Review: Master Plan from Musik Hack

Every day, we see new plugins, websites, and services that aim to replace the mastering engineer. While I don’t believe the ears and experience of a top mastering engineer will be replaced anytime soon, some of these tools can help you get better demos out and get a sense of what your tracks might sound like when finished.

They’re also great for beginners, as they remove one major barrier to getting your music out into the world.  So, how does Master Plan by Musik Hack stack up among the many other options?

Master Plan is a professional audio mastering workflow that gets you release-ready masters with simple controls: Crystal clear loudness, rich, analog saturation, phase-coherent imaging, physical tape emulation, and extra tools to fix and monitor your mix.

Musik Hack

Clean Simplicity 

The layout is very simple, with the size and order of the controls/knobs arranged purposefully. The developers want you to make broad-stroke moves first, then move on to the finer details. The smaller the control, the less they recommend you reach for it unless necessary.

Main controls

In the centre of the plugin is the large LOUD knob, which can be pushed up to 24dB. However, there are subtle markings at “recommended” points like 4 and 12 dB. Next to the LOUD knob are the Low and High knobs, which are tone controls for overall shaping. Below these are the Wide control, which gives you phase-coherent stereo depth, and the input and output trim knobs.

The output trim knob has notches at usual spots like -0.1 and -3 dB, which is a nice touch for an end-of-chain processor. Finally, there is a delay-compensated Bypass switch and an extremely useful Unity button to gain match all your processing.

Extra features

Below the main controls are some extra features, all of which are small buttons that, when active, present little sliders below for fine-tuning the amounts.

• The Thick button adds a little bit of thickening saturation.
• The Clean button cleans up the low end and low mids.
• The Multi button presents an entire multi-band compressor in three hilariously tiny slider controls.
• The Smooth button adds a tiny bit of smoothing compression.
• The Calm button helps clean up some harshness at the upper midrange and top end.
• The Tape button gives you the tape effect, especially noticeable in the lows. Push it harder for obvious tape-like saturation.

Filter section

The last of the controls to talk about is the interesting filter section. This has a series of monitoring options to let you hear the mix in various scenarios, from phones to the OG NS-10s.

Extra settings panel

There are some added features in the extra settings panel, which can be accessed from the button at the bottom right. This lets you choose between a light mode and dark mode for the UI, along with some options on how you want the blinking LEDs and stuff to react to the material. You can even turn off the frills to save on CPU usage.

There is also a whole metering section below that shows LUFS-I Integrated loudness, LUFS-S Short-term loudness, Peak, and Crest. Crest is the difference between LUFS-S and Peak, and it is a rough measure of the dynamics in your music.

Presets

The presets are divided into three groups:

• FX presets are more sound design-type presets.
• LOUD presets give you maximum loudness.
• True Peak presets let you adhere to standards and technical specs.

Overall, the UI of MasterPlan is well-designed and easy to use. The controls are well-organized and intuitive, and there are just enough interesting elements to keep it feeling alive and engaging. The extra features in the extra settings panel are also a nice touch, giving you the ability to customize the UI and metering to your liking.

Basic Moves and Rapid Results

The recommended first-time usage is to throw this at the end of your chain, put on the preset ‘Quick Master,’ and then push the main ‘Loud’ knob to achieve the required levels. I was sceptical at first. But in many cases, I was extremely happy with the results. They say you can push up to 4 dB without any noticeable distortion or damage, and this seems to be true much of the time.

All the literature that comes with the plugin talks about how “less is more”. I found this to be quite refreshing as opposed to them just saying to push it as far as you can, and it will still sound great! This gives you some confidence in the philosophy behind the design of this plugin.

There are a lot of things this plugin can actually do. The buttons at the bottom are all quite self-explanatory. They do exactly what you expect them to do. The little slider that comes below really helps you dial the amounts in. None of them get too aggressive at any point. It all stays true to the mastering theme and doesn’t alter your sources too much. ‘Thick and Tape’ gives you some colour options.

You also have some clean-up tools with the ‘Clean,’ ‘Smooth,’ and ‘Calm’ controls. They all help tame a little bit of low mids and harshness which is very welcome. The ‘Multi’ or ‘Multi-pressor’ gives you some extra control when you have a mix that needs a bit more overall shaping or fixing.

Personal Thoughts

The Musik Hack site has this interesting line at the bottom of the page: “We do not endorse the Loudness Wars. But if you do happen to get into a war, and it’s about Loudness… you will win.”.

How a mix sounds is as much about emotion as how a vocalist or instrumentalist has performed their parts. So, exercise taste and restraint while using anything on your master chain. The Low and High controls were my most used after the Loud knob, but I always wonder why the mid-range gets excluded. I’d like a knob that lets you address the low-mid and high-mid regions too. You gave us the power for a smiley curve; you might as well give us two extra bands and control over the spectrum in a more balanced fashion!

One tip I’d give to producers or mixers while using the Wide knob is to check the phase of your sources and keep them within a respectable stereo field before cranking this up to 11. If your mix already has wide sources, this will only make it lose definition and punch. The monitoring options are nice, though I didn’t find myself using them after my initial audition. But it is always good to hear your mix from different perspectives to truly understand what it is lacking or needs taming.

If you stay within the recommended levels, actually read the manual, and keep your processing conservative, Master Plan sounds great and works as it should most of the time. I was able to achieve very respectable loudness levels with minimal damage. If you push it too far, it inevitably does sound worse, like most similar tools.

Master Plan is also very similar to the God Particle by Jaycen Joshua. It’s a different flavour of the same kind of thing – a finishing tool. Master Plan gives you a lot more control, however. It’s a do-it-all box that replaces your long mastering chain with a single, high-quality plugin.

Find out more about Master Plan from Musik Hack