irvin Posted November 5, 2014 Report Share Posted November 5, 2014 With the deluge of free and commercial plugins, i made a decision several years ago that I would not have more than 5 plugins of the same 'category' (loosely defined as 'compressors', 'delays', 'eqs', 'channel strips', 'limiters', 'gates', 'stereo fx', 'amp sims', 'reverbs', 'utilities', 'vocal fx', etc.) I don't have 5 of every category - for example, I only have two gates. Luckily, I have been able to keep to this self-imposed limit by carefully choosing plugins that score well in my favorite fields: sound, ease of use, features, price. So, what's yor criteria for selecting your plugins? how many do you have? Which ones are your favorites? Let's go full gearslutz here...the forum needs some life.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Olhsson Posted November 6, 2014 Report Share Posted November 6, 2014 Unfortunately I've never found many universally great plug-ins. One can sound fantastic on one thing and not very good at all on another. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
irvin Posted November 6, 2014 Author Report Share Posted November 6, 2014 Unfortunately I've never found many universally great plug-ins. One can sound fantastic on one thing and not very good at all on another. Very true - that's why most people have several of each. That said, there are some that are truly outstanding if given the time: PhoenixVerb, SonEQ Pro, B2, etc. come to mind. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
omics Posted November 6, 2014 Report Share Posted November 6, 2014 I love the Hofa IQ EQ, most of the UAD stuff (especially the re-issues, Plates, SSL and Lexicon) as well as the PSP Vintage Warmer. Most of these find their way in almost every mix. There's also a few Waves plugins I use regularly such as H-Delay, Doubler, RBass, CLA and API. MAGIX definitely am-munition a lot, am-pulse sometimes. I wish Metric Halo Channelstrip was available for PC...great clean sounding plugin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
irvin Posted November 6, 2014 Author Report Share Posted November 6, 2014 Hofa's reverb is pretty good (don't have it - but saw it in action at a friend's studio). The widely praised Valhalla plugins, on other hand, have never felt right to me - they sound absolutely pedestrian, but it's probably a matter of taste. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
omics Posted November 6, 2014 Report Share Posted November 6, 2014 Haven't heard the Hofa reverberated but heard it is good. The few times I heard Valhalla I liked it. You're right, probably taste. Cyanide 2 for distortion. Oh and Vandal on bass a lot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benjamin.Maas Posted November 6, 2014 Report Share Posted November 6, 2014 I wish Metric Halo Channelstrip was available for PC...great clean sounding plugin Metric Halo Channel Strip is available for PC these days as a VST. http://mhsecure.com/metric_halo/products/software/prod-bundle.html --Ben Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
omics Posted November 7, 2014 Report Share Posted November 7, 2014 Oh wow, thanks Ben, I'll check it out. Cheers, Peter Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hyper.real Posted November 8, 2014 Report Share Posted November 8, 2014 So, what's yor criteria for selecting your plugins? how many do you have? Which ones are your favorites? #1 is the rule of thumb that 95% of everything is rubbish #2 is that plugins should be good for fixing something or wrecking something #3 is avoiding plugins that achieve both things in #2 at the same time Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Olhsson Posted November 9, 2014 Report Share Posted November 9, 2014 All signal processing screws something up. It becomes a question of any enhancement being worth the cost of the degradation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
irvin Posted November 9, 2014 Author Report Share Posted November 9, 2014 So, what's yor criteria for selecting your plugins? how many do you have? Which ones are your favorites?#1 is the rule of thumb that 95% of everything is rubbish #2 is that plugins should be good for fixing something or wrecking something #3 is avoiding plugins that achieve both things in #2 at the same time Most plugins basically do what they are supposed to do. Problems begin when they are used as magical potions to fix bad recordings - why would a track need 32 bands of EQ? Why should a compressor be asked to do distortion-less 17db gain reduction on 0.3ms attack? Why should anyone expect transparency on a master limiter asked to tame 9db peaks after 12db gain to obtain -7db rms? A good recording needs very little in terms of plugins. Asking a plugin to do dramatic changes to a track is usually a clear sign of a bad recording or performance. A clean signal from a good musician is 95% of the work... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WireLine Posted November 20, 2014 Report Share Posted November 20, 2014 When I had an operational commercial place, I found (my experiences only) having a couple of good plugs to cover what hardware didn't cover was all I needed. Plugs tend to make everything sound the same somehow, whereas hardware seems to accentuate the detailed differences in signal chains. This is why (my preferences and experiences - of course everyone has a different reference point) an even modestly equipped hardware based operation somehow seems to have a (to my preference) 'better' sound than a place that has every plug in known to mankind.... How many digital variations/emulations of an 1176 or a Roland Space Echo can there be, and how much difference can there be, while still sounding 'like' the original? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
irvin Posted November 20, 2014 Author Report Share Posted November 20, 2014 How many digital variations/emulations of an 1176 or a Roland Space Echo can there be, and how much difference can there be, while still sounding 'like' the original? The emulation scam has worked like a charm because a lot of people think that the secret to the Beatles' success was the console used...lol.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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