Let me know your favourite plugins

Another interesting bundle is the Native Instruments Komplete Package(s). I've made the upgrade from "Komplete" to "Komplete Ultimate" recently. It's actually all you ever need, from basses to drums & drums machines, very good pianos and synth - including Reaktor, which lets you built your own synths - as well as the mighty Kontakt sampler, that comes with fantastic libraries for anything, like orchestral, world and cinematic stuff. And there are fantastic tools for mixing, whole channel strips from different ages. And you get guitar rig, which is on its own cool for FX. And there's so much more in there... but even the smaller package comes very feature filled at half of the price.

A lot of stuff in there, but most of the plugins can be used out of the box. If you consider the price and the quality, it's a fantastic value. If you use the possibilities, you won't run out of plugins anymore. Once a year, the company sells everything for Komplete (even the bundles themselves) at half of the price. Somewhere in summer I guess. Maybe worth waiting. (Btw: I don't work for them, just like their stuff :))

Other than that the idea of renting the Slate stuff is definitely top.

I absolutely love Fab Filter Pro Q2. Probably the coolest EQ plugin I've ever used. Also I am a huge fan of the iZotope stuff, particularly Ozone and Alloy.

Agree, the Cubase stock plugins are surprisingly awesome. Quadrafuzz is a lot of fun. VST Bass Amp is becoming my go to for bass recording. Loopmash is a lot of fun too. Really, all of the stock plugins are quite useful.

Actually to add to my last post, the Steinberg Neve Portico plugin emulations are probably the closest I've ever heard to a piece of hardware. They're a bit niche and aren't super popular, but they really do those compressors and EQs justice.

Extremely good sounding plugins.

Good call

A rule of thumb: think like a sustainable business. If your music-related income can't pay for the next plugin - don't buy it, you're not ready for it

Or buy it, but realize it's just a shiny toy (which is OK if that's what you want to do - I do this myself hehe)

Quote from Michael_dk

Good call

A rule of thumb: think like a sustainable business. If your music-related income can't pay for the next plugin - don't buy it, you're not ready for it

Oh man, I'm well and truly screwed then!

Quote from Sergeant_Pepper

There is some GREAT stuff for free or for lower costs (support your indie-developers!)
Aside from Reaper stock-plugins I use:

Free:
Tokyo Dawn Labs - SlickEQ, Kotelnikov, Nova (and sometime even Proximity) (paid versions available)
Shattered Glass Audio - Code Red Console
Airwindows (Mac only) - Channel 4 (has some good paid plugs)
Vladg/Sound - Molot Compressor, Limiter No6 (still one of the best limiters!)
Ikjb - Luftikus (Nice analog EQ)
Acustica Audio - Ochre Free (nice analog EQ)
Ignite Amps - Gread Guitar Pedals, Very good VST Amp (okay, no need here), Best Impulse loader and an awesome Pultec EQ (PTEq-X)

Paid:
Sknote - Disto (first Distressor Plugin), SDC (Shadow Hills Mastering Comp), SAT-Limit (Sta-Limiter)
Overtone DSP - DYN500
Goodhertz - Faraday Limiter (Was free, not any more. Such a great saturating compressor)

My UAD Satellite Duo is collecting dust (It's for sale actually) and I have not used more than 3 Plugins from my Waves Platinum Bundle.

Display More

SUCH great advice here.

You can get away with not spending much money at all and getting comparable results. I use almost everything on this list and I don't feel the need to spend a lot of money (although i still get caught up in it sometimes).

Another very low cost option you should consider is Toneboosters. I purchased their Track Essentials bundle as well as their Reelbus plugin and I couldn't be happier with the purchase. I think it cost a total of $60.

I found them because I was interested in Tape Machine emulations and was looking at offerings from Slate and Waves which were very expensive. Toneboosters has 2 Tape emulators (Ferox comes with the bundle, Reelbus was the other one) and I can't imagine that the expensive versions from Slate and Waves are all that much better, if at all. I'm very happy with what I got from Toneboosters. I'm using Ferox on nearly every track, and Reelbus on my Stereo Bus and it sounds great!

