I'm looking at this huge plugin bundle and wondering what if anything earns the "I cant live without it!" badge?

Scanning through the list I think maybe Kirchhoff, Shadow Hills, BX Delay, but what do I know There's lots I've never heard of, but from reading some reviews 'most of these aren't that impressive, 'same same in sound, 'better alternatives available etc.

So I am wondering what opinions some of you guys that've been using them for a while might have on these.

 

All power to you .... but just being rational and honest, without talent, no plugin in the world is going to make you sound good!

And that bout sums up anythin I have to say.

Merry Christmas

 

Enjoy the cursed sour grapes. There are some good unique grapes, but most grapes are not better than you already have ©

 

I posted the same question over on sister site. I didn't get an answer over there, either.

Remember the enormous New Year's drop from R2R last year, and how excited we all were -- frantically downloading as fast as our cable connections and debrid accounts would allow? You know how many of those plug ins I'm currently using on the regular? Exactly none.

But that's not really the point, is it? The point is to be able to try these things, free of constraints, at our leisure. If we find one we like, we'll keep them and use them. If we don't, they'll go the way of all of the other stuff we download -- onto the hoarding hard drive, right next to all those samples we don't use either.

I also downloaded the Sampler but 16 gig of random samples is really the last thing I need right now. But I wanted to see what the app was like with all those pedal FX and what have you. But will I ever actually use it? I doubt it.

 

R2R already teased a big gong, apparently PA centered. Are PA plugins worth it? Idk. If you really want to buy it, wait for the release, take all the time you need to reeeealy get an idea of how much do you need them if at all (because unless you work full time on mixing/mastering there's a big chance the legit 14-day trials are not going to be enough), then consider buying.

It might take a while for the sale price to come back but let's face it, it's PA, it will come back sooner than later, no need to buy it right now.

My opinion on PA plugins? Well, PA does have a sound of it's own (or at least a tendency) imo, so it's good to have a few of their plugiies around, but the whole pack? That's a bit overkill and unnecessary. And remember, these things are almost impossible to resell, so if you buy the big bundle, that money is pretty much gone forever.

 

Well at least we know you're not reading PA's own reviews, that's a good start .

 

for the price, the plugins are worth it. in an analytic side, i would say that at least half of them are good

 

I have some really good legit PA stuff, and i don't plan to sell the licenses because i profit with my music, so in any case i'm covered. But i wouldn't encourage people buying their stuff now, because the R2R version is much more smoothier in the PC than the legit one. Just buy if you want to support Dirk and because you like their stuff. But the R2R is the new workhorse for me, and i didn't really dig into the stuff i didnt have. I'm basically using the same stuff that i had loading faster and with less overall consumption. The customers had to pay a lot for overprotection and at least this is a thing that the developers should think in a smarter way from now.


(and thanks god dirk is not giancarlo, because i put the R2R license on the legit plugin's GUI when i was activating )

 

Can we start naming some names?

Which if any of these plugins do you think are worth paying close attention to? If the answer is none, just say the entire lot is shit. If there are standout "I cant live without it!" plugins in this bundle, please name and share that opinion.

I wish I had a spare 1000 hours to test and compare each and every one of these but I don't, hence the thread. Thanks.

 

just take some time to find out yourself

 

both shadow hills mastering compressors
purple audio mc77
focusrite SC
bx_digital v3 (and the v2 too)
bx_2098 eq
some lindell stuff

these are the ones that come to my mind right now

 

just want to highlight how shite the Mega Sampler is, just.don't.download.it.

