Brainworx bx_refinement
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Lose harshness without destroying your mix.
The Brainworx bx_refinement plug-in for UAD-2 and Apollo tastefully removes the harsh, hard edges of your tracks without dramatically altering the character and tone of your source material.
An exceptional mastering tool that also features M/S (Mid/Side) processing, the Brainworx bx_refinement imparts a tube-like analog smoothness and is a boon for mix engineers looking to tame unpleasant digital hardness on individual tracks.Now You Can:
Bring the sound of a tube-like analog mastering chain to your UAD-2 and Apollo-equipped workstations
Easily soften high frequency harshness in mixes and masters
Inject saturation and presence to subtly enhance your tracks
Use the Solo feature to hear exactly what you’re removing from the recording
Customer Reviews
S. Tib
January 10, 2016
Great for Hi Hats - shaker
I always tend to cut a lot of high frequency on hi hats, shaker, tambourine. I have been using tape and musical eq like the Trident A, but adding the Bx refinement to the arsenal is a bonus...
Read MoreS. Roefs
January 9, 2016
Great on master bus
This is a great tool for stereo enhancing. But it also works to get things to sit better in the mix tonewise by reducing harshnes.
Read MoreR. Production
January 4, 2016
A "must have" tool
Basicly I cant mix a drum without it anymore....and i dont talk about using it on your master bus No more agressive high ends and unbalanced crash or ride cymbals What can sound better...
Read MoreO. Hild
December 15, 2015
Top down on Drums
Haven't gotten to really run the full paces on this thing yet on full mixes but can attest it definitely (when used tastefully!) can enhance a full mix by dynamically sucking out nasty...
Read MoreM. Ballenger
July 23, 2015
Awesome unique tool that does something special
There really isn't a comparable plugin. The description may make it seem like it acts like a deesser focused on the harsh upper mids, but there is more to it. This fall into the category of...
Read MoreP. Helsdon
July 23, 2015
Best Tool (in my box) Ever
After dropping this in on an acoustic drum mix I was sold. I bought the plugin the same day and have been using it retroactively, by applying it to old finished recordings just to...
Read More -
Key Features
Reduces harshness and breathes life into recordings
Fixed, dynamic or modulation based damping of unwanted frequencies
Mid/Side processing
Soft & hard damping provide second order filtering and higher order filtering respectively
Solo filter allows to hear just what you’re removing from the recording
Subtle saturation and presence controls enhance the material without changing its character
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Customer Reviews
Brainworx bx_refinement
S. Tib
Great for Hi Hats - shaker
I always tend to cut a lot of high frequency on hi hats, shaker, tambourine. I have been using tape and musical eq like the Trident A, but adding the Bx refinement to the arsenal is a bonus to cut less high frequency with a surgical EQ.
Great stuff especially for 54$ on special with a 25$ voucher !S. Roefs
Great on master bus
This is a great tool for stereo enhancing. But it also works to get things to sit better in the mix tonewise by reducing harshnes.
R. Production
A "must have" tool
Basicly I cant mix a drum without it anymore....and i dont talk about using it on your master bus
No more agressive high ends and unbalanced crash or ride cymbals
What can sound better sounds better as soon as you use bx refinment tool
I tell it again this is a "must have" in your tool boxO. Hild
Top down on Drums
Haven't gotten to really run the full paces on this thing yet on full mixes but can attest it definitely (when used tastefully!) can enhance a full mix by dynamically sucking out nasty upper-mid frequencies that "knock" on your ear drum. Too much and you can make your mix sound like a pillow. The right amount can class up a mix though.
But... on a drum submix... wow! I have been using it on my drum buss in a 'top down' method where I put it as the first insert on the chain and run it together with as much other processing as I think i will need on the drum buss (compression, tape emu, eq, etc...) and start shaping the drum mix with that in broad strokes. Then, tweak individual channels. Really cleans up the overheads and snare especially!!M. Ballenger
Awesome unique tool that does something special
There really isn't a comparable plugin. The description may make it seem like it acts like a deesser focused on the harsh upper mids, but there is more to it. This fall into the category of secret weapon plugins. I use it more for mixing than the intended mastering purposes. It's wonderful on distorted guitars and has replaced the deesser at 4kHz technique for me in that application. I get much more natural and pleasing results with this. You just have to try the demo and you'll see it's a must have tool.
P. Helsdon
Best Tool (in my box) Ever
After dropping this in on an acoustic drum mix I was sold. I bought the plugin the same day and have been using it retroactively, by applying it to old finished recordings just to experience the joy of plopping this guy in. I used to rely on the 1176 and tube processors and in recent years the A800 (which is no slouch either), but there is a hollow bell type frequency band that the RT smooths out in seconds. It seems barely noticeable at first until you hit bypass. - talking drums here
The controls are quite simple and the effect very subtle, so it is very hard to screw up and regret your settings months later.
Tape compression and tubes (bells and whistles) are really not even necessary for a nice phat warm drum bus.
Next up: OrchestraP. Brookes
Pleasantly surprised
I originally bought this to solve a particular problem in a mix - which it did very nicely.
However, I have since used this on all kind of sources in my mixes and find it to be a very useful tool for taking the edge off things. I find it to be a great tool to have around.D. Zannoni
Indispensable for Mastering
I use this guy on all my Masters !
It is a little friends, remove the annoying hardness of the tracks.
