Become your own mastering engineer with just a few clicks with yet another wonder tool from Brainworx.

• Developed by Brainworx, and available exclusively for UAD hardware and UA Audio Interfaces, the Brainworx bxmasterdesk Classic is proof positive that mastering software doesn't need to be complicated to be effective. Built on the same high-end analog mastering chain as its big brother, the bxmasterdesk plug-in, the Brainworx bxmasterdesk.
• The bxmasterdesk doesn’t stop there, though, and is loaded with a variety of additional features including a high-quality de-esser, the acclaimed brainworx M/S features including Mono-Maker and Stereo Enhance, and a THD control for adding tasteful saturation to your masters.

by Alex Arsov, May 2020

Brainworx bx_masterdesk gives us one brilliant hack. As all great mastering engineers say: mastering should just be slight tweaking and balancing the mix, making everything more prominent. That’s exactly what this tool does. The problem comes if you are not at least a solid mixing engineer or producer. If your mixes have an issue with leveling, being too bass-heavy, or if an instrument sticks out, basically not balanced in some way, this plugin can’t fix that. Of course, there is a tool inside bx_masterdesk for adding or reducing low end and even targeting common weak points in a frequency range. Also, it can do wonders for the high end, and the end result can really sound heavenly. But still, if your mixing skills don’t allow you to spot your weak points, don’t expect this plugin to fix it by itself. It is not a magic wand, it’s a tool. It’s great for anyone who knows at least a bit about what they are doing. If you’re not one of those people, you can still try it, and in most cases, you will get decent results, but some bigger imperfections won’t get cleaned up. Just saying.

Very pleased with final set of Grand Piano VI(s) after months of evaluation, comparison. Need advices for preferred FX, on Master Track, for just solo Grand Piano. Have tried mainly Consoles so far: PA bxconsole Focusrite SC ( Grand Piano Preset ), Lindell 80 Bus, bx Masterdesk, bx. The creation of Brainworx owner Dirk Ulrich, bxmasterdesk gives you a high end analog mastering system in a single TMT plugin. Containing every component you need to create professional results, bxmasterdesk allows you to master your own material with a minimal learning curve. Masterdesk’s strong point is its simplicity, it doesn’t take much learning for you to polish a mix ‘till it’s proper. Brainworx bxmasterdesk is available as a 64-bit VST2/VST3 for Mac and Windows. This masterful desk will cost you $299 (right now it’s on sale for 1/4 the price). Find out more about Brainworx bxmasterdesk here.

Other than that, bx_masterdesk does an excellent job. It is easy to use: just turn the knob left or right and you’ll hear the difference immediately, knowing exactly where you are. Actually, it is one of those rare tools where it’s really hard to go wrong, but you really need a good pair of speakers to know if you are actually improving things or making them worse. Again, just saying.

One way or another, it’s a tool that almost anyone can master in less than five minutes (master … get it?). Everything on the graphical interface is straight forward and easy to understand. So let’s go through the whole process.

What Do We Get?

First of all, you will probably start with the big volume knob on the left to set the output level that automatically adds compression if needed. If you are somewhere around seven on the VU meter showing dynamic range, then you are on the right path. The next big knob, on the right-hand side of the main graphical interface, and is called Foundation. Tweak it clockwise to add more attention to the low end, or counter-clockwise to add a bit more high end – until you find the sweet spot. The next focus of attention depends on your taste. I would go to the Output Trim knob, below the Volume knob, setting it to 0.5 dB or similar, preventing peaks from going above zero. Then we have four TMT Compressor Mode buttons for choosing between the levels of compression, the first being the heaviest and the fourth the lightest. Again try all four and you will hear which one should be your choice. All those knobs and buttons do make a difference so you will not be tweaking something that only skilled mastering engineers can hear – it should be quite obvious. Under the compressor section, you can find two buttons that I usually don’t touch: Compressor Link and Limiter Turbo. The names say it all. You can always try them out and see if it sounds better, otherwise, pass.

