Plug-ins: what are your favorites?

Waves Renaissance Vox
Refx Vanguard (Trance in a box!)
Ohmforce Frohmage
Logic Audio Pro AutoFilter

Linplug RMIV - drum module with modelled analogue drums
Karnage - Free plug-in, excellent for Bass

I like Waves as a general rule, but they can be too clynical. A lot of them seem to be plug-ins for broadcasting and are not very musical. TC Works I find to be very, very good, particularly for compression.

At the moment I love NI's GuitarRig which is very, very good for getting a bit more out of synths.

I've been thinking of picking one of those up.

Lynskey, I like your "Gloss and Dirt" - that pretty much sums up my own aesthetic when comes to this stuff.

Alex, one of the perks of my job is test-driving hardware - I got to play with a UAD-1 on my own system a while ago, and I'm seriously considering buying one.

Tantrum, I've used the UAD before(a friend of a friend has one), but I really like TC's hardware units, which makes me lean more towards the Powercore. Have you used it?

i've used the UAD native separate processor thingy (2 of 'em) loads of LA2a's and 1176's and the pultec on a logic mix (logic is pretty intuitive as a mix interface yum ) and they were really really worth the cash the studio put down - £500 a piece at the time - dynamics and eq are my fav mix tools so i was happy. ain't automation great! :)

buy! buy! buy!

ps don't know if you've experience of hardware compressors, but i did before i used the UAD and it was helpful. if you've ever been on something like a joe meek with a VU (VC-1 in my case) you know to back off on the settings, get the needle jumping, listen and tweak - that way you get the benefit of dynamic compression without it appearing to limit the whole image.

hey i will get round to checking your stuff when i get back to my broadband access.

Izotope's Ozone, mastering suite
Smartelectronix Supaphaser
blockfish
the stock DP MAS delay plug is awesome
PSP plugins

wave arts power suite is very nice, relatively inexpensive as well. i like quite a few waves plugs but with the possible exception of the rather nice renaissance series, almost everything they do is done more cheaply if not much better by other companies.

I tend to compress vocals and bass a little on the way in, so I have a bunch of hardware compressors for that. I don't do the amp modelling thing because I've got enough amps, guitars and effects, and I don't live somewhere I risk pissing off neighbors.

a FREE opto plug-in! wow wow wow...

Check this thread!

VST freebies & cheapies, what do you like?

I'm tempted to get more reFX synths: I have demo versions of a few more, including Slayer2, a guitar/pedal/cabinet simulator, which has the nice feature of turning random key presses into finger-shredding guitar rock solos of the gods. They also have Vanguard, a synth optimised for trance/eurodance, which has lots of fat sounds, and something that looks CZ-101-like.

It's too easy to get all Fripped out though (is that good or bad?)

http://logic-users.org/groupbuy/psp

Korg Legacy Digital edition is fantastic, and a bargain, anyway. I just gave my battered old Korg Wavestation away, and now I have more room, the plugin sounds more clear and transparent (presumably due to 10yrs + of D/A convertor development) but otherwise exactly the same as the old keyboard. It's much, much easier to mess around with programming sounds on the computer screen too. I haven't tried the M1, except to mess around with that choir + lore preset, sounding like every new-age album made in the early nineties. Hidden treasure is the little multi-effect plug-in. Great quality modulation effects w/tiny processor load.

What D/A are you using?

I'm also a big fan of Lounge Lizard. The distortion on stacked notes is really nice.

http://www.bilblio.nildram.co.uk/PORL/ssltest.mp3

all the massey stuff is key. I love his compressor too. but yeah tapehead goes right up against the dominating phoenix cranesong stuff

y'know I think massey's L2007 limiter sounds better than the L3. and all plug-ins should be this reasonably priced.

that's the only massey plug i don't have - but i'm swimming in limiters (i use UAD precision) so i haven't felt so inclined to get it

massey tape head is my absolutely favourite plugin ever - and literally the only one i would flat refuse to mix without

all the massey stuff sounds amazing (the L2007 is the "sound good button" of my dreams)

other than that, the waves ssl plugs always do me good, but my secret weapon is always the wavearts trackplug 5. Works on anything from vox to master bus for different uses.

i used to use trackplug quite a lot but once i had the uad stuff i didn't really have much use for it..

only a brief mention of it upthread, but audio damage stuff is underrated and getting better all the time

never tried any of the ssl stuff.. but then i think i'm probably more of a neve man anyway

Trackplug is a nice quickfix, great for demos or scratch mixes when you need everything to sound good together quickly. The ssl and api from waves cover most comp and eq applications, thought I've been using the v comp more and more when I would use api or an 1176-alike.