Initially may seem insignificant but if you make bypass, at the end of process of mastering, you will find the great job !
Only 4 star instead of 5 because all Brainworx plugins, when there are discount, offer little discount compared of other brand.G. Piazza
Still very impressed - but
I stand by my earlier review - this plug-in is a must have for In The Box mastering work, and even tracks would benefit, potentially making the mastering engineer's life easier.
I still would request an adjustable frequency range (from 1 kHz - 6 kHz) instead of the fixed center around 2 - 3 kHz.
My big gripe is that, for the first time, brainworx came out with a native version within 2 weeks of the UAD release. Before, either brainworx plug-ins were around a long time before porting to UAD, or they only made a UAD version (Millennia NSEQ-2 comes to mind), with few exceptions.
Why the gripe? I would have picked up the native; it is not that DSP intensive.
UA and brainworx should have a cross-grade discount!S. Barker
Digital sound to Analog
Tried the demo on a couple of tracks and until you A/B the tracks with this plugin you don't realize how harsh and digital they sounded before ?
Strange really as the Studer tape emulations and Manley EQ's i thought were taking the harsh digital sound away?, But having this plugin in the mastering chain does make the difference and have made my tracks more Analog sounding !!?
Does what it says and i will consider it for a future purchase.P. Lengagne
subtle and useful.
I've tried it on 2 projects, the accumulation of tracks (virtual strings) always created an unpleasant sensation around 3-4 kz, but this problem disappears like magic with this plugin. My next purchase for sure.
J. Roger
Does what it says it will.
Demo'd it over a few tracks. It does exactly what it claims to do, and does it extremely well and easily.
The oscillator is a nice touch for adding a bit of life and a subtle breathing quality to the track.
Probably worth the 200, though I still kinda wanna save my money to see what UA comes out with in another couple months.S. Hurtow
Outstanding? Yes! Can I get a discount? No!
I have to hand it to UAD' Marketing Department. They certainly know how to use their promotions at 'Cracker-Jack' timing. I get the latest V 7.6 update email, upgrade my software, hit the 14-Day Trial button, instantly fall in love with bx_refinement Plug-In, go back to the store, put it in my basket, add my APR2014 coupon and what do I get? "Coupon cannot be used to buy anything new in V 7.6". Guys, I love your plug-ins. I have over 40 of them, but come on! Some of us have to work day-jobs to support our UAD plug-in addictions. Cut us some slack! Please!
A. Vax
Good plugin but it needs some improovements ))
Very usefull plugin.
Something like super invisible de-esser for whole mix.
1) i dont need those OSCILLATOR stuff
2) working frequence is fixed 3.3 Khz now. It will be good option to change it from 1 to 8 kHz. So it will be really flexible tool to tame those "russian 4 kHz" or "jewish 6 kHz".
3) Saturation at high amount sometimes does overload effect (buzz on low frequencies) on whole mix signal (no clipping on input actually)
4) Hard damping actually works more accurate than Soft mode ))
5) there should be SNAP function in Oscillator section when sync mode engaged.
Overall, good work Brainworx!J. Fjerstad
Brainworx bx_refinement Plug-In
very nice plugin, i dont know if i can live without it anymore, but i waited since i had a felling this would be released native, and man i was right, i really dont see any point using this with uad when i can be used native, i have a/b tested uad and navive version and they sound eksakly the same :), for me i find it useful not only on the master so if you use for exaple 4 instanses you have used over a halv shark and i dont want to do that when i got a native version that i dont notice any differece in cpu performanse when i use them, is really uad 2 really so weak that the same plugin in native you dont know you have used it cpu wise, but use 7 of this on uad and a shark is gone. thats not good, but anyway a serious good plugin :)
I. Maystruk
Impressive
I was personally impressed with this plugin. Compact is clear and understandable
C. Jacobs
Top 5 on Reverb Nation local charts
You can have the best gear in the world but if the song isn't good it doesn't matter.
UAD plug-ins polish turds very well. I use the refinement plug-in in my mastering chain.
It glues the track together and warms it up to my contentment thus putting a polish on my wonderful turds. I like to throw it on rough mixes to clients so they can get a better perspective on what their product will sound like when finished. This is a much needed purchase for me and is one that I demo'd every time from previous purchases. My turds are on the top 5 local charts on Reverb nation and I have submitted to the 2015 Grammy awards. I'm very proud of this turd.
Cori JacobsUAD User
Payed Friday 20 November, 2015 - 179,- Euros
Todays Price is 79,- Euros. That's not fine, dear Universal Audio Guys. Sorry, I feel very frustrated, cause 100 Euros are much money for me & my homestudio. Through your pricingpolicy the plug-in takes more than 50 percent less value within 6 days. Before I continue purchases, I'll think about whether I buy in the future at UAD.
Greetings from Austria...G. Perry
UAD beats Native
Demoed UAD version and Brainworx Native version at same time. UAD version certainly has more depth and weight to it's sound. Native version is thinner.
S. Grimm
I use it more often than expected
I bought this plugin to fix a specific drum mix, but it turned out that I use it on a regular basis on nearly every project now. I like it's simplicity and reliablity. Althought you have to be careful of not softening the material too much , you can reduce harshness on every kind of material in a matter of seconds, especially on drums. For me, it it much more effective and unharmful than a regular eq for this purpose.