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The VST/plugins thread

44K views 75 replies 28 participants last post by  alessandroarzilli 
#1 · (Edited)
I propose that, aside from having the ampsim thread, that we also have a thread for free (or cheap or whatever) vst or other plugins.

I'll start.

First of all, of course we have Stillwell Audio, who have a mishmash of different plugins that are already ridiculously cheap, but even CHEAPER if you use them for Reaper! How great is that? The ones that I use a lot are:

The Bombardier Buss Compressor


The Vibe EQ


The 1973 EQ


There's a ton of them. You really can't go wrong, and if you want, they have unrestricted demos of every plugin! Check em out if you haven't!

There's also the Antress plugins. There's a couple different series of these plugins: the general plugins, modelling edition, and special edition. I haven't played around with them too much, but the modelling edition plugins are kinda cool. They are modeled after older rack units, such as:

Seventh Sign (based off of the 1176LN Compressor)


Fire chainer (Fairchild 660)


Black Dragon (Pultec EQP-1A Program Equalizer)


Pretty cool stuff. Give em a go.

Another set are the Bootsy effects from Variety of Sound. Again, a nice little set of a bunch of different plugins. I really like to use the Boot EQ mkII on synths and sometimes vocals. You can get a nice, but subtle warm sound out of it.



Here's the Kjaerhus Audio Classic Series plugins. There's a couple other plugins on that page, but I've only ever tried the Kjaerhus ones. for being free, they're pretty good. And also, like the website says, the limiter is pretty solid for mastering. I tend to use Ozone (not free or cheap :lol:), but if I'm writing music for a movie or something, and not recording a big rock CD, I tend to just throw the Kjaerhus limiter on the master bus. Pretty solid.

Quick little mention to the Nebula3 Free plugin. I haven't tried it yet, but supposedly it's supposed to be pretty beastly for a free programs. What I've gathered is that it's supposed to emulated different types of hardware. Pretty interesting stuff.

Then there's the GVST plugins. These don't look like much, but they seem to be pretty powerful. You can pretty much get a little of everything from this bundle, including:

a ducking delay:


a multiband compressor (my favorite type of plugin ever):


pitch correction:


a synth:


and granular resynthesis!


And of course, if you don't use Reaper, but use VSTs, download the shit out of the ReaPlugs. Pretty simple things, but amazing for the plugins that come with a cheap DAW like Reaper. Personal favorites are:

the ReaComp, which you can use for side-chaining and all of that fun stuff!


ReaXcomp, a multiband compressor


ReaFIR, which can be used for EQ, compressor, and can be used to filter out unwanted noise!


If anyone has anymore to add, let me know and I can just add them into the OP.

:cheers:
 
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#2 · (Edited)
Could very easily be a great thread. I'd like to contribute, but soooo cant be arsed copying in dozens of links.

A few favourites then, as a compromise:

Toneboosters Track Essentials. Basically if you dont buy this, at 20 quid for a batch of kickas plugs, you were dropped on your head as a baby. Then your head was stamped on. Then removed and replaced with banana icecream.

TrackEssentials

Stillwell, since you brought them up:
I dont like Vibe and use 1973 a bit but sparingly. I do very much like bombadier, so +1, and will add:
Bad Buss. Its mental, but underestimate how much you'll like it when the time is right for it at your peril. I dont use it all the time, but have used it on every instrument, and the master buss, and will again.
Bad Buss Mojo | Stillwell Audio - It's About The Sound

For the record, I dont even know what it really does, sort of a saturatory compressory weird little bastard that can utterly destroy a sound on extreme settings, but can impart massive cool used judiciously.

Major Tom | Stillwell Audio - It's About The Sound

Major Tom, colour comp, minimal controlability, but it sounds good.

The Rocket | Stillwell Audio - It's About The Sound

Rocket. More transparent, precision comp.

Transient Monster | Stillwell Audio - It's About The Sound

Transient monster. Fast Expander, basically.

Verbiage | Stillwell Audio - It's About The Sound

An OK reverb (I like Toneboosters verb better).

I can also vouch for GVST. I've found that a lot of their stuff can sound anemic and dull if you push it too far (the comps especially) but for £0 you really cant not try em.

I use a lot of Voxengo:

They come under the 'not free but very, very worth it' category for me.

Elephant. Shouldnt really need an introduction. Kickarse limiter.
Audio mastering limiter (maximizer) plugin (AU, VST) - Elephant - Voxengo

EQs. Loads. They have quite a variety and somehow they all manage to find their uses.

Gliss is a frankly bizarre, but awesomely powerfull EQ and multiband comp/exciter thing
Dynamic equalizer plugin with spectrums (AU, VST) - GlissEQ - Voxengo

Harmony is similar but with harmonic excitation as well as compression and expansion
Harmonically-enhanced audio equalizer plugin (AU, VST) - HarmoniEQ - Voxengo

Linear-phase spline equalizer plugin (VST) - CurveEQ - Voxengo
Curve is a mixing "I WIN" button. Seriously, I try not to use its most apealing feature (copy and past spectra)...its second most apealing (very fine and controlable precision EQing) sees a lot of action with me though.

