What's your must-have plugin?

[SteveBaruah]

Hi All!

I started music production about a year ago, and I am still working with a fairly simple set up. I use Pro Tools and mostly use the standard plugins. I use the compressors and eq a lot, and the odd saturator or limiter etc. but not a lot more than that.

My question was what is your must have plugin?


Any experience you can share is much appreciated!


Cheers,
Steve

[robbspencer]

There are so many awesome ones!!!
Soundtoys just finished a holiday special " pay what you want" so i picked a like 4 or 5 from them, i think little radiator is my fav out of those...i have the chris lord algae stuff that is awesome... Kramer tape on the master bus, along with the indispensable waves L2.... Just to name a few

[SteveBaruah]

Noted all of these, and will be checking them out

Steve

[TheElement]

Thats a hard one. one does not fit all.

I use the Nicky Romero Kickstart for sidechaining as I do a lot of that..

[garywhite]

So many good ones out there...

For vocals, I CANNOT live without Melodyne. Absolutely amazing and natural-sounding pitch correction.

Other must-haves for me are WAVES, PSP, UAD, NI, and IK Multimedia.
Just the basic set from any of these plug-in makers will do you nicely!

Subscribe to their mailing lists, cos they do some great deals from time to time.
Gary

[SteveBaruah]

Hi Gary,

I thought that sounded like a British name
I'm from the UK myself, Peterborough, live in Austria now.

I have a couple of free autotunes, but they sound like Stephen Hawkin.
I've heard a lot about Melodyne - I've just downloaded some sort of free version from their website, Melodyne Singletrack, I'll have a play with it when I get time.

I also keep hearing about Waves, I think a basic set from them also sounds good like a good idea.

Thanks for the tips!

Steve

[andygabrys]

my must have plugin......

is the one my computer is attached to the wall with.


ha.

Take your time investing in the UAD stuff as it runs on a processing card / box and won't run at all without it. I have a quad PCI processing card and love the plugins, and feel they are almost essential for some flavors, but if you skimp and get a solo or duo card you run out of DSP quickly.

I would say the biggest things about the stock plugins in Pro Tools - while you have a compressor with character (the BF76) - there isn't really any eq with "character" - like for a nice high shelf boost on a featured sound (vocal etc.) - and there are a lot of nice eq flavors out there - the various Neves and Pultecs from UAD, IK multimedia, WAVES , the Maag EQ-4, PSP has a couple as well. The Kush Clariphonic.

I agree with the Melodyne recommendation as well - for my ears, its one of the best out there. If you do a lot of pop style vocals (especially with groups of BGS / doubles / harmonies) the SynchroARTS Vocalign (and the newer ReVoice) are almost essential. Saves so much time.

As for buying a "basic set" of plugins - IMO thats a waste of money unless you get something like the Waves Gold bundle for $100 (it was recently on sale for crazy little). You will end up with a lot of stuff that duplicates what you already have in Pro Tools.

Where the money is better spend IMO - is in buying select plugins that either:

1) reduce your work (like using WAVES vocal rider on a lead vocal),
2) add something that doesn't exist in the DAW (like a great quality clean limiter like the FabFilter or Slate FGX etc),
3) give you more lifelike sounds and performances with less work (more recent string and orchestral libraries with custom scripting - I like LASS but there are a lot out there),
4) allow flexibility that doesn't exist just using regular samples (Gavin's recommendation of the Nicky Romero Kick plugin - its amazing - and cheap),
5) or gives a "character" reminiscent of great hardware or great mixes (most of the analog modeled stuff from UA, WAVES, Soundtoys etc.).

HTH.

[garywhite]

Yes, Andy is right. The gold bundle is the best starting point with waves - I've been using these for around 13 years now.. I've never needed to use protools, so have absolutlely no idea about how waves compare to stock protools plugs - I always found protools really lacking, but i can't think of any situation apart from pitch correction where i'd be lacking an effect with the gold bundle in a 'get started' situation as yours. A/B comparisons with UAD and others usually put UAD 5% above others, in my opininon, but it's negligible in a mix, and yes, obviously, UAD plugs require the card..but worth it for the 140 plate reverb on its own. Just my experience.. And, Melodyne is interesting, in that it should be as much a known as autotune.. I dumped autotune around 2000. My other advice would be to get Presonus Stdio One 3 Pro.

[SteveBaruah]

Well my shopping list just got a lot longer!
The Waves Gold bundle sounds like a must for the money.
I've got Melodyne for a 30 day trail so will see where that takes me.
I can see a lot of money could be spent here

Steve

[andygabrys]

if you can get it for $199. For $799 IMHO I would look at other things.