With this single plugin you are receiving effect signal chains developed over decades. This is an entire mix studio of emulated hardware gear including live echo chambers, delays, harmonizers, de-essers, EQs, saturation circuits, plus an analog console.

Domain's factory presets utilizes the sophisticated and creative routing Clearmountain often used in the final mixes of so many seminal hit records. In fact some of the presets are named after those records but are easily modified to work precisely as you like in your music mixes.

Domain opens up with the mesmerizing FX Visualizer View--a color-coded vector scope that displays the stereo sound field input signal shown in white and with each of effects colored coded. The delays are in blue, pitched delays are green, and reverbs come in lavender. If you're a first time user or, like me, always jump through presets looking for something close to start modifying, this opening page will give you ideas and help you conceptualize a unique sonic treatment.

As you toggle through the presets in the Preset Manager window at the top of this page, you'll see the names of popular songs with the usage of the effect chain added to their name. "Born In The USA Snare" would be the chain Bob used on the snare drum sound for the big Bruce Springsteen hit. Of course there are also more generically named effects such as "Wide Vocals" or "Stereo BVs." Bob Clearmountain created the factory presets and he fully describes their use in the included manual and in various online video clips. Fascinating!

Under the Hood--Advanced View

You can learn a lot about effect treatments by checking out some of the presets internal routing and parameters. Clicking on the Input button shows that the input signal splits into two, separate paths for pre-processing to drive both the Delay and Reverb effects sections. Both pre-processors have an identical chain consisting of a three-band parametric EQ and a De-Esser with a frequency range of 800Hz to 8kHz. Both of these processors have bypass buttons.

Clicking on the Delay button pulls up a big screen of controls to set up a stereo delay system next in the chain. You may sync delay time to the session's tempo subdivisions, or tap a tempo. The stereo delay offers a way to set up an Offset between left and right delay times as well as Link Offsets which allows one control to apply both a negative and positive offsets to the left and right delays at the same time.

There are also controls to set up spins (feedback); you can either Spin the output of one delay to its own input or Spin cross-feed from left output to right input and vice/versus, Link Spin will group both the left and right Spin faders together. These features are not typical delay plug-in controls and I love how they will take a lot of tweaky tedium out of using a delay plug-in.

Because there are also EQ, Pitch and the Blur modules all in the Delay section's chain, you may switch the Spin audio path from the output of the pitch shift module or the EQ's output. Blur is always in the path and active at 0% and all spin goes through it normally. Blur adds a bit of saturation in a feedback loop, this distortion builds up with every repeat--spin. If this stereo delay were offered as a separate plugin, it would be very popular.

Next is the Pitch/Reverb page for controlling a stereo pitch-shifted delay module for up to + or - 12 semitones (+/- 1 octave). Once you've selected the semitone, there are also separate faders for the left and right pitch shifters for fine-tuning up to +/-50-cents. In Fixed mode, the pitch shift stays as selected. In Random mode, pitch shift varies randomly up and down up to 20-cents. I found this feature is awesome for automatic double tracking. In addition, this section allowed for up to 500-ms of Pitched Delay; that time is added to both Pitched Delay outputs.

Also on the Pitch/Reverb page are three separate convolution reverbs using impulses from Apogee's Studio, "Mix This!" Chamber (Clearmountain's mix room), and a choice of six other spaces such as small closets, bathrooms, a gated plate, and larger ambient spaces called Roscoe Chamber 1 & 2.

The last section in Domain is a Mixer page with five master faders with mute and solo buttons; you can adjust the relative levels of Delay, Pitch Delay, and the three aforementioned reverbs. There are also an overall Wet/Dry fader and final Output fader and level meter.

How Does It Work And Sound?

I installed Domain in Pro Tools Ultimate HDX 2019.10 as a send/return effect but you can use it as an insert effect as well. I was looking for a magical treatment for a synthesizer motif, a Mini-Moog track that played at the intro, bridge, the solo section and the song's fade out. I wanted a memorable effect to enhance this heroic theme in just the right way.

But there is one problem: I have no idea of what effect!! I knew I wanted reverb, echo repeats, slight pitch change for an almost a chorus-like quality but on the dry side and not too washy with not much warble.

I chose a preset called "Avalon BV"--it was a version of the treatment Clearmountain used when he mixed Roxy Music's Avalon album. I went in to "reverse engineer" this effect and saw it had left and right quarter note delays with a slight offset between them. (If a stereo delay output delays are at the same exact delay time, the delay effect becomes mono). There was Spin and Spin Cross feed was enabled along with Link Spin. Also in play were Delay Pitch Shift at 12 and 11-cents left and right respectively and Random was selected that gave a wide and dreamy stereophonic image to my mono synth track. There was also Pitch Delay at 9-ms and finally, Roscoe Chamber 2 with 115-ms pre-delay.

I like using the Mixer page to reign in the hugeness of this effect. I do wish I could click on the source--the Delay, Pitch Delay, Apogee Studio, Mix This Chambers, and Roscoe Chamber2 to go directly to their parameters from the Mixer page. I also thought there should be a mono instance of Domain for processing mono tracks in mono.

But I am happy to have such a glorious sounding plugin for my mixing work. There are so many awesome sounds possible by way of the routing and chaining various delays and reverbs. It really is a remarkable tool and I am just getting started using it effectively!

Apogee Electronics' Clearmountain's Domain is downloadable and runs Native in AAX, AU, VST, VST 3 hosts and sells for $349 MSRP.