Saturation plugins are another area where stock plugins are usually weak. It's also a category where having more colours in the tool box can be useful. Fabfilter saturn rules.
A good thing to remember about plugins is how easily they let you do what you want. Even if you can do nearly everything with stock plugins, if one you purchase helps get your idea into your DAW faster, letting you stay in the flow for longer, it can be worth it. That's not an excuse to buy whatever of course, and it's no excuse to skip the learning part of what each class of plugin does. But if you take the time to understand where you spend the most time trying to dial in exactly what you want, or where you end up getting frustrated the most, that might be a clue on where to look for a "better" plugin.
I stopped buying plugins the moment I realized that my mixes suck because I have no experience, not because I don't have enough plugins .. but one I definitely don't regret buying is an SSL channel strip and ssl bus compressor and also double tap for the bass
I agree about companies need to have updated their plug-ins for Apple Silicon by now. Lexicon still has not upgraded their plug-ins. I bought the PCM Native bundle on sale and fortunately they will run with Rosetta but they are long overdue for Apple Silicon support.
I really feel like Seventh Heaven from LiquidSonics is a great reverb, also because they have atmos compatibility. Just shows that they care for such a premium priced product
I haven't bought a reverb since purchasing Seventh Heaven. Took a while to get to know it, but it does everything I could ask for in a reverb. I also have valhalla shimmer for ambient stuff and a specular tempus pedal
I can resist anything except compressors, EQs, limiters, reverbs, delays, preamps, tape emulations, transient designers (especially when they are also EQs), spatial effects of any kinds, spectral effects of any kind and - that's about it. Yes, I'm also really interested in granular effects and pure saturation plugins, phasers, flangers, choruses, ensembles, and timestretching and formant shifters. Oh, filters - no resistance. I'm also gate curious. But as for anything else: I don't waste a penny.
Never forget disclosure won a Grammy with their first record ‘settle’ while using only stock logic plugins, it’s really about your knowledge of how tools work rather than brand sound texture and feel which should only matter when it comes to hardware emulations imo
Not to throw any diss for stock plugins or people who use them, but still.. for every single thing you can do with stock plugins, there are countless of things you cannot, regardless of your skills. As an analoque, while there are many pulizer winning photos taken with black and white film cameras, they are still not adequate to take colourful photos.
@@anteshell to be fair I’ve only known logic stock plugins and they’re more than intuitive than most when you know what you’re doing but I’m sure others can leave a lot to be desired
It would kill me to have to use logic plugins. Worked with them recently and it was painful : ( They only do what is necessary. So much work is required to do anything cool.
I would say that the first (and probably the only mandatory) plug-in to purchase is fabfilter pro L. Usually DAWs come with disgusting limiters and a fabfilter one is a standard with everything necessary to avoid clipping, oversampling, ditcher and a perfect true pick - the only thing missing in modern DAWs for a ready-for-radio and streaming release with necessary 1db headroom. DAW like ableton come with good reverbs. I think they have even convolution one. For mb compression you can buy DMG limitless and use it as a limiter or multiband compressor. Limitless is huge. It has clipper, all around compressor beside multiband one, oversampling, true pick limiting and so many more things that can really get you to fantastic results. Analog sound from emulator plug-ins is the biggest fraud in the industry, and it seems to me that people who have a voice should start talking about it because it is simply impossible to physically get the sound of hardware with electricity from lines of code. Any dumbdumb can create weird eq curves with a bunch of harmonics added through distorted white noise or whatever and sell it as a yet another ssl clone
a lot of daws have a convolution reverb and i would trying searching for some ir packs before getting a plugin. making irs can be really fun too im planning to have a personal collection of irs of rooms ive made music in. throwing random stuff in there is great on the production side
Windows...Reaper...Brainworx. No headaches anymore, while still working on a small laptop. I can say that Reaper was the best buy. And Plugin Alliance has great Soundcloud samples... never a bad purchase if i really thought and listened. So yes, Brainworx has saved my day often. Thx😊
True peak limiting is essential. Multi band not so much... having a pack of eq in series will color much better, multi band comps can send one down the rabbit hole
For reverb and room sounds I now almost only use IKs Sunset Sound Studio. Compressor, EQ, Limiter and De-Esser: Sonible. The combination of Sonibles EQ and EZ Mix works wonders for me. Also the EQ is a good learning tool.
Another rabbit hole to avoid is "free giveaway" plugins. I did that for 6-8 months and ended up with SOOOO many installers and managers on my computer for plugins that I barely touch. I did get a couple of good ones that I use a lot...but I still am not sure it was worth it.
I recently dumped about $5,000 worth of plugins and have never felt better. Work flow has improved, creativity with remaining plugins has improved, and it's a good feeling to look at your menu and only see a fine collection rather than a lot of clutter. "This one's gonna do it for me" is probably a lie. If you're not being creative with what you've got, there's a good chance you're not being creative.
