Hello fellow musicians,
Recently i upgraded and updated my website and i decided to start a blog. First topic that came to mind was to share 10 plugins that i think are underrated or underused but they can help you make better songs!
Here is the blog post for those who are interested: https://www.ig-music.com/10-not-so-known-plugins-that-will-help-you-make-better-songs/
Hope this will help some people or give few ideas to try new plugins to others!
Wow! Thanks! This is a useful stuff, great!
Glad i could help! 
Good summary. Now I have some more stuff to check out Thanks for sharing!
Glad you like it @MidnightSnap Next i think i will do for my 10 most used libraries for composing for AJ !
I have been reading your compilation of plugins and found it very interesting and practical. Thank you very much and congratulations Keep on it!
I would like to ask you a question. Why do you find “Levels” so useful?
As far I can understand graphics on display it is a bit tough for me to understand the information given. I mean I see it too minimalistic low resolution. Maybe there’s something I need to learn for it?
Thank you!
Hello @Octopusic!
Im glad you like my blog post
The reason i like Levels so much isnt about the graphics, its about what those graphics show you. There are too many useful things about this plugin.
First of all you have a mono button (maybe your daw has this function too) but listening and mixing your track in mono is one of the best tricks to deliever a well balanced mix.
In the headroom tab you can see the LUFS meter which as of today is the best loudness meter scale. That way you can make more informed decissions on how loud your master will be and compare it to another track measuring its LUFS units too. Also you can see the true peak on your track there.
In the stereo field you can see how wide or narrow your mix is and make informed adjustments in panning.
In the dynamics range tab you can see if your dynamics are flat or if they are all over the place and again make informed adjustments to put them in the desirable levels.
Also in the bass space you can make sure that your bass is at the right levels and it has enough space in the mix.
Lastly several platforms nowdays like iTunes, YouTube and Soundcloud. due to the endless and stupid loudness wars have incrorporated LUFS metering and they adjust the loudness of your track to suit their platforms so everything would sound at the approximatelly the same level and the listener wouldnt go crazy by listening crazy loud tracks and falsly think they are good.
In Levels you have presets to help you have the LUFS , the Stereo Balance, the Dynamic Range.for these platforms and a some other mixing and mastering presets.
So after all this information i must point out that 80% of this doesnt apply to AudioJungle. But here is the trick on how you can make this plugin work wonders for you on even AudioJungle. When you compose something find a similar track or as we say a “reference” track on AudioJungle. Listen to it and put Levels plugin on it and check its measurements. Then when you mix your track try to reach the reference track measurements and you will have a nice commercial and well balanced mix, considering that you choose a track that has many sales on AJ and it sounds good.
I would love for AudioJungle to incorporate some LUFS normalizing on its tracks and maybe releasing its ranges so as composers to make informed descissions about the loudness and the customers not be fooled by “this sounds louder, so this sounds better” flawed logic. We would make better songs and not kill all dynamics by trying to sound louder to trick customers in buying something and the customers would make better descissions in focusing on the production and the composition and not be tricked by how loud something is. I have tried to find some information about this but i havent found anything so if anyone knows something about LUFS and Audiojungle please let me know
Hope i helped!
Thank your very much @IG-MUSIC,
I have been rejected many songs here in Audiojungle for mixing/mastering issues and I understand that it is key to have good practices as you say. So i’ll be tuned for next upcoming posts in your web page.
Maybe I did a “Levels” assessment too fast and did not stop to examine it well. I have looked at the website and you are right in that it is very immediate and all in one self contained tool.