Mix Buss & Mastering Secret Weapon? SPL Vitalizer MK2-T from Plugin Alliance

In this video, I look at an "Oldie but Goldie", Plugin Alliance's SPL Vitalizer MK2-T, and how I use it in mastering and on the mix buss. In my opinion, it is an excellent secret weapon that has been forgotten about.
I am really not concentrating on the science involved and what is going on under the hood, so please feel free to add in the comments what you think this voodoo plugin is doing.

PLEASE USE HEADPHONES FOR THE BEST RESULTS. THIS IS SUBTLE.

Track:
LYP - Sensory Overload

Chapters:
00:00 Intro
00:35 Controls Explained (as best as I can without too much science)
04:38 Mastering - What I will be doing
05:55 The Vitalizer in Action
11:29 Outro

Plugin:

Hardware:

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Equipment I use:

Headphones:
Audeze LCD-X
Beyerdynamic 770/880/1990
Shure 535
Sennheiser HD25 MKII

Presonus Studio One
RME ADI-2 DAC FS
SPL Phonitor 2
Presonus HP4 (My Grot Box)
Presonus Faderport V2
Arturia Minilab MKII
Novation 49SL MKII

Content Creation:
Presonus Revelator IO24
Earthworks Custom Icon Pro Microphone
Logitech Brio 4k Cam
OC White Ultima Mic Arm

[made.online]

"I hope you're wearing headphones to listen to this" is one of my funniest phrases in the context of mastering software/gear reviews, it's always like "alright guess I'll go power down the Psi's and put on my cans!"
Thanks for the review/perspective!

[HollerAtcherBoi]

I love this plugin on 808s, bass, drums, and background vocal bus. Lots of times, I turn the bass knob all the way to the left, process & intensity knobs both around 4. That’s my usual starting point

[MPHORROCKS]

I originally thought your review was too gushing. I now have Vitalizer and wholeheartedly agree. It seems to just make everything sound cohesive and nicely blended. It's amazing!

[BIG_PASTA]

One of the only plugins that I can actually hear adding *depth* and somewhat of a "3D" image if used correctly. I have a feeling many people aren't listening in a decent enough environment to hear what it's doing or just don't know what to listen for. Sure it's not great for everything but it's definitely sonically unique and interesting :)

[elijahmant]

This is a nice sounding plugin. I use it on my Master channel along with eq, compression and limiter. As you said : It is musical. Adds a nice analogue sheen of niceness to the mix. You can push it and it rarely sounds bad. My opinion though. It doesn't need pushing. Good video demo. Thanks, Man.

[Mike_Benz_]

In all the years I've had this plugin I had never thought to try it out on the Master, weird. Sounded really good on the Master of the song. Thanks

[TimesOfTheSines.official]

I've used both hardware & plugin... & I have always found & adjusted the drive knob to find what is most suitable for the effect its having on a source sound firstly... If I've listened closely to what effect that is having initially to be the most suitable over something, that I'm about to process further with the various other processing stages & choices of the mk2t's... It generally makes balancing any other processing & options there after... Easier to balance for making it work for me. The drive will give you softer tube harmonic generated saturation presence counter clockwise from 0db, & fast become tighter harmonics clockwise from 0db - 6db.. If input levels are at good gain level of a source sound feeding into the plug or outboard devices. The harder drive & tighter harmonic generated processing on a source can really make the sound of every other processing in these things, sound & process results in a very different way & balance of them too. So the softer lesser drive amounts will get better results, & a easier balancing of the other processing too... I've used these for decades, it took a while for this penny to drop in use of them

[RundFyrkant]

i got the hardware unit hooked up on a subgroup passing drums and percussion through it. It sounds nice when narrowing the stereowidth on the mixer sub and then rewideing with the Vitalizer. Got Transient Designer and the Kultube as well. Love all SPL stuff! 🙂

[Submangalam]

Wow! Really nice video, quality content! I have that and didn’t really know how to make it work for my work… and now is so clear ! Thank you so much!

[richardgordon]

i had the vitalizer mrk1 hardware unit which was amazing. this plugin sounds wicked

[streetpyramids]

Thanks for this video...I demoed this one on some of the presets and then bypassed, whoa gotta put that back on! got it for $10 and going through the manual too

[Jrel]

I used to use this and totally forgot about it. Thank you for making this video!

[mixnmstrng]

Thanks for this video, the plug-in turned out to be very interesting, the stereo expander handle works great on the electric guitar bus.

[KASmonkeys]

Thanks! I used to own the hardware back in the day and love this plugin. Got me excited about it again ha :)

[quantika]

If you find yourself using this plugin often, I recommend you investing on the hardware. The plugin is cool but doesn’t come close to the sound of the real thing. I like the hardware so much that I bought the flagship version of it which is even more incredible. Is called SPL Tube Vitalizer Harmonic Exciter.

[matt_nyc_audioengineer]

Hey Conan! I pull out Vitalizer from time to time but most of the time I prefer Kush Clariphonic. I know they aren't exactly the same but I feel like they do a very similar thing. Great video!

[ecoLOG]

I, ve had this for a while, read manual mmm what is it-you explain 5mins in - i have a quick fiddle and my god what a great little plugin I didn, t realise I had-thank you.

[michaelmos]

Interesting video, well done 🍀👌But you really have to listen very carefully and fully concentrated through good headphones to even notice these subtle optimizations.
How is music mostly consumed these days? Besides, when riding a bike, on the bus, on the light rail, on the train, in the gym, in the city while shopping and so on... MP3 compressed file format. The "normal people" get only a small fraction of this fine adjustment, if at all. Especially since in many cases they don't have trained studio/mastering ears and don't walk around with special studio headphones that are linear in terms of frequency response. So we should be aware that in the vast majority of cases we are doing this more or less just for ourselves. And that's nice too 😅

[sebbwen]

Another great video! I love the Vitalizer, awesome plugin

[THEFUTURESOUNDBEAT]

amazing i did not know you can use this one for master bus thanks i got it now for sure i will give it a try today