VST plugins used by Mike Dean

Mike Dean’s Twitch streams have made the question of plugins used by Mike Dean easier to answer than most producers at his level. The Grammy-winning engineer behind Kanye West, Travis Scott, Jay-Z, and Scarface has streamed his sessions live, calling out his tools as he works. In April 2026, he started building his own. Here is what is currently in his chain.

Mike Dean’s own plugins

Gainstation 2 (Acustica Audio) — Mike Dean developed Gainstation with Acustica Audio and Studio DMI, building it around hardware units he personally selected and modified. The plugin captures the distortion and saturation character of those machines: harmonic saturation, multi-mode clipping, and more aggressive distortion at higher settings. Gainstation 2 is the current version, expanded from the original. Gainstation Boost is a simplified, single-processor variant. Acustica’s Aqua convolution engine powers the sampling underneath. It is available via Acustica Audio directly.

Smoke Mono 1 (DLP Audio / Dean’s List Plugins) — free — Mike Dean launched Dean’s List Plugins in April 2026 with Smoke Mono 1, a free monophonic synthesizer for macOS. It runs virtual analog oscillators (saw, square, triangle, sine, sub), a Moog-style ladder filter capable of self-oscillation at high resonance, a custom saturation circuit, two envelopes, an LFO with four shapes, portamento, delay, reverb, and chorus. He released it at 4:20 PM on April 20. No trial period, no watermark. VST3 and AU formats. A paid Smoke Mono Pro is in development, adding arpeggiator, step sequencer, 1,024 factory presets, a multi-mode filter (ladder, SVF, comb), and a Bass Boost engine. Download at dlp.audio.

Distortion and saturation

Soundtoys Decapitator — Mike Dean has cited Decapitator by name in interviews. He used it on the 808 kicks on Desiigner’s “Timmy Turner,” describing it as giving them their growl and low-end presence in the mix. Soundtoys list him as an official artist endorser. Decapitator models five analog hardware saturation circuits, covering everything from subtle harmonic warmth to full-signal destruction. It is one of the most used saturation plugins in professional hip-hop production.

EQ

Brainworx bx_2098 EQ — A plugin model of the Amek 9098 EQ, originally designed by Rupert Neve. Mike Dean has named it as one of his favourite EQ plugins. Brainworx adds mid/side processing to the original circuit, extending its usefulness for stereo imaging and bus work alongside the standard Neve-character tonal shaping. Available via Plugin Alliance.

FabFilter Pro-Q 3 — Linear phase EQ with dynamic EQ capability, full-spectrum analysis, and inter-channel referencing. Mike Dean uses it as part of his core plugin chain. Pro-Q 3 is a standard across professional mixing at every genre, and its dynamic EQ mode makes it particularly effective on problem frequencies that need adaptive control rather than static cuts.

Compression and dynamics

Waves SSL G-Master Buss Compressor — Based on the SSL 4000 G console bus compressor, this is Mike Dean’s primary mix bus glue. The original SSL bus compressor defined the sound of major-label mixing through the 1980s and 1990s. The Waves model is one of the most widely used compressors in current professional production. For producers building their own compression chain, the best compressor plugins roundup covers the full range of current options.

Waves L1 Ultramaximizer — Mike Dean uses the L1 for peak limiting and loudness control in mastering. It has been a digital mastering standard since its release and remains one of the most transparent limiters available, particularly valued for maintaining transient feel while controlling peaks.

Vocals

iZotope Nectar 3 — Mike Dean posted about this directly: “vocal simplicity.” Nectar 3 combines pitch correction, compression, EQ, de-essing, saturation, and reverb in a single vocal processing chain. Its vocal assistant can generate a starting point automatically, which suits fast session work. For a producer running large-scale sessions across multiple artists, that speed is the point.

Waves Renaissance Vox — Three controls: gate, compression, output gain. Mike Dean uses it alongside more detailed processing as a fast vocal level management tool. Renaissance Vox is designed for practical workflow rather than fine-tuning, and it suits the stage where you need a vocal sitting in the mix before detailed processing begins.

Waves DeEsser — A targeted de-esser for managing sibilance in vocal recordings. Mike Dean uses it as part of his vocal chain alongside Nectar and Renaissance Vox.

Instruments

Output Exhale — A sample-based vocal instrument built from ensemble voices with morphing and layering across multiple articulations. Mike Dean uses it for atmospheric vocal textures and pad-style sounds. Output’s engine allows real-time control over the blend between tonal and breathy voice layers, making it a flexible background texture tool.

Ableton Operator — Mike Dean’s DAW is Ableton Live, and he uses the built-in FM synthesizer Operator for sound design and bass work. Operator is a four-operator FM synth with a filter section, LFO, and full envelope routing — it ships with Ableton Live Standard and Suite. For producers new to the software, the Ableton Live beginner’s guide covers the core workflow from setup to first track.

Headphone mixing

Steven Slate Audio VSX — Mike Dean Expansion ($39) — The VSX system models studio monitors and listening environments for headphone mixing. The Mike Dean expansion includes two environments: a recreation of his studio room and his custom Tesla Model X, modified by West Coast Customs and tuned by Mike Dean to his preferred bass and speaker balance. The expansion requires the VSX base system and is sold separately for existing owners at stevenslateaudio.com.

Mike Dean has described his approach to plugins simply: he has every plugin you can buy. The tools above are the ones he has named across Twitch streams, interviews, and official artist endorsements. Since April 2026, he has started adding his own to that list.