I was suddenly curious what your go to plugins are in terms of time saving as I'm not an engineer. I've been using Fabfilter bundle and they are pretty intuitive and I think most of them are versatile too. Only delay plugin, Timeless, is a bit hard to understand. So, I use NI Replica XT only for delay. It's more intuitive.
I've recently found pretty innovative plugins and am wondering if they are really time savers such as Sound Radix Sufer EQ, Powair, Sonibe Smart EQ, Smart Comp, Soundtheory Gullfoss and etc.
What is your time saver plugins?

 

Last edited: Apr 28, 2020

I've recently added DSEQ to my "Time efficiency" and "Troubleshooter" Plugins few days ago .. I've used Soothe before, but with DSEQ I can run more instances on nearly every Mixbus .. it's my absolute favorite Weapon atm.

 

DSEQ and SmartEQ (i usually don't use the 75% default setting, i tend to just "blend" a little, like 25 to 40% to "colour" the sound). SmartComp too (not too often for this one, i prefer "manual" compression but it can give you ideas of settings)
another one that is not a time saver but more a life saver is VMR Mixbus, i use it on every single track and bus lol

i think that if you use these 4 plugins on every bus, you re gonna win a lot of time and get better results instantly, they are never gonna "ruin" your sound, on the contrary you'll get more clarity, you'll be able to hear everything in your mix and VMR will bring that "organic" touch, much appreciated with digital music

ps: for delay i highly recommend you Soundtoys' "EchoBoy" or the one by D16 group, "Repeater". they are both really intuitive and very good sounding, giving you access to dozens of emulations. Waves "H-Delay" is very nice too (a classic). You don't need anything else than these 3 (except for special FXs may be)

OH and i forgot......... last but not least: "Trackspacer" by WaveAlchemy an absolute Go-To plugin to make room for your drums, bass and vocals...

SHORT VERSION (lol)
- SmartEQ
- SmartComp
- DSEQ
- Trackspacer
- VMR Mixbus

It will cost you 200 bucks, i accept PayPal lol

 

Last edited: Apr 27, 2020

no other opinions?? no feedback??

i just wanted to add one more thing: these plugins will not replace the usual eqs and compressors that are needed to make a good sound, but as we are not sound engineers (or we wouldnt have the time to chat here) they can really help make our sound better.

 

Last edited: Apr 28, 2020

waves ns-1 for gate-ing vocals? set it and forget it.

 

EQ: balancer/smart:eq2
Compressor: smart:comp
Delay: still searchin..
Reverb: mconvolution ez + best service hall of fame IR
Colors: BBE sweet, overloud tapedesk
Stereo Tools: Flux
Mastering tools: still searchin.. learnin..
Analysis tools: metricab / mmanalyzer

6gb ram limited, wish i could add gulfoss and tc finalizer and VSS3 to my list.. sigh.. haha.

 

delay? stop searching, read my post above
mastering tools? Kush Audio Clariphonics and Izotope Ozone9, have you tried them?

 

@WizzDome71 tried d16, just not for me. mabe i'll revisit echoboy and h-delay. just preferred simple plugins to use like balancer and alike.

ozone too complex but maybe ill visit tutorial thanks for kush though. looks interesting. ++

 

Mostly stock Ableton plugin.

 

If you're looking for a simpler delay, you might like one of these:
Reaplugs ReaDelay
Voxengo Tempo Delay

 

you're welcome ^^

 

http://www.sugaraudio.com/oscarizor/

i dont own it but it is the one with best view imho , ergo time saver

 

you're welcome ^^

 

fl gross beat
fl parametric eq 2
fl reverb 2
fl maximus
xfer cthulhu
xfer ott
ni solid bus comp
sausage fattener (yyyup)
z video game visualizer (makes great videos for insta)

 

stock ableton plugins are pretty fast and intuitive , some are more powerful than any third party i have tried + they are very cpu effecient

 

@WizzDome71 do you have any tips for using dseq ? I just cant get it to work without sucking the life out of my vocals

 

you can try Kush UBK-1 compressor too. and there are also a lot of great plugins under the Plugin Alliance banner, like the Elysia ones,

 

Last edited: Apr 28, 2020

wish i had some but i am a time wasting engineer
also, inb4 obligatory WHY IS GULLFOSS/SOOTHE NOT CRACKED YET crying

 

hummm.... as the plugin is pretty new i still don't know how to use it properly (perfectly), for the moment i only use it for "emergency cases" when i can't fix the problem by other means, but what i can say is that you have to use it with caution and use the "delta" button just to make sure you don't remove too much frequency content. Higher selectivity ratio possible (sharper slope), and "easy" on the threshold, otherwise you gonna destroy your sound. use the eq feature to "focus" on the most problematic frequencies also, so the other frequencies remain untouched.
And again, use it only to fix problems as it is obviously not an EQ

 

Last edited: Apr 28, 2020

Thanks. I haven't heard about DSEQ and just looked around it. It's interesting. Need to dig into it. Btw, if you use SmartEQ, how do you handle the frequency masking issue? The biggest reason I'm stuck with Fabfilter Pro-Q is that I have had really really hard time to figure it out. In addition, do you use two EQs at a time?

 

Last edited: Apr 28, 2020