I've just gotten into Elemental Audio's Firium and I like it more and more, combining EQ with an overlapping frequency analyzer is genius.

i am so tired of using soft synths, but am not in the market for buying any real synths at the moment, no matter how often i check ebay. i'm looking for something that sounds very good but doesn't have a zillion different possibilities. something that replicates a simple 3-osc analog synth or monophonic bass synth like the sh-101. i am currently using logic's es2, and ni's massive and fm8, all three sound great but i just end up getting so bogged down in routing everything to everything that what originally was meant to be a basic sawtooth bass sound ends up sounding way too out-there and software-y (i'm just making simple melodic synth pop). anyway, any recommendations? i know asking for restrictions in the software age is somewhat luddite.

fabfilter twin 2 is kinda cool, they have a demo version

http://www.fabfilter.com/products/twin.php

(fwiw their 'timeless' delay is my favourite delay plug ever)

oh shit you said WITHOUT a zillion different possibilities soz

http://www.delamancha.co.uk/freeware.htm

plastique is 80's Casio-ish but with a configurable 2-16 pole filter, while subfreak is a simple bass synth

I think my all-time favorite soft synth is Sylenth:
http://www.lennardigital.com/modules/home/

It does suffer a bit from the "heavy ping-pong delay on every preset" problem that so many other synths do, but the interface and sound are so good!

just ordered me a uad-2 as a present to self for giving up fags

can't wait to try out the cooper time cube and the emt-240

did any of you guys take part in the recent t-racks group buy? v worthwhile imo

ACE, you guys! Sound is amazing, and it's cheap! (just make sure you have good CPU cause it'll eat it all)

http://www.acesynth.com/

soundtoys decapitator and panman are a++++ imo

also i don't use tapehead anymore now there is FATSO

anyone know a free korg m1 plugin?

I just received the waves Eddie Kramer/Maserati/Cris Lorde-Alge/CLA etc
Have no idea where I might apply them.
Do enjoy using waves to make a really shitty mic sound passable (always the aim)

jealous

those things scare me

they are SO GREAT

almost cried the day my NFR auths expired

http://www.airwindows.com/desk.html

a randow slew generator you place on every track that randomizes & somehow meshes your mix together, but without adding analog-coloring or any distortion so you keep your headroom. your mixes open up, but they still sound very precise & digital. so it's like an analog-modelling plug-in (like tape-head or phoenix) only without the analog-modelling

this is so subtle you'd really need to be a tweaker to appreciate it but I know tweaker live here. haven't bought my own copy yet but spending a night working with it at a friend's house, I heard it

/I know tweakers live here

interesting. might as well try the demo.

couple of quick notes on the above
- airwindows mac au only (though PC types can try slate VCC which is not dissimilar in concept and v good)
- dude who runs airwindows posts a lot to another forum i'm on and comes across as a major douche

none of this is any reflection on the quality of the plug tho

oh, i'm on pc.

btw, i've been messing around with free reverbs trying to find one i like. ambience isn't bad, but i have to work really hard to get it to sound good/not bother me. any other suggestions would be welcome (or maybe i should just spring for Waves one of these days?).

actually i like some of the reverbs on my sampler, so i'm planning on exporting some tracks out to that and recording them back into the computer (although that's kind of a hassle)

soon to be released for PC is valhalla shimmer, the demos are amazing and s- has got it and gives it the thumbs up.. cheap too

other reverbs getting good press (but not so cheap) are aether and the relab 480xl, i've used neither yet but will probably get one or the other when my reverb budget allows.

we used the shit out of this mellotron plug in on our last album:

http://www.zzounds.com/item--GFOMTRON

that Desk plug-in sounds interesting. tapehead started to sound like distortion to me after about three mixes

yeah i don't use tapehead at all now

I've been filling my hd full of lovely free plugins. Often some issues with them so it's sometimes hit and miss how great they are in practice but hey they're free. I'll put a download link up of everything I've got when I'm not being choked on bandwith by Plusnet. stuff I'm enjoying/am undecided about and could use opinions on are as follows:

Blue Cat Audio plugins - lots of metering and dynamics tools. They look pretty good and one useful aspect is they have a transparency meter for their graphic command window. Something seemingly small but really useful for me on my small screened laptop.

