Newfangled Audio has released FIXATE:Midrange, an intelligent midrange correction plugin aimed at fixing mud, thinness, honk, nasal tones, harshness and spectral imbalance.
Or, put another way: it looks at the most annoying part of your mix and asks, “who hurt you?”
FIXATE:Midrange uses an Analyze and Fix workflow, with six intelligent dynamic processors, mid/side processing, resonance detection, profile matching, reference learning, delta listening and midrange-only focus monitoring. It is built for the master bus, but Newfangled also suggests using it on vocals, guitars, keys, drums and dialogue.
The current price is listed as $139, with a 14-day free trial available.
My initial take
I like the interface. It looks clean, focused and not like someone accidentally opened a nuclear submarine control panel.
The feature set also makes sense. Midrange is where most of the musical information lives, and yes, it is often where mixes become muddy, harsh or simply irritating. So the concept is not stupid.
But the real question is this:
Does FIXATE:Midrange solve an actual problem in your production, or does it create one by making you second-guess every mix?
That is the danger with plugins like this, especially in the current AI/intelligent-processing era. They can be genuinely helpful. They can also convince you that your perfectly fine mix has “issues” because the plugin found something to fix.
And let’s be honest: if you give a plugin six big problem knobs, you are probably going to turn at least three of them. Because we are weak. And knobs are shiny.
Is midrange really a problem?
Yes. Often.
But not always.
Bad midrange can make a track sound cheap, boxy, nasal, flat, harsh or tiring. Especially in electronic music, where pads, synths, vocals, percussion, atmospheres and distortion often fight in the same area.
But midrange is also where character lives.
Remove too much, smooth too much, “fix” too much, and suddenly your track sounds clean in the most boring way possible. Like a polite demo at a plugin convention.
First look verdict
FIXATE:Midrange looks useful. Newfangled Audio has made several interesting and genuinely practical plugins over the years, so this is not just another random “AI magic sauce” release.
The price seems fair, the interface looks good, and the 14-day trial makes it easy to test without committing.
But I would not buy it just because the marketing says your midrange is broken.
Try it on a few finished tracks. Use it lightly. Bypass it often. If the mix feels clearer without losing attitude, it may be a keeper.
If it just makes you chase problems that were not really there, uninstall it and go make music.
Try the 14-day free trial and make your own decision:
https://www.newfangledaudio.com/fixatemidrange
