Building a collection of VSTs, what are the staples?

[ElDiablo1878]

While building a collection of staple VSTs to use in mixing, what are the VSTs that you have found to be staples in your collection? I'd love to hear which VSTs in your collection you keep using.

I think of VSTs in 2 categories - one that has great functionality for the price(or lack of) AND the other category is the industry gold standard VSTs.

I'm trying to figure out which VSTs to spend my money on and which I can use free/low-priced alternatives.

 

[He's Dead, Jim]

Free or cheap and awesome:
-Anything stock Reaper for the most part (ReaComp, ReaEQ, ReaXcomp [better than Waves C4/6 imo], JS Saturation, ReaFir for mic ambient noise reduction)
-Stillwell plugins (Major Tom, 1973 EQ, The Rocket, Bombardier Bus Compressor, Event Horizon 2)
-Audio Damage Rough Rider
-Tokyo Dawn Labs: SlickEQ, Feedback Compressor II
-GClip
-Voxengo Span
-Valhalla DSP reverb/room
-Variety of Sound anything

Not free and awesome:
-Slate Digital anything
-FabFilter Pro Q
-Metric Halo Channel Strip for the compressors
-Waves Rbass or any similar Waves plugin
-Izotope Ozone

You can always find free versions of basically anything. It's just that the expensive versions will have more options and may emulate certain desirable characteristics of analog gear. If you have a PC and you can use the Variety of Sound stuff for saturation, the only thing I'd say you absolutely need is Ozone for its limiter and the Waves subharmonic enhancement plugin. You can sculpt a kick without it, but it adds exactly the sort of thick, punchy low end that metal kicks tend to need.

 

[~BURNY~]

I'm trying hard to not sound like a fanboy but I'm addicted to Slate VMR especially the SSL eq. The Waves one sounds like doodoo in comparison. I use it on everything. And the integrated VCC is a must too.

 

[LeSedna]

@Price
reaPlugins
Stillwell
Metric Halo
Valhalla

@Standards
Slate
Waves SSL / Comps
Fabfilter or Damage Audio
Ozone
the Native Instruments and the Arturia synths, together with Spectrasonics Omnisphere

 

[FIXXXER]

free: Variety Of Sound used these quite a lot in my beginning time, pretty nice and free.

commercial: basically everything from Slate and Fabfilter

 

[MoTang]

Slate digital, fab filter, Valhalla reverb (more expensive options would be the lexicon stuff), waves bass rider/vocal rider, waves ssl (or uad ssl) and cla collection, waves Rvox, rbass, and the Renaissance desser are all good. Also melodyne for obvious reasons. What was mentioned above is also good, I like the metric halo channel strip and its used a lot in commercial mixes by the top guys. Forgot to also mention spl transient designer which is a pretty standard tool, the free version is dominion which was used a lot in early Joey sturgis mixes.

If you have these plugins you definetly have the tools, though I wouldn't say they are necessary to get a killer mix.

 

[ElDiablo1878]

Seems like Slate and Fabfilter are getting a lot of love. A friend of mine ended up getting VCC for under 100 during a sale!! I'm going to keep an eye out for sales

In the meanwhile gonna check out all the free and cheaper options!

Keep em coming!!

 

[tk7261]

Trying to remember off the top of my head the stuff I use a lot. Probably missing some, but here are some I can remember right now. Waves: SSL, L2, InPhase, C4, Req 6, CLA, Rvox. Some other stuff I use: SPL Transient Designer, iZotope Maximizer, and Space Designer that comes with Logic. I like Space Designer cause it has an easy to use convolver in it. I also still use the eq that comes with Logic sometimes.

 

[Slicklickz]

Trying to remember off the top of my head the stuff I use a lot. Probably missing some, but here are some I can remember right now. Waves: SSL, L2, InPhase, C4, Req 6, CLA, Rvox. Some other stuff I use: SPL Transient Designer, iZotope Maximizer, and Space Designer that comes with Logic. I like Space Designer cause it has an easy to use convolver in it. I also still use the eq that comes with Logic sometimes.

I'm pretty sure there is no Space Designer VST,as it is Au only.

 

[HOFX]

I'm trying hard to not sound like a fanboy but I'm addicted to Slate VMR especially the SSL eq. The Waves one sounds like doodoo in comparison. I use it on everything. And the integrated VCC is a must too.

