This weekend only, you can get Softube's Weiss MM-1 Mastering Maximizer for half its regular price. Wherever that plug-in is sold (Softube's own shop, Plugin Boutique, etc.) you should see the reduced price: €99 instead of €199. Or $119.19 instead of $239.59.
Anything that has the Weiss name and logo stamped on its front panel — be it hardware or software — is widely and droolingly regarded as the best of the best, the dog's bollocks. And while the MM-1 is a much slimmed-down version of the original Weiss DS1-MK3 and a plug-in that takes a lot of control and decisions out of your hands, it does give you access to some of that much-praised Weiss quality. Haven't heard or read a negative comment about it anywhere. (So I'll add a tiny one of my own: in Logic 10.4.8, running in HighSierra, the GUI of the Weiss MM-1 AudioUnit doesn't always redraw perfectly. I don't know what causes this, but the area around the five style buttons is at times a pixelated mess when you open the plugin. Other than that: bliss.)
It's a good one, I concur. I used it heavily in the mastering of my upcoming album of tv music. It's easy to use and sounds good most of the time. The styles are great and aptly named. They do what it says on the tin. For more control the DS1-MK3 should be your choice, though it's also vastly more expensive.
Do you use it as the last thing in your mastering chain?
“Many musicians get paying work based on their ability to create believable orchestral simulations. Whenever musicians get paying work, that’s a Good Thing.”
I did. Well, second last, technically. I had a brickwall limiter as the very last plugin, but that didn't do anything. So the MM1 was the last active plugin in the chain.
I tried this when it came out, and if it were not for the remarkable stupidity I've witnessed at Softube I'd own it. I have quite a few of their plugins, some of which I will not give up, but I won't spend another dollar there until they get their act together.
I was all set to let bygones be bygones this morning, they had their Spring Reverb and Tape Echo on sale, and I've tried these and they really do sound great. While poking around I received an email telling me that I was eligible for a steep discount on Volume 5. Cool. I went to the appropriate page and saw a message that I had to log in. It looked like I was logged in, but what the heck, so I logged in and returned to the page, only to be greeted by the same message.
I appreciate that they are not likely web site gurus, but this sort of thing should not happen on a commercial we site in 2021.
And this reminded my of my last go-round with them - I own a LOT of their plugins almost 3/4 of what is included in the Volume 5 bundle. And for this I get a whopping $150 discount? I don't need it to be free, but I think I've earned a better discount.
So I contacted them and was told that I was just out of luck, and maybe I should not have purchased so many of their plugins. WHAT?? When pushed further they have no way to calculate a discount for multiple purchases, so they just discount for the most expensive plugin you own.
I know they don't owe me anything, much less an attractive discount, But their lack of any concern for me, their customer, is a deal breaker.
That said, if anyone is looking for a truly wonderful modular software synthesizer you should check theirs out. I use it along side Cherry Audio, they are both great.
Thanks for the heads up on this Weiss Mastering Limiter deal.
I always heard great things about the Weiss brand, they are quite pricey plugins. Although I have quite a few high-quality Mastering Limiters already, I wonder if I still would benefit by getting this one as well ?
Amazingly good as the Weiss is, I keep being a little bit uncomfortable with these one-step mastering solutions. (Between the first one I ever owned, a hardware TC Finalizer and this Weiss, I’ve had quite a few of these tools and the biggest use I got out all of them, was that they informed me, quite brutally so, that I was feeding them poor and/or problematic mixes. And if you’re feeding them flawed mixes, these mastering magicians are utterly powerless to do anything at all, in my experience.)
If you’re really good at mixing — I’m not, but I believe I’m improving — and you have a set of quality standard tools that you know really well, you ought to be able, I think, to craft a mix that doesn’t require this type of plugin.
One thing I learned from working with these type of plugins is that you shouldn’t rely on them to make “the-difference-that-matters”. If your mix still requires the-attention-that-matters before you send it into something like the Weiss, you’re doing something very wrong, in my opinion.
I also keep believing that sample-based productions — especially when of the mock-orchestral variety —, no matter how well made, are sonically too compromised anyway to benefit in a significant way from plugins like the Weiss. Whatever improvement in sound you might get out of something like the Weiss when an orchestral mock-up passes through it, it will be superficial. (And there’s a good chance that all the problems related to working with orchestral samples will be highlighted as well.) At the risk of saying something stupidly obvious: the Weiss will perform at its best when you give it high-quality audio to work with. And anything that relies for its musical mock-identity too much on samples is, in my book at least, automatically barred from the category ‘high-quality audio’.
But of course, if you do have the skill and the tools to make really good-sounding mixes — this is really a sine qua non, as far as I’m concerned —, adding a Weiss at the end of the chain will make things sound even better, no doubt about it. It *is*, after all, a superb processor.
You can demo the thing for 14 days, if you’re interested, Sculp. (But you’ll have to decide much quicker than that of course, or you’ll forfeit the current sale price.)
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Sorry to hear about your bad experiences with Softube, Bill. Totally understandable that you’re a bit miffed.
Piet De Ridder wrote: ↑Jun 26, 2021 1:55 pm
If you’re really good at mixing — I’m not, but I believe I’m improving — and you have a set of quality standard tools that you know really well, you ought to be able, I think, to craft a mix that doesn’t require this type of plugin.
One thing I learned from working with these type of plugins is that you shouldn’t rely on them to make “the-difference-that-matters”. If your mix still requires the-attention-that-matters before you send it into something like the Weiss, you’re doing something very wrong, in my opinion.
I also keep believing that sample-based productions — especially when of the mock-orchestral variety —, no matter how well made, are sonically too compromised anyway to benefit in a significant way from plugins like the Weiss. Whatever improvement in sound you might get out of something like the Weiss when an orchestral mock-up passes through it, it will be superficial. (And there’s a good chance that all the problems related to working with orchestral samples will be highlighted as well.) At the risk of saying something stupidly obvious: the Weiss will perform at its best when you give it high-quality audio to work with. And anything that relies for its musical mock-identity too much on samples is, in my book at least, automatically barred from the category ‘high-quality audio’.
But of course, if you do have the skill and the tools to make really good-sounding mixes — this is really a sine qua non, as far as I’m concerned —, adding a Weiss at the end of the chain will make things sound even better, no doubt about it. It *is*, after all, a superb processor.
_
I agree.
Charlie Clouser: " I have no interest in, and no need to create, "realistic orchestral mockups". That way lies madness."
