Plugins of choice : Mastering, Channel strip, Voice, Instrument, Analyzers and Esoteric.

[The Paul meister]

Head over to unitedplugins.com/plugins for a lot of discounts, including 5 of them going for 5 Euro each. This offer is until the 2nd June.

[The Paul meister]

Just going to their homepage unitedplugins.com shows most of the offers.

I became aware of the offer via an email, so it might be worth joining their newsletter at the bottom of the page.

[Aaron Straley]

Rea EQ - Seems to do what its supposed too. Am I missing out with the Fab Q

Soothe 2 by Oeksound - Dynamic EQ, I like this on acoustic or anything harsh. Surprised no one is using this?

SSL channel strip - I just use the compressor normally. My only other compressor is Reacomp and I don't like it. I can't seem to dial it in and its too apparent. The SSL compressor seems to be more transparent while getting the job done

Reverb - Valhalla vintage verb

[them]

What is microphone month?

[James Perrett]

Soothe 2 by Oeksound - Dynamic EQ, I like this on acoustic or anything harsh. Surprised no one is using this?

Reaper users have ReaFIR which can be made to do something similar - plus a whole host more.

SSL channel strip - I just use the compressor normally. My only other compressor is Reacomp and I don't like it. I can't seem to dial it in and its too apparent. The SSL compressor seems to be more transparent while getting the job done

Take a look at the JS section in Reaper. General Dynamics is very useful. Also look for alternatives in the Reaper Stash on their website.

[The Elf]

Soothe 2 by Oeksound - Dynamic EQ, I like this on acoustic or anything harsh. Surprised no one is using this?

Plenty of bundled and free options around to not have to pay for that, but for something a bit more drastic the free Spectral Compressor is worth a shot.

[The Elf]

SSL channel strip - I just use the compressor normally. My only other compressor is Reacomp and I don't like it. I can't seem to dial it in and its too apparent. The SSL compressor seems to be more transparent while getting the job done

One of the few third-party plug-ins I would truly miss. The EQ is just instant 'sounds like a record'. The old compressor and EQ tricks still work, just like the hardware.

[tea for two]

https://www.soundonsound.com/news/ssl-r ... strip-plug
SSL Guitarstrip. Currently 19.99 Pluginboutique. (165 when released).
I dig the amount of stuff it's got going on in 1 plugin. I dig what it can do for Guitar sounds : Acoustic, Bass, Electric.

[The Elf]

https://www.soundonsound.com/news/ssl-r ... strip-plug
SSL Guitarstrip. Currently 19.99 Pluginboutique. (165 when released).
I dig the amount of stuff it's got going on in 1 plugin. I dig what it can do for Guitar sounds : Acoustic, Bass, Electric.

[rggillespie]

Seemed like a great tip gents thank you, but why can I never get ilok to work I'm stuck between plugin boutique and SSL purgatory, money paid, but as Dylan once sang 'nothing was delivered'. I'm no spring chicken so no doubt somewhat to blame, but any plugins I paid for and can't use are all linked to that wretched ilok

[sonics]

...but any plugins I paid for and can't use are all linked to that wretched ilok

iLok/SSL support can't help? Start a thread here?

[Finn_Jones_Engineer]

Working with a hybrid workflow in a professional studio with an excellent outboard selection and mixing 150+ song per year, I've found the following to be indispensable even when there are analog options available:
- Waves RVOX: Does a "pushing forward" thing to a signal that can't be matched by any other compressor that I have ever used.
- Brainworx bx_glue: ridiculous amounts of control, makes you rethink what a compressor can do. Very likely replacing my Tegeler Creme on the mix bus.
- Brainworx SSL 9000 and 4000G channel strips: They just straight up sound great. I have a rack of analog SSL dynamics modules and these plugins genuinely sound identical.
- DMG Equilibrium: Super versatile and transparent sounding eq, gives you the option to model just about any eq curve in existence. Admittedly a little CPU hungry...
- Sound Radix Auto-Align: Probably the plugin that makes the biggest difference when working with acoustically recorded sources. Drum kits, stereo micing, singer-songwriter guitar+vox...
I obviously use plenty of other plugins, but those on this list I personally consider "essential" for my mixes.

[Superdelphinus]

Like many people, I went through an early phase of buying lots of stuff I didn’t need but I’ve listed the stuff I use on practically every piece I do below, plus a few others I use less often but I think are great. I make indie/ alternative music with my band/ individually. I’m very much a musician that tries to mix, and not a trained record producer.