Thx man you are great and it's always with pleasure that I check your videos! Totalllllly agree with the updating ability of those plugins with new OS system! For me, I'm done with the headache with 20 companies to check after any update. That's now my FIRST choice. And yeah, at the end, except few extra plugins (Shaperbox, The Glue, H-delay, IR1 convolution reverb...), the Fabfilter bundle (Holy Holy ProQ3, Pro C, MB, Pro L) ,OR the Sonible one (the limiter is pretty great) are covering the most important aspect of plugins workflow. Many plugins are sweet and funny to discover, but seriously, at the end, only few remain constantly in the daily workflow over different projects, isn't it? Ohhhhh: Sound ID for sure to keep my headphone flat EQ, Can opener Ghz to get a sense of stereo (and NOT dual mono), and Span analyzer to check properly the phases possible issues (Thanks Dan Worrall for this one!) 🤩
Great video. I'm a huge fan of Sonible plugins, which I bought after your reviews. Though I haven't been super impressed with their Reverb - what is it that made it become one of your most used reverbs?
I started making music in 2018, so I have a few dozen plugins I don't use, but are very shiny. Supermassive is still my go to reverb and my fav synth is stock.
I lean towards bread and butter analog emulations because I learned on analog but I think that is unnecessary as most gen z and gen a people are probably gonna be itb forever so we might as well stop catering to software looking like equipment from the 70s. I've been burned by a certain plugin manufacturer that has been around for decades and have moved over to arturia and brain work plugins alongside more modern plugins like soothe and gulfoss. I've moved back into analog land for workflow and also for points you brought up. So my goal is 10 years from now to mostly just use reaper for editing and as a tape machine. Hardware won't stop working after a software update and usually I can fix hardware.
Depends what kind of music you make my guy. infiltrator is very Electro/Dance/edm driven. Sonible. Depends… id say fab filter bundle, soundtoys and Output are the go to companies… there are other but thats my suggestion
whats goood about TDR plugins? I UNDERSTAND I heard good stuff about them but how many more reverb,eq,comp bundles do we need companies to make ? i wouldnt mind if its a game changer, but thats why i want to hear your perspective.
Thanks. I feel plugins choices depends on what need to be done. For example for vocals fix i find plugin de-esser, sibilance and soothe2 is so essential. For electronic reverb i would go for Blackhole. For orchestral reverb i prefer cinematic rooms. Etc...
I have the fabfilter and sonible plug-ins based on your recommendations.👍🏻 sadly, I have purchased a bunch of waves plug-in also, and I need to pay for upgrades rather frequently 😭
I invested mostly in UAD and Waves. I have knowingly (wup) bought quite a few waves plugins and i never had to pay for mandatory updates. Regarding their sound, they sound just fine, theyre in business for 30 years for a reason.
i was looking through all your plugin review vids but didn´t find something to that particular ones - so let me ask you: did you ever tried or get experienced with the "D16 Group" plugins? especially one or more from the "D16 Group Silver Line"-bundle??! thanks in advance for your response
The answer to the question is probably.....None. I grew up in the old-school days of analog. A typical studio would be lucky to have two or three compressors, a couple FX boxes that covered reverb and delay, and that was about it. We used the EQ that was in the board. Nowadays, as he stated, the typical DAW comes loaded with a rediculous amount of everything. Add to that the fact that there is an endless supply of folks pitching plugins here on TH-cam, and you end up with people over-using everything. I could rant on and on about this subject, and I'm a typical dumbass who has purchased way more that I need, but the short story is this: Less is more.
Here I stay focused on 2 brands, nothing else : - Goodhertz : because they are incredibly creative. - UAD : because they are very efficient and good sounding to my ear. This + Logic Pro stock plugins, I don’t need more :) Edit before post : Oh I lied, I also have one plugin from NeuralDSP (Cory Wong) for my guitar and bass. That’s it !
With stock plugins being ok for lots of things some things are not possible. So I can't live without Gulfoss, Soothe, xln rc20, some UAD stuff and of course FF.
If I had to start over again, I’d spend more time learning the stock plugins before buying any third party plugins. In Ableton, most their plugins are as good or better than paid ones with most at ZERO latency.
Yes. Be wary of slow-to-update plugin companies. Right now, I'm angry at Antares. Their crappy copy protection, codemeter or whatever, won't work with Mac OS 14. So, my new Mac is sitting idle until they GET THEIR ACT TOGETHER. It's not like Mac OS 14 was some sort of surprise! by Apple. Antares had plenty of time with the beta to figure it out. Be careful out there. Also, look at TC electronic md4 (or even md3) for mastering. Their reverbs are classic too. Coming up in the spring, they have their big sale. The old System 6000 they sold (for which the native plugins are the exact same thing but just on regular, fast, consumer hardware now) produced many albums and songs that you love.
