Plugged In

I’ve gotten the impression there remains some confusion amongst engineers, so let me try and help clarify something.

This is a plug-in:

Waves CLA-76

This is also a plug-in:

Universal Audio 1176

Here’s another plug-in:

Lexicon 480

Even more plug-ins:

Garth Brooks FOH

Still more plug-ins:

Church on the Move FOH

But did you know these are plug-ins, too?

They’re actually built in to this:

SSL AWS900

So these are plug-in’s, too:

You see, every time you process audio, you’re using a “plug-in”. This is because everything we use to process audio is “plugged in” to the signal path somewhere.

Take this console for example:

Soundcraft SM-20

Every single one of its chanelstrips literally plugs in to the console.

So it doesn’t matter if you use one of these:

Or one of these:

Or if you use one of these:

Universal Audio 1176

Or one of these:

They’re all “plug-in’s.”

What you should be concerned about is what comes out of these:

Or these:

Or these:

And how it sounds here:

Or here:

Or here:

In the end, what we hear is what matters.

Plug-ins are simply the tools we use. They’re hardware and software. They’re built-in and external.

Choose the right tools to do your best work and use them. Nobody in the seats is going to care what they are.