In this age of digital plugins and algorithms, analog mastering is an essential art that can't be overlooked. Hardware compressors, tubes, and transformers introduce physical effects and harmonic overtones that impart warmth and depth to your mix. These are five reasons—along with technical information and diagrammatic illustrations.

The Klanghabitat Cassiopeia is a stereo vacuum tube saturation module available both as a hardware unit and a software plugin.

In today's workflows, it's tough to avoid finding an AI-driven plugin. Here, we've rounded up our favourites for music production tasks.