1. Friedman BE100 is good amp sim. Load the plugin, all stock setting is already how I remember Friedman amp sounds like. Impressive.
2. The Oven is good with its weird names on the knobs, so you have actually listen and pay attention to what it does, this type of plugin tend to make things sound better. Logically if it is not, you will remove it right away which also a plus.
3. Purple Audio MC77 - nice sounding smash box.
4. SHMC Class A has a little more weight and tighter than the older version.
5. Vertigo VCS2 - old time fav. Set it to SOFT ratio & Auto Release, profit.
6. elysia Alpha compressor - if it sounds bad to you, you are bad, not the plugin.
7. Focusrite CS - the best part of it is that it doesn't sound like SSL. Fresh.
8. ADA Flanger - flange with character!
9. Kirchoff EQ - Pro-Q3 on steroid with a whole lot of fancy extra function and controls you don't need but want anyway. Why not ?
10. Lindell SBC - Nuke mode is cool.
11. Diezel VH4 - best VH4 plugin in the market IMO. I heard 3 very well known engineers said that VH4 amp (real one) is the best dirty amp for guitar recordings doesn't really matter what genre. In drum term, it's a DW or 80s Yamaha Recording Custom. Can't go wrong with those, they already "sounds like a record". So it is important to have good VH4 amp sim in your collection.

so far, that's it. Got like 50+ more to test, will do it slowly and see for myself.

EDIT 31st December 2022

1. Knif Audio Soma EQ - I would like to add this Passive Equalizer to the list. I've been using this for the past two days for in exchange of the usual Pultec emu (NoiseAsh RuleTec or Overloud GEM EQP) for instrument buses. I kinda like it, it has a certain sound to it and the filters interaction also nice where you can end up with some Pultec-like curve with a little more control than the usual Pultec especially when you can turn every single one of them into shelves.

 

Last edited: Dec 31, 2022

Let me sum it up (from my years of experience, your mileage may vary):

Opticom - very good compressor, but you will find really nice opto compressors also from other vendors, my last go to is Arousor
Metric AB - I personally like Mastering the mix Reference a lot more - far more intuitive, fast and user friendly
Streamliner - it's ok, but you can go also with MtM Levels or Sonible true: level and you'll be fine
HG2 / HG2MS - it's a real gem in this collection, I like it a lot
consoles - I find Acustica Acqua strips much better / colorful / fun
bx_masterdesk - I replaced it with Fabfilter Pro-L2, sometimes even with Slate FG-X. bx_masterdesk is fine, but I prefer other colors on my master than that
bx_subsynth - I prefer Kush Reddi - much more solid and interesting sound for me
bx_townhouse - love it, although I use UAD comps right now, which are even a slightly better for me
saturators - I need to check them more, for now I prefer PSP Saturator, Softube Harmonig Analog Saturation, Taupe, UAD Studer, etc...
Neold Warble - love it!
Kirchoff - after some tests I returned to Pro-Q3. It is faster and sounds great, I am sorry Pro-Q3 that I doubted in you.
Knifonium - interesting! Need to test more
bx_rockrack - definitely one of the best amp sims
Lindell - nice sound, but I prefer other plugins for vintage sound (Acustica and UAD)
MC77 - need to test it against UAD 1176 collection which I love
Unfiltered Audio - really interesting set of plugins for sound design and mind-bending fx
all equalizers - MEH. You will get better with Softube, UAD, Acustica, Fabfilter
reverbs and delay - nothing that could convince me to get rid of Relab, Tape Echo from Softube or Soundtoys. Or Pulsar Audio. Or Vectomelt.

Summing up - it's a mixed bag. Some plugins are just "ok", some are decent and A FEW are better than average. Glad that we can test it. I actually bought some of them. And some of my bought plugins just take a space on HDD ;)
I think PA has a great variety of plugs but it doesn't mean that everything they offer is some kind of Holy Grail. After all they are mostly average for me.

 

Installed this yesterday. As I've seen next door and over on Ru, the installation for many is a bit messy. Many folks left with a ton of 1kb files, most of which lead to nowhere, and that's after following instructions to a 't'. From what I'm seeing with what is working, there's very little that's of much importance or necessary. Sure, some of these are good plugs, but if you've been visiting sister site for awhile, you likely already have an assortment of plugs that more or less accomplish the same things just as well, maybe even better. And for most of what you already have you didn't have to go thru a whole rigmarole of an installation that includes a large download, putting a new file in your system folders, and who the hell knows what else is going on with this.

I wasn't familiar with the stuff in the "instruments" section, so decided to give those a try. Let's just say the offerings there are for those, like me apparently , who like to spend their time on Christmas playing with, and then uninstalling, really, really bad emulations of a few musical instruments. If any of those are to your liking, fine, but I'd suggest not wasting your time (like I did) if you already have Kontakt and some sample libraries.

