Plugin, baby

Niall - Dahlia

So I finally got around to trying out the demo for Waves plugins (7 day unrestricted use) and have been remixing all the recordings I've done the last few months.

Up until now I've just been using the default Pro Tools plugins, and like everybody else I've heard great things about Waves. At first I didn't really appreciate the difference, but after a few days mixing and A/Bing my old mixes against the new Wave mixes, the difference is huge. I shudder at the though of mixing with PT EQ III when my demo period expires! So some Waves plugins have jumped right to the top of my very lenghty "To Buy/Steal" list!

But, not one to jump on a hype wagon (which is what Waves are in a way), I'd like to try out as many plugins as possible over the next few weeks before parting with my cash.

So what plugins do you guys use? Free or otherwise. Recommendations please!

Anima

You mean mastering tools or just plugins in general?

Doctor J

I'm in the waves camp, big fan of their stuff.

Niall - Dahlia

Anima wrote:

You mean mastering tools or just plugins in general?

Just in general, any plugins you'd use during mixing, compressors, EQ, delays etc.

Doctor J wrote:

I'm in the waves camp, big fan of their stuff.

Which package do you have? The cost of any of the Mercury/Diamond/Platinum packs are way over my head at the moment, but I'm definitely considering the Native Power Pack, has the kind of bread and butter stuff I need at the moment.

eddyc

The most used plugin I have is the PSP Vintage Warmer, just stick it on anything and instant tube saturation goodness,
I'm also a big fan of Guitar Rig, its great value cos you get tonnes of FX with it and theyre all pretty decent, it does good amplifier simulation too, and it sounds good on non guitary things.

jimi_t

At the lower end of the scale, the Audio Damage stuff is pretty impressive - they've great support and the plug-ins are designed by musicians from the coding upwards (the keyboardist from Sister Machine Gun in fact). The owner also has a very entertaining blog @ www.analogindustries.com

Neurojazz

The waves stuff comes bundled with a lot of stuff you might not really need... i went the route of a TC Electronic Powercore (you can mix and match what you want to upgrade it with) and a Duende (32 Channels of SSL compression and EQ) - Compared to the L3 waves thang and money being spent.... well, i've never looked back - Both those items are PC and Mac friendly.

sei046

In the studio the Urs stuff gets used a lot. using some ESS stuff too. Especially their maximizers and comressors. I have an awful lot of waves and nearly every project gets a touch. The vintage warmer is nice alright, use it the odd time on the Vox. Check out URS and Ess, great stuff

Niall - Dahlia

Neurojazz wrote:

The waves stuff comes bundled with a lot of stuff you might not really need

Yeah the upper range packages for sure, that's why the Power Pack looks like a good bet, only has 8 plugins including the Q10 EQ, L1 Ultramaximizer, C1 Comp and TrueVerb...all I need at the moment.

Gonna give the URS demos a go too, cheers for that.

sei046

Niall if you like Waves verbs check out Arts acoustic Reverb, or the quite expensive Altiverb 5. altiverb is a little more complicated working on Impulse responses but its very true sounding. Lexicons pantheon has a great GUI and i tend to keep going back to it for quick verbs. If your patient or want really good results, altiverb and arts acoustic

Niall - Dahlia

Nice one sei. I didn't really have a chance to give the Waves reverbs a good thorough testing during the demo, but I was happy enough with them (Trueverb and Renaissance), and sice TrueVerb comes bundled with the Power Pack I'll probably be going with that. Not a big fan of convolution reverbs and I haven't the fastest system to run them on so Altiverb and the like aren't really an option (not at that price either). I'll definitely give the Arts reverb a go though, no harm in trying it out.

sei046

well the cool thing about the waves Verbs is that you can use the predelay or room reflections of one then link it to the other verb for the tail! its pretty nifty, i will admit i have never been quite that fussy but its nice to know it can be done.