Plugin's which ones do people use.

[KevWind]

The "What is a plugin" thread got me thinking about the subject in general and how plugin use might apply to this forum (or not), being it's primary emphasis on acoustic guitar.
And was curious what plugins types and brands do people here use. And what their favorite "go to" plugin's are.

So I decided to see just how many plugins I have acquired over the 12 years I have been recording.
Understanding of course that in general the number of plugins while ubiquitous and often numerous for many genre's may be different here. And even different here for say a solo acoustic guitar performance, likely to have much less than for those of us who record more instruments and vocals etc. And realizing that although expensive, it would not be outside the realm of possibility that someone could in fact have all analog outboard effects and not actually use plugin's .

So I am going out on a limb and guess my list is probably one of larger numerically because I often also record a fair amount of midi as well as vocals.

So along with the fairly extensive bundled Avid and AIR Technology plugins that come with Pro Tools I also have plugin's from 8 other 3 rd party manufactures including some that are free ones but noteworthy IMO . And some that I have purchased, with the Waves Platinum Bundle being the other most numerous.
I now have 140 plugs from 9 different manufactures luckily Pro Tools allows you to have them show in the pop up window and list them by function category (like Eq's -Reverbs- Dynamics, etc) as well as by manufacturer and have a favorites list at the top as well.
So I although have way more then I will ever use (largely because of the bundles) I can actually get to what I want fairly quickly.
Needless to say I am set, with the possible exception of waiting to try to catch a sale on the Izotope Rx




Also to speed things up as part of my work flow and to save time my Session templates always have the most used plugs already on the tracks Most of my templates have at least 7 Audio tracks and 6 "Instrument" tracks (Pro Tools combo midi and audio track ) at least 4 Aux input tracks, and a Master Fader track
Also on every audio,instrument, and aux track there is always an EQ and Compressor loaded, but bypassed.
Even though I may not use all the tracks or all the plugin's they are there when a new session is loaded.

So besides the Avid Pro Tools and AIR Technology plugins that come with PT. I also have plugins from:
Waves
Blue Cat Audio
Massey
Elysia
Eventide
Slate Digital
Sonovox

My go plugs are:
Avid EQ III 7 multiband
The Elysia Alpha Compressors
For reverb I use my outboard hardware Bricasti M7 stereo reverb.
Delay I usually the H delay from Waves

As I said sometimes my productions are fairly plugin heavy for example in this session below there are 43 plugins .
It is an instrumental piece with 16 tracks including a click track and Master Fader (Pro Tools main stereo output channel)
There are:
1 click track
3 tracks with audio on them (highly processed acoustic guitar)
6 with midi
4 Aux tracks with effects on them
1 Aux sub master ( labeled) 2 MIX
1 Master Fader track.

[runamuck]

Hi Kev,

I don't record just ac. guitar but write and record for an ensemble:
cello, piano (sampled), ac guitar ac. bass, a bit of percussion.

The plugins I use are:

Acon Digital Equalize
Ozone
Lexicon Native
Waves HDelay, RCompressor and CLA-2A



That's about it and I have no hardware effects any more.

Jim McCarthy

[rick-slo]

Here where you can read up on the descriptions of what I have currently:

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/PCMNatRev-e

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/RenMaxxBun

http://www.2caudio.com/products/aether/#_overview

http://www.siraudiotools.com/sir2.php

http://www.voxengo.com/product/curveeq/

http://www.voxengo.com/product/pspace/

http://www.voxengo.com/product/sounddelay/

[runamuck]

I'd forgotten all about SIR convolution reverb, Derek.
Are you finding good impulses for it?

Jim McCarthy

[alohachris]

Aloha Kev & Friends,

How's everything in Colorado, brother?

I use Apple's Logic Pro DAW which includes very high quality plug-in's for every function - more than I'll ever use. Its onboard Space Designer convolution reverb & Lexicon 480L Native are great. I don't typically use much in the way of FX on my acoustic guitar recordings - a coupla different reverbs is about as "exotic" as I get. On vocals, maybe a little more (need all the help I can get now - Ha!). However, many of Logic's control plug-in's (like Platinum Acoustic Guitar 01 Compression & Channel Creamy Male Vocal EQ 03 for example) are really very good & useful for me - as are PT's are for you, Kev..

