Doug's Favorite Gear

Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor
Forget the aesthetics of the unit- it's the most versatile comp ever. The discrete comp is a cross between a G384 and a 33609. The opto side is fast as hell. I'd love to take it off the 2mix but that won't happen.

Thermionic Culture Phoenix Mastering Version
I auditioned one of these when they came out and didn't buy it because the VU's were hard to cal, as were the controls in general. With the Mastering Version (MV) they took care of those issues. I'd compare the sound to my old beloved Gates Sta Levels but with more control. They're versatile, but generally add an uncommon smooth flavor.

Drawmer 1968
Another tube comp, but this really is a bargain of a comp. It's great on bass, on OH's, on Room mics...The Big switch stays in all the time.

Sontec 432c9 EQ
This is the holy grail mastering eq. It's like the 15th revision of the original design and it's many an ME's go to EQ

Magix Samplitude DAW
My favorite ME's were all using Sequoia and Samp is the little brother software. The first thing I noticed is that my source wav file sounded better simply being played back off this than it did off by expensive PT HD3 (same D/A mind you). Terrible manual, but once you get the hang of it -it's very powerful and sounds great. The included "Spectral Cleaning" plug is the coolest plugin I've ever heard!

Manley Vari Mu (mastering version)
I had the T bar mod and the HP sidechain mod done up front. I love what this does to 80% of the songs I master. The High Pass sidechain mod is so cool - they nailed the frequency -proven by the fact that I end up flipping it on about 50% of the time. It's like having two compressors.