OK, now we should nail the details. Of course, this is an area where you can ruin everything, but the safest way to find what works and what doesn’t is to simply drive the knobs from one extreme to the other and then, when you’ve figured out where it sounds better, just turn them back slightly until you get the balance. Of course, we are talking about the equalizer section, about bass, mid, treble and presence knobs, where the feeling is everything. A little less complicated is to set the knobs inside the mono/stereo section at the bottom right, where you can play it safe by setting the Mono Maker to around 70 to 90 Hz and tweak the Stereo Enhancer knob until you start to dislike it. Things become a bit more tricky at the bottom left where you can tame some issues in problematic low or high areas by turning a knob at the predefined trouble frequencies and somehow make them less clear and prominent. On one quite problematic song, I managed to make the lows less moody, and with this 6666 high area, I tamed a quiet buzzing high end, allowing me to add more treble and presence without it sounding annoying and all over the place. With the solo knob, it is quite simple to hear what are you are doing in this area and it really helps to focus on this Resonance Filter section. With or without this section, the end result is here. And how does it sound?

The Final Result

I’m impressed with the result, as the high end sounds pleasant even if you push it quite hard. This is something that usually happens when you drive sounds through analog gear, so, it looks like Dirk from Brainworx has nailed this one. Also, the sound, in general, is really good, containing a nice presence and a balanced low end. The advertising material states that bx_masterdesk emulates some high-end hardware mastering components, bringing them under the same roof. True, not true, who really cares! The end result really sounds balanced, containing depth and focus, and I have to admit, even comparing it with some other mastering plugins it stands out. The Resonance Filter section even cleaned up some frequency issues in my songs, something that I was obviously not able to fix by myself in the mixing process, making the result sound cleaner, with good definition, and making instruments sound more in focus. All in all, it is easy to use and gives superb results with just a few tweaks. Regarding the things I wrote about at the beginning, it would be nice to have some sort of analyzer to show you if something is really wrong with your mix in the first place. But let’s face it, there are a zillion analyzers around, so I presume you are already working with one.

I think it is worth every penny – but don’t listen to me! Download the 14-day unlimited demo and see for yourself.

Essential for: Ultra easy to use, gives excellent results.

The new bx_masterdesk is one of those plug-ins I struggle with. That isn’t because it isn’t good, actually it’s worryingly excellent. No, the reason I’ll always struggle with plug-ins like this is that it doesn’t suit me. However, as we know we are all different and that is what makes life interesting.

The issue I have with bx_masterdesk is that I’m more preoccupied than most about how things work. The way I see it there are two alternative responses to an engineer turning a knob and the track suddenly sounding better:

Some people will go “wow, that’s better, which knob did you turn?” The obliging engineer says “oh this one here”. Armed with the knowledge of what happened and how to do it again (maybe even turn that knob further and see how that sounds?) this first person gets on with finishing their track.

I however would start putting test tones through the magic knob, nulling it against a dry duplicate track and inspecting the results on an analyser. At the end of this I’d have a pretty good knowledge of what the magic knob did and why it sounded cool.

However my track wouldn’t be finished and by this point I’d probably be experimenting with multiple parallel paths with different settings, and still not getting my track finished…

People Should Use A Mastering Engineer

So back to bx_masterdesk. This is a clever plug-in. Though not because of what it does, but because it addresses the way most people use audio software. The standard script runs thus: You shouldn’t master your own material, you should pay a mastering engineer to do it because they have the monitoring, processing, experience and most importantly a fresh perspective with which to do the best possible job.

Bx_masterdesk Plugin Alliance

But the truth is that people do self-master. Even people who do employ a mastering engineer only do so for some of their mixes, and then only for the final version. I suspect that there are very few people who haven’t already done a quick reference master which they then have to roll back from before sending something off to a mastering house.

This brings us to tools. I’ve jokingly described giving a multi-band compressor to a novice producer as being like giving a sharpie to a toddler. They might do something good with it but…

More Harm Than Good?

So is it helpful for the person who absolutely shouldn’t be mastering the track - the person who probably wrote, performed and mixed it, who possibly is a musician by training rather than an engineer, to use extremely powerful mastering plug-ins when mastering their own tracks? Might it not be more constructive to design some tools which present the user with a limited set of choices which have been designed by people with the experience to offer enough choices to the user to shape the track to their taste but, and here’s the clever bit, to make sure that all the choices offered are good ones?

