Newfangled Audio / Fixate: Midrange

[Piet De Ridder]

Newfangled Audio (Eventide) have released Fixate: Midrange, a mixing aid that can help with making the right decisions when it comes to evaluating the midrange of a mix (or a bus or a single track).
Fixate is obviously not the first of its kind, but it's well designed (if you feel comfortable with the Newfangled style), offers plenty of control and options, and, when used wisely, can make significant improvements to a mix. Especially if, after long hours in front of your speakers (or with your headphones on) you're not quite sure anymore if what you're doing is actually making things better.

Introduction price is $79, but you can get it a lot cheaper depending on the number of Newfangled plug-ins you already own. The regular price will be $139.




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[Markus K]

I didn't test but am curious. The knobs suggest that it doesn't only work in the low midrange where the lack of clarity matters most but als does Deharsh, and those things. I ask myself what is the difference to a normal EQ/dynamicEQ or Soothe2.
Do you think Piet it can do things you wouldn't achive with a normal EQ as well.
I could get it for 49,- so it's worth to consider.

[Markus K]

The reference functionality reminds me of Meldas AutoDynamic EQ which is great for those things.

[Piet De Ridder]

If you have a good, reliable monitoring environment, I don’t think this qualifies as an essential tool, no. But its combination of profile-based analysis — there’s a ton of profiles included and you can add your own — and the various ways in which you can control and adjust what the plug-in will be doing, plus how easy it is to check and compare things, does make it rather useful, I find. Tried it on a handful of works-in-progress and I couldn’t disagree with any of Fixate’s suggestions for improvement. Except that in a few cases it attenuated the low end much more than I prefer.

But yeah, if you’re able to use a good EQ (and/or dynamic EQ) with confidence, and you know you can trust what’s coming out of your speakers, this type plug-in doesn’t really rise above being an occasionally welcome second pair of ears.

For dealing with distracting resonances or other related problems, I tend to reach for ThreeBody’s SpecCraft first.

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