This steampunk-inspired plug-in certainly lives in its own world. Featuring “super rad steampunk GUI because traditional gear is lame and is for nerds,” opening up the STEAMDRIVER is a glimpse into a film about crazy equipment that can destroy sounds, and that’s exactly what this plug-in can do. In some ways, I feel an over-the-top plug-in like this is in response to how dull many of the sources we get sent to mix are. Between virtual instruments and cheap microphones, there are times when over 75% of my mix time is spent trying to add some excitement to most of the tracks. Designer and Mixland head, Jesse Ray Ernster [Tape Op #151], is a pro mix engineer, and I’ll bet, like myself, many of the songs he’s sent to mix feature some less-than-compelling sounds.
With virtual representations of a compression piston on the left, an electro-shock chamber to the right, and a tone shaping Victrola horn at far right, one might get the idea that these controls are not normal. They aren’t, but the focus seems to be to force the user to really listen to what they are doing. I know I did! Distracted by the Victrola horn’s steam belching, or the zeppelin cruising across the screen? Animations can be turned off!
Does this plug-in just look cool, or does it work? It works. Applying it to a boring sampled drum part opened up sounds that will allow me to now turn down the track, as it will sit in the mix in a better way yet be audible. A tame acoustic guitar began to sound like it was tracked to cassette. Ebow guitars turned into trumpets with enough saturation and tone bending. A sparse (real) piano part transformed into a much more present creature; I can envision using STEAMDRIVER a lot on piano. And electric bass guitar? Maybe it was built for that alone!
Despite STEAMDRIVER’s scary GUI and aggressive name, with a bit of restraint, the VCA-modeled compression can be a lifesaver for an overly dynamic vocal take, holding the words in place quite nicely. I did try it over an entire mix, and maybe with some further tweaking I could have made it somewhat useful, but in general, this plug-in is on the overt side, lending itself better to spicing up tracks or buses.
With many of these current mix engineer-designed plug-ins, we get a little glimpse into what these mixers are looking for and doing, and they get a tool that helps them do their own job faster and more efficiently. Based on some “secret pieces of gear that hadn’t been modeled yet,” STEAMDRIVER is a radical and fun new plug-in that can help us all open up interesting sounds and, maybe, get our mixing done quicker. Unless we’re distracted by all the steam and airships, that is.
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