Your go-to plugins?

[Chipotle]

What are everyone's favorite plugins? What plugins do you grab for almost every project? What plugin do you think is the most useful to have in your arsenal even if you don't use it every time? (This would be for "full band" projects as well as just solo guitar.)

I'm a Reaper user and as of now I mostly use the included plugins (ReaComp/ReaCompX and ReaEQ provide clean and flexible compression/multiband and EQ, if not the prettiest interface; ReaFir and ReaTune seem sufficient for any minor noise reduction or pitch correction) along with freebies for stuff like reverb (OnilRiver, Acon Verberate Basic), de-ess (Lisp), metering (YouLean) and mastering (Ozone Elements).

Given how much some plugins cost, I could easily spend far more on them than all my hardware and mics put together. Plus the amount of choice can be paralyzing. Maybe you all can help me decide where to spend my money.

[AcousticDreams]

Chipotie thanks for bringing up this subject matter. Great Idea to share our favorites.

Jim1960 has done a Fantastic job of creating the master list of equipment and videos. What a service you have done for us all.

1. So I would like to suggest that Jim1960 adds a Favorite Plug In's. I am hoping that I am not suggesting something that has already been done. I did not see this category in the materlist?

2. I would also like to see a Hot recording buys notification system for all of us to share. I say this as November is upon us soon. The time when Super sales on Plug In's come about. I need Reverb plug ins...and don't want to miss out on any deals that will only come about once a year.

Kevwind recently announced the super sale of the JZ Black Hole microphone. Wow...I am so temped to purchase that mic at 50% off. There was so much promotion surrounding that mic in the years past. Somehow I have avoided the temptation right now...and may be sorry latter. But It is so nice to at least be notified of great offers.

So if Jim1960 is will to create one more category for Plug in's...that would be super.

And if somehow we can add a Notification thread? (separate from but would permanently be up for us to check) that would go below Jim's materlist? Not sure what the best way to work this. But boy would it be helpful.

Things are changing fast in our purchasing dollars. No longer do we get tax free shipments from most parties. And as of now, there are fewer discounts on products. So a notification entry would help us all when these super deals come about.

Maybe we could even add a Tips & Tricks to getting better discounts or getting the products modified to our needs category?

[Brent Hahn]

I'm on an older version of PT. The plugins I use a lot are the standard PT EQ and delays, McDSP Filter Bank P6 (parametric) and F2 (hi- and lo-pass filters), the Purple Audio 1176 that came with PT, and the Massey CT4 mono compressor and L2007 bus limiter. I also use Sansamp a bit, mainly on electronic keys and pianos to help them cut through a little more. For reverb, I've been using Valhalla Room a lot lately.

[Bob Womack]

Waves Renaissance Channel - when you know you'll be using EQ and dynamics, this is a great, low-processor-overhead plug with RTA.
Waves SSL Bus Compressor - Having worked on SSL consoles I can tell you that this things works pretty much like the original.
iZotope Insight - When you really need to know the program density of your material

Three favorites. There are many more.

Bob

[shufflebeat]

It would be very useful (and cost effective) to be very clear about what problem you're trying to solve. Reaper plugins are excellent and designed for maximum results at very low processing power.

There are a couple of really nice freebie reverbs around which is the only thing Reaper doesn't provide.

If you're not doing so already you may want to explore using IRs in Reaverb to make piezo pickup recordings I to something resembling acoustic guitar.

[jim1960]

Originally Posted by Knives&Guitars

Chipotie thanks for bringing up this subject matter. Great Idea to share our favorites.

Jim1960 has done a Fantastic job of creating the master list of equipment and videos. What a service you have done for us all.

1. So I would like to suggest that Jim1960 adds a Favorite Plug In's. I am hoping that I am not suggesting something that has already been done. I did not see this category in the materlist?

A masterlist of plugins would be very long and likely take up (probably put me over) what little space I still have in those first two posts in the stickied thread. I did, however, include a list of popular plugin makers with the EQ, Compression, Reverb & Delay, and Noise Reduction video sections. They're listed right between the title of the section and the videos.

Originally Posted by Knives&Guitars

INDENT] 2. I would also like to see a Hot recording buys notification system for all of us to share. I say this as November is upon us soon. The time when Super sales on Plug In's come about. I need Reverb plug ins...and don't want to miss out on any deals that will only come about once a year. [/INDENT]

In some years I've started a thread to list good Black Friday sales. We can certainly do that again this year.
As for Reverb plugins, keep an eye out for LiquidSonics BF sale. It's usually pretty good and you can't go wrong with their Seventh Heaven. I have all reverbs that have received the highest praise over the years ...Altiverb, Valhalla, all the Eventide stuff, Lexicon, Capitol Chambers... they're all excellent but if I could only have one reverb, Seventh Heaven is my pick and it's an easy pick to make. It's laid out well, it's a breeze to dial in, and it sounds so good.

As for my "go to" plugins, I probably reach for these more than others.

