Forget the year of the donkey, never mind the year of the pig, 1998 will definitely be the year of the plug-in. No matter what you want to do, no matter what your budget, there are plug-ins that add functionality to whatever software you may have. But not all plug-ins are created equal.

The Round Up

First of all, I imagine that most of you are interested in plug-ins for Pro Tools, right? Well, there are plenty of them to go around. There are plug-ins to enhance your stereo image, plug-ins to make better mono, plug-ins for compressing, plug-ins for limiting, gating, EQ, surround sound encoding, digital watermarking, noise reduction, de-clicking, de-lousing, normalizing, reverberating, delaying, synthesizing, bass expanding, tube guitar amp simulation, auto conform sound to picture, aural excite, audio EDL for video, auto tune, batch process, MIDI sequencing, Focusrite, lo-fi, time compress/ expand, Doppler shift, looping, randomizing, spectrum matching, de-essing, liquefy, CD master, 3D soundfield, lip-syncing, file compression, bit reduction, breast enhancement, pitch change, spectralizing, tempo change, loudness maximizing, fidelity restoration, accordion removal, dithering, noise shaping, sound file organization, analog tape simulation, foreign file import and export, harmonizing, and aesthetic judgment evaluation.

I also consider hardware that adds functionality to be considered in the plug-in department. The Apogee AD-8000, for example, or the HUI hardware interface for Pro Tools, or the 888/24bit upgrade from the 888 or 882. These are like hot rod parts for your car. You buy the basic model, then slowly add plug-ins to transform it into the car that you really wanted. Bigger wheels with rubber band tires, a plug-in chip that enhances performance “for off road use only” and things like that.

If I am not mistaken, it was Adobe and Photoshop that started the whole plug-in fad. You could take a current photo of your wife, and make her body look like it did before the kids. Worth every penny! Some of the same companies who make plug-ins for Pro Tools, also make plug-ins for Director, Deck II, and other digital audio based applications. If you are on a budget, some of these plug-ins are actually cheaper than their Pro Tools TDM counterpart, so you can import your audio to Deck II, tweak it, and then send it back. If you have more time than money, this may be a temporary solution.

Web browsers now have plug-ins. Some of them make icons crawl around on your screen, while some allow real time playback of audio (and video) from Internet sites.

Digital consoles now have plug-ins. You can add some of your favorite EQ to the big Sony Oxford or the Neve Capricorn. You can add J.L. Cooper automation to the Yamaha 02-R, or add external MIDI controllers to change parameters that you can’t get to as easily as you want to.

Digital cameras have plug-ins. Sony has a new model that stores digital photos on floppy disks, while most of the newer ones let you plug in ATA memory cards. To take this a step further, the little ATA chip plugs in to a PCMCIA carrier so that you can then plug the memory directly into your laptop computer’s PCM slot.

Not to bypass the GPS industry, Magellan and Garmin have GPS receivers that accept plug-in cartridges adding map detail to the area of most interest to you. There is a GPS plug-in that contains the GPS coordinates of all the greasy burger stops from Maine to San Diego, however sales seem to be getting off to a slow start. My purchase of one unit doubled their sales volume for the forth quarter.

Plug-in technology has spilled over into the bath & beauty markets as well. You can plug silicone pads into your bra (girls, I notice these things), and increase cleavage. Or if that is a little too high tech, there are room deodorizer plug-ins. Maybe they will help a stinky mix! Whatever your desires, when it comes to enhancing your recordings, just remember to keep on plugin’.

P.S. No animals were used in the testing of this column, or harmed much during the testing of the various plug-ins.