Musik Hack Fuel

Can just a small handful of controls give you the power to shape a range of sounds?

I was hugely impressed by Musik Hack’s Master Plan. Essentially a DIY mastering tool, its stand‑out feature is the Loud knob, a clever turn‑for‑more ‘maximiser’ that delivers proudly loud yet subjectively clear and pleasing results, all made easy thanks to a loudness‑matching Unity button. I still use Master Plan, but Musik Hack have now released another plug‑in called Fuel, featuring the same Loud knob and, again, supporting AU, AAX and VST3 formats and both macOS and Windows.

Fuel Injection

This time, the Loud knob is flanked by controls designed to enrich and enliven individual sources, such as vocals, bass, guitar, synths and drums, and the control set is again deliberately simple, the idea being that you turn just a few knobs and decide if you want more or less of each process. The tweakers out there may not approve, but Musik Hack have done a decent job of judging the balance here. My only criticism is that the wet/dry Mix knob applies globally; having that option for each section could facilitate speedier results.

In and Out level knobs (each ±12dB) have a short‑term LUFS readout beneath. Bypass and Unity buttons allow instant comparison with the unprocessed signal (Unity doesn’t affect the output LUFS figure), and each processing stage can be bypassed individually by clicking on its text label. A low‑latency Live setting reduces the quality of some processing a tad while opening up the option of using Fuel to process a performer’s instrument while they play, and an Oversampling button delivers better quality at the expense of more CPU cycles.

To the left of the Loud knob is a compressor, with a knob (ranging from 0‑100) and a Comp/OTT toggle switch. In Comp mode, it’s a standard single‑band downward compressor, while OTT is a multi‑band type. The compressor’s forgiving nature suggests there could be more going on than ‘turn for more gain reduction’ but from a user point of view you do indeed just turn and listen. Beneath, a horizontal fader labelled Body controls a separate upward compressor. Body’s an apt name given the effect on various sources, but I also found it handy for improving lyrical intelligibility by lifting up lower‑level vocal details; not a replacement for fader riding, but certainly a help.

To the right, a Soft Clip knob (again, 0‑100 and ‘clockwise for more’) is joined by a Crunch distortion slider that ushers in a bright, edgy fuzz that can work wonders in getting a sound to ‘cut through’ in a mix. It’s pretty full on, though, so you won’t want to use it on everything (if everything ‘cuts’ then nothing does!) and when processing ‘natural’ sources you’ll rarely want to set it above 20‑25, except when using the Mix knob for parallel processing.

There’s the ability not only to scale the GUI but also to change its background colour per instance — a handy navigation aid.

The two remaining knobs are for the saturation processors, Bass and Thick. Bass seems to be a combination of EQ and LF saturation, while Thick fills out the midrange. Further features include a range of useful presets and the ability not only to scale the GUI but also to change its background colour per instance — a handy navigation aid if using instances on different sources.

Fuel’s Gold

With Fuel, Musik Hack continue to impress. It never overwhelms you with parameters: you really can just turn knobs and listen. At the same time, though, there’s plenty of scope for enriching and filling out various sounds, from vocals to drums, and it’s really hard to make things sound bad unintentionally as long as you keep Unity engaged. Other than sometimes forgetting that certain stages were bypassed, it really couldn’t have been more intuitive.

If you have a limp sound that seems to be running on empty, then, you could try adding Fuel to thicken, enrich and sweeten it into usability. You might tame a rock vocal’s peaks while making its details heard, lending it a sense of power, and making it cut through a busy chorus. Or look to it to thrash the living daylights out of your drums, or give a lead guitar or synth an edge worthy of a katana... But I reckon Fuel’s greatest potential in real‑world mixes probably lies in exploring the more subtle treatments it can deliver, which can make pretty much any instrument sound just that bit larger than life — processing just a few select sources in that way could well work wonders in the context of a mix. Well worth a demo!