This is what bx_masterdesk does. It is a mastering processor for people who don’t do mastering. It offers a limited control set, adequate but not bewildering metering and, most importantly of all, it’s very difficult to make it sound bad. There aren’t many details available about exactly what it’s doing under the hood but I understand that many of the controls are controlling multiple parameters and because of this can act as a helpful safety net preventing the user from going too far.

Meters

Instantiated on the master, bx_masterdesk presents a dynamic range meter calibrated in dB. Similar to the crest factor of the music - the difference between the loud and the soft. This meter is helpfully colour coded with a green target range of between 8 and 6dB. In the example mix in this article the loud sections are right in the middle of this green zone with the sparser sections falling just outside at about -9dB. With the switchable IO meters on the right with an averaged DR value these meters give just enough information without correlation meters or RTAs providing extra distraction.

Controls

For the most part the controls are self explanatory. To drive the process harder raise the volume, to trim the output back (particularly important as this plug-in doesn’t have automatic gain compensation) pull the output trim back. THD allows harmonic distortion to be dialled in independently of the volume settings and the slightly cryptically named “Foundation” is a tilt EQ style filter allowing the timbre of the track to be adjusted toward extra darkness or brightness.

In a nod to guitarists the EQ is presented as a guitar amp tone stack with a row of cut and boost knobs for bass, middle, treble and presence. Further along this row are the mandatory M/S controls, this is a Brainworx plug-in after all, the mono maker which excludes the bottom end from the widener, and the clever Stereo Enhance control which clearly does more than just push up the level of the sides channel.

Bx Masterdesk Vst Torrent

The two “resonance” filters credit some explanation. They offer cuts at four preset frequencies which commonly need taming, listening with the the Auto Solo engaged might suggest these are boosts, particularly as they are called resonance filters but these are actually dips at those frequencies. I initially thought these were resonant filters when actually they are filters for taming “resonances”.

The four compressor modes offer progressively gentler settings for an unspecified compression setup. 1 being most aggressive. This compressor can be stereo linked or not using the appropriately named Stereo Link control. The Limiter Turbo switch changes the threshold, ratio and ceiling settings allowing a hotter master but interestingly most of the volume gained through driving this plug-in hard comes from the compressor. The limiter is not the most significant part of this plug-in.

bx_masterdesk In Use

This is easy. It goes against every fibre of my being but it is just a case of instantiate the plug-in. Turn up the volume so the meter is in the green, tip the Foundation control to taste (I found anything outside of the 11 o’clock to 1 o’clock range too much), adjust the tone and width controls and audition the compressor settings by dialling it in using the mix knob. There are filters and THD controls if you like what they do but that really is about it.

The Sound

This thing sounds good. The tone controls do what their labels suggest in an appropriate and benign way. You can't get tear-your-face-off top end or crazy bass but you can always hear clearly what it is doing. The compressor is unspecified but it sounds not unlike a typical bus compressor and does the 'bounce' off the back of the snare in a rock mix that I associate with the particular bus compressor it reminds me of. The other star of the show is the Stereo Enhance which does good, mono compatible widening without changing the level. Like good hardware, bx_masterdesk colours the mix just by being there, without any settings dialled in.

So does this sound good? Yes it does.

Bx Masterdesk Mastering Chain

Audio Example

In the examples above I have an unprocessed premaster and the same mix with moderate processing applied using bx_masterdesk. Both have been level matched by ear. For me the most significant part of this test isn't the results as much as the time it took to achieve them, this was set up from the default patch in under two minutes and without the level matching against the original would be ready for streaming without incurring a significant loudness penalty from the major online platforms.

Worryingly Excellent

Bx Masterdesk Vst Download

And back to my opening statement, bx_masterdesk is indeed “worryingly excellent”.

Bx Masterdesk Vst Plugin

It’s worryingly excellent because, as a well known rock and roll photographer told me when talking about taking pictures. “The difference between a professional and a lucky amateur isn’t who takes the best picture, it's whether they could do it again”. With bx_masterdesk your drummer could do as good a master as your engineer and because of this plug-in, they could probably do it again!