Plugin Alliance Kirchhoff EQ is my go to.. Love the Pro Q3, but Kirchhoff, for me, sounds better and the interface is also excellent (similar to Pro Q3)
@@staycalmwriteaboutit I hope you'd agree that objectively it sounds exactly the same and your preference is justification after the fact because you paid a decent amount for it. :)
It is not always about a particular need or thinking the next shiny thing will elevate your work. It sometimes is just about the shiny thing: to bask in innovative and interesting technology, whether it be hardware or software. If you can afford it, and you enjoy it, do what makes you happy. It's not wasting money if you get something out of it, regardless of its usefulness. That said, I haven't made money from my music in years, and now it is just an expensive hobby.
There is getting happy when buying something and there is being happy with something you've bought and use.The first one is just a waste and could have spend beter and truly made you life enjoyable.
@@florisbackx1744 you're objectively correct, but I also think there is merit beyond its utility. Art is fundamentally useless in itself, but we rightly attribute value to it because of how it makes us feel. I know it's a bit ridiculous comparing a plugin with a piece of art, but like art, it can be ephemeral. The purchase itself isn't where I personally find joy, but in the experimenting and tinkering with something I find clever. If I use it later in anger, cool, but if I only enjoyed messing about with it and then moved on, that's OK as well. Not everything has to be in the pursuit of being monetarily productive to give it value (unless in a professional setting, which in my case it very much isn't). I like Lego. Yeah, I have too much spare time, but I enjoy the build and satisfaction of finishing a goal, and it's something I have introduced to and enjoy with my daughter. Once built, it has served its purpose and has now become a bit of a burden as I live in a small house in London with not a lot of free space. Another (probably equally poor) example is watching a film at the cinema. I'm just filling time, but enjoying myself in the process. Is that wrong? I could have spent that money better elsewhere; it's not like I've been enlightened by the big summer blockbuster I watched, and once seen, that's that. I'm not arguing that you shouldn't spend your money wisely, but beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and it isn't as black and white as this is useful, and that isn't - it's relative and context driven. Again, I'm just a hobbyist that has the luxury of having given up my dreams of becoming a successful film score composer years ago, and have a day job so I can sometimes spend a bit of money on something that is completely pointless but ultimately fills time and is fun.
What would you add to a full suite like the Mixing & Mastering bundle from Izotope? I have no intensions of going pro, just trying to produce my own music well without pending too much money and time.
If Id be able to go back in time and give myself advice when it comes to buying plugins. Then I would have told myself to buy Melda Productions Mixing or complete bundle right away. That's more or less the only stuff I use with a few exceptions like Klanghelms stuff. I will never ever again buy plugins from companies that require license managers, ilok or whatever. Meldas tools work like a clock, have zero restrictions to how many computers I can install them to and overall they give me zero headache.
Hey man.. Can you please make a video for Stream Deck ? how you setup that for Pro Tools or your daw ? in Mac ? I think its a great time saver and not many videos out there on that topic.. Thx
Reverbs are hard fo sure... I wish one day we'll just get something that pops into blender or something you can position walls characters specify materials whatever in there and the whole reverb simulation will happen on gpu. Maybe also spaces could be procedural. It will be so good real and flexible that all current sounding reverbs might as well just become subset sounds of this solution. There is only so many reverb/delay algos and only so many pulse strategies for IR. But physics based audio ray tracing that like opens up anything. Now let's see who can build a comprehensive UI for something like that looll 😂
I removed around 80% of companies from my future-buy list after M1 released. Some companies took YEARS to make an update. Some still hasn't made it. That is an instant no-buy sign for me. Stopped using their plugins I already owned for the same reason.
@whitesea -Man, you streamdeck layout is really interesting. You could probably selll the icon pack, and explain your workflow in a bundle. I have the pplugins in there, I think for most of all. A video on the stream deck and \ or "tool for a reason" could be really cool. Or, let me know if you give private classes. A few hours would be really really helpful! (happy to help financially of course)... Cheers!
@ 4:10 He says that there is a great difference in how limiters sound. Besides the stock limiter in Logic I use the bx_limiter from Brainworx through Plugin Alliance, a simple one. I really wonder what Wytse thinks about that one and what he hears. How does is compare to other ones? Great video again!
Thank you for not making one of the “top 10 plugins you must have!!@&”-type of videos - this is wholesome and honest advice. As a hobbyist just enjoying these videos and causal music production over some 30 years I think the one tip I’d give younger me would be to rather invest time into really getting to understand better a limited few plug-ins than looking for the next best thing. I’m curious if we with more AI will see more “curated” samples/stems sold as quality references for more sculpted sound design, i.e. for sonible smarteq.
