He never used a third-party plugin again.

“Come on, you stupid sine wave,” he muttered, dragging a limp vocal track across the timeline. “Give me stank . Give me face . Give me… something .”

He downloaded a bundle called “The Alchemist’s Arsenal.”

Marco tried to hit CTRL+Z, but the undo history was empty. The plugins had eaten it. In desperation, he grabbed his USB microphone and yelled into it: “I REJECT THIS MASTERING CHAIN!”