This would be my recommendation too.

 

[Delitzsch]

DMG EQuality, Slate VCC, Izotope Ozone, Waves L1, Waves C6, Waves Bass Rider, and Waves CLA Compressors. As for a good bus compressor, I like and use IK's SSL Bus Compressor.

 

[ElDiablo1878]

I just checked out the FabFilter Pro Q videos on youtube, wow...it has everything I have ever wanted in an eq!!

The slate plugin demo examples sound pretty fabulous i must admit....

Massively gassing for Fabfilter, VCC and VMR....argh which one to get !!

 

[Machinated]

with waves, they're constantly doing deals, especially at weeks so just grab the ones you need as they come up. check out audiodeluxe for basically everything else, they're almost always the cheapest place to grab plugins.

the recent TDR plugs (kotelnikov and slick EQ) sound incredible and are free. they're also in lots of formats and are really stable etc. theres some amazing tutorial videos by Dan Worrall (the guy who does the fabfilter videos) which really show off what they can do.

metric halo channelstrip gets used by me. its not the best at any one thing but its quick, functional and reliable.

saturation wise, soundtoys are amazing. shattered glass audio do some great free stuff but it can be VERY CPU taxing. also check out softube's free saturation plugin. also check out echo boy for delays, its amazing. valhalla reverbs are the best bang for the buck, room and vintage will have you covered for pretty much anything other than physical plates and spring sounds.

the only other thing you'll want beyond those would be coloured compression - if you're going native, slate VMR, waves CLA or boz +10db should get you started.

 

[ElDiablo1878]

with waves, they're constantly doing deals, especially at weeks so just grab the ones you need as they come up. check out audiodeluxe for basically everything else, they're almost always the cheapest place to grab plugins.

the recent TDR plugs (kotelnikov and slick EQ) sound incredible and are free. they're also in lots of formats and are really stable etc. theres some amazing tutorial videos by Dan Worrall (the guy who does the fabfilter videos) which really show off what they can do.

metric halo channelstrip gets used by me. its not the best at any one thing but its quick, functional and reliable.

saturation wise, soundtoys are amazing. shattered glass audio do some great free stuff but it can be VERY CPU taxing. also check out softube's free saturation plugin. also check out echo boy for delays, its amazing. valhalla reverbs are the best bang for the buck, room and vintage will have you covered for pretty much anything other than physical plates and spring sounds.

the only other thing you'll want beyond those would be coloured compression - if you're going native, slate VMR, waves CLA or boz +10db should get you started.

thanks for the recommendation, also found this site plugindiscounts, has great prices on everything.

I really like the sound of Slate VMR, I took the plunge and bought it, the Slate website has a free iLok2 deal right now!

 

[tk7261]

I'm pretty sure there is no Space Designer VST,as it is Au only.

Oh crap yea. Sorry I forgot we where only talking VSTs. Anyone think the Slate VMR is worth it if you already have a bunch of Waves stuff. Mainly just for drums.

 

[Delitzsch]

Oh crap yea. Sorry I forgot we where only talking VSTs. Anyone think the Slate VMR is worth it if you already have a bunch of Waves stuff. Mainly just for drums.

Unless you have the money to burn, I don't think so. But don't take my word for it, download the demo and try it out.

 

[ElDiablo1878]

Unless you have the money to burn, I don't think so. But don't take my word for it, download the demo and try it out.

I tend to agree, I think that the cost benefit analysis of such a decision would depend on how much money you have, I've heard that the waves ssl channel are comparable to the slate equivalent

 

[ArthurD]

I bought many plugins over the years...
I ended using the same.
Slate VCC and VMR are mandatory. My main EQ and Compression.
Also use Fabfilter PRO-Q2 (previouly I was using DMG equality)
Soundtoys Microshift, Decapitator and Echoboy.
Valhalla Room, Vintage Verb and Ubermod.
Relab 480L and UAD Lexicon (Sorry, love reverbs)
Slate VTM
Slate VBC
Ozone 5 for mastering
Thats it.
Hardware: Distressor, Dolby 361A, Avalon EQ and Compression.

 

[exoslime]

^^lots of great suggestion, i want to add a few that i couldnt mix without:

+ eiosis air eq 2 premium
+ izotope alloy 2
+ izotope trash 2

 

[ElDiablo1878]

What are you guys using for saturation/tape saturation? is the fav saturn any good?