Hey friend,

I need to tell you something that might save you a lot of money this Black Friday season.

You only need 4 plugins to create incredible worship mixes.

That's it. Four plugins.

I know that sounds crazy, especially with all the fancy marketing and "must-have" plugin sales happening right now. But I'm being completely honest with you - I built an entire professional-sounding mix in just 30 minutes using only these 4 tools.

My Plugin Hell Story

Let me tell you about the biggest mistake I made as a young mixer.

When I was 19, my band got to record in a real Nashville studio. I was so excited because I thought I'd finally see what "pro" mixing looked like. I brought my notebook, ready to write down every single plugin this engineer used.

You know what he used? Stock EQ, stock compressor, and stock reverb. That's it.

He just sat there and EQed until it was right. Compressed until it was right. Added reverb until it sounded awesome.

I was blown away. But did that stop me from buying a thousand plugins over the years? Nope. I still fell into plugin hell just like everyone else.

The 4 Plugins That Actually Matter

After years of overthinking and overspending, here's what I use on literally every worship mix:

1. A Good EQ (Waves F6) This is my absolute favorite because it can be both a normal EQ and a dynamic EQ. You can shape the sound, add high and low pass filters, and even make it react to other instruments. I have it on everything.

2. A Compressor (FabFilter Pro-C2) This thing has different styles built in - vocal style, bus style, mastering style. The presets are actually really good, and you just need to adjust your attack, release, and threshold for your source.

3. A Saturator (Waves BB Tubes Magma) Most of our recordings are too clean these days. We can't all have analog consoles and preamps. This adds that vibe back into your tracks. It's kind of like magic if I'm being honest.

4. A Reverb (Valhalla Vintage Verb) Stock reverbs usually sound funny and need lots of EQ to work. This one gives me any color of reverb I want - 70s, 80s, or modern. Plus it has tons of great presets.

The Real Secret

Here's what I learned from that Nashville engineer: It's not about having the fanciest plugins. It's about knowing how to use what you have.

A single plugin will never just make your mix better. That's not how it works. You need to learn how to mix first.

But these 4 plugins? They'll handle 90% of what you need for any worship mix.

The 30-Minute Mix Challenge

I proved this to myself by taking an old worship recording and mixing it in about 30-45 minutes using only these 4 plugins. The crazy part? It might sound better than the original mix I did years ago when I wasn't as good.

And I didn't even EQ everything. I just didn't feel like I had time, and I wanted to get this video done for you guys. It just shows you don't really need that much.

Watch Me Build The Entire Mix

I recorded the whole process so you can see exactly how I use each plugin and why they work so well together. You'll hear the dramatic before and after, and see how simple good mixing can actually be.

Watch me build a professional worship mix with just 4 plugins →

The One Rule That Changed Everything

Here's the best advice I can give you about buying plugins:

Be very intentional about your plugin buying right now.

The marketing is so good these days. You get like a high from buying plugins. But you don't really need most of them, unfortunately.

Don't spend money that you don't need to. Think about what the song needs, not what plugin you want to try.

Start Here, Not There

If you're new to mixing, don't make my mistake. Don't chase the next shiny plugin thinking it'll fix your mixes.

Master these 4 tools first:

• Learn to EQ properly
• Learn to compress with intention
• Learn to add character with saturation
• Learn to create space with reverb

Once you've mastered these basics, then you can think about expanding your toolkit.

The Bottom Line

Good mixing isn't about making individual instruments sound amazing in solo. It's about making them work together to serve the song and help the listener feel something.

That's what matters. Not how many plugins you own.

Sometimes the best solutions are the simplest ones.