Audiority Harmonic Maximizer is a beast of a plugin. While it might look kind of anonymous at first, the sound is something that can turn your mix on its head.
I’ve been a fan of exciters for a long time but never managed to deal with such a simple and high-quality plugin that’s also fairly light on CPU.
It’s compatible with PC and Mac (Intel and Silicon).
GUI
The interface is pretty straightforward. From left to right, you get:
- an input meter
- a Dry gain (an input knob, basically)
- six bands, each one with a gain knob and a frequency knob
- a Maximizer module with Drive (Saturation amount), Push (Maximizer amount), Blend (Dry/Wet), and Gain
- an Output meter
How I use it
I use it almost everywhere because I make excitement a solid part of my tonal shaping process.
It’s great on drums, guitars, and vocals, and it does its job on bass too!
I also use it on groups and return tracks whenever I feel like the mix is sounding a bit dull.
It’s easy to overdo this plugin because it pushes signals A LOT; however, that’s not a con per se, but an opportunity to be taken whenever you want to go extreme or exploit its sound in parallel.
The maximizer section is something not to ignore if you’re after some serious crunch or you want to increase the perceived loudness by squashing the signal in parallel.
The color it adds is something noteworthy.
Conclusion
It’s curious how I ignored the existence of this plugin for nearly six years.
This plugin has become a staple in my mixing routine pretty quickly. While it doesn’t present fancy graphics and detailed meters like other competitors, I love how it asks you just to listen while you’re tweaking it.
The only problem for inexperienced people might be understanding which band(s) they want to tweak to get the sound they’re looking for, but it’s just a matter of time.
While I don’t use them personally, there is a handful of presets that are nice to explore the nuances of this plugin.
I want to thank Luca Capozzi, who allowed me to review this plugin.
It’s impressive the number of tools he’s been putting out as a one-man band.
Here you can buy Audiority Harmonic Maximizer
