Hi! This is Jooyoung Kim, a mixing engineer and music producer. Today, I’ll introduce a room/headphone simulator, Space Replicator made by Lewitt.
I received the NFR code for this product from Plugin Boutique for this review, and if you purchase the plugin using the links included in this article, I’ll earn a small commission that helps me keep going…!
Space Replicator is a plugin that uses HRTF (Head-Related Transfer Function) modeling to allow you to experience sound with a sense of spatial depth, making it sound like real acoustic space when listening through headphones or earphones.
While there are indeed several plugins offering similar virtual monitoring functions, and some competitors boast larger headphone/earphone catalogs, Space Replicator’s distinct advantage lies in its specialized focus on HRTF and the process of creating personalized binaural profiles.
If you select a headphone or earphone model that you own and that is supported by LEWITT, you can generate a personalized binaural profile through a few simple steps. Although the results may not be perfectly precise, the effect was noticeably effective when I tested it.
Furthermore, the plugin features 12 different virtual spaces, each offering various listening perspectives or speaker options, and it also provides 6 different headphone simulations.
My favorite virtual space is the Vienna Synchron Stage A, which accurately provides the acoustics of far-field speakers. Since small studio producers and engineers usually can’t access such a setup—and neither can I—this particular feature offers me a tremendous amount of practical things.
It is currently 50% off until January 4, 2026. Therefore, if you work in a space with acoustic limitations, I highly recommend this plugin.
Hi! This is Jooyoung Kim, a mixing engineer and music producer. Black Friday is right around the corner, so, as I did last year, I’ll summarize all the plugin sales that I want to recommend for composing, mixing, and mastering music.
This post is not sponsored by any of the plugin companies listed. However, I have an affiliate partnership with Plugin Boutique, so, I’ll provide their purchase links alongside my explanations for any plugins they offer. Furthermore, purchasing through the provided link earns me a small commission that helps support this content..^^ (It’s really hard to make a living these days…haha..)
Then… Let’s start!
1) WAVES
I always recommend plugins made by waves to people around me. While their update plan policy is incredibly frustrating, it certainly doesn’t detract from the quality of their plugins. Additionally, they usually offer significant discounts during the Black Friday season.
I highly recommend the Horizon Bundle. This bundle features 93 plugins, all of which are highly versatile. The price is only $219(Tax Included), leaving no reason not to recommend it.
Specifically, the CLA series, the Renaissance Compressor, and the H-Delay are my favorites.
2) UAD (Universal Audio Digital)
Universal Audio has lots of useful plugins too. The LA-2A series, the 1176 series and the chamber reverbs are definitely my go-to plugins from UAD.
I own quite a few UAD plugins, and they were really expensive before Universal Audio launched the native versions. Additionally, the 10-plugin bundle was also very pricey, if I recall correctly. However, for this Black Friday sale, you can get 10 plugins for only $108.90 (Tax Included). I must admit, I find that a little unfair….^^. It’s a really great deal, so I highly recommend grabbing this opportunity.
If you haven’t had any experience with UAD plugins, I will select my top 10 recommended plugins for you.
Teletronix LA-2A Leveler Collection
1176 Classic Limiter Collection
API 2500 Bus Compressor
Teletronix LA-3A Classic Audio Leveler
EMT 250 Classic Electronic Reverb
Fairchild Tube Limiter Collection
Pultec Passive EQ Collection
UAD Sound City Studios
Hitsville Reverb Chambers
Lexicon 224 Digital Reverb
3) IK Multimedia
Unfortunately, IK Multimedia already concluded its “Group Buy” event last month, so it is unlikely there will be any additional sales during Black Friday. However, I have written about IK Multimedia’s virtual instruments and mixing plugins previously, so, if you have an interest in this company, please read this article.
Arturia offers a wide range of virtual instruments and mixing plugins. They boast significantly high quality, tthe only drawback is their high CPU usage. However, as CPU processing speeds have grown rapidly, I believe this is no longer a critical issue.
Brainworx was founded by Dirk Ulrich, the same individual who established Plugin Alliance. They offer superb mixing plugins with remarkably good quality. They are also remarkably affordable, so you should definitely consider purchasing their plugins if you have a limited budget.
Specifically, I recommend the digital EQ, the bx_digital V3, from Brainworx. At just $11 (including tax), it is incredibly useful for identifying the frequencies where resonances occur.
I currently use three main pitch correction plugins: Auto-Tune, Melodyne, and Revoice Pro. However, I find Melodyne to be the most intuitive plugin. I use it on almost every project.
The Studio version is now $301.40 (Tax Included).
7) Native Instruments
Native Instruments sells a lot of virtual instruments. Their Komplete bundle is their most famous, and it features a 50% upgrade discount during Black Friday.
I think you need Cableguys’ plugins if you want to create a modern-sounding track. Recently, many producers and composers are making the source audio groovy, and these grooves are created through artificial manipulation.
Cableguys’ plugins are made for these purposes.
I recommend Shaper Box 3 (at $97.90 including tax). Also if your budget is larger, the Cableguys bundle (at $163.90 including tax) is a great choice.
I love the BFD drum plugin. My main drum VST is BFD, and their sounds are exceptional. While it has a steep learning curve, once you understand its complexities, it will provide truly realistic drum sounds.
The drum sounds on this song were created using BFD drums.
iZotope offers famous plugins like the RX and Ozone series. They also have excellent reverb plugins. Currently, they are offering a 40% discount on their bundle upgrades.
