NUGEN Audio is a British software company known for creating industry-standard loudness metering, post-production, and spatial audio plug-ins. Founded in 2004, their focus is on not only audio processing, but also on helping engineers with analysis, meeting technical specifications, and problem solving.
NUGEN Audio MasterCheck 2 is a professional loudness metering and streaming compliance plug-in designed to help engineers optimize audio for cross-platform playback. It acts as a reference and verification tool, revealing exactly how an audio mix or master will sound after being subjected to the loudness normalization and data compression used by modern streaming networks. Different streaming networks set different audio levels for their target for playout, and by emulating these real-world delivery platforms in real time, MasterCheck 2 allows creators to audition what network codecs will do to their audio. NUGEN Audio routinely works in direct collaboration with major networks and streaming media giants like Netflix, Amazon, Disney, and YouTube to write compliance code.
NUGEN Audio states that using MasterCheck 2 can help to maximize dynamics and avoid downstream distortion before final distribution. MasterCheck 2 includes presets that have the compression algorithms from major streaming platforms including Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal, YouTube, Soundcloud, Bandcamp, Qobuz, and Pandora. You simply load the preset corresponding to the streaming platform that you are mastering for and hear what your master will sound like when streamed from it. The plug-in applies the real-time data compression and loudness normalization filters that is unique to each streamer to your monitor path. It’s important to note that MasterCheck 2 does not itself alter, process, or change the audio of your master in any way. It is strictly a metering, emulation, and auditioning tool. It is designed to sit at the absolute end of your mastering chain to analyze your signal and show you how streaming platforms will affect it.
The initial version of this technology, MasterCheck was originally released in 2014. When it first arrived, the music production world was just beginning to understand delivery to music streaming services. MasterCheck was the first loudness meter specifically built to show music producers how platforms like iTunes and early Spotify would automatically turn down their mixes. In 2017 NUGEN Audio expanded the plug-in by releasing a “Pro” version. MasterCheck Pro introduced their Codec Auditioning engine, which allowed engineers to hear how streaming compression algorithms like MP3 or AAC would impact their mixes before bouncing the track. After more than a decade of updates, NUGEN Audio “rebuilt the framework from the ground up” to launch MasterCheck 2, adding multichannel support including 7.1.4 immersive audio and Dolby Atmos capability to match modern streaming needs. $249
Supports AAX, VST3, AU, and AudioSuite in 64-bit.
Minimum system requirements Mac OSX 11 / 512 MB RAM Windows 8 / 512 MB RAM
