Review: Joey Sturgis Tones Gain Reduction Plug-In

Plug-ins can be pricey, and if you don’t know the theory behind compression you could find yourself doing more harm than good. So if you’re more of an recording enthusiast than a studio pro and you’re looking for a no-frills, set-and-forget vocal tool, then this might be of interest to you.

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Producer Joey Sturgis (Born Of Osiris, Asking Alexandria, We Came As Romans, etc) has been making a name for himself not just by producing bands that sell lots and lots of albums, but by branding and merchandising some of the tools to his trade. Like when he put the Born Of Orisis guitar tone for sale as an Axe-FX preset.

Now he has his vocal chain for purchase online: the JST Gain Reduction plug-in. It’s essentially eq, compression, and distortion all in one: a simulacrum of the multiple tools he would be applying to a vocal track, except instead of 5 different pricey plug-ins from Waves or whatnot you use this one $45 plug. If you’re curious as to the details of it take a look at this interview I did with Joey a couple months back.

Since I’m not a professional recording engineer I figured “why not review this puppy with someone who is?” I sat down with Kevin Antreassian, studio proprietor at Backroom Studios, to double down our brain power for this review.

Written by

Chris Alfano has written about music and toured in bands since print magazines and mp3.com were popular. Once in high-school he hacked a friend's QBasic stick figure fighting game to add a chiptune metal soundtrack. Random attractive people still give him high-fives about that.

Latest comments
  • Takes control out of the hands of the producer. Lame product and clearly Joey is preying on novice “engineers”. Ride the capitalist wave, I suppose.

    • I don’t think you understand the product.

    • You did actually watch the video right?

  • How is he using Gain Reduction in Pro Tools??

    • Its available for all platforms and operating systems. AAX, RTAS, VST2, VST3, AU, 32 and 64 bit.

  • Maybe it’s just not the best audio in that demo, but that Sturgis plugin sounded like the least transparent compression I’ve ever fucking heard. The Waves CLA plugin blew it out of the water in the little A/B comparison they did.

    This is a far better “all in one” vocal plugin (although not the particular CLA plugin in the demo), and Waves has it on sale on their website for $50 from time to time:

    http://www.waves.com/plugins/cla-vocals

    • Thanks for your suggestions, but my plugin is more aggressive than the CLA plugins.

    • I agree that it is less transparent, but that`s sort of the point of his plugin, I think.

  • I speak for myself and lots of other people when I say that this tool is simply amazing! Thank you very much Joey Sturgis for creating something like that and sharing it with us! You have my deepest respect!

  • I’m sure they love it! I’ve been spreading the word on my end.
    I just used it on a rock tune for an international client of mine. It’s been a huge time/life saver. I almost use it exclusively on vocals now.

  • 10/10
    Makes vocals less of a pain and it really brings out the gurgle in screams!

  • Love this plugin. A one trick pony perhaps, but that pony absolutely nails it!

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