Since a certain point, Plugin Alliance began including tax when they sell their products to international customers on their website. Therefore, there is no compelling reason to buy their plugins directly from their website. You can earn points and free plugins when you purchase plugins through Plugin Boutique. Thus, I highly recommend purchasing them there instead.
My favorites include the Maag EQ4, the SPL series, and the Bettermaker C502V plugins.
I believe that covers all the main recommendations. There are still a few plugins I would like to recommend, but they are either not currently on sale or have fully transitioned to subscription models (like Musio 1).
Honestly, these days, I feel that plugins are not the most crucial factor in music production. The ideas and concepts are the most important aspects. Sound design and engineering are just the finishing touches to the music.
So, if you want to make meaningful music, I would advise against spending a lot of money on plugins you might use in the future. Just buy what you need now.
Hello everyone, this is mixing engineer and music producer Jooyoung Kim.
It’s been another busy week, so this one’s going to be a short life update post. ^^;
Last Saturday, we held the second “Frisketch x Yeonjun Yoon | Um” concert.
I worked as the sound director again. We used the same venue as the June concert, but this time we positioned the piano differently.
In the meantime, I picked up another Peluso P87 and added two RØDE NT55s for ambience. The sound came out much closer to what I had in mind this time.
Because of the speaker placement, I decided to run the mix in mono. Since the only instrument was the piano, the main mic (P87) captured it beautifully.
That said, when the artist mentioned, “I wish the piano tone were a bit less metallic,” I completely agreed. Haha.
Then on Tuesday and Wednesday, I assisted Sound Director Sung-won Yang in his class “Mixing with IR Reverb” at the Arko Arts Human Resources Institute in Ilsan.
On Wednesday afternoon, I took over and led the mixing lecture myself.
Sometimes I wonder if I made things too difficult, but the topics I consider most important in mixing tend to be the challenging ones.
So I told the students, “It’ll all make sense later—trust me,” and just went for it. Haha.
Honestly, I had so much I wanted to cover, but time was short. I trimmed and trimmed until the lecture fit the schedule perfectly—but it still felt a bit like a Spartan session.
Hopefully it wasn’t too much to absorb all at once.
By the way, I don’t think I’ve mentioned this here before, but I’ve been teaching major practical courses at my graduate school since finishing my master’s degree.
I used to give private lessons only to a few close acquaintances, but now that I’m officially teaching as part of the program, I’ve been thinking a lot more seriously about pedagogy and teaching methods.
Also, my master’s thesis has finally appeared on D-Collection (The archive of theses in South Korea).
The topic is the same as my journal publication, though since it’s an earlier research version, the experimental conditions may feel a bit rougher.
I wanted to cite my published journal paper in the thesis abstract (which is normally standard practice), but unfortunately the publication and submission dates overlapped too closely.
I even contacted the university library afterward, but they said the submission was already finalized and online revisions weren’t possible.
Still, since the journal was published first, there’s no real issue academically.
(For context: a thesis isn’t considered an official publication—once your advisor approves it, the degree is granted.)
Interestingly, I couldn’t find another case online where the timing overlapped this perfectly. ^^;
As for my recent live recordings, I’ve finished most of the mixing, and now my Mac Studio is running endless deep learning sessions again.
Compared to my old Windows PC with a GTX 1080, the Mac runs quieter and stays much cooler.
I’m redoing the experiment I failed back in May, and this time I plan to take my time and turn it into a proper paper.
I already got IRB approval, so I’m hoping the training finishes soon.
(Each CNN run takes about 20 days, by the way… hahaha… ha… 😭)
I’m planning to try a WaveNet model as well, but I’m slightly worried it might overrun the IRB deadline. 😭
That’s how things have been lately. See you in the next post!
I received the NFR code for this product from Plugin Boutique for this review, and if you purchase the plugin using the links included in this article, I’ll earn a small commission that helps me keep going… 🙂
Let’s start!
Distressor and Mike-E
If you really interested in mixing hardware, you may know the Empirical Labs’ Distressor (EL-8) and Mike-E (EL-9).
The goal of the Distressor’s development was to create a versatile unit that could emulate the sonic signatures of many vintage compressor types, such as opto, FET, and tube designs. However, it wasn’t sound like those, but the saturation character was really great! Now, it is a compressor that has become a modern ‘classic’.
Mike-E is a channel strip whose compressor section is based on the Distressor.
And Prof Punch-Knuckles is a saturator based on those two pieces of modern classic hardware.
In the manual, those types are explained like this.
Toasty: Based on the saturation in the compressor of Mike-E
Crunchy: Based on the preamp distortion of the Mike-E
Distress: The compressor circuit of Distressor and Mike-E
(The frequency response and the compression curve corresponds to each type’s designated sequence)
The ‘Toasty’ and ‘Crunch’ types look like soft-knee limiters, but the ‘Distress’ type clearly behaves like a hard-knee limiter.
Furthermore, the low-cut and high-cut filters aren’t merely simple attenuators. They instead emphasize the frequencies around the cutoff, creating a resonant effect.
Harmonic distortions are quite different depending on the types and modes. I didn’t include the graph, however, because it wouldn’t be helpful for clarity.
Over All
Having used this plugin a few times, I now understand why the Distressor has been a long-time favorite. The sound of the Distortion mode is superb, and I anticipate utilizing it in several upcoming mixing projects.
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