Hey there! I’m Jooyoung Kim, a mixing engineer, and music producer.
It’s been a whirlwind week with listening experiments, live performance recordings, and mixing, so I haven’t had much time to focus on the blog… haha. I worked on a pretty unconventional setup for a recent gig—more on that in the next post!
Today, I’m excited to introduce Pulsar Audio’s Vocal Studio, a new plugin designed specifically for vocals, brought to you thanks to Plugin Boutique.
If you purchase through the link on my blog, I’ll earn a small commission, which really helps me keep things going… thank you! 😊
Ready to check it out? Let’s dive in!
What’s Pulsar Vocal Studio?
Think of this as an all-in-one vocal effect and channel strip. It’s packed with everything you need: compression, EQ, gain, saturator, gate, de-esser, delay, reverb—you name it, it’s here.
Top Section
Let’s break down the controls in the Top Section of the Pulsar Vocal Studio interface:
- Sensitivity: Automatically adjusts volume to maintain consistent levels, working independently of the compressor.
- Drive: A saturator offering three distinct flavors—Solid State (inspired by Neve-style circuits), Tube (emulating a pentode preamp), and Germanium (mimicking a germanium transistor preamp).
- De-ess: Reduces sibilance by attenuating frequencies around 4kHz and above.
- Gate: Exactly what it sounds like—a gate! 😄
- Compress: Offers three compression modes—Natural (FET-based, smooth and transparent), Modern (faster attack/release with added saturation), and Gritty (the fastest and most aggressive for a bold effect).
- Volume: Adjusts the final output level of the plugin.
Mid-Section
On the left, you’ve got controls for how much EQ to apply. On the right, the Focus section offers three dynamic EQ presets: Air, Edge, and Presence.
Bottom Section
Down below, the Special FX section lets you add creative effects.
- Delay: Includes standard delay, ping-pong, slap delay, and more.
- Reverb: Offers a wide range of types—hall, plate, spring, room, chamber, ambience, you name it.
All delay and reverb parameters are fully tweakable, of course.
Impressions
This plugin is a bit heavy on CPU due to its many effects, but if you think of it as a one-stop shop for an entire vocal track, it’s well worth it. Personally, I think the reverbs are so clean and polished that I’d love to see them sold separately at a lower price. They’re some of the best digital reverbs I’ve come across!
Bonus Deal!
This month, if you buy any plugin from Plugin Boutique, you’ll get Wave Alchemy’s Pulse—a faithful recreation of the Lexicon PCM-60 reverb—for free. Don’t miss out!
If you’re in the market for a vocal channel strip, Pulsar Vocal Studio is definitely worth checking out.
Catch you in the next post! 😊
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