I only look for plugins which are unique. I think you have a lot of plugins on the review list, but DynOne by Leapwing Audio is a special one. Dynamic multiband with parallel- and Center Side Mode. Would like to know your verdict. I use it on all my productions one or more times.
I think that's because he is a Mix/Mastering Engineer and sound selection is a moot point in that profession. Can you imagine trying to produce music when you spend 12 hours a day mixing other people's for serious cash.
Well, VUMT meter is a good first plugin - from Klanghelm - not the deluxe, just the basic one - I use the 'uncompensated RMS' setting which reads very like LUFS
@@callebaloo Open VUMT, choose your colour, set size to 100%, type to RMS, click on 'RMS ' on the actual meter screen, select no compensation - a reading of about -20 is good going into your plugins, for a finished track mastered between -10 (more dynamic range) and -8 (hot enough for Dance etc)
Ok, very useful. But now do a video for people with the reverse objective. Who want to spend as much as they can on plug-ins they will never use. What should they buy first?
![ALLY - OH MY! [ REACTION ] 'Amarin Nitibhon' #ALLY_OHMY #ALLY #allynitibhon #แอลลี่](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/nX9qpHjVfbQ/mqdefault.jpg)
Free Reverb - Convology XT + Bricasti Samplicity IRs
Saturation plugins are another area where stock plugins are usually weak. It's also a category where having more colours in the tool box can be useful. Fabfilter saturn rules.
A good thing to remember about plugins is how easily they let you do what you want. Even if you can do nearly everything with stock plugins, if one you purchase helps get your idea into your DAW faster, letting you stay in the flow for longer, it can be worth it. That's not an excuse to buy whatever of course, and it's no excuse to skip the learning part of what each class of plugin does. But if you take the time to understand where you spend the most time trying to dial in exactly what you want, or where you end up getting frustrated the most, that might be a clue on where to look for a "better" plugin.
Too late. I've blown a fortune on plug-ins. I use about 5% of them. Sold as many as I can. Damn those marketing campaigns.
Here's one I really suggest: Metric A/B
1000% so crucial!
I stopped buying plugins the moment I realized that my mixes suck because I have no experience, not because I don't have enough plugins .. but one I definitely don't regret buying is an SSL channel strip and ssl bus compressor and also double tap for the bass
My "go to" plugins
Fab : EQ, Reverb2, Limiter, Timeless 3
Waves : C6, dbx160, H-delay, H-Reverb, J37, L2, LoAir, Vitamin
Plugin Alliance : MC77, Elysia alpha, Lindell 80, SPL Iron, SPL PassEQ,
Softube: Weiss DeEsser, TubeTech CL1B,
Izotope: RX and Ozone
Other : Soothe, TDR Limiter 6, TDR Nova, Boz The Wall, Boz Transgressor, Youlean Loudness Meter 2
I agree about companies need to have updated their plug-ins for Apple Silicon by now. Lexicon still has not upgraded their plug-ins. I bought the PCM Native bundle on sale and fortunately they will run with Rosetta but they are long overdue for Apple Silicon support.
There are some smaller companies that are doing good work, I think. Tokyo Dawn and Variety of Sound come to mind.
Nova gets used on my mixes constantly
I really feel like Seventh Heaven from LiquidSonics is a great reverb, also because they have atmos compatibility. Just shows that they care for such a premium priced product
Definitely best sounding reverbs.
I'm probably the only one who really doesn't like liquidSonic reverb. I own 2 of them but don't like the sound. I prefer BigSky and PRO-R2.
I haven't bought a reverb since purchasing Seventh Heaven. Took a while to get to know it, but it does everything I could ask for in a reverb. I also have valhalla shimmer for ambient stuff and a specular tempus pedal
I think the plates in SoundToys Super Plate (and Little Plate) are superior to Seventh Heaven plates.
I can resist anything except compressors, EQs, limiters, reverbs, delays, preamps, tape emulations, transient designers (especially when they are also EQs), spatial effects of any kinds, spectral effects of any kind and - that's about it. Yes, I'm also really interested in granular effects and pure saturation plugins, phasers, flangers, choruses, ensembles, and timestretching and formant shifters. Oh, filters - no resistance. I'm also gate curious. But as for anything else: I don't waste a penny.
Never forget disclosure won a Grammy with their first record ‘settle’ while using only stock logic plugins, it’s really about your knowledge of how tools work rather than brand sound texture and feel which should only matter when it comes to hardware emulations imo
Not to throw any diss for stock plugins or people who use them, but still.. for every single thing you can do with stock plugins, there are countless of things you cannot, regardless of your skills.
