T-RackS 3 – Mastering Separates
By Paul Dakeyne
| Posted in Music Technology
A recent added free bonus from the IK Multimedia team has put a smile on the face of their customers. The newly updated and re-invented T-RackS 3 Deluxe components are now available to download as separate plugs for use as individual instances in your DAW channel strips. This is cool for those, like me, who prefer a simplified workflow and may not want to use a multi-layered ‘set up’ configuration within the original Deluxe GUI. Maybe hindsight was involved over in Italy when these ‘separates’ were announced, as TR3 Deluxe was launched primarily as a Mastering solutions collection. At least now, each of the new EQ, Compressors and Limiters can be plucked out of the pack and placed in one of your ‘let’s mess around with the sound’ channel strips.
Although IK’s marketers use terms such as ‘based on’ and ‘emulating’, they’ve actually done a splendid job to justify existence alongside other Pultec and Fairchild emulations at a fraction of the cost. The ‘tube-toned’ sound I’ve managed to extract from them is pretty awesome to say the least. It’s easy to achieve a warm, smooth signal or put your ‘abuse’ head on and get some serious sonic mangling going down. IK have really raised their own bar here and with the inclusion of the original T-RackS ‘yellow’ processors plus the handy perceived loudness ‘Peak Meter’, a phase correlation tool and spectrum analyzer, it takes this software package into the higher echelons of every project and pro-studio’s wishlist. Registered users can go to their IK ‘user area’, log in and download the individual plugs for free now, or purchase them (if you’re not already a TR3 user) on a one-by-one basis depending on whichever floats your audio boat 
Tags: Fairchild, IK Multimedia, mastering plug ins, Peak meter, Pultec, spectrum analyzer, T-RackS 3