TFB's favourite plugins thread

Jonathanthomas83 · October 2018

I'm relatively new to all this stuff, but have got the VST plugin bug thanks to @Freebird showing me all kinds of cool new things to add to my mix!

I'm only just touching the surface as far as utilitarian plugins are concerned so my knowledge is limited, so I'll share a list of my favourite effect-y type plugins, of which, I feel I can comment. Let us know your favourites and maybe we can get a tidy list!

Valhalla Vintage Verb - like the Big Sky but better
Valhalla Shimmer - great, although I would like to be able to choose the interval of the shimmer
NI Replika XT - superb and vastly underrated delay
EZDrummer - not sure if it counts as its an instrument

Wishlist: I want to get my hands on Echoboy and Omnisphere and the Waves CLA-2A comp.

Funkfingers · October 2018

Jonathanthomas83 said:

Wishlist: ... Omnisphere and the Waves CLA-2A comp.

All of the Spectrasonics software instruments are superb.

I get a reasonable facsimile of the LA-2A using the Apple Logic Pro compression plug-in. I then run two of them in series for jingle jangle Rickenbacker guitar tones.

My go to effect for roughing sounds up is the Waldorf D Pole.

Flanging_Fred · October 2018

I just started with Reaper last week and haven't done any computer based recording for a VERY long time. I'll be following this with interest.

I did a quick trawl for some free plugins to get started. MT drums got me producing something quickly with no hassle. No idea if it's "good" or not but it'll keep me occupied for a while when I'm learning the software.

andy_k · October 2018

+ 1 for MT drums, excellent value for money (free) and very useful if you use it as individual drum tracks,
I use the TDR plugins a lot, NOVA is ace, and so is KOTELNIKOV, and I always put Voxengo SPAN on my output track, for the insight into the final sound, all free, all good.and I strongly advise you all get Spitfire LABS, good stuff for limited budget and resources.

Flanging_Fred · October 2018

Ive only been doing this a couple of days but I can already see that I’m going to have to watch myself so I don’t get bogged down in trying out plugins, rather that learning how to use the software efficiently! I got the free bit of amplitude and guitar rig but I could do with a good basic reverb.

mudslide73 · October 2018

Great thread idea - very interested in what gets suggested. I've just started on separate plugins and IRs rather than Amplitube.. very much enjoying messing about with it all.

guitarfishbay · October 2018

Love the Valhalla stuff and Replika XT.

I use Slate FG-116 Blue and FG Stress a lot. Serum is very cool too if you want to check out a synth.

The Neural DSP stuff is good for guitar and bass tones, they only have two plugs so far but they're both great. The Darkglass one sounds super close to the pedals. I've never tried a real Fortin, but I think the Nameless amp sim is awesome (but I usually switch off the grind pedal for my tastes)

stratman3142 · October 2018

The plugins I use the most are:
Reverb: Valhalla Room, although I've got all the Valhalla stuff
Delay: NI Replika XT. It came with Komplete Ultimate 11. If you're thinking about the buying any NI stuff it's worth considering their bundles.
Ampsim: S Gear 2 and Helix Native. I'm mainly using Helix Native these days and it also has some great bass ampsims and effects.
Track EQ: ReaEq in Reaper
Bass guitar VSTi: IK Modo bass
Master limiter: Voxengo Elephant
Master EQ: NI Passive EQ and IK EQP-1A
Micro pitch shifter: Schwa CMX. I used it as a doubling effect.
Hammond Organ: GSI VB3 II. My most recent purchase and I love it. I liked v1 but the updated v2 is way better.
Drums VSTi: Addictive Drums 2
Analogue Synth: u-he Diva and NI Massive
FM synth: NI FM8
Additive Synth: FL Studio Ogun
Acoustic object synth: AAS Chromaphone
General Pianos: Addictive Keys
Rhodes: AAS Lounge Lizard which I generally prefer to the Rhodes in Addictive Keys

octatonic · October 2018

Currently getting a lot of use here:

Effects:

Universal Audio: Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor, Empirical Labs Fatso Jr & Distressor, API 2500, Chandler Zener & Curve Bender: All excellent.
Empirical Labs Arouser: Even better than a Distressor in most cases, and I have a hardware Distressor that now mostly gets used for tracking, rather than mixing.
All the Fabfilter plugins: low DSP use and all sound brilliant/
Fielding DSP Reviver: Great for passing high harmonics back into audio.
Kush: Novatron, Hammer and UBK1: Novatron is probably the best channel compressor I've found.
Newfangled EQuivicate: best master bus limiter I've found except for...
Softube Weiss DS1- this thing is insane but very spendy for a plugin.
Soundtoys Decapitator: I love this thing- it sounds warm and crunchy.
Brainworx Elysia Alpha: I put this across the master bus of all the electronic music I do.
Eiosis D2: Best plugin de-esser.
EQuilibrium: This and Pro Q are my go to EQ plugins.
Brainworx Vertigo VSC-2 & 3: both get used on drum busses a lot.
Sound Radix Auto Align: takes the pain out of multi-track drums.
Sonic Charge Permut8: Random noise maker.

