Waves CLA Mixdown $29

Here
http://www.waves.com/plug...presenting-cla-mixdown

Looks and sounds pretty awesome. I've been using this technique for my mixes, lately, and with some due-diligence, this process has helped my mixes tremendously.

Apologies if someone's already posted this!
 

Expected. No point in me posting these. Thanks!

Is this new? Otherwise, it would be strange that it has no reviews given that most Waves plugins have tons. 

I think I would prefer just some tips and what emulations to use, rather than a baked preset plug-in. It's convenient I guess.

Grem
I been playing with this for a few hours. The thing is good. Really good. Subtle, but turn it off and you will hear the difference. The Glue is really nice and the Drive to me makes any distortion guitar sound great!! I used it on a rock metal song and a soft rock song. I could not find a bad setting on it. Try the demo!! $29!! It's mine!! I wonder if it will be included in the CLA Sig bundle?
 
Will you use it as a final mix fx? Probably not. But for something in a hurry to give to others or a client, band member, this is a winner.
 
 
 
[edit] Just saw this on Waves site: CLA Signature Series owners: If you purchased your bundle before July 10, 2017, check your mail for info on how to get CLA MixDown at a discount.
 
Does that mean less than $29? Hope so! :)

$14!

So answer me this, is this aimed at all mix styles or just big production pop rock?

This is also a great plugin! For those interested it is not aimed at any one particular genre at all. No plugin in fact is designed for a particular genre! I find I can use any plugin anywhere on any style.  It is more about what you do with it that counts.  And yes it is excellent on an overall mix too.
 
This is another plugin too that needs to be level calibrated.  It is set for -18 but if you are like me and work at say -14 (sometimes or -20 others) than this is 4 dB louder or 2dB softer.  The little screw on the VU meter allows you to adjust the VU reference. If you are working at any ref levels other than -18 then the VU's will not be showing accurate readings. 
 
You need to run a sine wave through the plug at your chosen ref level to set this too. (VU in Input mode) 
 
This is a rather cool set and forget overall mix type plugin.

A nice plug to get just out of the blue. With all the updates to Mercury in the last couple of years I don't think I've had a dud.

I used it on master bus for mixdown tonight.
 
The chain being if remember correctly...UAD Fairchild 670 Stereo Compressor/J37 Tape Emulation/CLA Mixdown/Focusrite Scarlett Gate/Cakewalk Adaptive Limiter in Dynamic mode/Medium Lookahead.
 
When I first tried it I felt it was a bit much, however some tweaking with only subtle tweaks like 0.5 on bass/treble, 1.5 drive, about 2 for glue it sounded better to my ears. Maybe because I have so much processing before hand I only needed to do subtle. I wouldn't pay $99 for this and be entirely happy although I think it can still teach you how to mix better. Even if the CLA mix chain is elusive and secret.
 
I had the perfect track to try it on which uses heavily amplified guitars, big drums, plenty of ambience which I seem to have needed to compress the hell out of it to stop it sounding too big. The master came out at -12.08dB RMS and True Peak of 2.46dB. My prior mixdown came out at about -10dB RMS and 4.26dB TP. Essentially it pushed the track and compressed it by 2dB on average volume.  So definitely does something even if I don't know what that is.
 

I feel some of the CLA series are a bit gimmicky although it definite adds something. On zero settings it has different tone as well but I needed to hear it actually do something other than toneshape.
 
I don't think it's a fix it plug-in however it is a big of sonic magic.
 

I got this for the low price and watched the video; in it, he says the input light should stay yellow and GR should be at around -3 for the plugin to be really working. For me, though, without pushing the input fader way up to 6 dbs, the GR barely moves and the light is only flickering yellow (the plug seems to be adding about 3 dbs to the overall level of the mix, though). I've been very careful about gain staging (I use Audio Vitamins' Structure plug on all tracks and the master, and I use both meterplug's Dynameter and Mastering the Mix's Levels plugins to mix dynamically and conservatively),  so I'm wondering if any of you know if I'm doing something wrong here? Might this be a calibration issue?

I don't know about CLA mixdown. It's like an equivalent of a health supplement where you don't know the ingredients but in true holistic faith you feel better. First thing I noticed is that In and Out on the VU Gauge isn't really telling you anything other than it's being processed. I would only pay attention to the Input and Gain stages from the plug-in.
 
Officially the EBU and all of those people behind those mystic whitepapers are using -23dB as O dB VU or indeed 0 LU. I've been looking for a metering system other than the K-Metering. With the K-System I aim or K-12 unless the genre calls for less.
 
