TC Electronic MASTER X HD-DT Review

TC is well known for processing of all types with a heritage that stretches back to their mastering processor, the 6000 and those algorithms have made their way into their discontinued Powercore and various native plug-ins.

I have to confess I never paid much attention to this string of developing products. I always felt that the Powercore was a poor cousin to the UAD products and they had dropped off of my radar until recently.

When I saw that they had lowered the price on their versions of the plugs with hardware controllers I decided that I needed to take another look. This kind of hardware/software cooperation is what the idea of Behringer acquiring the TC Group really promised. 

Software

The Master X is a native plug in in AAX, AU and VST formats that operates up to 192kHz. It is a three frequency band dynamics processor with a separate compressor, limiter and expander for lots of flexibility. While the software features presets for both mastering and individual tracks I mainly envision using this plug on my output busses.

Unlike products from companies like UA or Waves that do similar things, TC has opted to simplify the control set so that you are not faced with a daunting array of parameters. This means each processor has a single set of controls to adjust the threshold, ratio and response times. To create some variability for these, there are three curves past “flat” called, Air, Bass and Smile that vary the parameters of all three processes based on the extremity of a setting called “factor” that is individually controllable per process. Each band has a gain control so you can use the plug in as a post dynamics EQ as well. 

As an example, I have called up the Tight Master factory preset, which is pretty subtle, and I have deactivated the limiter and expander so you can see just what is happening with the compressor.

Even at a zero factor, this preset features a one dB cut in the midrange but the compression settings for all three bands (low, mid and high) are identical even with the “smile” curve engaged. 

When I take the factor up to 100% to see the extremes, the low and high bands have about 4 dB of boost but also the compression settings change, as you can see in the readouts at the top of the display. The low frequency’s compression ratio (how hard the compressor is working) goes up and the high frequency’s threshold (how loud it must be to compress) goes DOWN so it is compressing more of the signal but it leaves the ratio the same. This coupled with the band gain built into those factor changes makes a pretty significant impact. 

If you are concerned that you might be a bit aggressive in your approach to ANY of the parameters if you hold OPTION as you click on the setting, the plug-in parameter is not set to zero but rather a subtle and reasonable level. Always trust your ears, but if you OPTION click on “Factor” it will set the value down to twenty percent or if you OPTION click on ratio it will change to 1.8:1. This is a pretty good indicator that these parameters were set by a mastering engineer, where subtlety is key. The processes will still do something at these default levels, but with a lot less brutality.

While the choices made by the software engineers are generally pretty good, I did occasionally find myself wishing for an expert mode where I could twiddle every parameter per band, but this is a good tradeoff to get to an effective setting with minimal time investment.

It is worth noting that the bright white line in the middle of the plug-in interface is NOT the threshold level. Because the compressor will automatically engage makeup gain at any threshold more extreme than -12, you will see it moving in the opposite direction you might expect. This can be a bit distracting as you will start to see that line going up and down as you play with the threshold and ratio controls on the compressor but not the limiter and expander processors. 

The presence of a Wet/Dry control gives you quick access to New York or parallel type compression,, which is a welcome addition as is the presence of input and output levels for the plug-in. These are necessary since there is no way to turn off the automatic make up gain of the compressor. Should you wish to compress the living daylights out of something and manually change the output level this is the only way to accomplish it, but at least it is available.

In general, the GUI gives you good visual feedback, allowing you look at 12 or 24 dB of gain range, but you will make better decisions if leave it in the 12 dB range. You can change this setting by clicking on the +12 or +24 in the white box in the upper right-hand corner of the display but please…leave it on +12. You can thank me later.

Hardware

The controller has a single micro USB connector and comes with a micro to USB-A cable to connect it to a to an older, no-USB C port. After authorizing the software via the ubiquitous iLok software the plug-in automatically started controlling the plug and showed metering and some basic settings.

The hardware feels solid and is heavy enough that it doesn’t slide around the desk while trying to operate it. While there are only two knobs, their functions change based on which of the eight mode buttons you have selected and the pairings make sense. Threshold and ratio (the critical dynamics controls) come up at the same time as do attack/release and curve/factor. 

I would love to have a few more knobs on this hardware controller, but for the price these are good compromises. You can literally do everything on the plug-in from the hardware controller and the plug-in GUI shows those changes in real time. Some things, notably soloing a band to focus on just the high, low or mids, are far simpler to click with the mouse, and all the additional controls like crossover frequency are buried in the edit menu.

The meters on the desktop controller are not notably better than what is in most DAWs but I do find the three gain reduction meters less distracting that the reduction meters within the GUI window for Master X. I really like having quick visibility to that without opening the plug-in window. It is a good thing to know that I am crushing the bass in the bridge more than I really should be when I picked my settings by listening to the chorus!

Conclusions

Truth be told, I would never have bought this plug if hadn’t been for the hardware controller. When I know that Waves will eventually put C6 on a $29.95 sale, paying $89 for TC’s version with half the number of frequency bands doesn’t seem to make much sense.

Now that all of these hardware/software combinations are under $150 the value case is a bit more compelling. For something like this where I might actually vary the ratio from 1.8 to 2.4 to 1 while listening with my eyes closed for focus, the knob makes for a much more satisfying controller than dragging a mouse up and down.

The plug in sounds nice, looks good and is reasonably economical in its use of CPU cycles. The tradeoffs they have made in controls are good compromises and three bands of dynamics are all I generally need anyway. Twisting a couple of knobs means I am more likely to actually put this in the insert slot of the stereo out of my mixing template in my DAW and leave it there!

Recommendation

While I don’t necessarily feel like this about the whole line of these controllers, at $109 the Master X is a go for me. I would say buy without reservations.