ROAD
TEST
JST Original & Joel Wanasek Bus
Glue Plug-In Bundles
By Joe Mullen
J
oey Sturgis Tones is quickly becoming
an audio production room standard.
I’ve been watching JST and using its
plug-ins consistently since its inception
and was really stoked to see that Joey
was doing a mix bus series. I figured it would
sound amazing and boast a ton of utility based
on my past experience with his products, not
to mention his list of recording credits, which
includes including Asking Alexandria, Miss May
I, and Emmure, among others.
A little while later, I saw a video of producer/
mixer Joel Wanasek at NAMM presenting his
new line of JST bus compressors. Again, I was
immediately stoked about it. If you have ever
encountered Joel through Nail the Mix or the
Unstoppable Recording Machine initiatives, you
will understand why. Joel is full of fire and a very
inspirational dude. His credits speak for them-
selves, as he has worked with bands like Machine
Head, Vinyl Theater, and Dope.
Here, we’ll test out these two Bus Glue collec-
tions from JST – the original Bus Glue Series and
brand new Joel Wanasek Bus Glue Series – on
some projects I have underway.
JST Bus Glue Series
BG Drums
BG Drums has four very different sounding
compression algorithms – Tight, Open, Fat, and
Boom – that do an admirable job of produc-
ing results consistent with what their names
suggest. In fact, for novice engineers, they
can actually help you understand what “open”
means as compared to the other options in
regards to bus compression settings. I know for
me and my level of compression knowledge, I
couldn’t just whip up these different compres-
sion approaches and know exactly what the
settings would be, let alone all four and then
being able to A/B them on top of that. What a
powerful and creative tool.
BG Guitars
This one is all about utility. I love the three
options of Tame, Clamp, and Smash. Again, the
terms really do describe what these tools can
bring to some heavy guitars in certain parts
of the mix. These modes can be automatable,
which leaves no end to the mixing possibili-
ties. Use the Tame settings to smooth out the
chorus rhythm guitars then switch to Clamp
22 • C A N A D I A N M U S I C I A N
were tricking me or not so I A/B’d it a bunch
of times to see what the difference would be
just by having it in the chain. It was actually a
really good lesson in using your ears because it
is very subtle but also very powerful from a mix
perspective once you start to hear it. Definitely
a go-to for me from now on.
to get a truly crushing breakdown lock-up sec-
tion. The Tone toggle switch gives the guitars a
lot more presence in the mix without any an-
noying frequencies, while the Warmth toggle
switch gives the mids a nice solid boost but in
a very subtle way.
BG Mix
BG Mix puts everything you need on your two-
bus in one plug-in. You can select from four
carefully designed compression algorithms,
add warmth, and clip. The warmth button does
some crazy magic to the mids and highs that I
found to be spot on. It’s the kind of thing you
need to hear. I find that a lot of the time, mid
and high end can bother my ears, but not with
this. It makes the mids and highs smooth and
well defined, almost adding more space within
the high-end. I also appreciate its user-friendly
approach to gain staging. I loaded it up with
my other busses way over 0dB, and yes, of
course the result was overloaded, but I noticed
something unique; the headroom has a “hard
limit” to where you can’t really clip it unless you
are sending in way too much signal.
Joel Wanasek Bus Glue Series
JW Drums
I tested out JW Drums on some fast death
metal drumming I had tracked for an upcom-
ing Unburnt EP. I imported the mix-ready drum
stems, did a quick balance and pan, routed
everything to a bus, and loaded up the freshly
installed JW Drums v1.0.0. I noticed that with
nothing except the Pumpin’ setting selected,
I heard a slight lift and tightness in the low
end, some sweetness in the upper mids, and
improved separation. I wasn’t sure if my ears
JW Bass
To test drive JW Bass, I loaded it up on a single
bass track and its effect was immediately ap-
parent. There is a subtle amount of processing
it does natively that smoothes out the DI and
successfully balances out the mids. There are
also a couple more in-depth features, such as
the top and bottom “mode” selection that al-
lows splitting the bass within one track on one
plug-in. Joel is all about speed and JW Bass
delivers on that philosophy. The Grit section is
just fantastic. There are three options of satura-
tion that all sound really good and mix so
easily. My first-hand experience with JW Bass
proved I can go from raw DI to album-ready
bass with one plug-in.
JW Mix
What can I say about this other than #NO-
SMALLTIME! Again, this has a nice little lift
right when you load it up. Adding some Crush
brings up the loudness nicely in a very smooth
and musical way. I really enjoyed the unique
Iron, Steel, and Nickel transformer settings. The
tonalities here are subtle but very powerful.
A/B these with fresh ears and you will know
what I mean.
Summary
These series share common qualities but are
still unique in their own ways. Both are far
more than just a signal processor; you get
the added benefit of Joey and Joel’s years of
mixing experience baked in with a slight EQ
bump here or a bit of saturation there. They
each speak in their own way and reflect the
individual styles of each designer. These are
going to be all over my work this year. Happy
mixing!
Joe Mullen owns and operates JoeDown Studios
in Hanover, ON. He plays drums in the metal out-
fits Odium and Unburnt and contributes regularly
to Professional Sound and Canadian Musician
magazines.