Anyway as you were.

Jeff, thanks so much for the insight. I had no idea that Structure was calibrated so low- I had heard good things and just recently started using it to help me with gain. I guess whenever you try to find a shortcut you take a chance. I used to press my mix buss way too hard, so I've been trying to get used to mixing at lower levels and attaining a more dynamic sound versus the overcompressed stuff I've done in the past. My ears aren't what they used to be (probably in part because of my old mixing habits), so I try to use whatever tools I can to help, but it sounds like I may need to reconsider the Structure plugin- one danger sign is the very limited documentation provided for it. I will say it has helped me get better at gain staging, and it wasn't too expensive. Anyway, many thanks for this post and the many others I have read; your thoughts are truly helpful.
 
One last question if you don't mind: do you have any recommendations for test signals I could download?

Well the input and output meters tell you everything. The level entering and leaving the plugin. Once you are in the territory of calibration a 0 dB VU ref on a VU meter to a digital reference like -14, -18 or -20 then VU's all tell you a lot. They suddenly mean something.
 
Nothing wrong with pushing everything in your system way down lower level wise in order to prevent clips anywhere but also just to ease everything off and provide lots of dynamic headroom.  But you can go maybe a little too low then you are not even engaging things like CLA properly in oder for them to do what they do.  They are very level dependent plugins and you need to be very aware of what the rms level is running through any of them.
 
Test signals are very handy.  I have some links to them here from my Google drive.  These are both pink noise and a sine wave at the -20 ref level.  So for other ref levels either add or subtract gain.
 
Pink Noise file:
 
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_2Jb7O_b5BkanhGUmlTdXZzeXc/view?usp=sharing
 
Sinewave file:
 
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_2Jb7O_b5BkdjdzOHpmSzNvc1k/view?usp=sharing
 
Studio One can generate test signals.  But it is good to get them and use them for level checking purposes.  These are stereo files and best put onto stereo tracks. 
 
If you put a VU meter on these calibrated for -20 then the VU will show 0 dB VU for the sine wave and about -1 dB VU for the pink noise.  The slight level drop for pink noise is normal for this type pf signal. 
 
With CLA this signal should be about 2 dB shy of the calibrated level for -18.  So the input meter should read -2 db VU. Crank the input signal up by 2 dB to get it to 0.  The output meter should be also be showing 0 dB VU.  With music the GR for me anyway is exactly as he suggests between -2 and -3 dB all the time.  From there you fine tune the processors.  It is not magic but a simple set of processors all set up to do a certain job.  Compression and saturation etc.. It is good that you can fine tune some elements of CLA.  I like backing off the drive a little for a cleaner sound over a mix.  But with CLA on the right type of buss for example it could add some real saturation.  The tone controls are just there to fine tune your EQ as well.  Don't go mad with those.  If your mix is good they should be pretty flat. 
 
K-12 is too loud a ref level to be working at in general.  Especially for your DAW sessions.  It has the poorest headroom sound or transient sound on that front.  You also have to be on clip alert too at this ref level.  K-14 is only a little better on that but still better.  (K-14 is excellent for me as my Yamaha digital mixer is all calibrated for this level so everything is perfect inside that at -14) K-20 is excellent for transients and headroom.  Everything inside my digital mixer is now 6 dB lower.  Easy to convert a pre mastered K-20 mix up to any mastered value.  Such as K-10 for a super strong master that is still punchy.  But this is not required so much now though.  As things like iTunes will turn them down anyway.  Better to aim for a K-14 rms mastered level these days as that translates real nice to around -16 LUFS which is perfect for iTunes and many other streaming sites etc..
 
 
 
 

OK that is very good. Mastering around -12 is very nice indeed. I have found from studying some real nice Steely Dan masters at -10, can also sound pretty stellar as well.  Rather loudish though but still punchy and transient.  I rarely go higher than this now.  I use the DR meter to keep check.  I aim for a mastered rms level that shows up at least a DR of 10 or 11.
 
I have pushed for -8 on some tracks within album masters I have done only at the mercy of the client artist. Not me. I would not have done it myself.  They were chasing very loud commercial CD's.  Things like PSP Xenon have to work real hard under these conditions and I don't think we should put our limiters under that much stress.  Once you shoot for -12 or -14 as a mastered level the limiters are suddenly having a much more relaxed time.
 
Anyway I hope our friend ubershep can find his way around why he has not got enough signal rms level hitting his CLA. It is important to be going into this plugin at the right level. It is expecting it.  He has got the opposite issue.  Not enough signal level.