The Apogee Symphony ECS Channel Strip is a “no-fuss” and extremely powerful plugin tuned by Bob Clearmountain and is modeled after vintage '70s hardware. Expressly designed to be very quick, great sounding and simple, this powerful plugin is a “Swiss army knife” all-in-one solution.
A DAW Channel Strip, it offers multiple effects in one plugin. Included is a Vintage-modeled 3-band EQ, VCA style Compressor with Auto Makeup Gain, Drive, which offers saturation from subtle gain to warm crush, and a variable High-Pass Filter that can be swept from 20Hz to 300Hz. A Mix knob in the compressor section offers parallel Dry / Wet processing.
Wiki defines: “parallel compression is achieved by mixing an unprocessed 'dry' signal with a heavily compressed version of the same signal. Rather than lowering the highest peaks for the purpose of dynamic range reduction, it decreases the dynamic range by raising up the softest sounds, adding audible detail.” For those of you who love using parallel compression, this control is a rare option in plugin compressors, and saves you steps of having to create additional Aux returns to create parallel compression.
The EQ section is optimized for music in that both the Low and High Bands are shelf EQ’s, again the way a British EQ from the ‘70s would have been made. The Mid Band offers a switch to make the peak either Wide or Narrow. The sound of this EQ is smooth and pleasant. The additional Drive control helps to add harmonic distortion, which can bring elements of a mix forward and add some character to dull sounds.
Last, a comprehensive set of presets in the normal band categories can give you a great starting point for a sound to help make your mixing even more efficient.
For those of you who might not recognize the name Bob Clearmountain, he is one on the most respected producers in history, having mixed for Bruce Springsteen, David Bowie, The Rolling Stones, Bryan Adams, and INXS. He is the CEO of Apogee, and if he likes a piece of gear, it’s bound to be great!
Visibly resembling the Apogee hardware from the '80s, this easy to use plug-in uses simple dials in a format that encourages you to use your ears and not meters. I found the Apogee ECS to be incredibly powerful, and easy to make either subtle nuanced changes, or massive changes. What struck me is that I was able to make tracks that already sounded great, sound even better in just 10-15 seconds! Highly recommended. MSRP: $99.00
