Plugin Recommendations

[ruckus328]

Hi, I've been a frequent reader on this forum for a while now but this is actually my first post. A big thanks to everyone on here, the tips and advice I've picked up are priceless. Was hoping to get some plugin opinions and recomendations if anyone could be so kind? I recently switched over from Logic to Pro Tools and I'm trying to settle on my plugin collection. I love the interface of Pro Tools but I feel like a took a big step backwards in plugin choices. Currently I'm using mostly the default Pro Tools plugins (what few there are) and a bunch of demos I've downloaded. This is pretty much the list of what I need and what I'm thinking of getting unless anyone has any better recommendations. Also if anyone can think of any common day to day use plugins I'm not thinking of, I'm all ears. I'm not looking to spend rediculous amounts of money but have no problem spending a bit if they're reasonably priced (that pretty much rules out the waves packs). I'm looking to do this proper and don't want to be using any cracked copies of anything. Don't know if it has any bearing on my choices but I'll be primarily mixing metalcore, although I want to be able to tackle any kind of genre.

EQ:
Pretty much have my heart set on Izotope Alloy. I've messed with both it and Ozone 4 and love them both.

Is there anything wrong with the eq that comes with Pro Tools?

Compressor:
I want a good multiband with side-chain capability plus a full band compressor. Alloy would cover both of these as well. I can't believe that Pro Tools doesn't come with a multiband. Any feelings towards the full band Pro Tools Compressor? - as that does side-chaining as well.

Limiter:
Alloy Comes with one and I was also going to pick up a copy of Stillwell Event Horizon as I've had a lot of luck with that and it's reasonably priced at $30.

Reverb:
DVerb seems to be doing the trick for me and I know alot of people on here seem to be using it.

Exciter:
Alloy

Transient Shaper:
Alloy

De-Esser:
(cough) Alloy........

Convulsion Reverb:
Any recommendations?

Stereo Expander:
I've heard a lot of good things about Wider Pro Boy and it's only around $30 as well..

Delay:
Any opinions on the Protools one?

Flanger:
Protools?

Chorus?
Always used Logics. Any ideas?

Phaser?
Although I probably won't have much use for one, I've never had much luck finding one I liked. I HATE Logics.

Frequency Analyzer and Stereo Analyzer:
Any thoughts? I came across a bunch of free ones but don't know what's good.

Impulse Loader:
Boogex

I was considering buying the Waves Musicians II Bundle since it's not ridiculously priced as it comes with The Ren Vocal and Axe plugins as well as a stereo expander, Delay, and Flanger.

Also definitely planning on Getting Ozone 4 for mastering as well. Plus I love that it does EQ matching.

Am I forgetting anything major? Any advice would be extremely appreciated. Thanks!

 

[Trevoire520]

Personally man I think you're doubting yourself a bit here, use your ears and decide for yourself if you like the plugs or not.

I'll throw in my 2 cent's anyway.


EQ:
Alloy and Ozone are both probably a bit CPU intensive to be used as your go-to eq I think. Personally I think there's nothing wrong with the Digi eq, up to 7 bands and very flexible and transparent.

Compressor:
As far as multibands go I'm using T-racks Multiband Limiter. No sidechaining and it's only 3 bands with limited metering, but I still feel it does the job.

The Digi comp is pretty good imo, flexible and clean as long as you don't go for massive amounts of compression. Get's used on drums, bass and vocals pretty frequently in my sessions.
The Bomb Factory compressor is pretty good for more extreme things (parallel compression on drums for example)
The Joe Meek comp is quite nice for mastering I feel, though I've not used it on much else.
Also Massey CT4 is a great compressor and very cheap, sounds great on almost everything.

Limiter:
For limiting I normally go for Digi comp or Massey L2007. Again the Massey limiter is fantastic, very transparent.

Reverb:
I'm using Dverb for the majority of applications, occasionally IK CSR Hall comes out. I have liked TL Space when I used it at college so will no doubt be using that alot when I get the Music Production Toolkit.

Transient Shaper: Only transient plugs I have are Flux Bittersweet 2 and SPL Attacker (Both free!) Not used em too much though to be honest.

De-Esser: Again, Digi De-esser does the trick for me most of the time.

Convulsion Reverb: TL Space would be the obvious choice here.

Delay: If you just wan't a clean delay then the Digi one is fine, also cool that it keeps an eye on the tempo of the session so you can set up the delay to note values. If you wan't something that sounds more vintage there's the Moogerfooger Delay.

Chorus: AIR chorus is pretty good imo.

Don't use Exciters, Stereo Expanders, Flangers, Phasers

Frequency Analyzer and Stereo Analyzer: I use T-racks Metering Suite as my analyser, and for Stereo you've got Phasescope in Pro Tools

Impulse Loader: Watch out, Boogex is VST, so unless you've got a VST-RTAS wrapper it won't work. You could use TL Space for your impulses though.

For mastering I'm normally using Digi EQ, Joe Meek/ T-racks Opto Comp's, T-racks Clipper and Massey L2007 limiter. Not used Ozone 4 but I had a demo of Ozone 3 and wasn't too impressed.


Hope this helps a bit. Your best bet is still to give the plugins a try yourself though.

 

[ruckus328]

Hey man, thanks for the response. I hear what you're saying and for the most part it's what I've already been doing. I was more curious than anything as to other people's thought's / opinions and to get some ideas of other things to try out. Like I said I've mostly been using the digi plugins and they've been working fine for me. Like anything though, there's always better. Just a matter if the "better" is significant enough to warrant spending the money on it. Thanks again.

 

[Nuno Filipe]

This might be enough for what you want http://www.dv247.com/computer-music-software/waves-native-power-pack--15701

 

[lohworm]

Convulsion Reverb

for epileptic music !

 

[greyskull]

Get music production toolkit and that'll cover convo verb with tlspace.
I also highly reccomend/couldn't mix without.... Mcdsp analog channel(on offer this month) metric halo channelstrip, sonnox eq, Massey td5 - GREAT delay. I also love the ua stuff especially the 1073 and the 1176; but Im going to grab the cla bundle coz it's compressors are much better than the ua ones.

Don't worry too much about eqs, with a few small exceptions most eqs are based off the same cookbook with a different GUI (the ua neve is not)

 

[Metaltastic]

for epileptic music !

 

[ruckus328]

for epileptic music !

How'd you know what kind of music I make!!!???....Weird.......

lol

 

[guitardom]

the massey plugs are worth every penny and a killer price. could get a good comp, limiter, delay, de esser, basic eq.

the music production toolkit is a great deal and get eleven and tl space and a few other pieces. the digi eq III i think is great. by far my most used eq and i have a few others to use.

tl space is a great flanger, but if you can swing it, soundtoys is the cats meow for itb effect!!!! great delay, phaser, tremelo, and a handful of other fx.

your talking about the waves bundle for axe and ren vox. the issue with them in pt is the latency. those 2 plugs have a considerable amount to the point you have to nudge the tracks you insert them in.