Acustica - Nebula and aquavox - Can't quite work out if they're doing what they say they do. Pre amp modeling. I remember having an antares mic modeling program on an old windows rig and have been looking for something similar ever since. Need to find a good application for it.

MDA - lots of great distortions (I'm quite the fan of collecting distortion plugins) One a speaker/cab emulator, one a bit distortion and some other nice ways of fucking up sounds. Haven't used the dynamics plugins yet. Sadly (or not for tweakers) no graphic interface on them, just old school scroll bars and data input.

Meatscience - Bitsmacker - another bit distortion without graphics, a good one with some nice features but a little hard to control the out gain so doesn't get touched unless I'm really going for the digital distortion on something.

Ohm Force - Frohmage - Multiband resonant filter. Really cool effects. Must play more. Can imagine it would be great for electronic stuff especially when assigned to stuff in ableton or something.

Reign Design - 1_time - A nice analog distortion knob. Some latency problems with me when I add it to a track, dunno if that's me or the plugin. Think it's trying to be a little like the Cranesong Phoenix, something I'm missing terribly and have been searching for a replacement for since the move to logic and AU. Obviously doesn't come close but the idea is there. Strangely has the same gain problems that phoenix has. Have used this practically, might do a big analog saturation shootout on one of my tracks soon, pit it against PSP, Decapitator etc.

Sonicbirth - Haven't looked into making any plugins myself but I have some obviously made by someone else that are pretty standard stuff but free. The stand out one would be Buff Rice which is "Cyclic, hypnotic audio chop and replay" and really cool for messing with stuff in a glitchy way.

MSDP @ Smartelectronix - Livecut - God I want to use this but sometimes with these things I can be really put off by a graphic interface and can barely look at it. Used to be the same with logic's ES2 before I grew some balls. This plugin even has a 'squarepusher' mode for that live chopped drill sound. Seen a video that makes me think it could be a contender against Effectrix and stutter edit.

Soundhack - Really cool looking graphics, really nice sounding spectral shaping effects. I really like these and I really like the way they look, especially when up in ableton messing with some droney sounds. Make you look like a fucking designer.

That is it on the AU front. I might upload another pack and some descriptions of my VST only ones. Maybe even some of the free instruments/synths/samples I've got but I use them less and less.

Often some issues with them

It's amazing how many free VSTi's don't work, or crash the DAW, or eat up an unreasonable amount of CPU time for the little that they do.

Main VSTi I use is Synth1 http://www.kvraudio.com/get/214.html
It doesn't have a sound of it's own really, but that makes me work harder to come up with good patches, instead of the usual "oh hey! cool preset, just tweak it a bit"

i've been loving this Basic64 vst synth for 8 bit/chiptune type sounds: http://www.delamancha.co.uk/basic.htm

oooh, going to delve into that later. I've got the YMCK plugin and the Sam (I think that's what it's called) bit synth and they aren't cutting it for me.

"oh hey! cool preset, just tweak it a bit"
Even the top level guys do this, which I enjoy.

any recommendations for drum machines/rhythm programming?

people seem to like the native instruments stuff a lot, maschine and battery. i dunno, i would rather just build up a sample library and use a multi-track DAW like a sequencer.

what are you hoping to get out of it, a sample library or an interface for easier programming?

i don't really know. in the past in reason i've either just used redrum or sampled a loop from a song using recycle. i guess to start i need an interface and then maybe gradually move over to your process? since i'm not a drummer and can be impatient, something fast/easy at least to create the structure/feel is important

working with software drum machines gives me the utter shits. in the past i have however been happy with any of the D16 ones if that's the sort of sound you're looking for. for "real" drums i wouldn't use anything but steven slate. in terms of ease of use, i think they're all equally annoying and difficult

There are lots of nice free plugins here: http://www.dskmusic.com/

I like DrumZ machineZ a lot.

neat little free doubler plugin

https://www.soundtoys.com/sxsw2013/&rc=384-5263-072