This plugin definitely helps when you have to compress and adjust certain frequencies in a mix. In fact, I find it to be one of the hardest parts of a mix to do simply because it spans so many frequencies, and there's so much going on in terms of overall dynamic range. These plugins came with my Mercury package, and I've had that for a few months now.
CLA WAVES PLUGINS PLUS
There are no performance issues at all, and that's a huge plus when working in a DAW filled with all kinds of synths and tracks running tons of plugins. It even works nicely on MIDI, which I found a bit surprising. I've tried this on various different buses, and it seems to work on anything with ease.
CLA WAVES PLUGINS 64 BIT
They run in 32 bit mode, but Logic uses a wrapper-like application that runs so you don't interfere with your 64 bit interface.
CLA WAVES PLUGINS MAC
As a Mac user, that's a huge advantage for someone like me. They're cross platform compatible, so they'll work with both PCs and Macs. Waves plugins have always been some of the most stable plugins I've experienced. It's very easy and simple to use, so no issues there. I never read the manual, but I don't think it's really necessary for these plugins. I didn't experience any compatibility issues, so I can't comment on that. To use this, you simply enable it on your drum busses and start adjusting. Finally, you have a small knob to adjust depending on what type of drum you're mixing/mastering. On top of those sliders, you also have specific buttons you can adjust for certain frequencies. You have slider for input, bass, treble, compress, reverb, gate and output. It's laid out very nicely in an easy to understand manner. This plugin is meant for mastering drums, obviously. These are plugins that were created by/for Chris Lord-Alge, the famous mixer who's done everything from Rocky IV to Slipknot. His drum plug-in can do a lot more than just rock.ĬLA Drums is part of the CLA bundle that Waves has to offer. When you don't, you would be better off picking up the JJP Signature Collection. My main gripe with the product is that it only does over the top rock drums. In conclusion, this plug-in will make your drums sound rock and roll, no doubt about it. On the other hand, if you are an experienced mixing engineer and already have a bunch of effects with all the functions and knobs to tweak, do you really want another plug-in that does the same exact thing as all your other gear? This plug-in offers a nice change of pace with that respect.
If you don't know much about mixing drums, this plug-in is probably a good idea. I'm sure part of the idea for this plug-in was to make a product for the amateur and semi-pro musician who doesn't know much about mixing. Some people won't like that all the functioning of the effects are happening behind the scenes (no control of attack, release, ratio, knee for the compressors for instance). In general, I do like the convenience of pulling of a plug-in, clicking a few buttons, and have a decent sounding mix. I haven't really liked using the reverbs, and I don't use a drum gate in a lot of the music I make. The compressor options are the highlight of the plugin to me. If you prefer to add your own eq curve for the kick and snare, one option to consider is that the cowbell setting has a flat eq response, which makes the processing of the plug-in much less extreme. This may or may not make your drums actually sound better.
This kind of extreme processing will make your drums sound hyped up and closer to typical modern rock drums.
I think some of the eq curves are pretty extreme (kick and snare). It immediately changes the sound of your drum tracks. The processing in CLA Drums is not subtle. That's not to say that you couldn't use the reverb or compressor for other instruments. Obviously the plug-in was intended to be used for drums. For instance, selecting 'cowbell' gives you access to a delay effect instead of a gate. Selecting different drums on the dial also changes how some of the other processing works behind the scenes. The dial that selects 'drum' adds a predefined eq curve based on CLA's preference. The basic processing functions are all available with this plug-in (eq, compressor, reverb, gate). Once you get the program up and running, there isn't much of a learning curve to get it working. The CLA Drums plug-in is designed to process recorded individual drum tracks inside a DAW.