Praisetracks: My Top Five Effects

Simeon Amburgey, the joyful personality behind PraiseTracks, has spent more than 45 years sharing his musical gifts across the U.S. and around the world. Known for his uplifting energy and musical versatility, he has served as a pianist and accompanist for soloists, vocal groups, and Christian artists – including over two decades with Grammy and Dove Award-winning artist Larnelle Harris. Through PraiseTracks and his growing YouTube channel, Simeon offers encouragement, guidance, and inspiration to musicians, and producers, while showcasing the latest virtual instruments and music production tools.

“Hello, this is Simeon Amburgey from PraiseTracks.com. Most of you might know me as your tour guide for Joyful Journeys on my YouTube channel. 
Although you see me primarily working with the latest virtual instruments, off camera I dedicate significant time to music production and arranging. I wanted to share some of the plugins that I tend to turn to first in my process and workflow.”

You can learn more about Simeon and the ministry of Sound Creations, Inc. by visiting his website.

1. Universal Audio LA-2A Tube

Now on Plugin Boutique, LA-2A Tube is a go-to compressor for warmth, and immediate vocal control

“Compression for me is essential, especially useful when working with vocals. You want them to be up front and sit just right in your mix. While I have used other LA-2A compressor plugins before, I had a very interesting experience when I was able to download the UA LA-2A compressor during a free promotion.”

“I had known Universal Audio from their hardware audio interfaces and a history with dedicated processors and DSP. They had just started releasing their plugins natively for Windows and MacOS, so the prospect of experiencing them was very exciting.”

“When I first put it on a track, there was an immediate sense of warmth and openness that seemed to have been missing using other emulations. True to their hardware roots, one of the best features of the LA-2A is the simplicity. Being able to adjust the settings to get to where you need to go helps you get going right away; straight forward and right to the point.”

“You can get a sense of connection where you can watch as each adjustment is bringing the track together through the metering. Having that old school feel helps pull you in as you use your eyes and ears in getting the track to sit just right.”

“Needless to say, this was not my last Universal Audio plugin.”

 

2. Wavesfactory Trackspacer

Wavesfactory Trackspacer is on Plugin Boutique – the secret weapon for carving space and letting every instrument shine.

“Another challenge is multiple tracks that want to compete for the same space. It can be very challenging and a necessity to keep your arrangements from getting too busy and not having the definition you need. Being able to give each track its own space on the frequency spectrum opens things up in ways you can hear.”

“Recently, when doing an instrumental project, Trackspacer was very helpful in getting things where they needed to be. I set up an instrumental mix and then had the soprano sax feed into the sidechain of Trackspacer to help carve out a cozy place for the sax to sit and shine.”

“Trackspacer provides focused controls for dialing in the right mix of the intensity of the frequencies that are being cut, as well as a great Mid/Side option to help target things even more. You can make the amount of frequency dip large or small, even adjusting how much of the frequency space you want to carve out; you can truly go deep and wide.”

“One thing to remember is that sometimes small changes create big results, so having the ability to hear what Trackspacer is doing in creating that frequency space is very helpful. I sometimes tend to start with working at an extreme setting first and then backing things down until as Goldilocks often said, ‘it’s just right’.”

 

3. Baby Audio Smooth Operator

You can grab Baby Audio Smooth Operator at Plugin Boutique – perfect for smoothing out those problem tones that poke out and disrupt your mix.

“Earlier I mentioned making space for your tracks, well that is only part of the story. This might resonate with some of you, but have you ever walked into a room and when talking or going around you notice that the room sometimes brings out certain notes or a tonal quality in your voice, well while interesting, that can introduce a lot of negative energy into your tracks.”

“Smooth Operator Pro’s job is to help you manage those rogue frequencies that stick out like a sore thumb. Frequencies that, like a childhood bully, tend not to get along with others, Smooth Operator Pro is the peacemaker.”

“In times past, I would tend to use an EQ plugin and do the tried and true ‘boost, sweep, and cut’ technique in an attempt to find those frequencies that stand out. In vocals especially, a particular singer might have a nasal characteristic and another a boomy quality that does not flatter the vocal. Targeting those areas is essential.”

“This approach is not exclusive to vocals but carries over into every instrument in your project. While I use Trackspacer in a broader application, Smooth Operator Pro helps me be a little more surgical when carving out the right frequency homes for my tracks.”

“Smooth Operator Pro provides many track specific presets that can help kickstart things. Once you get started you can fine tune and analyze how each instrument relates and affects the other.”