As an analoque, while there are many pulizer winning photos taken with black and white film cameras, they are still not adequate to take colourful photos.
@@anteshell to be fair I’ve only known logic stock plugins and they’re more than intuitive than most when you know what you’re doing but I’m sure others can leave a lot to be desired
No excuses. I came here to write the same thing, but you nailed it.
It would kill me to have to use logic plugins. Worked with them recently and it was painful : (
They only do what is necessary. So much work is required to do anything cool.
@@Joshua_Griffin wow you must have LOTS of Grammy's!
I would say that the first (and probably the only mandatory) plug-in to purchase is fabfilter pro L. Usually DAWs come with disgusting limiters and a fabfilter one is a standard with everything necessary to avoid clipping, oversampling, ditcher and a perfect true pick - the only thing missing in modern DAWs for a ready-for-radio and streaming release with necessary 1db headroom.
DAW like ableton come with good reverbs. I think they have even convolution one.
For mb compression you can buy DMG limitless and use it as a limiter or multiband compressor.
Limitless is huge. It has clipper, all around compressor beside multiband one, oversampling, true pick limiting and so many more things that can really get you to fantastic results.
Analog sound from emulator plug-ins is the biggest fraud in the industry, and it seems to me that people who have a voice should start talking about it because it is simply impossible to physically get the sound of hardware with electricity from lines of code. Any dumbdumb can create weird eq curves with a bunch of harmonics added through distorted white noise or whatever and sell it as a yet another ssl clone
a lot of daws have a convolution reverb and i would trying searching for some ir packs before getting a plugin. making irs can be really fun too im planning to have a personal collection of irs of rooms ive made music in. throwing random stuff in there is great on the production side
Soothe2, TDR NOVA, TDR Limiter no6 GE, TC 8210... And DAW: Harrison Mixbus 32C V9.
Windows...Reaper...Brainworx. No headaches anymore, while still working on a small laptop. I can say that Reaper was the best buy. And Plugin Alliance has great Soundcloud samples... never a bad purchase if i really thought and listened. So yes, Brainworx has saved my day often. Thx😊
True peak limiting is essential. Multi band not so much... having a pack of eq in series will color much better, multi band comps can send one down the rabbit hole
For reverb and room sounds I now almost only use IKs Sunset Sound Studio. Compressor, EQ, Limiter and De-Esser: Sonible. The combination of Sonibles EQ and EZ Mix works wonders for me. Also the EQ is a good learning tool.
I've tested most "clippers" against Pro-L2 set to zero lookahead and long attack - Pro-L2 clips with less distortion! (not really surprised! 😎)
Another rabbit hole to avoid is "free giveaway" plugins. I did that for 6-8 months and ended up with SOOOO many installers and managers on my computer for plugins that I barely touch. I did get a couple of good ones that I use a lot...but I still am not sure it was worth it.
This. Free plugins are often just a way to get you to download their manager.
The new sonible line is amazing. Helps me immensely consolidating a cluttered collection.
For me is the AMEK 200 the best EQ. Pro-Q3 has no chance! 😊 No EQ plugin sounds as analog as the AMEK 200!
I recently dumped about $5,000 worth of plugins and have never felt better. Work flow has improved, creativity with remaining plugins has improved, and it's a good feeling to look at your menu and only see a fine collection rather than a lot of clutter. "This one's gonna do it for me" is probably a lie. If you're not being creative with what you've got, there's a good chance you're not being creative.
Thx man you are great and it's always with pleasure that I check your videos!
Totalllllly agree with the updating ability of those plugins with new OS system! For me, I'm done with the headache with 20 companies to check after any update. That's now my FIRST choice.
And yeah, at the end, except few extra plugins (Shaperbox, The Glue, H-delay, IR1 convolution reverb...), the Fabfilter bundle (Holy Holy ProQ3, Pro C, MB, Pro L) ,OR the Sonible one (the limiter is pretty great) are covering the most important aspect of plugins workflow.
Many plugins are sweet and funny to discover, but seriously, at the end, only few remain constantly in the daily workflow over different projects, isn't it?
Ohhhhh: Sound ID for sure to keep my headphone flat EQ, Can opener Ghz to get a sense of stereo (and NOT dual mono), and Span analyzer to check properly the phases possible issues (Thanks Dan Worrall for this one!) 🤩
I use the Sonible bundle. I really like it and I have a few others that I use occasionally.
If I'd start now from zero, there would be no way around them. First choice.
Smart EQ 4 is insane! I just tried it for the first time and it blew me away. I felt like I was in the future.
@@tylerwinter512 I just upgraded to it recently, but haven't used it yet. Glad to hear!
