Maserati VX1 Review

This is one of my absolute favourite plugins for bringing out the best in a vocal chain. The Maserati VX1 review will show you what this little pocket rocket of a vocal plugin can do for you.

This is a review of the Waves Maserati VX1 VST plugin. We take a look at the various features available in the plugin along with presets on offer and what additional benefits it can bring to your mix.

Jump to:

• Introduction to the Maserati VX 1 Review
• Getting Started
• Notable Features
• Presets Available
• Alternatives Available
• Who Uses This Plugin?
• Review Summary
• Where To Buy

Introduction to the Maserati VX 1 Review

While I'm not normally a fan of the Waves stuff purely because I don't like their pricing model (although it's been a while), I love this plugin. It is my go to plugin for any vocal stuff and has been used on a lot of music that I have produced in the past.

Getting Started

The usual Waves installation takes place with this plugin. If you have the software manager (Waves central) you can install it from there. Purchasing is normally the typical options from Waves, either in the perpetual option or the subscription model, depending which you decided to opt for.

The plugin itself is really simple, only a few dials to pick and choose from with the main functionality at the top and then some further effects at the bottom. Again all are midi mappable and controllable with certain DAW's.

Over to the right there is a nice metering utility which will show your loudness in a range of -24dBFS to 0dBFS with some redlines at -8 dBFS to give you some warning when running hot. This can be switched to meter the input and output depending on preference.

Notable Features

• Various rooms styles using Contour settings
• Designed with a Grammy winning mix engineer
• A go-to vocal plugin

The notable features pretty much speak for themselves. With Tony Maserati being the mix engineer for Beyoncé (you've heard of her right?!) it goes without saying this guy knows his stuff. The full package of features bundled into this one plugin mean you only really need this for your vocal chains.

Presets Available

I picked out a couple of different presets to demonstrate the capabilities of the Waves Maserati VX1 plugin. The two I opted for were Nathans Vox 1 and the RWL "Float Yer Own" presets.

Nathans Vox 1 preset demo

This preset is a favourite of mine to use on a rock vocal. Particularly useful if you want to cut through the mid of a mix without giving up too much of the guitar that sits in the same areas. This has quite a large amount of compression to push through the mid ranges.

RWL "Float Yer Own" preset demo

The "float yer own" offers up a similar end result to the Nathans Vox 1 preset but does not use as much compression. This is achieved by reducing compression but increasing delay mix. The output is not vastly different, but the delay adds that extra body to the vocal which is missing when the plugin is not active. Try for yourself on this example below.

The various contour settings offer different types of rooms depending on the studio effect you are looking for. For example Contour 1 provides the sound of studio recording, 2 is a larger chamber and 3 is a small room with delay optimised for more productions of upbeat and dance tracks.

Maserati VX1 FAQ's

Alternatives Available

The Izotope range of products (Izotope Nectar and Izotope Ozone) are quite good products to achieve similar results so it's worth having a look at them to see if you can demo them before committing to the Waves purchase.

Who Uses This Plugin?

Designed and therefore probably used by Tony Maserati!

Review Summary

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Where To Buy

Waves is the place to get Waves plugins. They are probably nearly always on sale. Watch out for renewal/upgrade costs though as they can sometimes catch you out. You can get the Waves subscription that includes it all too, so check out Waves.com for your best offers.