 (and all the rest of the Massey plug-ins) is that you can download them and use them for free with NO TIME LIMIT! That means you can use it to your heart's content (minus a few features) in order to decide if it's a good purchase for you. When you decide that you love it, like I did, it's an $89 license.

How many plug-ins out there cost less than $100? In fact, you can buy every plug-in Massey has to offer for $533. I've yet to find any of the Massey plug-ins that didn't do a great job. The L2007 is one I decided to feature because it is so much better than other products I'd been using for the purpose.

These are definitely some things you'll want to checkout.