Great video. I'm a huge fan of Sonible plugins, which I bought after your reviews. Though I haven't been super impressed with their Reverb - what is it that made it become one of your most used reverbs?
I started making music in 2018, so I have a few dozen plugins I don't use, but are very shiny. Supermassive is still my go to reverb and my fav synth is stock.
I lean towards bread and butter analog emulations because I learned on analog but I think that is unnecessary as most gen z and gen a people are probably gonna be itb forever so we might as well stop catering to software looking like equipment from the 70s.
I've been burned by a certain plugin manufacturer that has been around for decades and have moved over to arturia and brain work plugins alongside more modern plugins like soothe and gulfoss.
I've moved back into analog land for workflow and also for points you brought up. So my goal is 10 years from now to mostly just use reaper for editing and as a tape machine. Hardware won't stop working after a software update and usually I can fix hardware.
Sonible + Ifiltrator 2 + MA Current and you don´t need much more imo, free stuff form analog obsession rounds it up well imo.
Depends what kind of music you make my guy. infiltrator is very Electro/Dance/edm driven. Sonible. Depends… id say fab filter bundle, soundtoys and Output are the go to companies… there are other but thats my suggestion
TDR plugins. Look amazing, sound wonderful. 😎
whats goood about TDR plugins? I UNDERSTAND I heard good stuff about them but how many more reverb,eq,comp bundles do we need companies to make ? i wouldnt mind if its a game changer, but thats why i want to hear your perspective.
For me it's Sonible, iZotope and some free/stock VSTs. Honestly, that's all I need. I never felt like I miss something.
Haven't seen plugins on a macro keyboard before. Good idea!
How do you program a plugin to your stream deck and how are you using that feature?
Sonible Smart VSTs and Phase Plant with all the snapins. You don't need anything else.
Thanks. I feel plugins choices depends on what need to be done. For example for vocals fix i find plugin de-esser, sibilance and soothe2 is so essential. For electronic reverb i would go for Blackhole. For orchestral reverb i prefer cinematic rooms. Etc...
I have the fabfilter and sonible plug-ins based on your recommendations.👍🏻 sadly, I have purchased a bunch of waves plug-in also, and I need to pay for upgrades rather frequently 😭
To my ears the waves plugins are not the best sounding plugins. That's why I don't update them anymore.
I invested mostly in UAD and Waves.
I have knowingly (wup) bought quite a few waves plugins and i never had to pay for mandatory updates.
Regarding their sound, they sound just fine, theyre in business for 30 years for a reason.
i was looking through all your plugin review vids but didn´t find something to that particular ones - so let me ask you: did you ever tried or get experienced with the "D16 Group" plugins? especially one or more from the "D16 Group Silver Line"-bundle??! thanks in advance for your response
The answer to the question is probably.....None.
I grew up in the old-school days of analog. A typical studio would be lucky to have two or three compressors, a couple FX boxes that covered reverb and delay, and that was about it. We used the EQ that was in the board. Nowadays, as he stated, the typical DAW comes loaded with a rediculous amount of everything. Add to that the fact that there is an endless supply of folks pitching plugins here on TH-cam, and you end up with people over-using everything.
I could rant on and on about this subject, and I'm a typical dumbass who has purchased way more that I need, but the short story is this: Less is more.
Less is only more if you know what more is.
Agree...and yea, hold off on your software upgraded. Thanks for the video
Realised that the best plugins are ones that support my ears. Sonible Truebalalance, TDR Prism etc.
Here I stay focused on 2 brands, nothing else :
- Goodhertz : because they are incredibly creative.
- UAD : because they are very efficient and good sounding to my ear.
This + Logic Pro stock plugins, I don’t need more :)
Edit before post : Oh I lied, I also have one plugin from NeuralDSP (Cory Wong) for my guitar and bass. That’s it !
With stock plugins being ok for lots of things some things are not possible. So I can't live without Gulfoss, Soothe, xln rc20, some UAD stuff and of course FF.
You mean the alpha compressor by Elysia? It's in the plugin alliance bundle but not made by brainworx.
If I had to start over again, I’d spend more time learning the stock plugins before buying any third party plugins. In Ableton, most their plugins are as good or better than paid ones with most at ZERO latency.
Logic Pro has everything you need to get started
You could even say the same about GarageBand (which requires no extra money at all). 😉
Yes. Be wary of slow-to-update plugin companies. Right now, I'm angry at Antares. Their crappy copy protection, codemeter or whatever, won't work with Mac OS 14. So, my new Mac is sitting idle until they GET THEIR ACT TOGETHER. It's not like Mac OS 14 was some sort of surprise! by Apple. Antares had plenty of time with the beta to figure it out. Be careful out there. Also, look at TC electronic md4 (or even md3) for mastering. Their reverbs are classic too. Coming up in the spring, they have their big sale. The old System 6000 they sold (for which the native plugins are the exact same thing but just on regular, fast, consumer hardware now) produced many albums and songs that you love.
