I often say that one of the strongest arguments for mixing in Pro Tools is McDSP. As a fan of their products I had to ask for an interview, and Colin McDowell himself was happy to do one. Here it is, the longest interview on ProTooler so far.

How did you get started in plug-in development?

I am an old digidesign alumni, and TDM plug-ins were just getting off the ground when I worked there in the mid 1990’s. The ‘digital sucks’ angst was in full swing back then, but I figured at some point someone was going to dispel that audio mythology. Well, digi was really busy with Pro Tools, and plug-ins always took a back seat. So I left for Dolby Laboratories and worked on things like Dolby E. But at Dolby I got bit by the ’start your own company’ bug. Ray Dolby kept a library of pictures and notes about the early days of Dolby. It looked like a lot of fun. Plus Mr. Dolby only came to work on Tuesdays, and I thought I could go for that kind of schedule.

Well, nearly 10 years later I still work nearly everyday at McDSP (extra on Tuesdays), but it is a lot of fun.

McDSP originally focused on making audio software plug-ins that sounded as good (or better!) than the old analog classics folks were willing to pay too dang much for on ebay. Products like FilterBank and CompressorBank did a good job (still do!) of emulating vintage outboard gear while adding new and unique features. The MC2000 was a nice twist - a multi-band version of CompressorBank. And I think some folks have heard of a plug-in called Analog Channel.

Then McDSP branched out into the ‘musician’ market with things like Chrome Tone for guitar effects and amp modeling, and Synthesizer One - a modular wavetable based synth - it is still the world’s only virtual synth supporting both TDM and RTAS formats!

More recently we’ve added Channel G - emulations and calibrations of famous large format analog consoles, all available at the touch of a button, and nicely integrated with the ICON control surface from digi. Revolver, our convolution reverb has lots of great impulse responses and flexibility none of the other convolution reverbs offer (delay lines, psycho acoustic panning, reverb contour control). And finally the ML4000 mastering limiter and multi-band dynamics plug-in - great for mastering, music, post production, heck even live sound (the look ahead is barely 1 msec).

Which of your plug-ins is your personal favorite and why?

Analog Channel was a lot of fun to create, and at the time it was a pretty new direction for a plug-in to take. Most folks did not think it was going to work, and even the final control setup and configurations of Analog Channel were a little esoteric. But people got it, and boy have they made use of it.

But my favorite plug-in to date is probably the ML4000. It was a total team effort. Aaron Hipple, the other half of our engineering department, made some critical design improvements in the limiter which put it in a class by itself. Ralph Richbourg, our graphic artist, pretty much took my UI concept, chucked it, and came up with something far superior. I puttered around with the multi-band section, part of the limiter algorithm, and the other usual stuff I
do on each plug-in.

In the past, when I set out to make a new plug-in, I had the concept in mind, and generally worked by myself on it. This was especially true for the first 4 products - FilterBank, CompressorBank, MC2000, and Analog Channel. They turned out pretty good. But when you work with other folks, everyone takes things to a new level, and the overall product is even better than you originally imagined. The ML4000 is like that to me.

McDSP have made several hardware emulations, for instance in the EQ and compressor fields. To me it really peaked with Channel G, which I think is an amazing plug-in. Is it still necessary to use outboard gear?

Folks already recognize the advantages of staying entirely inside a DAW - total recall, automation, more channels of EQ, Comp, fx. But if you have outboard gear you like using, go for it!

Now do I think you have to have outboard gear? Not a chance. Pro Tools, and other DAWs, are getting pretty good at what they need to do these days. There is always room for improvement, but they do what they need to do. When I consider what folks had to use, 10, 20, 30 years ago, and how great some of those recordings sounded, I’d have to say a computer, a good AD/DA converter box, and some decent DAW software is plenty to get the job done. Ok, a nice mic collection, a good mic pre, some speakers, and let’s not forget a place to put all this crap…! Of course if you don’t have any McDSP software you’re screwed…but that is just my completely biased opinion.

Lets talk about Analog Channel. Plug-ins have gotten better in almost all categories the last years, but while Analog Channel is older than much of the competition, it’s still one of the best plug-ins of its type on the market. Why is it so hard to make something as good as it, or better even?

Analog Channel is a good product. It is also really old in terms of software product life cycles. Is it still one of the best? Of course!…because our customers continue to make it so! When Analog Channel was first released, a lot of folks really caught onto to what Analog Channel was doing, and made it a part of their production process. Some of these people have had really successful careers. So naturally, these cream of the crop folks make Analog Channel sound great! I am just glad they tell all their colleagues.

But you’ve hit a big part of McDSP’s business plan here. We didn’t just set out to emulate classics, we wanted to make the next classics. Analog Channel hits that mark. It models something folks understand and relate to - analog tape machines and class A amplifier signal paths, but Analog Channel also has a sound all its own. Sure there will be other similar plug-ins, but none of them will be Analog Channel. It will be interesting, 20 years from now…will someone be running an ancient Pro Tools 7.3 system, just to have Analog Channel? I hope to be around to see it !!!

Can you gives us any info on upcoming products from McDSP?

At any given time we have 2-4 projects in the air. Hopefully a few of these will be shown at NAMM in 2008. For AES 2007 in NYC, we’ll be showing off the ML4000 some more - its quite popular!! As far as details though, I gotta keep it on the down low…Waves could be reading this after all !!!

I must ask, will there ever be non-Pro Tools versions of your plug-ins, like AU or VST?

Other platforms. Good questions. We’re hiring some more folks these days, and I cannot deny that they will be looking at how far we’ve taken what we’ve got, and seeing how it could be made for other platforms. Know any good plug-in engineers…? McDSP is hiring!!

Any last words or thoughts?

Just glad to be making signal processing applications for the music industry. I was never a great musician, so I am glad to be at a company where we play a small part in other folks’ creative process. Thanks for the interview!