Soft synths:

Serum, FM8, Z3TA, Reaktor, Arturia all still get used but I mostly spend my time with modulars now- either my hardware Eurorack or Softube/Arturia soft synths.
G-Force M Tron and Max/MSP both get used a lot too.

Jonathanthomas83 · October 2018

Great posts, guys, thanks for chiming in! :-)

mudslide73 · October 2018

Jonathanthomas83 said:

Great posts, guys, thanks for chiming in! :-)

Yes indeed. I shall start going through these.

IMC1980 · October 2018

I enjoy:

CA2A (Cakewalk LA2A Clone)
Cakewalk Quadcurve EQ, channel and bus comps
Soundtoys Echoboy + Tremolator
Slate Virtual Mix Rack, Tape, Verbsuite and Bus Comps
Scuffham S-Gear 2
Ignite SHB-1 Bass amp & NADIR cab/IR loader
Cakewalk/Sonitus Delay, Multi-band and Modulator
Overloud Breverb2
Thomas Mundt Loudmax 64 Limiter

Haven't bought a plugin for quite a while now, I ended up quite deep into that rabbit hole.....

stuartryanmusic · October 2018

For reverb I love LiquidSonics SeventhHeaven, really good price too. The Brainworx stuff is great - check out the Elysia MuseEq and Alpha Compressor at Plug in Alliance. Kush Audio plug ins are super easy to use and can bring a pleasing sheen to anything - the Clariphonic can be amazing in moderation. Maag EQ2 and EQ4 are also very useful for some things.

Teetonetal · October 2018

All the sound toys fx. Just genius. Normally do black friday offers.

Arturia for soft synths.

andy_k · October 2018

Im using Reaper on different systems, some Mac, some PC, some with drum libraries , most without, so I currently try and make sure they all get the following, mostly free plugins in there-
MT power drums,
Spitfire LABS (drums sound great--quick and dirty )
Ample sound P bass lite (cant get it to work in Reaper on PC though)
TDR, Nove, Slick eq, Kotelnikov ( all very good at what they do )
LePou amp sims
Ignite amp sims and Impulse host Nadir, ( Look up 7 deadly sins impulse pack )
Voxengo Span ( great on the master fader for seeing and hearing spikes in frequency)
Midi guitar 2 ( I tried it, and bought it, far cheaper than fitting a MIDI pickup to a guitar-but works with any audio-even voice)
Synth 1
Tyrell N6 ( still looking for good -free VST synths, these 2 cover pretty much everything)

I think that covers most of my basic stuff, I like using as many of the stock Reaper plugs, they do a good job.
Always used to get the BlueKat and Melda plugins installed, but found I wasnt using them, I also have Slate plugin suite on one of my Macs, the one that I still have Pro-tools on, but I'm moving away from the big DAWs in favour of Reaper, it amazes me how much it can do with such a small footprint--tired of the hoops that AVID make you go through to run Pro-tools, industry standard Blah Blah Blah, and I do love Logic, but again, cant limit my future to Apple, and their upgrade slope.
Life is too short.

lasermonkey · October 2018

The ones I use a lot are:

Plugins
Valhalla Vintage Verb (I adore this one!)
Valhalla Ubermod
Soundtoys Echoboy
Soundtoys Phasemistress
Soundtoys Decapitator
Soundtoys Tremolator
Soundtoys Panman
Melda M-Flanger
Melda M-Phaser
TDR Slick EQ
TDR Kotelnikov
Psychic Modulation Echomelt
Audio Damage Replicator
Audio Damage Automaton

Instruments
Psychic Modulation Phonec 2
GForce M-Tron Pro
GForce Oddity 2
GForce VSM
Datsounds OBXD
FXpansion BFD 2

Nerine · November 2018

Slate Everything Bundle. Impeccable.

Lodious · November 2018

Soundtoys plugins are great :-) Really decent company too.

fastonebaz · November 2018

I've only ever used the stock plugins that came with cubase 5, (and been frustrated with poor recorded tone all the while), am eager to try some of the suggestions mentioned above. Cheers

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