Grammy Award winning multi-platinum producer, mixer and engineer Bob Power is a certified gear junkie. With a vast and varied discography that sweeps from Erykah Badu and D’Angelo through Pat Metheny and Miles Davis, he’s used just about everything. Although he came up through the ranks of consoles and hardware, he’s always incorporated the latest software into his work. That includes, of course, his well-traveled collection of Sonnox Oxford plug-ins.

“I’ve been using the Oxford EQ for a long time,” he noted while sitting down with us in his comfortable New York City production studio. “My big thing about the Oxford EQs, and I felt this from the beginning, is that they are really transparent. It’s like a super high-end analog EQ, where when you turn a knob it does what you want it to do. It’s really difficult to make things sound harsh with it, which is fantastic.”

Power noted that he uses the EQ both on individual tracks and across stereo busses – including the master. “It’s probably my go-to EQ on a stereo mix because I can tilt it in certain directions without imparting a flavor that is inescapable. Also, I use it constantly on my output busses, whether it’s a full vocal, drum or an instrument bus. I tend to often have a separate bus for my tracks and my vocals, just because it’s a little easier to grab stuff real quickly that way – or to mute tracks.”

He went on to mention how he can ‘goose’ 16-18kHz with a shelf, which opens up the whole top of the piece, regardless of the fact that there is no audio up there. “Even when I do that, the sibilance and high end doesn’t get out of control with the Oxfords. It’s a very, very smooth piece of gear and I love it for that.”

“I’ve also been using the Oxford Dynamics for quite some time,” Power continues. One of the reasons why it’s such an interesting piece is because there is so much to it. It’s both a compressor, limiter and more -which harkens back to a lot of older English pieces that did both at the same time.”

He also likes the fact that it combines several different modules - within the same plug-in. “To many people, there are advantages of not going in and out of a chain of plug-ins because of the re-dithering issues. Like the EQ, it reacts more like an analog piece than anything I know. The other really great thing about Dynamics is the Warmth control. It doesn’t turn it into a mud machine, which many other similar products do. Honestly, I've used both the EQ and Dynamics for the last few years on almost every mix I've done – especially on Ledisi’s double Grammy nominated Verve Lost & Found CD, and various mixes for Universal, Jive and Sony/BMG.”

As for the Inflator, Power has used other products like it, but his feelings are clear on which is his favorite. “The coolest thing about Inflator is that it really does punch things up. All these pieces that do the same thing have different characteristics and often with tape simulations you lose some punch, because in effect it’s compressing the signal. It may sit in the track nicely, but you lose some of that stuff like the kick drum that really hits you hard in the chest. If I ever have anything that’s not punchy enough, especially with bass or drums, I’ll put the Inflator on it.”

When it comes to kicking a track up even more, Power doesn’t just rely on the Inflator. “The Limiter is a mind blower, I don’t know what else to say,” he continued. “I just used it on a single with Q-Tip for Universal/Motown, and it gets really loud without any of the artifacts associated with such products. It’s amazingly transparent and the envelope controls on it are really handy. If you don’t use it as a brick wall limiter but leave the attack all the way down, it doesn’t have any of those negative artifacts usually associated with the process.”

“The Enhance function is also really cool,” he mused. “I don’t know exactly what it does but when you turn a knob a little bit and it makes something sound better. You stop asking questions after a while. I really appreciate that it doesn’t change the fundamental balance of my mix. I realize I can get away with a really fast attack, while retaining that amazing transient control.”

Last but not least, Power says that he gives the Reverb “two thumbs up”. “It has a nice rich sound but the odd thing is many other reverbs don’t fit into a track,” he continued. “The Oxford Reverb always seems to fit in there, and the emulations - particularly the plates - are closer than anything I’ve ever heard. Upon first listen, I thought it sounded like an EMT. It’s very adaptable and the adjustable parameters do exactly what you expect them to. While I use the plate a lot on vocals, it’s great on drums as well. There’s a certain thing about real plates where the sound seems to go diagonally back into the corners, providing a third dimension. That’s what the Oxford Reverb does.”

Interview and editorial provided by Rich Tozzoli