You know that person at work who dutifully fulfils their contractual obligations without offering a scintilla more in terms of effort or inspiration? Gold Clip is equipped with a input and output metering which provides a visual indication of the signal level throughout the plug-in, as well as a detailed waveform display which occupies the centre of the GUI, and users are able to adjust both the input and output levels to maintain a consistent gain structure.

It compresses the audio, but does so without the artifacts associated with attack and release that you hear on classical compressors. It doesn’t quite have the smooth, muscular power of Clipper’s teabags, but it is a lively blend that delivers a great thwack of bitterness which lingers satisfyingly.I have yet to insert this plug-in without noticing an immediate improvement to the depth and dimension of my mixes. A Box Tone section provides a linear phase EQ which emulates the high-frequency contour of the Modern and Classic converter models featured in the Clipper section, but will only affect signals above 1kHz. Gold Clip is one of those mysterious magic boxes that can somehow give my mix more excitement and apparent loudness. The Cordless Magic Clip features the Stagger Tooth Blade which feeds hair faster and improves blending.

Gold Clip is the first plug-in to be developed by Grammy-nominated mixing and mastering engineer Ryan Schwabe, working under the name Schwabe Digital. There is a certain citrusy brightness to it, a gritty depth, but it takes place in a narrow spectrum of flavour. Like a promising young boxer, this tea makes all the right moves but ultimately fails to land a killer blow.

Diplomat is one of the few teas in this test that has a ready and appealing aroma, but it fails to deliver on that early olfactory promise. Gold Clip really nails the character and tone while also providing some useful optimizations and powerful options to fine tune the processing to suit a broader range of material. The way it deals with peaks is so elegant; it's incredibly easy to add perceived level while maintaining the impact of transient material.

Disappointingly, this is the only tea of the eight that is not Fairtrade or part of a competing ethical trading scheme.Those flavours are not as developed as in the best everyday teas, but this is a solid brew, great value and a tea which goes beyond the basic demands of its Fairtrade certification – for instance, the Co-op helped 15,000 Kenyan farmers organise as a co-operative. Offering a combination of clipping, compression, saturation, peak contour processing and more, the versatile plug-in can be employed for mixing and mastering tasks, as well as being used as a creative effect at the production stage. The first section has been designed to carefully emulate the effect of overloading two popular mastering converters, with Modern, Classic and Hard settings offering three differing sonic options. The compression is instantaneous, like the compression effect from the magnetization of tape, but does not effect the spectral balance of the signal like tape.

It certainly tastes like something you might offer as a gentle restorative to a fragile flower who, having collapsed on a chaise longue, is incapable of stomaching anything stronger. I put all teas to the test by pouring 280ml boiling water over each bag and steeping for three minutes. Gold Clip allows you to get some of the magic of the famous hardware units but now you can put it on your mix bus AND drums!Like Asda’s tea, it has a rawness to it, a slightly peculiar, almost metallic sharpness of the kind you get from an accidental mouthful of loose leaves or by leaving the bag in the cup to stew for too long. It is all sweetness and intriguing display, before the flavours slink away like an agile ballet dancer.