Transient-driven filtering system plugin (VST) - Transmodder - Voxengo
Good mix/mix element clarification tool (I dont use it too much, as I like a denser mix, but if you want to seperate things out and add snap and punch its a good way to do it without having to settle for an EQ balance you never really wanted. Mentioned because of its awesome power, rather than its regular use by me.

Also; Marvel and overtone EQs, and Voxformer Vocal channel strip audio plugin (AU, VST) - Voxformer - Voxengo is very handy indeed.

Soniformer.
Its...well....soniformer....its a 30 band multiband compressor, MS processor and stereo modifier innit? What else would it be?
Spectral mastering dynamics processor plugin (AU, VST) - Soniformer - Voxengo
Warning: can make, or utterly annnihilate your mixes, use with caution!

Meh, that'll do for now, its most of my favourites (that werent already mentioned). Beyond these I use some Cakewalk and Reaper plugs (as I use reaper but have sonar prod 7 installed as well so I can use the plugs, as I like their plugs, but its all normal stuff and you need to buy sonar to get them).
 
#6 ·
I dont like span cos its balanced oddly, not actual amplitude, but inverse pink or something daft (so that it shows equal power not equal amplitude: run white noise through it and you get an upward slope, like the opposite of pink noise, havent done it but I guess pink would be level: white in bluecat is level). This confuses me :lol: Plus you can zoom in in bluecat.

Anyway, either work, both have pluses!
 
#7 ·
I dont like span cos its balanced oddly, not actual amplitude, but inverse pink or something daft (so that it shows equal power not equal amplitude: run white noise through it and you get an upward slope, like the opposite of pink noise, havent done it but I guess pink would be level: white in bluecat is level). This confuses me :lol: Plus you can zoom in in bluecat.

Anyway, either work, both have pluses!
Interesting. Well, I'm going to have to try this bluecat analyzer again.
 
#12 ·
I have tried this and have not had any luck getting anything decent. Are you using Reaper? If so, what I always do is record a guitar track clean/dry and use the ReaPitch VST to drop it down an octave and then add the TSE BOD (Sansamp copy VST) and impulses, EQ and Compression. I have yet to find anyone that knew it wasn't a bass and I completely confuse everyone when I turn the pitch shift off to show them it's not really a bass. :lol:
 
#31 ·
#24 ·
Ggate is awesome. I also really like Gdelay. For amp sims....Kuassa Creme is killing them all....big tone...brutal sound...has a built in cab impulse loader ( I use Soldano SLO 100 cab impulse for rhythm and a Diezel cab impulse for leads) TS808 tubescreamer for boosting leads(although I don't even need it with Kuassa) Kuassa is around $30 but it is sooooo worth it.
 
#27 ·
@kmanick;

For bass, TSE's Bass Drive pedal is really good, its a clone of SansAmp, and works well. Other than that, i personally use Amplitube for basses.

You can go for Preamp + IR's just like we do on guitars as well, never tried it personally, but there are lots of bass IR's on the net, and i think they are there because of a reason ^^
 
#30 · (Edited)
Melda productions free pack.

MeldaProduction Free audio plug-ins, effects, virtual instruments

If you do not at least try it there is something seriously wrong with your head, ears and probably face and genitals. Best single bunch of free stuff out there imo. Rivals a lot of paid-for plugs.

Edit: Damnit pete! At least we can safely say theres nothing wrong with your head, ears face or genitals...:wub:
 
#34 · (Edited)
Has any one tried out these Valhalla DSP plugs? I keep hearing good things around the webernetz, so I'm about to demo them and see what happens.

ValhallaDSP

edit:
I only tried Valhalla Room and Valhalla Shimmer.

I feel like reverb plugins (at least for me) are always hit and miss. Some are flat out terrible, but some actually do the job of replicating a warm, natural reverb quite well. Valhalla Room is definitely of the latter. I'm definitely going to have to pick this up eventually. And shit, I feel like $50 is great for something like this!

I played with Shimmer a little bit. You can definitely do some awesome reverb-type effects with it. It would definitely be used as a more creative tool, then to just add some space to your vocals. Off the top of my head, I can't think of a use for it for me, but hey, it definitely sounded awesome :yesway:
 
#38 · (Edited)
MOAR PLUGINS :scream:

For those who know about the Variety of Sound (which I believe to have been mentioned a couple of times here...) should know about the Density mkII buss comp. Well...he just made the Density mkIII buss comp. It's really just a massive update to the mkII. I haven't quite had a chance to play with it yet, but it supposedly sounds completely different. Here's a review:

a Density mkIII review

And a link to the downloads page:
Downloads



Here's another plug that I just sorta tripped over the other day: the Pushtec 5+1A from Leftover Lasagne. I played with it a tiny bit, so please excuse me if you have completely different results. I felt like it was subtle, and not overly bright and harsh in the high end. I'm looking forward to using it on everything I can think of, just to see what happens.

Leftover Lasagne



And here's a compressor that I actually found like a year ago, but have never used. I actually literally just downloaded it before typing this. I keep finding positive reviews EVERYWHERE, so I feel like I-no-we, have to give it a chance.

Molot « vladg/sound

I know the Russian is daunting (unless you speak Russian....then nevermind!), but there's a little, tiny button in the bottom right that translates everything to English.



edit: Density mkIII is killer on drums. That is all :metal:
 
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