Here are a few external plug-in's that I do use that I highly recommend:

- Altiverb 6 - best & most realistic sounding Convolution Reverb I have used (thanks, sdelsolray),
- Waves Platinum Bundle - Like the EQ. Lots of variety & lots of other bundles to choose from w/ Waves,
- Izotope's Ozone 5 - the limiter is a great help for mastering

That's about all I use for my little home tracks.

NOTE: As you know, Kev, the quality of on-board plug-in's varies tremendously among different DAW's, from terrible to great. That needs to be checked out before players invest time & money in a DAW. The free DAW downloads are worth the time to check out things like plug-in quality, friends. I mean, ya can't expect Audacity to work with many high-quality, 64-bit plug-in's, can you?

NOTE: It's important to check & see if your DAW is compatible w/ the external plug-in's you're considering - before you buy. Outside of Logic Pro & Pro Tools, many DAW's (especially Reaper & Sonar, IME) have issues w/ some plug-in's - they simply won't work! So players, please be advised on that one.

Great thread Kev. I see you're always tweaking your signal chain. It is the little things, isn't it? But probably more about mic placement. I haven't been recording much the last half year or so & I sold off most of my overkill gear & mic collection a coupla years back. Hope to find more time soon.

I seem to be moving more towards drier tracks in my mind. Maybe it's because I'm literally drying up - Ha! I just want the simple, natural sound of an acoustic guitar track - intimate, with rich, natural overtones & a little space around the notes (I'm still inspired by the quality of those close-miked Alex DeGrassi Windham Hill recordings from the early 80's). Of course, if I could have even a hint of my 50 y.o. voice back, I'd be satisfied. Plug-in's help with that for sure! I mean, sometimes I run my voice through Altiverb's Notre Dame Cathedral settings & actually can stand to listen to it for a minute or two. I sound like one of the St. Benedictine 'Chant' monks, Ha!

All the best, my friend!

alohachris

[rick-slo]

Originally Posted by runamuck

I'd forgotten all about SIR convolution reverb, Derek.
Are you finding good impulses for it?

Jim McCarthy

Bricasti M7 convolution reverbs from Samplicity are very good:

http://www.samplicity.com/bricasti-m...lse-responses/

Also the EMT 252 convolution reverbs from Acouticas are excellent. Acousticas is out
of business so I dont know if you can find these reverbs online anymore. I would upload
them to and share from my website but it is 1.28 gigs.

[Bob Womack]

Well, let's see. In my control room I've got several bundles and favorites from them:
UAD Powered Plugins
Waves Renaissance Maxx
Waves Restoration
iZotope RX
Antares Autotune
Drumagog
There's a bunch of other stuff but I sort by type rather than brand within the DAW and it is hard to remember some of the stuff.

I find the Renaissance and Restoration stuff to be really useful. I use rChannel pretty extensively because it includes a really nice EQ, compressor/limiter and expander/gate in a single low-headroom package. If I don't need all those services I use individual plugs. For problem sources I use iZotope DeNoiser, Dialog DeNoiser, DeClicker, and DeClipper. From UAD I really love the Precision Limiter for mastering chores and we've got a bunch of the classic EQ packages as well. I've got several reverbs but I've fallen in love with the package from Steinberg.

Bob

[delaorden9]

Ozone 6 are great, Waves bundle, Focusrite Plugins are really good as well....now some good freebies: look for Kjaerhus audio plugins, really great; for some other great free plugins you can check Variety Of Sounds on google.

[Doug Young]

My workhorse plugins are the UAD plugins, EQs, reverbs, compressors, many more

Also:

Voxengo MS Decoder
iZotope Ozone
iZotope RX plugins
Lexicon Native Bundle reverbs
Logic IO plugin for routing to external hardware

[skiltrip]

I use stock plugins whenever possible, be it in Studio One, Pro Tools, or Logic. I like that an added side affect is increased system stability. It removes the third party plugin conflict thing that happens far too often in my opinion. Fortunately most DAWs these days have really good stock plugins. I particularly love the ones that come with Studio One and Pro Tools.