“Growing up when my brother and I would get into a disagreement my mother would most always try to separate us and have us go to different locations in the house. Well, Smooth Operator Pro can do something similar when two tracks are just not getting along. Using its Sidechain feature, you can route one track to control how much of the shared frequencies are removed so that each track can make way for the other. It’s a great way to preserve harmony in your mixing environment.”

“You can immediately hear when instruments are stepping on each other, as a matter of fact you might not even be able to hear them at all seeing that everyone is trying to occupy the same space. When you start to open things up by giving everyone their proper frequency space, then you can never unhear it. You will notice a definition and clarity that will start to rise out of your productions.”

 

4. Universal Audio Pure

For an authentic plate reverb that brings vocals and instruments to life you can grab Universal Audio Pure Plate at Plugin Boutique

“This was a difficult choice to make in selecting a single reverb for this list, but more times than not Pure Plate Reverb is sitting in an effect send. Just imagine having to manage a hardware device weighing in at several hundred pounds and needing its own dedicated room in a studio. Now you have an equivalent living inside of your computer, it is wild when you think about it.”

“When dealing with instruments and vocals recorded in an isolated space, and virtual instruments that sometimes are not even in a physical space, having a reverb is the perfect way of placing them into a space together. One of the defining characteristics of the plate reverb is the complex signature it can place on vocals and drums, giving them that sparkle and space. With Pure Plate you can adjust the size or the reverb decay time to go from short snappy ambiences when working with instruments like drums, snares in particular, all the way to longer times that help a vocal feel lush and lost in a seemingly larger performance space. It is good to use several instances on different instruments as each one might require a different reverb time as well as adjusting the equalization to create the best results.”

“I work in a couple of different ways as I can have the plugin in a single track’s effects bin or when I am working with multiple instruments or a background vocal ensemble, I will create an auxiliary bus in my DAW and send the individual track there. Doing this helps to bring all the individual instruments together in a shared space.”

“One thing to remember is that plate reverbs are only one of the many options you have for reverbs. There are chambers, algorithmic, convolution, spectral, and more. Your choice starts first with the type of track you are dealing with and the sound and emotion you are trying to achieve. The sky is the limit.”

 

5. Ozone 12

To achieve that perfect balance of loudness and dynamic range in your projects, try Ozone 12, available from Plugin Boutique

“You’ve finished your arrangement and are ready to release it to streaming platforms, but there’s still one crucial step left: mastering – a word that often causes anxiety and uncertainty for many.”

“I have an interesting history with the mastering process going all the way back to the start of the loudness wars that seemed to have been ignited by the now infamous TC Electronic -finalizer, which was a hardware unit whose sole purpose of existence was to make your final mix as loud as possible. In the wrong hands it could take a perfectly good mix and make it where you almost did not recognize it from the original, but in the right hands it could bring out some magical moments. That was how I felt when I was fortunate enough to try iZotope’s very first version of Ozone!”

“Imagine having all the power of a mastering engineer inside of a simple to use plugin. The unforgettable green laboratory atmosphere of the first version projected a sense of mystery and an expectation that you too could be a wizard at mastering.”

“Fast forward to today and we are up to version 12 and have Ozone Advanced, which feels like going from Orville and Wilbur to a Concorde! The newly updated assistant tools are great to get you to a good starting point, but believe me it will not just do all the work for you. Each module has a specific strength that can help you craft a dynamic and beautiful sounding master.”

“I spend a lot of time with the maximizer to help get the last stage of balancing loudness and dynamic range tight. I use some of the recommendations from the assistant in learning where to start with the overall gain to achieve a specific loudness and then watch to not squash things too much, which would destroy what you have worked so hard on.”

“I have been experimenting with “Soft Clipping”, which has been shown to help mixes come through more dynamically, especially when listening on mobile devices and other non-traditional mediums. Similar to other modules in the Ozone suite, you have the ability to listen to the “delta” signal to determine exactly how an effect is influencing your track.”

“My advice is that if you have the resources to hire a mastering engineer that is sometimes best, as we all get very close, sometimes way too close to our music. But, for me personally I have found using tools like the Ozone Advanced Suite gives me the opportunity to learn and myself and my clients have been very pleased with the results I have been getting.”

 

Parting Words

“I hope you enjoyed looking at some of the tools I use in my workflow. I have found that having a one size fits all mindset never works, as you always need to be open to experimenting and discovering new ideas. However, you want to make sure you are using the right tool for the job. Imagine using a hammer on a screw, it would be quite frustrating. I wish you success in your sonic adventuring and would love to see you come along with me on my next Joyful Journey. Until then, this is Simeon, reminding you to Stay Joyful!”