Compressors - 99% of the time I use logic’s compressors (and 90% of the time just the platinum one that first comes up!). I have others, but I love how simple logic’s ones are and easy they are to get working - either for flavour or limiting too. I’ve started using one of the UA ones a bit more (for drums especially) - I think it’s an la-2a one which I’ve used in actual studios so have a bit of confidence with it. I’ve got all the izotope stuff but don’t really use any of the compressors there, I find them a bit fiddly.

EQ - was fine with logics eqs too, but now use neutron (usually just the standalone eq but sometimes i use it as part of a neutron mothership). This only because of the ability to solo and use dynamic eq in a very easy way. I mean eq is eq to me, so it I don’t think I’ll ever need anyth8ng else.

Amplitube - I’ve got the full fat v5 and I think it’s phenomenal. I’ve got a couple of nice real amps but I generally use amplitube for almost everything now. They sound real, the choice of amps and pedals is (almost) spot on and it’s all super easy to use. I’ve had to throw away everything and keep one bit of software it would be this.

Reverb. I hate reverb, can’t stand it. But I know it’s good for me. I just have Valhalla vintage on its default preset sitting on a bus and use that as a sort of room reverb for any track I want to send to it. It sounds quite nice and not horrible and tinny and muddy like most reverb. I also have soundtoys superplate on another bus that I tend to use for vocals or sometimes as more of an effect. That one sounds nice and ‘warm’ and doesn’t smack you in the face.

Sound toys 5. Another must buy imho. One of very few must buys in the audio plug-in world. The whole bundle too. Decapitator I use on practically everything, sometimes just on the track with no additional changes - it just makes everything sound more ‘organic’ to me. On drums and bass especially I whack it up a bit more (I’m a fan of the ‘n’ setting personally as it’s a bit darker than most of the others). Also I’ve started experimenting using as part of the overall mix process to use it sparingly to provide high frequency saturation on low end groups because it seems to bring them out more through crap (I.e. phone) speakers. Aside from decapitator, the bundle just has so many options and creative adventures that I don’t think you could ever exhaust its possibilities. I’ve started using effect rack a bit more too, just on DI guitar.

Others
Few people have said Labs. Agree it’s pretty amazing given it is (was?) free. I’ve very rarely used any of them in an actual song in the end though personally. I find them quite hard to mix for some reason, and they can be limited in quite annoying ways I find, but can’t complain about.

Komplete - I’ve got the 13 biggest bundle I think. Use gentleman and noire all the time, until it’s time to record an actual piano (and it’s about 50:50 what ends up staying). Massive x is great and I use quite a lot of the funny little kontakt instruments every now and then. Haven’t really explored the plug ins much though, though I do like the bit crusher type one and replika can be pleasingly mental. I think the software real instrument stuff is a bit crap though, other than drums which I use all the time in the songwriting process (love the dryness of the 70s one and the crunch of the vintage drums)

Ozone - I use for mastering. It’s really easy to use and very intuitive and I like the tonal balance thing.

They’re probably my main ones. As I said I’m primarily using real instruments as much as possible and I’m not an expert so I try to use plugins very sparingly and focus on things going in as much as I can. Also, i left it too late to properly explore what logic already has built in and it’s nuts.

[Jathon Delsy]

I just downloaded the free Softube Saturation Knob. I was immediately impressed by it. It sounds really good. And it's free.

[tea for two]

To add to previous SoS forum plugin threads posted on this thread.

Reverb removal Plug
https://www.soundonsound.com/forum/view ... hp?t=92219

EQ Plugin
https://www.soundonsound.com/forum/view ... hp?t=69345

(There is another EQ plugin SoS forum thread posted on this thread).

[PedroTheThird]

Rea EQ - Seems to do what its supposed too.

The Reaper native one or the VST version? Because the latter is broken, it doesn't work properly at any samplerate (Warped filters). Which is a shame because it's one of the few EQs out there featuring allpass filters...

[tea for two]

Discussion yesterday today on Multiband Compressor, Dynamic EQ.
https://www.soundonsound.com/forum/view ... hp?t=92802

Plugins are mentioned in the thread.