I love the abbey road collection. Excellent reverb rooms and plates.
I went way beyond down that buying plugins rabbit hole
Plugin Alliance Kirchhoff EQ is my go to.. Love the Pro Q3, but Kirchhoff, for me, sounds better and the interface is also excellent (similar to Pro Q3)
how does that eq "sound better"
See 'Mixing Vocals with Joe Carrell' about 3 mins 20 secs then you will see the Kirchhoff
@@staycalmwriteaboutit i’m gonna check it right now and come back, i think u might be onto something
@@staycalmwriteaboutit i actually really like kirchoff
@@staycalmwriteaboutit I hope you'd agree that objectively it sounds exactly the same and your preference is justification after the fact because you paid a decent amount for it. :)
Hard clipping is the most transparent way of getting loud.
It is not always about a particular need or thinking the next shiny thing will elevate your work. It sometimes is just about the shiny thing: to bask in innovative and interesting technology, whether it be hardware or software. If you can afford it, and you enjoy it, do what makes you happy. It's not wasting money if you get something out of it, regardless of its usefulness. That said, I haven't made money from my music in years, and now it is just an expensive hobby.
There is getting happy when buying something and there is being happy with something you've bought and use.The first one is just a waste and could have spend beter and truly made you life enjoyable.
@@florisbackx1744 you're objectively correct, but I also think there is merit beyond its utility. Art is fundamentally useless in itself, but we rightly attribute value to it because of how it makes us feel. I know it's a bit ridiculous comparing a plugin with a piece of art, but like art, it can be ephemeral. The purchase itself isn't where I personally find joy, but in the experimenting and tinkering with something I find clever. If I use it later in anger, cool, but if I only enjoyed messing about with it and then moved on, that's OK as well. Not everything has to be in the pursuit of being monetarily productive to give it value (unless in a professional setting, which in my case it very much isn't). I like Lego. Yeah, I have too much spare time, but I enjoy the build and satisfaction of finishing a goal, and it's something I have introduced to and enjoy with my daughter. Once built, it has served its purpose and has now become a bit of a burden as I live in a small house in London with not a lot of free space. Another (probably equally poor) example is watching a film at the cinema. I'm just filling time, but enjoying myself in the process. Is that wrong? I could have spent that money better elsewhere; it's not like I've been enlightened by the big summer blockbuster I watched, and once seen, that's that. I'm not arguing that you shouldn't spend your money wisely, but beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and it isn't as black and white as this is useful, and that isn't - it's relative and context driven. Again, I'm just a hobbyist that has the luxury of having given up my dreams of becoming a successful film score composer years ago, and have a day job so I can sometimes spend a bit of money on something that is completely pointless but ultimately fills time and is fun.
True Iron from Kazrog all the way, subtle but magical. It has to go in every single master.
What about Reaper built-in plugins?
Transatlantic plate reverb is very nice.
Resonant mess
@@Mia1Goth maybe you don't know how to use it.
What would you add to a full suite like the Mixing & Mastering bundle from Izotope? I have no intensions of going pro, just trying to produce my own music well without pending too much money and time.
Ozone is pretty complete. Metric A/B is very useful in combination
... also Sonarworks or a similar room/headphone correction software... should get you some good results
@@danceswith7wolves Thanks a lot - looks dope.
omg Eventide Blackhole reverb 🤤
Perfect! This is exactly what i needed
If Id be able to go back in time and give myself advice when it comes to buying plugins. Then I would have told myself to buy Melda Productions Mixing or complete bundle right away. That's more or less the only stuff I use with a few exceptions like Klanghelms stuff. I will never ever again buy plugins from companies that require license managers, ilok or whatever. Meldas tools work like a clock, have zero restrictions to how many computers I can install them to and overall they give me zero headache.
Hey man.. Can you please make a video for Stream Deck ? how you setup that for Pro Tools or your daw ? in Mac ? I think its a great time saver and not many videos out there on that topic.. Thx
Reverbs are hard fo sure... I wish one day we'll just get something that pops into blender or something you can position walls characters specify materials whatever in there and the whole reverb simulation will happen on gpu. Maybe also spaces could be procedural. It will be so good real and flexible that all current sounding reverbs might as well just become subset sounds of this solution. There is only so many reverb/delay algos and only so many pulse strategies for IR. But physics based audio ray tracing that like opens up anything. Now let's see who can build a comprehensive UI for something like that looll 😂
Sound city is the closest thing to what your talking about.
Plugin Alliance bundle straight away.
