LANDR Mastering Plugin Reviews: Why These Industry Pros Love the New Plugin

From LANDR
LANDR Mastering Plugin Reviews: Why These Industry Pros Love the New Plugin

The reviews are in, LANDR Mastering Plugin is a smash hit with producers all around the music world.

Since LANDR dropped its new AI-based mastering plugin a few weeks ago, we’ve heard back from publications like Sound on Sound and Music Radar, and from big producers like Reid Stefan and Make Pop Music who are loving the new cutting-edge tool.

Best of 2023?

Plugin Boutique loved LANDR Mastering Plugin enough to nominate it for most innovative plugin of 2023.

LANDR Mastering Plugin is taking AI mastering into a new era by offering producers more control than ever, directly in their DAW.

There’s no one else that has ported cloud-based AI mastering into a native DAW plugin quite like LANDR has. Just ask our users—86% of them say the plugin is “totally” simple to use!

Now’s the best time to pick up the sweet new plugin, especially because it will be on sale until the new year.

Grab it for 25% off and bring LANDR’s legendary online mastering tool directly to your DAW.

Not convinced yet? Here’s what the pro audio community is saying about LANDR Mastering Plugin.

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LANDR Mastering Plugin is on sale for a limited time

1. Sound on Sound’s LANDR Mastering Plugin Review

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Sound on Sound is the pre-eminent industry magazine for music producers.

“With all material, I found the EQ and Presence controls useful, usually adjusting for personal taste rather than to correct any perceived ‘problems’.” - Matt Houghton, Sound on Sound

It’s the trusted voice for everything music production—its editorial covers modern techniques and technology for mixing and mastering.

In its December edition, Sound on Sound writer Matt Houghton covered LANDR Mastering Plugin at length.

He discusses LANDR’s decade-long history and status as the industry leader in AI mastering, the controls and features of the plugin and his overall impression of its results.

Houghton is clearly impressed saying “With all material, I found the EQ and Presence controls useful, usually adjusting for personal taste rather than to correct any perceived ‘problems’.”

And that, “All in all, I have to say that I have been hugely impressed by the LANDR Mastering Plugin. It’s quick and easy to use, the results are generally of a very decent quality, and it offers useful tweakability.”

Curious about what else Sound On Sound had to say about LANDR Mastering Plugin? Check out the article!

“A solution for the sort of self-recording, self-publishing artist
 in an age where they also need to feed the social media, PR beast 24/7—people who often haven’t the time or budget to have everything they put out mastered professionally. For people like that, this plug-in could be a revelation.” Matt Houghton, Sound on Sound

2. Music Radar – Mastering your music couldn’t be easier with the new LANDR Mastering Plugin

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Music Radar calls itself the number one music website for musicians, and for good reason—it’s the go-to site that covers everything new in music production, especially gear and software.

So, we were proud to receive a glowing review from Music Radar writer, Matt Mullen.

In the article, he praises LANDR for moving toward a DAW-based mastering plugin saying that “in [Music Radar’s] opinion, this is a great move
 we find it much easier than uploading tracks to LANDR’s browser-based service.”

“We've given the plugin a run for its money and can confirm it does an excellent job with everything we've thrown at it.” - Matt Mullen, Music Radar

3. Mix – LANDR Mastering Plug-in – A Mix Real-World Review

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"I found the LANDR Mastering plug-in extremely easy to work with." - Mike Levine, Mix

After taking LANDR Mastering Plugin through its real-world review process, Mix is singing the plugin’s praises.

Reviewer and author Mike Levine, is clearly impressed with the plugin, giving it a solid run down and highlighting the quality of master it was able to produce in the review.

"I rarely had an occasion where I wanted to make an adjustment that wasn’t available on the plug-in. When I needed to, I inserted an appropriate plug-in before LANDR Mastering." - Mike Levine, Mix

In the article, he outlines his experience mastering several genres including rock, country, acoustic instrumental, and electronic dance music.

Levine also discusses how the plugin’s parameters helped him dial in an appropriate sound and achieve his desired loudness levels.

Overall Levine seems impressed with LANDR Mastering Plugin’s performance, giving it a strong recommendation for producers of all types.

"If you’re producing a lot of music and don’t have the budget for hiring a mastering engineer on every project, an investment in the LANDR Mastering plug-in will pay for itself quickly." - Mike Levine, Mix

3. Reid Stefan – Master 3 Genres with 1 Plugin 

Watch your favourite producer puppet master a sweet Karra track with LANDR Mastering Plugin.

Watch your favourite producer puppet master a sweet Karra track with LANDR Mastering Plugin.

Everyone’s favorite music producer puppet, Reid Stefan, is also singing the praises of LANDR Mastering Plugin.

In this video, he goes through the features of the plugin and showcases his favorite settings for generating convincing masters for Dance, Hip Hop and Pop genres.

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"I love how LANDR has taken AI mastering and brought it back into the DAW which is personally where I prefer my mastering chain to be."- Reid Stefan

4. Make Pop Music – This Plugin Makes Mastering SUPER SIMPLE (Mastering 3 Genres)

Austin Hull takes us through his mastering process for three genres with LANDR Mastering Plugin

Austin Hull takes us through his mastering process for three genres with LANDR Mastering Plugin

Make Pop Music’s Austin Hull is now a big fan of LANDR Mastering Plugin. In this video, he goes through his mastering process for three genres—alt-pop, hip hop and stadium pop.

