So Waves came out with a new plug-in called Vocal Rider and I have one question.

• Is this plug-in really necessary?

I guess this may work well in the broadcast world, but they’re pitching it as a mix tool for vocals. To me that means mixing, as in mixing music. Does anyone else feel that the engineer who uses this plug-in is just plain lazy?

Maybe I’m a little irked because a HUGE part of mixing a song with vocals, especially a lead vocal, is the human placement of the vocal within the track. That requires listening to all the parts of the arrangement and finding the best place for the vocal as the song progresses from beginning to end. That requires feel and emotion from the mix engineer. Can you get that from a plug-in?

Then again, maybe the real reason I so annoyed is because this could potentially put me out of a job. It’s like the Ronco Rotisserie of audio – “just set it and forget it”.

To me, I think this may be the laziest plug-in ever created. What do you all think? Feel free to leave a comment below.

You can read a description of Vocal Rider on the Electronic Musician web site.

(Side note: I actually have the Ronco Rotisserie and it is awesome! If this plug-in produces the same results I’m screwed.)