So many new pro audio and music products are released each year that it becomes difficult to make fair comparisons or put together a “Best Of” or “Top 25” list. How do you choose when presented with a new $10,000 single-channel analog compressor and a $79 distortion plug-in? In that spirit, please consider this our annual “Must-Have” list, where there’s something for every type of audio pro.

To put together this year’s selection, we asked longtime Mix contributors and…