Hull shares his reasons for adjusting the settings to suit the genres he’s working on and showcases how much of an impact the plugin can make on an unmastered track.

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“It’s really cool that you can use this in tandem with your mixing process
 this gives you basically infinite flexibility because you can keep changing it until your mix is finalized.” - Austin Hull on LANDR Mastering Plugin’s workflow

5. Creative Sauce – NEW! LANDR DESKTOP Mastering Plugin!

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Creative Sauce is a new fan of LANDR Mastering Plugin, as well. In his video, he goes through all the main features of the plugin, sharing how they can be used to master any track.

See how the loudness knob, styles settings and gain matching all work together to produce best possible, professional-sounding version of your tracks.

6. White Sea Studio – What is the BEST MASTERING PLUGIN?

White Sea Studio doesn't pull punches when talking about mastering tools. Check out their take on LANDR Mastering Plugin.

White Sea Studio doesn't pull punches when talking about mastering tools. Check out their take on LANDR Mastering Plugin.

It’s official—LANDR Mastering Plugin is NOT snake oil!

In fact, when it comes to AI mastering that gives you some control, LANDR Mastering is White Sea Studio’s recommended plugin.

"This is actually really capable of doing some really great stuff—however it's not very geeky, it’s in the middle between easy-to-use and amount of control that you’re getting.” - Wytse Gerichausen, White Sea Studio

If you know White Sea Studio, you likely appreciate host Wytse Gerichausen for his incredibly straightforward and honest reviews of music production gear and plugins.

In his video, White Sea Studios accurately categorizes mastering tools into four distinct categories:

  • Old-fashioned tools that use no AI,
  • Browser based AI-tools with zero settings,
  • AI-mastering plugins that offer some controls
  • Advanced mastering plugins with tons of control for pro-audio engineers.

We’re proud to be included in White Sea Studios’ comparison of LANDR Mastering Plugin to manual mastering tools, a very minimalistic AI tool and a much more complex mastering plugin from iZotope.

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“I think it’s very well possible to create an industry-standard, radio-ready, streaming ready—whatever you want to call it—master with the LANDR Plugin” - Wytse Gerichhausen, White Sea Studio.

7. Help Me Devvon – Stop Ruining Your MASTERS TRY THIS

This is a great tutorial that dives into everything the plugin has to offer.

This is a great tutorial that dives into everything the plugin has to offer.

Looking for an in-depth breakdown of everything LANDR Mastering Plugin has to offer?

This excellent tutorial-style video dives into every feature that comes with the plugin—showcasing how well the tool works.

Devvon dives into every aspect of the plugin’s control panel, giving a detailed look at its gain matching, loudness, EQ, presence, stereo field, de-essing, compression and saturation tools.

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It’s kind of like having a mastering engineer by my side—saying ‘how would you master it?’, going ‘okay I kind of like what you did’ and then tweaking those parameters.” - Help Me Devvon

8. Zane Smith – Landr Mastering Plugin – How To Master A Song Quick & Easy

The seasoned audio engineer gives his take on LANDR Mastering Plugin.

The seasoned audio engineer gives his take on LANDR Mastering Plugin.

Here’s another great review of LANDR Mastering plugin from Zane Smith over at Audio Tech TV.

If you’re looking for a nice breakdown of how LANDR Mastering Plugin works and how it’s best used to master rock and alternative music, this is a great video to check out!

9. Ozone 11 Vs Landr Mastering Plugin: Which Is Best For You???

Here's a great shoot out between LANDR Mastering Plugin and Ozone 11 Advanced from Simulation Beats.

Here's a great shoot out between LANDR Mastering Plugin and Ozone 11 Advanced from Simulation Beats.

If you’re curious about the differences between Ozone 11 Advanced here’s a solid shootout between the two plugins by Simulation Beats.

In the video, Simulation Beats points out that LANDR is clear leader in the AI Mastering domain—the simplified AI version of Ozone 11 just doesn’t hold up when compared to LANDR Mastering Plugin.

Of course, Ozone 11 Advanced does offer a ton of control inside of its deeper settings.

So for professional applications, or if you have time to learn how its many settings work, you can generate a great master with the plugin.

However, LANDR Mastering Plugin is the better choice if you’re looking for quick, hassle free masters that still offer a decent amount of control and sound great.

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"LANDR Mastering Plugin does a very good job of keeping things simple and not overcomplicating things... if we're going off of just AI mastering here, I think it wins 10/10 times." - Simulation Beats

The verdict is in

LANDR Mastering is the must-have plugin for any producer looking to master music directly in their DAW.

The plugin generates impressive results, without sacrificing control. You really can get a custom master, with tasteful finishing touches made by AI.

If you’re looking to master your music and finish your tracks with a professional-sounding polish and shine, LANDR Mastering Plugin is the only plugin you need in your arsenal.

Alex Lavoie

Alex Lavoie works as a staff writer at LANDR by day and writes indie post-punk tunes in his band UTILS while moonlighting as drummer for folk-rock outfit The Painters.

@Alex Lavoie

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