[progger]

Hey, why not, I'll play! I don't mind the "list the stuff you like" threads. My use-case: I'm a professional saxophonist, keyboardist, composer, arranger, and producer, and I spend a lot of time traveling for gigs, but I also work consistently from my home studio when I'm in town. I do remote recording/arranging sessions for various artists, producers, and clients, music for podcasts, some stuff for video games, TV, indie films, etc. I record many of my instruments via mics and DI (saxophones, flute, clarinet, guitar, bass, hand percussion, guitar, bass, etc) but I also use a ton of software: for keyboards/synths I do everything in the box since software is just so, so, so very good these days. And I enjoy the process of editing and mixing, of course. So here's a non-exhaustive list of my favorite software for these various applications (I'm in Logic Pro, by the way, for more than 15 years):

Reverbs:

Valhalla Vintage Verb (general purpose)
Valhalla Room (sometimes exactly the right thing)
Fuse Audio Labs VREV-140 (when I want plate, which isn't often, but I love this one)
Valhall Shimmer (when I need that special thing)

Delays:

Valhalla Delay
Soundtoys Echo-Boy

Saturation:

Toneprojects Kelvin (my new favorite as of a few months ago)
NEOLD V76U73 (still love it)
NEOLD Big Al (still love it)
Black Rooster VPRE73 (when I need that Neve flavor in particular)
Logic's stock Overdrive (kind of a fantastic secret weapon on drums)

Compression

NEOLD V76U73 (just a fantastic channel strip)
NEOLD U2A (my favorite LA2A, when I need it)
Logic's stock Compressor (really all you need, everything else is just for fun)

EQ

Logic's stock Channel EQ (so good that I've never gotten ProQ)
Black Rooster Pultecs (for when I want some pretty broad strokes and color)
Soundtoys Sie-Q (for an alternative to the Pultec)

Channel Strips

NEOLD V76U73 (I really like this one, clearly)
Brainworx Focusrite channel (surprisingly beautiful)
Brainworx SSL G (great EQ and comp)

Virtual Instruments (I use a ton so these are the greatest hits)

Pianos: VI-Labs Modern D, Keyscape C7
Electric pianos: Keyscape Rhodes/Wurli, Acousticsample V-Tines and V-Reeds
Synths: Omnisphere, Zenology Pro, various Arturia and G-Force, many more
Drums: EZ Drummer, Triaz, NI Battery, ZenDrums, Ultrabeat
Strings etc: Spitfire Chamber Strings, Spitfire Symphony Orchestra

Fin

[shufflebeat]

I'm a professional saxophonist, keyboardist, composer, arranger, and producer,

Hi P.

I’m on the lookout for a decent double bass VSTi and thought you, as a sax player, might have a decent ear for this kind of thing.

I don’t really use much in the way of sample based trickery so I’m not signed up to any kind of platform which restricts my options somewhat but WLTM either a stand-alone unit or possibly a suitable soundfont for loading into one of my little used sample players.

Any thoughts welcome.

[ManFromGlass]

I’ve been pleasantly surprised by Ujam’s Mellow acoustic bass program. I rarely use the preset licks and just play it like a plugin instrument.
Some of the patches take up a lot of frequency space but a touch of EQ and it sits nicely in a track.
I used to use the Spectrasonics one - was it called Trillium? but now this one is my fave.
And it still might be on sale as every day is BlackFriday until it isn’t . . . .

[Drew Stephenson]

On the occasions that I don't just stick a mic up, I just use the one in the old AIR XPand2! rompler thing that I got free years ago. No-one has ever commented even when I've used both that and a real bass in the same track.

[adrian_k]

I’ve been pleasantly surprised by Ujam’s Mellow acoustic bass program. I rarely use the preset licks and just play it like a plugin instrument.
Some of the patches take up a lot of frequency space but a touch of EQ and it sits nicely in a track.
I used to use the Spectrasonics one - was it called Trillium? but now this one is my fave.
And it still might be on sale as every day is BlackFriday until it isn’t . . . .

I bought this a few weeks back and agree. I don’t bother with the patterns either, and I’m not sure why it’s called Mellow because a lot of the presets are a bit inyerface and seem geared towards hiphop and some of that other modern music, but yeah I like it.

[Drew Stephenson]

I’ve been pleasantly surprised by Ujam’s Mellow acoustic bass program. I rarely use the preset licks and just play it like a plugin instrument.
Some of the patches take up a lot of frequency space but a touch of EQ and it sits nicely in a track.
I used to use the Spectrasonics one - was it called Trillium? but now this one is my fave.
And it still might be on sale as every day is BlackFriday until it isn’t . . . .

I bought this a few weeks back and agree. I don’t bother with the patterns either, and I’m not sure why it’s called Mellow because a lot of the presets are a bit inyerface and seem geared towards hiphop and some of that other modern music, but yeah I like it.

And down to £17 at the moment!

[adrian_k]

Damn shouldda waited!

[Drew Stephenson]

I nearly impulse bought but it's just another thing I don't need.

I'm growing as a person.