EQ
FabFilter Pro-Q3
UAD Chandler Curve Bender
UAD Pultec EQP-1A
Kush Clariphonic

Compression
UAD Teletronix LA-2A
UAD UA 1176

Limiter
Izotope Maximizer

Reverb
LiquidSonics Seventh Heaven Pro
Audio Ease Altiverb
UAD Capitol Chambers
Eventide Tverb
UAD Ocean Way Studios (on virtual instruments only)

Delay
Soundtoys EchoBoy

Vocal Tuning
Celemony Melodyne

Misc
Waves CLA Bass, Blue Cat Gain

Metering
Levels by Mastering the Mix

Honorable mention
FabFilter Pro-MB (I'm trying to get comfortable using multi band compression but I can't say I reach for it all the time. At some point, however, I think that will change.)

[sdelsolray]

I like plugins, although using less is often more.

EQ
Plugin Alliance - Millennia Media NSEQ-2 (the most musical EQ plugin I've ever found, particularly with the JFET topology)

Plugin Alliance (Brainworx)- AMEX EQ 200 (a very precise EQ, basically an excellent rendition of a George Massenburg GML 8200 EQ with extra features)

Some others I may use:
Ozone 9 EQs (Vintage, Dynamic or Standard),

Waves VT4, PuigTec EQP-1A and Puitec MEQ-5, Abbey Road RS56 (cool EQ)

Apogee Pultec EQP-1a and Pultec MEQ-5 (same as the Waves Pultecs but these are DSP capable plugins for use with Apogee Element interface)

Compression (I don't use compressors very often)
Various Ozone 9 compressors

Various Waves compressors

Limiter
Ozone 9 Maximizer

Waves Abbey Road TG Mastering, L3 Ultramaximizer

Massey L2007 (Pro Tools only)

Reverb
Audio Ease Altiverb (I've used this for nearly 20 years and remain enhanced by it for its realism and ease of use)

ANY of the LiquidSonics Reverbs - Cinematic Rooms Pro, Lustrous Plates, Illusion, Seventh Heaven Pro, Reverberate (These are all stunning verbs, particularly Cinematic Rooms Pro, Lustrous Plates and Illusion)

Waves Abbey Road Plates, Abbey Road Chambers and H-Reverb

Delay
Waves H-Delay

Izotope DDLY Dynamic Delay

Utility
Studio One Pro 5.4 or Pro Tools 2021.12 (for sample rate conversion)

Ozone 9 Maximizer (for dithering)

[AcousticDreams]

Originally Posted by sdelsolray

Reverb

ANY of the LiquidSonics Reverbs - Cinematic Rooms Pro, Lustrous Plates, Illusion, Seventh Heaven Pro, Reverberate (These are all stunning verbs, particularly Cinematic Rooms Pro, Lustrous Plates and Illusion)

Waves Abbey Road Plates, Abbey Road Chambers and H-Reverb

Unfortunately, I have a little voice in my head saying that Plates, will offer me what I need for voice, acoustic guitar and symphony.

I say unfortunately because I really don't have any real time experience with modern reverbs. I've got no foundation for that little voice in my head.

Plates, are only embedded in my head because that is what I worked with back in the late 70's & early 80's.

As the Sale will be coming up soon for Liquid Sonics, I am trying to figure out what it is that Lustrous Plates might have over Seventh Heaven? Or What Cinematic Rooms, Illusion might have over plates?

I can not remember exactly, but I did call and talk briefly to Liquid Sonics...and they said that Lustrous Plates was designed by different group of people? But even they could not tell me the real differences between their plug ins.

If I was more experienced in operating reverbs I could of course try them out first. But honestly, since I am a novice in this area, I know I would not be able to make a good judgement. (Now microphones...I can make a judgement on pretty fast these days.) But reverbs, no experience. And the samples they offer differ from plug in to plug in. So I find it hard to determine what the advantages of each are.

So I would love to hear your description of what the real time differences are between Seventh Heaven and Lustrous plates, Cinematic Rooms and Illusion. I like that you mentioned that these three are Particularly stunning.

[runamuck]

EQ

FabFilter EQ3 for cuts
Acustica Audio Amber EQ (Avalon) for boosts
Acustica Audio Ruby (DW Fearn) for both

Reverb

7th Heaven
Acustica Audio Ebony (EMT 140 Plate)

Limiter

FabFilter Pro L

[KevWind]

Like Brent H I use a few Pro Tools bundled, and a couple Massey


EQ
PT- EQ III, sits on almost every audio track
Compplug in
PT- Fairchild 670 Stereo Comp, on almost all stereo routing folder tracks that have audio tracks

Delay only occasionally
PT- Tape Echo

Reverb is almost all ways a hardware insert=Bricasti M7 on its own a stereo Aux input track

Also entire mix Compression (2 Bus/2 Mix ) also on a stereo Aux input track as a hardware insert =IGS Tubcore 3U Mastering Edition

On the Master fader Massey - Golden Master (soft clipper)

And last on the master fader Massey _ L2007 limiter

[Chipotle]

Originally Posted by shufflebeat

It would be very useful (and cost effective) to be very clear about what problem you're trying to solve. Reaper plugins are excellent and designed for maximum results at very low processing power.

