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Plugins are your best friend and a dangerous enemy
I've noted a tendency among a lot of DAW users: They're are more interested in graphics and mousing around with parameters on fancy GUI's than actually to listening to, what they do to the audiosignal. Joe Meek's old saying: "If it sounds right, it is right" seems to support such a simple approach to adjusting the parameters on your plugins. But is your choice of settings actually good or just easy? I say: Know your plugins!
Especially dynamic processing such as EQ's and compressors are beeing extensively marketed to be DSP-versions that are hardly distinguishable from legendary analog audio equipment. They're getting closer by the minute (this is not an outcry of "I think analog equipment sounds better") and I use plugins for mastering purposses more and more. As an example the Powercore based CL1B Tube Tech compressor is excellent as is the native SSL bus-compressor from Waves. But I only use them with moderate settings just as I doo with analog compressors and EQ's. The reason is simple: they sound better and more true to their origins.
I've seen sessions with Pultec inspired plugins gaining 10 dB here and there and compressions settings of 10:1 and a low threshold setting on an acoustic Martin D28 recorded in a great room with good microphones. The result was not in ballance with the instruments real sound, and in the mix, it sounded almost artificial. Lifting vocaltracks with a +12 dB high-shelf starting at around 5 kHz will just let you have problems with the highs of all the other sources in the mix. Putting a 5:1 compression and makeup gain on an accordion just isn't musical and it will for sure only boost those clicksounds you don't whish to be hearing.
The best way to improve sound quality is to work with the recording and the acoustics in the recording situation, but after that, you could improve the "musicality" of your mix drastically by setting your processing to more moderate settings and be more true to the sound of the program material. I'm sure that if you were using hardware, you would never use it with such insane settings, simply because they don't sound their best. By using more musically tuned settings, I think you will be surprised, how much you will hear plugins improve your results.
Especially dynamic processing such as EQ's and compressors are beeing extensively marketed to be DSP-versions that are hardly distinguishable from legendary analog audio equipment. They're getting closer by the minute (this is not an outcry of "I think analog equipment sounds better") and I use plugins for mastering purposses more and more. As an example the Powercore based CL1B Tube Tech compressor is excellent as is the native SSL bus-compressor from Waves. But I only use them with moderate settings just as I doo with analog compressors and EQ's. The reason is simple: they sound better and more true to their origins.
I've seen sessions with Pultec inspired plugins gaining 10 dB here and there and compressions settings of 10:1 and a low threshold setting on an acoustic Martin D28 recorded in a great room with good microphones. The result was not in ballance with the instruments real sound, and in the mix, it sounded almost artificial. Lifting vocaltracks with a +12 dB high-shelf starting at around 5 kHz will just let you have problems with the highs of all the other sources in the mix. Putting a 5:1 compression and makeup gain on an accordion just isn't musical and it will for sure only boost those clicksounds you don't whish to be hearing.
The best way to improve sound quality is to work with the recording and the acoustics in the recording situation, but after that, you could improve the "musicality" of your mix drastically by setting your processing to more moderate settings and be more true to the sound of the program material. I'm sure that if you were using hardware, you would never use it with such insane settings, simply because they don't sound their best. By using more musically tuned settings, I think you will be surprised, how much you will hear plugins improve your results.
Today I recommend: Fine ears when adjusting your plugins
