Baby Audio Crystalline

 

Blue Cat's PolyVibe
Lifeline Expanse
Lifeline Console
Aberrant DSP’s

 

Last edited by a moderator: Aug 3, 2022

New things that have made it into my regular workflow:

• Kelvin Tone Shaper - It's the most natural analog sounding saturation ITB to my ears. Render that thing at "Pristine" quality and hooolyyyy shit. I put it on literally everything, from individual instruments to masters. When i start a mix Kelvin is the first thing i reach for, even before compression or EQ. In some ways you can do the EQ and compression job with this plugin alone. Saturation is a form of compression, and the multiband nature of the plugin allows you to do broad-stroke EQ, in a way. AND, you excite the source in the process. Makes things sound richer. Super handy if you're like me and mix for bedroom producers whose sounds are often very digital sounding.
• Sonible SmartLimit - Sounds great, clean, punchy, and obviously the workflow is really fast to get a starting point.
• KIT BB N105 - Neve EQ emulation that has made it to the top of my favourites list and has eliminated the need to use the overly-CPU intensive Acustica Neve emulation (Gold)
• Quantum 2772 Evolution Reverb - Great hardware sounding reverb. Good for lush long-tail stuff. Opinions will differ, but sounds more musical than Seventh Heaven to me.
• The God Particle - People will laugh, but hey, i just finished a mix last night where i had God Particle on the mix bus from the get go, i mixed into it. Say what you want about the marketing but the plugin sounds good, and most of all it's handy for implementing good gain staging practice from the start. Helps me know how hard a pro like Jaycen Joshua is pushing into the mix bus while he mixes.
• Scarbo by Teletone Audio - Instantly became my favourite virtual synth. Tons of juicy analog goodness and interesting sound design. Very tweakable but also all the presets sound good from the start. If you like Radiohead in their electronic phase then you will love this VSTi.
• P42 Climax Line-Amp by Pulsar Modular - Similar to Kelvin, this is one of the best sounding saturators ITB to my ears. Less tweakability than Kelvin as far saturation though, but equally as high quality. Brings exciting saturation without harshness or fizziness. I put this on every instrument before compression/EQ as well. It has some shelf EQ filters too so it's can be used as a default utility plugin. I think of this as just another layer of varnish, it adds saturation / loudness perception without being obvious about it.

Stuff that's older but i only just discovered it recently:

• Zynaptiq Intensity - An interesting "enhancer" plugin. I don't know what it's doing to the audio exactly, but it gives it some kinda sauce that sounds good. Some sort of program-dependent AI thing. For me it kinda adds a soupy "hardware" box sound, but others may see it completely different. I try it on everything just to see what it sounds like. Sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't.
• TC Electronic TC1210 - Awesome for adding dimension/intrigue/coolness to your sounds quickly. Sounds truly beautiful. Great on clean guitar or vocals or just about anything.
  
• XO by XLN - I'm way late to the party on this one, i only got it this year and dunno how i lived without it. If you have huge libraries of random drum sounds then this is for you. Easy to pull up sounds quickly, and easy to make beats quickly, easy to extract the MIDI or audio, etc etc. Just a really great workflow for something that used to take waaay too much time/thinking to do.
  
• Hyperspace by JMG Sound - Super underrated reverb. It can do realistic spaces as well as it can do mangled/glitchy reverbs. Runs light too.
• SideMinder by RJ Studios - Sweet but subtle widening plugin that uses "phase limiting" so that your source never becomes mono incompatible. Handy for mastering.
• TC Electronic DVR250 - I only got this a week ago so i haven't used it regularly yet per se, but it's definitely a reverb that made my jaw drop to the floor. Kind of an 80's flavour with a modern quality. Think 80's but transparent/clean.
• TC Electronic VSS4 - Discovered this one a few months ago, something i've learned about TC Electronic reverbs is how CLEAN they are. If you want to add reverb without being obvious about it then this is the reverb for you. I'm still getting used to the workflow, and still gotta learn what some of the parameters mean, but as far as pure sound this might be my favourite reverb. Very clean and realistic. Probably gonna become my utility reverb if i can get around to learning the parameters properly (it has an overwhelming amount of tweabable options)

 

Last edited: Aug 4, 2022

I demo'd Smart Comp2, but eh, I still prefer V1. I think they took a step backwards with V2. Maybe it's just me. Still, V1 is my must use finisher.

 

Thanks for making me aware of MorphEQ. At first, I was sceptical but just now I saw that it's only €49! Very handy and fun tool for that price.

 

Been mentioned already, but will agree on Sonsible SmartLimit. Any tools that (very successfully) make mixing/mastering easier are good by me! SmartEQ (not new) and SmartLimit get a lot of use by me now.

 

JS Tukan for Reaper

 

What is it that you don't like about v2? They improved the plug-in in pretty much every conceivable way IMO. It's a full-fledged dynamics processor now rather than just an "automatic" comp. Kinda like Reaper's General Dynamics, but with spectral processing and editable envelope curves.

I came back to this thread just to say that I think Smart:Comp 2 should definitely be taken into consideration as one of the best new plug-ins of 2022!

 

From what i've found so far the spectral balance knob has gotta be used very sparingly, it defaults to 100 and it rarely sounds better at 100 than at closer to 0. I think it's more of a "occassional" solution rather than a default. 100+ makes it sound kinda phasey or comb filtered or something, not sure if that's an accurate description of the effect it has, but certainly the compressor shines without the spectral balance knob getting overused.

Overall it's pretty amazing how easy it is to tweak the character/shape of the attack, release, and the knee curves and all that. You can really control the behaviour in a really easy way

 

Sonible Smart Comp 2

 

2021 - Fab Filter Q3, Sonible Smart EQ 3.
I am glad nobody put sausage fattener

 

I like the waves audio 14 update

 

It's good

 

Thanks for reminding me to test it with Reaper oversampling

 

Haha, you really didn't see the irony here?

That said, there is another Soundtoys update coming up.

 

For me it was FIR 2. I depend on it like a Sherpa guiding my climb up Mt. Everest.

 

I've been enjoying FL Studio 3

 

You mean Fir Comp 2 right? Haven't tested properly yet but I love how fast and light it is. Look-ahead option even.
Without fancy modelling-AI-analog-mojo-warmth advertising, the opposite, using "digital FIR" tech.

 

one guitar