There are a couple of really nice freebie reverbs around which is the only thing Reaper doesn't provide.

If you're not doing so already you may want to explore using IRs in Reaverb to make piezo pickup recordings I to something resembling acoustic guitar.

I don't really have any particular issues at the moment. As you say, the Reaper plugins are very good and there are decent freebies. I think I get pretty good results as-is. But I figured if certain names kept popping up, or someone said "If you want to do X, Y is the best", or "I find the Z feature in Y to be really useful", it might give me a few things to try out.

For example, the 7th Heaven reverb has come up here a lot lately, enough buzz that it ought to be worth the $69 to get at least the basic version.

I realize it's a very subjective topic. One person's smooth saturation is another's buzzing noise, and you can equally good results from many different tools.

[sdelsolray]

Originally Posted by Knives&Guitars

...

As the Sale will be coming up soon for Liquid Sonics, I am trying to figure out what it is that Lustrous Plates might have over Seventh Heaven? Or What Cinematic Rooms, Illusion might have over plates?

...

So I would love to hear your description of what the real time differences are between Seventh Heaven and Lustrous plates, Cinematic Rooms and Illusion. I like that you mentioned that these three are Particularly stunning.

I suggest that you demo all of the LiquidSonics reverbs. It's 14 days I think, maybe longer, I don't remember. I have all of them as of about four months ago. Stunning.

I'd be glad to speak with you more about them, although I suggest you demo them first to increase the conversation.

[sdelsolray]

Originally Posted by Chipotle

...
For example, the 7th Heaven reverb has come up here a lot lately, enough buzz that it ought to be worth the $69 to get at least the basic version.
...

Seventh Heaven Standard is a nice introduction to a quality reverb plugin. Although it is limited to a handful of parameters that you can change and to 30 FIR convolution presets, much can be done with it. Which makes it extremely easy to use. Seventh Heaven Professional has more features and more FIR IRs from both version 1 and version 2 of the Bricasti hardware reverb, but it is significantly more expensive.

Take a look at Liquidsonics Reverberate. It's $99. It has over 200 Bricasti FIR convolution presets (as well as hundreds more from other sources) and many dozens of tweakable paraments, parallel reverbs, EQ, delay, extensive modulation, etc. Indeed, it's the most complicated reverb I've ever seen, with a deep learning curve. But like all of the Liquidsonics reverbs, the results are magnificent. Preset management with Reverberate is based on the old "bank" system, which is a bit difficult to negotiate. There is no Liquidsonics preset system within Reverberate, as there is for all other Liquidsonics reverbs. Instead, you must use your DAWs plugin preset system to save, for example, a dual parallel reverb.

[Doug Young]

Reverbs: I generally use the hardware Bricasti, tho I also like the UAD 224 plate as well as a couple other UAD reverbs (Lexicon 224, Capitol Chambers, Ocean Way). As others have said, the Liquid Sonics reverbs are really good. If you demo them, you'll probably buy them, so beware :-) I've been using the Cinematic Rooms reverb lately, and it's indeed stunning. One of those reverbs you hate to turn down to a sane level because you want to hear it!

EQ: The FabFilter Pro-Q3 has amazing functionality. I mostly use it as a dynamic EQ, as well as for stereo balance

Compression: Usually just a touch of the UAD LA2, more for "fattening" than compression, as well as DMG Audio's Limitless on the master bus

Other, misc categories:

iZotope Insight for metering and analysis

TC Electronic LM2n for loudness monitoring

Voxengo MSED plugin for MS decoding

Sound Radix Auto-Align for multi-mic time and phase correction

oeksound Soothe2 - because it makes everything sound better

UAD Ampex tape emulator - ditto

Ozone - kind of an all in one, and useful, but I've been slowly replacing most of it's functions with the stuff above, which seem to do things a bit better either via a cooler interface or more powerful features.

I have way too many other plugins, many of which are useful at times, but those are the ones I have pre-loaded into templates as a default.

[Yamaha Man]

DAW- Presonus's Studio One Professional Version 5.4

Editing - Adobe Audition CS6 and Sound Forge 11

Reverb- East West's Spaces II

Multi-channel compression-Adobe Audition CS6, supplied by iZotope.

Noise Reduction - Adobe Audition CS6

Mastering - Ozone 8

Strings - Spitfire's Hans Zimmer Strings program

Percussion - Spitfire's Hans Zimmer percussions

Church Organ- Spitfire's Union Chapel Organ

Keys - Spectrasonic's Keyscape

Bass - Spectrasonic's Trillian

Piano- Synogy's Ivory Grand Pianos II

Various sound sample programs - East West (many orchestral programs)

Various guitar sample programs - Native Instruments