Sent from my iPhone 6 using Tapatalk

[sdelsolray]

One thing nice about nearly all third party plugins is that I can demo them for enough time to see how they work, sound and behave.

Having demoed more plugins over the past 15 years that I care to count, I've only chosen to purchase a few (I'm leaving out plugins that come free with purchase of a DAW, such as the dozens of plugins that come with ProTools, Logic, etc.), which are:

Waves Platnium bundle
Audio Ease Altiverb
Massey L2007
McDSP Filterbank
Ozone Regular (ver 5, I refuse to upgrade to version 6)

Even with this limited group, there are about 10 different eqs, five different reverbs, about a dozen compressors/limiters along with all sorts of other things. Some I like more than others, e.g., Avid EQIII and Waves linear phase EQs, Altiverb for reverbs and Ozone and the Massey L2007 for limiting.

In more recent years I became enamored with using certain hardware on mix down instead of plugins, e.g., reverb, eq, increasing levels and panning. Currently, my setup would be consider a "hybrid" mixing setup, using both outboard hardware and plugins.

[Doug Young]

Originally Posted by sdelsolray

O
Ozone Regular (ver 5, I refuse to upgrade to version 6)

What issue are you having with 6? I actually never used 5, I bought it, but it was kind of unstable and would crash on me. 4 was OK, so I just stuck with that. 6 has some very nice features, the dynamic EQ replaces my TC Powercore plugin that's no longer supported, and the Insight monitoring is very useful. The other functions are pretty much the same, some UI tweaks. I know I saw some You Tube video that was a long rant about how bad 6 was, but none of his reasons made sense to me.

[theotigno]

I mainly use channel strips along with the stock ones in GarageBand. The one that I've used mostly is Metric Halo ChannelStrip. I have been using Airwindow CStrip a lot more lately unless I need more EQ control.

[sdelsolray]

Originally Posted by sdelsolray

…
Ozone Regular (ver 5, I refuse to upgrade to version 6)
…

"Refuse" was too strong a word. I have no reason to upgrade. The regular Ozone 6.0 does not have dynamic eq or insight monitoring, that's only in the advanced version. Since I have only the regular version, I would not get those features unless I upgraded to the advanced version, which cost about $400 (when on sale). I've been using outboard eq (Mlllennia NESQ-2 and/or pair of Speck ASC-T) for mix down for some time and don't use Ozone eq although I do like Ozone's limiter/DC offset/dither module and use that one. Dynamic eq is quite similar to a multi band compressor, and I already have a few of those plugins (Waves C4, Waves C6, Waves Linear Phase MB). Those are dangerous items. I put them into a mix, like them and realize a week later that they messed things up. There's really nothing in Ozone 6 Regular that interests me over what's already in Ozone 5 Regular.

[Doug Young]

Originally Posted by sdelsolray

"Refuse" was too strong a word. I have no reason to upgrade. The regular Ozone 6.0 does not have dynamic eq or insight monitoring, that's only in the advanced version. Since I have only the regular version, I would not get those features unless I upgraded to the advanced version, which cost about $400 (when on sale). I've been using outboard eq (Mlllennia NESQ-2 and/or pair of Speck ASC-T) for mix down for some time and don't use Ozone eq although I do like Ozone's limiter/DC offset/dither module and use that one. Dynamic eq is quite similar to a multi band compressor, and I already have a few of those plugins (Waves C4, Waves C6, Waves Linear Phase MB). Those are dangerous items. I put them into a mix, like them and realize a week later that they messed things up. There's really nothing in Ozone 6 Regular that interests me over what's already in Ozone 5 Regular.

Ah, yes, I have the advanced version. Dynamic EQ is a rare need for me, and yes, it's basically just a multi-band compressor, but it's an effective UI for occasional cases, usually recordings I get from others, when there's a boomy note that needs tamed. There are lots of ways to address that, but I always found the TC plugin to be great for this, and the izotope version is basically the same thing. I'm finding the Insight visualizations to be very effective during mic setup, and have even set up a 2nd monitor that I can put that plugin up and see better from my mic position (without my glasses on :-)) just so I can see it during recording. It's the first tool I've found since moving off Windows and Adobe Audition that I've liked for setting up stereo balance and imaging.