Metric AB Review

Documentation

The PDF manual is clear and concise. It also gives you some small tips beyond the basic usage.

The manual is not accessible from within the plugin. It’s always a pain to have to go look for it from the web or your hard drive.

There are tooltips that are very helpful for getting to know the plugin because there are a lot of small options to figure out.

Copy protection and License Transfer

A one-time license check over the internet.

License transfers are allowed and easy to do, but there is a $20 fee for the buyer.

Technical Requirements

Plugin version reviewed: 1.3 / December 2021

Supported Plugin Formats
AAX Native, AU, AAX AudioSuite, VST2, VST3

Supported Operating Systems
macOS 10.9 through 11
Windows 7 through 10

Mac
Intel CPU only (minimum 2 GHz recommended)

PC
x64-compatible CPU

System Requirements
Display resolution: 1440 × 900px or 1280 × 960px or higher
Memory: 2 GB RAM

Metric AB Alternatives

There are some other plugins that do a similar thing. Here are the ones I’ve tried.

• Mastering the Mix Reference. Gives you less options but they are well thought out. I’ve demoed it and I prefer Metric AB for its more extensive metering. But I still appreciate the streamlined approach here – Reference is a good alternative.
• Melda Productions MCompare. It has a nice blind testing feature. Other than that I’m not a fan of it. It only has loudness metering and the user experience isn’t smooth (no looping option for reference tracks for instance).

Metric AB Price

Updated December 3rd, 2021.

The regular price is $199.

Nobody in their right mind should pay that much for it. Not because I don’t think it’s worth it, but because Plugin Alliance regularly do big discounts. You can often get it for anywhere between $29.99 to $49.99.

For that kind of discounted price, I think it is insanely good value and it is about the best investment you can make towards improving the quality of your music and your listening skills.

Metric AB Review – Conclusion

Pros:

• The most comprehensive reference listening plugin out there.
• Good user interface.
• Insanely good value for money if you buy it on discount.

Cons:

• See my feature requests listed above.