Tom Salta

On this article, on the Arturia website, Tom Salta claimed to use Drumbrute.

“I’m loving the DM-307, it’s got that signature Heavyocity attitude, rock solid timing and an incredible variety of ultra-tweakable sounds. The GUI is among the best I’ve ever used in a Kontakt instrument. It’s is an amazing drum tool that has instantly jumped to the top of my go-to list.”

So when did you start using the Oxford plug-ins?

A friend of mine turned me on to them, and when I had chance to listen, they jumped out at me. I really liked the Inflator, Dynamics and EQ.

What made the EQ different from your others?

It just had a very sweet sound to it. It's a subtle quality that my ears, after so many years, just know. If I take the high end and just tweak it up a little bit, there's a certain quality to the sparkle that you get that reminds me of very high-end hardware EQ's. When you take a generic or a cheaper EQ and turn it up, yes it gets brighter, but it feels technical - not musical.

How about the Oxford Dynamics?

Wow, I was really impressed with that one. I find that good software compressors are generally hard to come by, especially if you want to do something comparable to the 'days of old,' when I would plug into an LA-2A or the Fairchild and it simply worked or didn't. That's the way the Dynamics feels to me and I'm blown away by its flexibility. It has a lot of components in there, which help me out when I need them. I also like the way you can turn the different modules on and off. For example, sometimes I'll wish I had a little limiter on a track, and with the Dynamics I'll just enable it and place it in line. You can do a lot of tweaking within the same plug in, but also keep it simple and just pop on the compressor.

Also, I like the fact that it doesn't have too many controls. I love that, because I don't have time to sit there all day to get the perfect setting. I like throwing it up on something, turning a few knobs like the Threshold and Output Gain and making it work. The Dynamics is probably one the most hardware-like sounding compressor I've heard. I put that thing on the stereo mix of a game I did recently, and got a great classic 'vintage 70's' sound. It's hard to get that unless you're using expensive gear, especially when it comes to bus compression. Now I always pop the Dynamics on my tracks and just see what it's going to do. It's one of those pieces of software that just does magical things.

So how do you use the Inflator?

Generally, I like using it on the stereo mix. It adds a lot of energy without compressing the sound. I don't use it in a subtle way and prefer 'slamming' it. Most often, it adds just \the right amount of power and loudness without losing the sense of dynamics. It's an energy enhancer. I have to say though, I use all of these Sonnox plug-ins on everything I do.

On this article, on the Arturia website, Tom Salta claimed to use Matrixbrute