Leapwing Audio Al Schmitt - £139

Bottling the sonic signature of the sadly departed producer, Leapwing Audio’s latest plugin promises the sound of a legend…

Ever since the impressive DynOne made us re-think everything we knew about parallel compression, the Belgium-based Leapwing Audio have kept us well fed with a slew of instant-buys. From the algorithmic, spatial manoeuvring of CenterOne, to the clever, harmonic sculpting of RootOne, Leapwing have cemented themselves as key plugin players.

With their latest sound tool, the company veer off from the ‘One’ series (to be honest, it was getting quite confusing) and deliver a series of carefully crafted sonic profiles under one roof, tailored to enhance specific instruments in a mix, as well as the entire mix bus. The source of these profiles, one Al Schmitt – legendary producer of Jefferson Airplane and Neil Young, and engineer for Frank Sinatra, Ray Charles, Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan and Madonna, who sadly passed away as we went to press. Needless to say, Al’s studio processes helped shape some of humanity’s most beloved music. So, having this genius’s twinkly aural magic sat on your hard drive, waiting to be applied to your own tracks, is an incredibly appealing prospect.

Take flight

In making this plugin, Leapwing studied Al’s workflow across the decades, carving the nuanced profiles from his favoured approaches, ranging from mix-wide considerations, to subtler harmonics per instrument. The six district profiles are Vocal, Piano, Bass, Brass, Strings and Mix, each of which have unique parameters. There are a handful of presets within each profile, though not multitudes (just 14 in total) as the emphasis here is on getting to the ‘instant Al’ sound quickly.

“Having this genius’ twinkly aural magic sat on your hard drive, applied to your tracks, is an appealing prospect”