The Track Essentials bundle also has a nice EQ, Compressor, Reverb, Modulation, Bit Depth reducer, Gate, etc.....great value.

http://www.toneboosters.com/tb-trackessentials-bundle/

http://www.toneboosters.com/tb-reelbus/http://www.toneboosters.com/tb-reelbus/

http://www.toneboosters.com/tb-reelbus/
I'm a fan.http://www.toneboosters.com/tb-reelbus/

http://www.toneboosters.com/tb-reelbus/PS - Sorry for the bad linking. I can't get this website to do what I want.
Dear Kemper, please fix this forum....and especially please get it to work on the iPhone.
It's just awful.

Don't simply rule out stock plug ins. I'm no expert but they are still pretty powerful tools.

read some of the posts on plugins on this site for example:
http://therecordingrevolution.…an-give-you-a-better-mix/

Quote from Netheravon

Don't simply rule out stock plug ins. I'm no expert but they are still pretty powerful tools.

read some of the posts on plugins on this site for example:
http://therecordingrevolution.…an-give-you-a-better-mix/

That's great advice. It's better to limit yourself with plugins I think. I wound up sticking with UA and the stock Cubase stuff mostly, because I really know them well. I own TRacks, Waves, Slate, iZotope, Celemony, NI, IK, and I never use them because they slow me down. My buddy swears by the Slate mastering stuff, but he usually goes through lots of tweaking/listening/tweaking to get there. I'll just throw the UA precision limiter up on my mixes and turn the one dial to taste. The Slate can do better, but only if you are in the right head for working it. I've had my buddy (full-time pro) master stuff for me that sounded worse than my simple limiter. Powerful tools with lots of parameters can do powerful damage on an off-day.

Sooo true, Klappster!

I'm probably the only one around here who uses it, but Digital Performer's stomp plug-ins are incredible. Awesome emus of various pedals such as Ratt, Boss CE2, Tube Screamer etc., along with amps and the very-handy LiveRoomB & LiveRoomG plugs with beautiful GUIs which emulate cabs in rooms for guitar and bass, mic placement and source mixing.

The Masterworks EQ, who's UI has become a standard of sorts, should be the only EQ one would ever need. The dynamic EQ, de-esser, LA-2A-emulated limiter, IR-based 'verb, ensemble chorus, "analogue" delay, chorus, phaser and flanger and so on are, like pretty-much all DP's plugs (and I imagine those of other DAWs), a cut above the free ones and in many cases at least on par with the best commercial ones out there.

We really are spoiled. Now I'm off to play in the sandpit by myself with all my toys.

Quote from nightlight

My urges are fuelled by a healthy admiration of recordings that can be found everywhere on the internet nowadays.

It's almost impossible to keep up with some of the recordings I hear on the forum, for example.

I assumed I had the same hardware for the most part. So what was I missing?

I think plugins are a very large part of that equation. Louder, brighter, punchier. It's not that the recordings were bad. More like lacklustre in an A/B comparison.

I remember when I was in college and everyone was pirating Waves and other plugins. Beat my recordings flatter than a pancake.

I've never bought a plugin in my life, so judging by what every single person on this thread has said, I am definitely not on the right path for great recordings.

Still, we make the best of the tools we have! I think that's the most important thing, not like I am a commercial studio!

Display More

If you feel like there is a big difference, then "other plugins" is not the way to go It's a matter of experience, technique and good recordings. Yeah, plugins CAN make a difference - but not THAT big of a difference.

Spend time and money on learning proper techniques for recording, mixing, and mastering. Stock plug-ins are more than fine and can produce great results in the right hands.

UA, Waves, Slate, and others are all great products, but the real difference will be heard when the person controlling the plug-ins knows exactly what to do and how to use them.

Some great advice I've heard on this and other forums is to grab an MP3 of a song you like similar to yours and drag it into your daw on a seperate track. Then listen to it and compare it to yours. (Make sure all your main / mix bus plugins are off when playing the MP3). After this make changes with your tracks in eq etc to get the same sound. Another great tip is to start the mix in mono so you get the seperatipn of the tracks that way rather than just panning. You always pan stuff later if you want.

For me, the type of plugins that you are talking about are useful for two things : fixing things (narrower eq for taming nasty frequencies or for shaping sounds to fit the mix, compression for evening out wonky dynamics etc.) or adding colour (broader eq for making things sound more interesting or to pop in a mix, compression to bring something forward or to add 'urgency', for example). The former of these two tasks can be easily achieved by stock plugins, more often than not to an easier and better degree, as third-party plugins tend to be more about emulating classic pieces of gear and thus suffer the same limitations as the originals (Isotope and FabFilter being exceptions, amongst others). The latter is where you'll perhaps find more value in third-party plugins, but that won't make your mixes any better if you haven't learned to cope with the former task, in conjunction with balance and focus.

