It’s been a few years since I’ve done a post in this series about music production software. I’ve been more interested in learning to use a few pieces of recording hardware I’ve acquired from Overstayer in LA and studying Persian classical music of late. But – there are still some software tools that catch my ear from time to time. My favorite is from a relatively new software developer named KIT plugins in Nashville.

It’s called the BB N105 V2 Channel Strip. It is modeled on the Neve 8078 console in use at Blackbird Studios. I don’t really care about the name dropping aspect of that, but I do really really love this piece of software. If I was starting out recording on computer this would be the first plug in I would buy. It’s saturation is sublime and convincing. The EQ points are not based on the kind of rounding to the nearest ten, hundred, or thousand that most tools are. I think John McBride personally modded his Neve board to create those points, and if that’s true, he knows what he’s doing. It’s a real joy to just wander through these frequencies to boost and cut without any graphic readout to pull at your eyes, as commonly used tools like Fab Filter’s Pro Q 3 do. Almost every time, the source comes out sounding tailor made to fit the context.

I like that there’s no dynamic section on this channel strip. It keeps me focused on the preamp saturation and the frequencies, and makes things faster. Yeah man, this piece of software is the real deal – I just love it. It’s on sale for just $69.30 right now. I have not been paid to write that sentence. I will not be buying any plug ins or virtual instruments during this year’s Black Friday ruckus. I will instead be using this plugin to work on the new Folk Implosion record.

Goodbye.