Plug ins and add ons...

[ShaunS]

Hi fellow Taxi people,
was looking at Kontact.... looks great!
now as a relative Newbie (using Studio One) let me ask you this - isn't it all too easy to swipe a Mastercard and feel like your game is growing.
There is so much of this stuff out there.... plug ins ...add ons etc .. it overwhelming......
to those of you that are experienced let me ask you this
If I get to know, and I mean really know my built in PreSonus library AND get to know how to shape and finesse sounds using my inbuilt reverb, EQ and compression etc., well. let's say wouldn't I be better off doing that at least for the time being rather that building some massive library that I can barely even understand let alone know how to operate.
thoughts people...

[edmondredd]

Hi Shaun! You`ve hit the nail with you post, and it's a common dilemna for a lot out there. However, building a strong foundation with your existing tools (DAW, built-in plugins, and sample libraries if any) can definitely be a smart move, or even a recommended one. Mastering the basics can often yield impressive results, and helps you keep focus on the essentials rather than the bells and whistles. HTH

[Telefunkin]

If I get to know, and I mean really know my built in PreSonus library AND get to know how to shape and finesse sounds using my inbuilt reverb, EQ and compression etc., well. let's say wouldn't I be better off doing that at least for the time being rather that building some massive library that I can barely even understand let alone know how to operate.
thoughts people...

We've all seen the Youtube videos of top producers/mixers that have all the best tools available to them, but in reality, if they had nothing but the basic DAW tools they'd all still get a great mix. Its not just about the tools, and although its very easy to convince yourself that you need the magic of additional sound-shaping plugins, largely, you don't. There are some third party plugins that I really like and would not want to be without but that's usually because I like the UI or I find it easier/more intuitive to get what I want from them. Also, things like Ozone are great for quick mastering, but in the end you can probably achieve just about everything you need to with the tools that accompany most modern DAW packages, and learning how to use them well will help you understand how to get the most from additional plugins when you're ready for them.

As for sounds though, I would say its worth splashing out to get the best sounds that will work for whatever genres you're wanting to focus on, rather than relying on those that come with your DAW package. No doubt there will be some highly usable sounds that come with every DAW, and getting to know what you've got is well worthwhile. However, Kontakt is the standard sampler that most of us rely on quite heavily. The free version will get you so far and there are some impressive libraries (some free) that will work with that, so I would highly recommend grabbing it to find out whether or not its something that would help you. Again, that's good prep for if/when you feel ready to splash out on the full version of Kontakt. Depending on your styles of music you might never need it, but I suspect you'll still want it! If so, the most cost effective way to buy it is as part of a Komplete package, and that's when your troubles really start . Wading through the masses of stuff that comes with Komplete is a mind-blowing experience, but it usually fuels the desire for more and more Kontakt libraries, and at that point there's no way back . Of course, you could always avoid the impact on your wallet, your mind, your time and your hard drives, by sticking to recording what you've already got, and there's a lot to be said for that if you can get away with it.

Good luck with whatever path you choose.

[cosmicdolphin]

I agree you can probably get a lot of mileage from the built in plugins for mixing & mastering so I would learn to use those first.

There are some more advanced/specialized plugins that no DAW comes with an equivelant of that are really useful like Soothe2 , Gullfoss & StageOne that do certain things really well and very quickly which can be great when you need to produce to short deadlines. But I would learn to make good mixes with the basics first before you look into anything like this.

As far as Virtual Instruments go it looks like S1 includes the following:

Mojito – Monophonic subtractive synthesizer.
Mai Tai – Polyphonic virtual analog synth.
Impact XT (New) – Multichannel drum sampler.
Sample One XT (New) – Drag-and-drop integrated live sampler.
Presence XT – Sample playback instrument.

Whether this is everything you need is very genre dependant and there is a reason why most pro's have Kontakt or Omnisphere or Falcon. You may not know what you need yet if you're just starting out - the included stuff looks to lean towards more electronic styles but what if you need to make a jazz track or a country track for example ? There doesn't seem to be much in the way of more trad sounds.

So like I say it all depends, best thing is to learn what you've got and then you'll know what the gaps are once you've exhuasted them. Picking up freebies is a no-brainer and there are some really great instruments out there for zero cost , some of them are cut down versions of paid products so you can get a taste of what they offer but the benefit of owning these flagship virtual instruments is that you can very quickly dial up something that sounds great out of the box which is a big help in the fast moving world of production music.

Mark

[ShaunS]

Hi Shaun! You`ve hit the nail with you post, and it's a common dilemna for a lot out there. However, building a strong foundation with your existing tools (DAW, built-in plugins, and sample libraries if any) can definitely be a smart move, or even a recommended one. Mastering the basics can often yield impressive results, and helps you keep focus on the essentials rather than the bells and whistles. HTH

thanks mate
cheers

[ShaunS]

to all of you
thank you so much for going to the trouble of replying, I understand there is no one definitive answer, (but i think i get the drift)
your collective wisdom is much appreciated.
cheers folks
shaun S

[kjckjc]

Shaun, I too am using studio 1, and for me - the amount of "stuff" it comes with (the full + pro version) is overwhelming... I also downloaded a LOT of as many Free plug ins as I could find, figuring the more = the better... Being an old fart, just recently getting into DAW's, I figured wrong... I also got all the free stuff Native Inst's had - Kontakt, 7, Reaktor, Gtr Rig), which are cool sounds and fx, but to me - don't seem useful for trying to write to the references. It has taken me months to go thru all of these "toys", and I have found that I am using only a specific # of these plug ins / loops / fx / sounds / etc so far... still trying to figure out what works... For what it's worth , all of my returns (100% of my submissions thus far) have had similar comments - mostly regarding dated sounds, production quality, and too "old school"... and I am 100% in the box for now (I have a ton of pro outboard gear, instruments, etc - but they are relegated to my storage unit for the time being - until I can build myself a proper studio that can house it all)... I have realized that Most people seem to be also mostly in the box, so I do not think the issue are the actual sounds and plug ins - the issue is how I am using / manipulating them... which is obviously not up to par ---yet!... But... stay tuned!...