For over 25 years, Metric Halo’s ChannelStrip has been an integral part of the sound of myriad Grammy-award winning, Gold and Platinum records, hit TV shows and blockbuster movies. ChannelStrip has been the critical tool for getting “the sound” quickly for thousands of professional recording engineers, composers and musicians world-wide.







As a signal processing bundle ChannelStrip integrates everything you need to process the channels that make up a mix as well as process the entire mix bus.

Featuring an Expander, Compressor, multi-band EQ, and a limiter, ChannelStrip provides a unified interface for processing your tracks. It also includes phase invert, channel delay, comprehensive metering and SpectraFoo™ spectrum analysis - so you can see your audio as well as you can hear it.

ChannelStrip is an essential tool for every project.

Serban Ghenea
Grammy Award-Winning Mix Engineer and Producer
(Credits: Everybody, including Taylor Swift, Doja Cat, The Weeknd, BTS… over 225 No. 1 singles and albums)
“Almost without exception, ChannelStrip gets me where I need to go. I’d attempt to compare it to other similar plug-ins, but the truth is I only use ChannelStrip. To me, ChannelStrip together with Pro Tools is the console.”


Billy Decker
16x Billboard #1 Mix Engineer
(Credits: Sam Hunt, Chris Young, Rodney Atkins, Dustin Lynch, Parmalee, Colt Ford, Darius Rucker, and George Jones)
“I once found myself in a situation without ChannelStrip, and I tried to mix anyway. It didn’t work. The mix sounded terrible, and I won’t ever try it again. ChannelStrip is absolutely indispensible to everything I do.”


Richard Furch
Grammy Award-Winning Mix Engineer
(Credits: Prince, Frank Ocean, Usher, Outkast, Boyz II Men, India.Arie)
Richard Furch says that if he finds that he’s losing a particular instrument in the mix, he enables the compressor with his preset parameters and the auto gain make up “lifts out the sound of the mix a bit.” He continued, “I used to do that when I mixed on SSL consoles, but no other plug-in – not even SSL emulators – could replicate that trick quite this way and keep the gain exactly steady. ChannelStrip does. In addition, I often employ the high-pass filter on the compressor side chain and then lower the cut-off frequency to get more compression. It’s like a second threshold control, but it has its own, uniquely musical effect.”


Jeff Juliano
Grammy Award-Winning Mix Engineer
(Credits: Chris Young, Gwen Stefani, Brad Paisley, Florida Georgia Line, Jason Mraz)
“ChannelStrip is so good that I often disable an analog send that isn’t doing the job in favor of ChannelStrip. The dynamics are reactive and the equalizer has air and warmth. ChannelStrip is useful both as an enhancement for tracks that are decent to begin with and as an emergency repair for tracks that have big problems. It’s a one-stop shop, and there’s a reason why it’s still an industry standard after well over two decades on the market.”


Steve DeMott
Engineer / Producer / Songwriter / Musican
Tribe Collective (GRAMMY® nominated) | Sennheiser Pro Talk (TEC Award winner) | Halo: Spartan Assault | Tom Clancy HAWX 2
“I have been loving ChannelStrip 4 so much. It has all the mojo of an old console with all the flexibility of a modern plugin. What’s especially appealing to me is how musical it remains, no matter how you push it. Coupled with Character, you can get that large console feel with the agility of an ITB workflow. I’ve already replaced the SSL channel strip in my templates with ChannelStrip 4!”


Jonathan Campbell
Multi-platinum mixer
“Metric Halo ChannelStrip is used consistently on every single mix and is the one plugin I can rely on to get me where I need to go. Nothing beats the sound, speed, and flexibility of what this can do. The dynamics envelopes impart something special to the sound and the EQ is simply fantastic.”


Find out why so many top Engineers say that ChannelStrip is the one plugin they literally cannot live without.

Try it today — You’ll love it!

Price: $179  — Or purchase as part of the Production Bundle at a substantial discount.

Key Features


  • World-class Signal Processing and Workflow
  • Used by Grammy-Award winning Engineers on countless hits
  • Expander, Compressor, EQ, & Limiter in one processor
  • Fully parametric interpolated EQ
  • Integrated side-chain EQ for dynamics
  • Individually switchable side-chains for dynamics blocks
  • Individual side-chain listen for dynamics blocks
  • EQ/Compressor routing control
  • SpectraFoo™ spectrum analysis built-in
  • Scalable gain reduction meters
  • More than 250 presets included
  • Adjustable UI size / Disclosable Graphs
  • MH Preset Manager - Provides cross-platform presets

Try It Free for 30 Days

We want you to hear how Metric Halo can bring your mixes to the next level – that’s why we have a free, fully functional 30-day trial of all the Production Bundle plugins included in the Production Bundle Trial.

Try all the plugins in the Production Bundle for yourself today!

email address:


To celebrate the release of v4, all new purchases of Metric Halo Audio Interfaces include a free MH Production Bundle v4 license in addition to the bundled hardware versions that run with zero latency on the DSP in the interfaces.

Tech Specs

System Requirements

  • Mac OS X 10.10 or newer. Intel Processor or Apple Silicon. AU, VST 2 & 3 or AAX (Pro Tools 11 & newer Native) host. 64 bit.
  • Windows 7 or newer. Intel Processor. VST or AAX (Pro Tools 10, 11 & 12 & Native) host. 64 bit.

Licensing Requirements

  • iLok.com account.
  • License includes two activations for your account.
  • iLok dongle is optional — you may install the license on your machine or on an iLok or the iLok Cloud for portability.
  • Only one license required – works on all supported platforms.

Documentation [PDF]


Differences between v3 and v4

MH ChannelStrip v4 features:


All v4 plugins now feature: