StereoChannel by Dustin Ralston.
Dustin Ralston (aka Sleepy-Time Records) has released StereoChannel and MonoChannel, two free gain-staging VST plugins for Windows.
Despite the name, StereoChannel will also work on mono tracks. You can adjust REAPER’s input/output pins if you would like to manually enable mono-mode. StereoChannel and MonoChannel will be replacements for my dBVU plugin.
StereoChannel and MonoChannel are available for free download via Reaper Forums (click here and here). Apparently, these two plugins are improved versions of Dustin’s previously released dbVU metering plugin.
I still haven’t tested these new freebies and I can’t figure out what exactly the differences between the two are (it seems that both work on mono and stereo tracks). Judging by the screenshots, StereoChannel has m/s functionality and MonoChannel has a neat little 3-band EQ.
The main purpose of the plugins still seems to be proper gain staging in-the-box. Now, gain staging in a DAW is one of those topics that are always a source of heated up threads in forums (kinda like analogue VS digital). If you want to read up on the topic, take some Aspirin in advance and start with this thread on KVR. It also includes to other notable threads about the same topic.
For me, gain staging has been quite an eye opener. I always pay attention to it when setting up a project and find it much easier to mix nowadays.
Features
Main features of MonoChannel:
- Accurate VU meter ballistics.
- Input/Output metering.
- Volume, Phase, and Mute control.
- 3-Band EQ. Low/High Shelves and Mid Peak + High Pass filter.
- Settings panel for meter LED’s.
Main features of StereoChannel:
- Accurate VU meters with Left/Right and Mid/Side modes
- Overall Input Volume
- Independent Left/Right and Mid/Side balance adjustment
- Mute Left/Right/Mid/Side, Invert Left/Right
- Center Channel Crossover
- Stereo Phase Correlation meter
- In/Out Meter
- Settings panel
Links
Download MonoChannel: click here
Download StereoChannel: click here
1 Comment
Bob Lupton
onProbably me, but I am finding the metering levels show way too hot with this. I compare it with other metering
things (Like the ToneBoosters metering and TT) and I test it against commercial CD’s that are peaking at -3 and this will show the meters as pegged. Just FYI