First, you’ll alter the force with which your track affects the bx_masterdesk classic processing chain with the ‘Volume’ knob. While changing the Volume knob, keep an eye on the VU meter for the dynamic range; it’s best to strive for a dynamic range of 8dB (approximate goal for music delivered to streaming services) and 6dB. (masters for really loud CDs).

Second, you’ll alter the general tone of your mix (Low End vs Treble) with the ‘Foundation’ knob; appropriately tweaking the Foundation knob will help you to produce a decent bass foundation on which you’ll build your master. ” Higher values produce a thicker bass foundation that sounds quite big in most genres”.

Third, the ‘Tone’ knob provides a selection of tones to tweak the overall sound of your track: “you should aim to make it sound close to the reference mixes and to what you are mastering”.

The ‘A, B, C, and D’ buttons, which are located adjacent to this knob, allow you to select the behavior of the underlying tone stack. With the Tone knob set to A or B, you can amplify or cut all frequencies. Setting C and D will improve the mids while reducing the lows and highs, or enhance the mids while removing the low and high frequencies.

However, there are more options that will allow you to fine-tune your signal. The ‘Compressor’ button allows you to switch between two compressor modes: Hard and Soft. These two compressor configurations, combined with TMT (Brainworx’s tolerance modeling technology), give you two different sets of stereo audio processing channels, each with different compression characteristics. “While your music is playing, listen to them and choose the one you like most”.

The ‘THD’ (Total Harmonic Distortion) knob allows you to adjust the degree of analog distortion in your analog audio gear. THD allows you to naturally regulate transients in your music, minimizing the amount of work your compressor has to do. “The default value is -60dB, but if necessary, you may easily boost it. A setting of around -45dB tightens the low end, hits the mix nicely, and provides a bit more volume for your teacher without the need to drive the signal harder to the compressor and limiter for modern pop and rock/metal music”.

The ‘Stereo Enhance’ knob allows you to enhance individual musical instruments in the stereo field, and it does so utilizing an automated intelligent equalization method. With the Stereo Enhancer, you can give your synths or guitars that extra boost and amplitude without contributing to your drums’ unpleasant booming noises or elevating the muddy areas of your reverb tails too much. This is not a basic M/S width control like many Brainworx plugins.

Stereo Enhance is a new Brainworx concept that increases the width and depth of our track in the most melodic way possible. The ‘Output Trim’ knob is the final stage in the audio chain, and it can be used to export masters that are only a few decibels below 0dB. For security concerns, masters are often delivered at -0.2dB.