So, new toys are exciting, but so often within a few weeks of Christmas they wind up broken or no longer used. IMO, that's what we have here. On the upside, great to be able to check them out, and much gratitude to R2R for continuing to give us the chance to do that.

A Happy Holiday to all here who are celebrating it!

 

This is what I thought as well. Bettermaker and Dangerous EQ is like clean digital EQ, curve only. The newer Amek EQs are using the old recipe of adding the noise like "Analog" switch on Waves that nobody use without giving user the option to turn it off. Tomo Lisa is an analog dynamic EQ, come again ? I can't think of why would anyone want an analog modeled dynamic EQ, pls let me know. To me, precision of a digital world is way more important for dynamic EQ that most of time used to solve problems instead of adding colors.

My go-to for now for fancy Stereo Bus EQ is the Pulsar Massive. Sound-wise nothing from PA beats it, atleast to me. Newer design analog EQ plugin now has some sort of low end frequency tightening behavior, a program dependent compression (or dynamic control) on the low end that mimic the hardware EQ responding to the sound it is fed. Even the Kirchhoff has that. Kinda hinted that brainworx not really doing anything new for their DSP tech for EQ.

 

A fair old time ago, I watched a video on exactly how to use the bx Digital (Version 1) to master a track. I spent hours learning the plug-in in depth, and you know what? If I'm being honest, I don't think any of the hundreds of tracks I have mastered since have sounded as good.

So there we are. My view on their stuff. If you take the time to learn something and then persevere with it, you'll find it much more useful than the hyped plugins which claim to be the best.

In fact? My New year resolution (Not that I usually make any) is going to be, return to plugins that work and learn them thoroughly whilst removing stuff which experts claim are the best, because for me that's not always the case.

 

The ones i can't live without:
SSL 9000 J (it can't go wrong, the SSL model with more bandwith in the lows and a gentle gloss in the high mids, instead of the spiky and driven soound of the 4000 E)
Amek 9099 (best channel strip ever. you'll need to prove if im wrong. the dynamics and integrity of the sound stays pretty solid while the amps add fluffy bottom and silky highs)
BlackBox (as a saturation loudenator, that, most times doesn't sound harsh, but can fuck up the dynamics)
Townhouse buss comp (for me the best ssl style comp ever because of how it can handle transients and stay gritty)
Maag 4 (mostly for dave pensado's trick; nice eq for tone)
Shadow Hills Green (my main bass compressor and sometimes for drums)
Bx_digital v3 (best eq for shaping drums)

some good tries:
Lindell 80 and 50
Lindell SBC
Amek 200 and 250 ( GML 8200 and Sontec 250, respectively)
the purple 1176 for parallel compression
knif soma
adptr sculpt (this is sick. i'll learn this one for maybe using always in the future)

 

You can dial in the amount of noise in the upper bar on the knob "v gain". even turn it off completly.

I agree. this is the most bullshitty plugin ever. it's heavy as fuck, the GUI is horrible and WTF... an analog DYNEQ??? in my land they call this kind of gimmick SPECULATION

 

I've been checking around on several sites trying to find an answer for that. So far no one seems to have one. I did notice (on a Win 10 machine) that those 1kb files are in the VST 3 folder in Common Files. Most of the same names as the 1kb files are repeated in the Plugin Alliance Folder that's also in Common Files. The ones in the PA folder appear to be complete, not 1 kb. So I'm wondering if the 1kb files are some sort of 'placemat' for the same titles in the PA folder. I checked several of the plugins that have the 1kb thing people are seeing, some are working, some are not. Some show a gui, but then the plugin doesn't function. Not sure what's going on with that, or where things went wrong on the install, if in fact something did go wrong. Maybe a bug in R2R's setup?? Just don't know, hopefully someone will figure it out. Good luck!

P.S. Someone over on the Ru site tried moving the plugs that appear to be the complete file in the 'Common Files/Plugin Alliance' folder and replace the 1kb files of the same name in the VST3 folder. I thought about trying that myself, but this guy over on Ru said it didn't work, plugs opened after he did that without licensing. So probably not the best thing to try.