Want your songs to sound professional? You will need to get them mastered by a good audio engineer. However, studio grade mastering entails huge costs. This is where mastering VST plugins come into the picture.
Many of the best mastering plugins on our list combine all the parameters of an expensive hardware mastering console into a single VST. Plus, all of the mastering VST plugins on our list are reasonably affordable for everyone, whether you are a beginner or professional composer. So, without further ado let’s get started.
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5+ Best Mastering VST Plugins 2023
1) Eventide Elevate
A comprehensive mastering suite comprising 4 plugins, Eventide’s Elevate VST makes use of AI to offer wide ranging customizability and better control.
The 4 plugins in Elevate’s mastering suite feature multi-band limiting, saturation, EQ and maximizer so that you can create professional sounding mastered tracks in a jiffy.
For starters, Elevate can immensly reduce the chances of pumping or unwanted artifacts in your master tracks as it automatically adapts the attack, release and look-ahead parameters in each filter band.
Not to mention, Elevate comes in handy for preserving the rich transients that shape the sound of your drum tracks including snare, kick and crash/ride cymbals.
2) Izotope Ozone 11 Advanced
Izotope’s Ozone 11 VST follows the legacy of Izotope’s premium plugins that are built on a solid foundation of nearly 20-years.
Ozone 11 is an intelligent mastering VST that can add a vintage or modern vibe to your tracks, and even make them loud enough for streaming on popular platforms such as Spotify, YouTube, Bandcamp and more.
For starters, it can match the EQ of a reference track (a top 40 hit, for instance) and find a happy balance for your individual mastered track.
For powerful granular control, Ozone 11 offers two modules: while Impact module enhances the rhythm and feel of your music, Stabilizer Module comes in handy for adding Equalization, and balancing peaks.
Perhaps the highlight of Ozone 11 is its super responsive and snazzy graphical user interface that will make it easier for beginners to churn out master tracks in no time.
3) Fabfilter Pro-Q3
Fabfilter’s Pro-Q3 is a popular EQ plugin that amalgamates the best sounding digital EQ concepts to craft its own distinct sound.
Surprisingly, it doesn’t emulate any analog EQ gear (unlike many contemporary EQ plugins) and prefers to blaze its own sonic trail. It offers up to 24 EQ bands, which is frankly a bit overwhelming.
Not to mention, Pro-Q3 comes with zero latency modes, natural phase mode and linear phase mode with tweak-able latency.
As one would expect, the smooth and intuitive digital graphic user interface of FabFilter Pro-Q3 looks stunning with streamlined parameters for easy navigability.
Especially for beginners learning the ropes of audio production, Pro-Q3 is a great mastering plugin that supports stereo, mono and surround channel layouts.
4) Nugen Master Check
Considering how music is delivered across several audio/video streaming platforms nowadays with different optimal levels and such, Metering is a very critical process of mastering tracks. That’s where Nugen’s Master Check metering VST comes in.
Not only does it assist in delivering a coherent listening experience but helps in providing a clear picture of your mixed and mastered track’s peak loudness levels.
MasterCheck accurately displays what happens to your master when it is published on a streaming platform by reviewing problems with the loudness of your current mastered track.
5) FabFilter Pro-L2
Rounding up our list of the best mastering plugins is Pro-L2, another formidable VST from FabFilter.
Renowned for its transparency and loudness potential, FabFilter’s Pro-L2 is a true peak limiter VST that comes with detailed metering options so you can dial in the right specs based on what the Pro-L2 tells you.
If you are looking for a quality mastering limiter that can ensure professional grade loudness of your mastered track(s), look no further than the Pro-L2.
A low-CPU usage plugin, Pro-L2 offers up to 32x linear-phase oversampling, true-peak limiting, 8 distinct limiting algorithms (each with independent character) and a real-time level display.