I do wish they had a good limiter
I removed around 80% of companies from my future-buy list after M1 released. Some companies took YEARS to make an update. Some still hasn't made it. That is an instant no-buy sign for me. Stopped using their plugins I already owned for the same reason.
@whitesea -Man, you streamdeck layout is really interesting. You could probably selll the icon pack, and explain your workflow in a bundle. I have the pplugins in there, I think for most of all. A video on the stream deck and \ or "tool for a reason" could be really cool. Or, let me know if you give private classes. A few hours would be really really helpful! (happy to help financially of course)... Cheers!
@ 4:10 He says that there is a great difference in how limiters sound. Besides the stock limiter in Logic I use the bx_limiter from Brainworx through Plugin Alliance, a simple one. I really wonder what Wytse thinks about that one and what he hears. How does is compare to other ones? Great video again!
I would get ones that you cannot find in stock plugins. Like soothe (mixing) portal/thermal or unfilteredaudio bundle(fx)
Thank you for not making one of the “top 10 plugins you must have!!@&”-type of videos - this is wholesome and honest advice. As a hobbyist just enjoying these videos and causal music production over some 30 years I think the one tip I’d give younger me would be to rather invest time into really getting to understand better a limited few plug-ins than looking for the next best thing.
I’m curious if we with more AI will see more “curated” samples/stems sold as quality references for more sculpted sound design, i.e. for sonible smarteq.
Any suggestions for generative plugins needs Wytse; not that those would be your primary concern?
Solaris is a lovely free reverb. Use it a lot.
Have you made a video on the stream deck?
I needed this vid in 2013 but still a GREAT vid ❤
I only look for plugins which are unique. I think you have a lot of plugins on the review list, but DynOne by Leapwing Audio is a special one. Dynamic multiband with parallel- and Center Side Mode. Would like to know your verdict. I use it on all my productions one or more times.
"Fabfilter is not paying anyone"
Dan Worrall: Am I a joke to you?
Free plugins are so good, you don't need to buy anything.
Logic users: What do y'all think about the stock reverbs? Just wanted to know y'all opinions!
Goede informatieve video Wytse, ik heb de Focusrite fast bundel i.p.v. Sonibel Smart bundel. Bevalt me prima, komt van dezelfde makers. 😎👍
Thanks for your video. I agree!!
I haven't seen a video where you talk about musical sounds you use or do you only use live instruments?
I think that's because he is a Mix/Mastering Engineer and sound selection is a moot point in that profession. Can you imagine trying to produce music when you spend 12 hours a day mixing other people's for serious cash.
@@adsm6464 hmm me ear you
Aah, another stream deck user. Love it
I only use the sonible bundle and the uad bundle.
UAD + Sonible here too. It’s a perfect combo. Got the vintage vibes with the futuristic tools.
too late, where was this video 4 years ago?
Is there an option to create shortcuts to on-line plugins in reaper?
To me GOYO (now it's called CLEAR from Supertone) is the biggest invention in the last years in audio plugins.
🤐🤐🤐🤫🤫🤫sshhhhh! Don't you tell the others!
Can you review Nuro Audio Xvox plugin
Best plugin ever just got it
And Audio Damage, no AAX Silicon yet...
What is with Acustica Audio?
Well, VUMT meter is a good first plugin - from Klanghelm - not the deluxe, just the basic one - I use the 'uncompensated RMS' setting which reads very like LUFS
I never understood how to calibrate it. I'm pretty clueless overall :P
Also my first plugin on every track
@@callebaloo Open VUMT, choose your colour, set size to 100%, type to RMS, click on 'RMS ' on the actual meter screen, select no compensation - a reading of about -20 is good going into your plugins, for a finished track mastered between -10 (more dynamic range) and -8 (hot enough for Dance etc)
I'm still waiting for the Silicon versions of Kush Audio plugins.... 🙄
Yes, my old Mac had a 1.000 Watt power supply... enough said. The M2 I am currently using has a laughable low power foot print.
I may have missed the video where you introduce that little pad with your plugins on buttons. What was that gear? Thanks!
stream deck, u can macro commands on those buttons and is typically used by streamers, although u can macro anything on those buttons
Ok, very useful. But now do a video for people with the reverse objective. Who want to spend as much as they can on plug-ins they will never use. What should they buy first?
Is it just me or isn't there much going on with new plugins lately? Maybe the market is highly saturared
Windows users are blessed with free Variety Of Sound plugins.
ableton reverb is good
FOR ME TDR NOVA GE IS THE BEST!
thanks 🤘🏼
Buy?!?! I pirate everything and you should too. LET'S GO COMERADS
Hmmmm…. that’s what I use. I watch you too much! 😂
Красавица, аплодирую стоя цем 🌷🌹🌷
tl;dw didn't buy any plugins.
30 years of lost battles against GAS. I have abandonned lol.