Balance and focus are the initial goals at mix down, followed by more creative aspects like excitement and emotion. If you don't have balance between the instruments and frequencies, then you won't be able to ascertain focus and the creative side of mixing will suffer. Balance can be achieved solely through your faders and fader automation, with well-recorded instrumentation that had the mix in mind at the time. Otherwise, you'll have to use eq and/or compression to fix things. Start with the songs most important instrument or part; this will have the main focus, so needs to sound as good as possible (in rock or genres that need to have punch and drive, this will most likely be the drums. A pop ballad might be the main vocal, etc.). Once you've got that part sounding great, add the next most important, taking care to listen to the first part to make sure that the second isn't stepping on its domain, or masking it. If it is, you might need to sculpt it a little with eq (or in the case of a bass guitar vs drums, use a side-chained compressor to reduce gain a few dB every time the kick drum hits etc.). Keep adding parts, bearing in mind that they are lessening in importance, so should be afforded less and less mixing real estate as you go along. It is also good practice as a novice to start your mix with the busiest section of your song, or the crescendo. You want this to be the apex of your mix, so everything should build up to this point. If you start mixing your verse and have everything sounding bigger than life, you'll have trouble getting your crescendo to actually sound like one; at the peak of Everest the only way is down!
If all your parts are bone dry, it might be a good idea at this point to create some ambience with a reverb plugin. A nice, short, predominantly early reflections reverb can help to get parts to gel and sit better, and can also be used to push less crucial parts back in the mix. Be careful not to overdo it at this point, though, you don't want to cloud or wash out your mix.

Once you've got the basic balance sorted, you can start thinking a bit more creatively. Listen for any parts that are doing something interesting that deserve more focus or a second or two in the spotlight; might be a little guitar lick or a bass ad lib, a keyboard line leading up to the chorus, whatever. Use automation to bring the part out a little, or in the case of a lesser well-arranged composition, maybe the mute buttons on other tracks at that particular point. Remember that the average human ear can only focus on a few things at once, and taking something away for a time also makes it seems fresh when it comes back in. Creative eq and compression can also really help to bring a part forward in the mix at this point, and this might be where I'd maybe start thinking about third-party plugins for colour, but I'll leave those for now, as it's still easily achievable with stock plugins.

Once you've gone through the song in this manner, realising that a mix can be a bit like Tetris where the instruments and different frequencies are like bricks that need to fit together and fill out the blanks but not pile up on top of each other, you can really start to get creative, adding effects and ear candy, sprinkling fairy dust over your mix to keep the listener's interest and bring out the emotion in the music. This is where the big-money mixers earn their pay and where the rest of us can only hope to keep learning and getting better incrementally with each mix. Practice practice practice! It's at this point where you'll maybe want to start investing in third-party plugins, to give your mixes more life, colour and sparkle. But first you need to be proficient at finding the balance and focus of a mix, something that can take years of learning. Good luck!

Quote from nightlight

Haha, thanks, Sambrox. I bought a copy of Mixing Secrets on your recommendation and this is exactly what I have been trying to do with my mixes.

Other than plugins, I really wish I could properly treat my room. Probably a bigger factor in my ability to get a great sounding mix across various platforms.

Good lad! You're half way there then!
A good room is pretty much essential for getting your mixes to translate well. If you can't trust what you hear while mixing, then they won't translate.

I would just like to chip in again here.
In my experience, (making major label records for 30 years) the best way to arrive at a great end result, is to get it right at the beginning of the process. I'm a big believer in "fix it in the mic" if you don't start with a well recorded source, it will be much more difficult to get the end result you're looking for.
A good quality microphone and preamp (preferably a channel strip) will teach you more about sound than any plugin can achieve. You need to have the finished product in your head before you put up the first mic. That way, when you are recording an instrument, you can reject anything that doesn't match the sound in your head. Learning mic choice and placement is where you start to train your ears and learn about sound.
I've only been lucky once or twice in my time to pull up the faders to mix a track and find that I'd got the tracking so "right" that it was pretty much just a matter of balancing the levels to end up with the mix I'd envisioned at the start of the process.