I built a PC for a my girlfriend and i'm now setting her up with a DAW + a few plugins. She's new to music production so i wanna hook her up with plugins that are super simple/elegant/intuitive, while still sounding world class. I'm brainstorming over here but thought i'd throw it out to the hive mind.

Here's some i have on my list already:

• sonible bundle or izotope neutron
• wider by polyverse
• dada life plugins
• slate fresh air
• softube saturation
• ujam finisher micro
• baby audio plugins

Any others that would fit the bill?

There's also another bundle of plugins that i can't for the life of me remember at all, maybe you can help... They were a one knob series (no not the Waves ones) of probably 20-30 plugins. The company wasn't super popular, they just made these simple little one-knob plugins and that was it. I remember they existed maybe 5 years ago or so? Anybody know what i'm talking about?? Remember the name?

 

one knob plugins are rarely useful long-term,
but if you think it's a good starter choice then feel free to try,

I remember Acon Digital Verberate Basic is decent one-knob free reverb: https://acondigital.com/products/verberate-basic
and try searching for abandoned Accusonus ERA 6 Bundle, it's no longer available but was a complete one-knob toolkit for voice/speech

 

You're probably thinking about Plug & Mix bundle.
I'd also add AudioThing plugins.
However. Are you sure you're not setting her up for failure? Oneknobs don't let you learn. She has to figure out the inner workings of things eventually - and the sonnet she starts the easier it's gonna go.
Sonible are good for learning, cause they let you actually control things and also show what they doing. Oneknobs are for those who already know and just want to cut time.

 

Waves have an entire collection of OneKnob plugins for various things

 

E: Was gonna say XT Max, but that one has too many settings I guess.

 

I would argue the counter view, that simplicity is normally less intimidating for newbies and makes the jumping in point less daunting. They can also provide an opportunity to learn what the intended purpose of something is, e.g. that by turning one knob compressor what is it actually doing to the sound, i.e. squashing the dynamics and so on. I would imagine it allows someone to focus on and learn the purpose of an effect and what it does, and can then determine when to use it and for what reason, before then progressing onto more complex versions to further manipulate what the effect does.

May take a tad longer to learn the complexities of things, but making the entry point way more accessible I would imagine!

 

Last edited: Feb 19, 2024

I guess some mid-point between one-knob plugins and a bit more control for when she becomes more proficient is the Focusrite/Sonible Fast Bundle, and I also like KSHMR Essentials.

The Fast series is a bundle of plugins, and the Essentials is a one-plugin-fits-all approach, but they both will help your girlfriend with descriptive tags and and easy-to-use GUI.

 

Yeah, Plug & Mix might be it!
Although looking at their GUI, they're not as "one-knob" as i remember. But the name "plug & mix" is ringing the bell. I'm fairly sure that's the one. Thanks

We're talking about someone who enjoys singing and playing piano as a very casual hobby here. This isn't an obsession for her like it is for us. The audio production element is a hurdle rather than an intellectual vocation. She's not looking to learn audio, it's just a bit of a fun. She will fire up the DAW maybe once a month on a weekend or something. One knob / simple plugins are the go for this. She is at point zero with all of this, just getting her started is the goal, and so removing as many barriers as possible will help aid that goal.

Anyway, i'm not looking to debate one-knob plugins, just looking for recommendations. Cheers

 

I guess this indeed might vary from person to person. The important thing is, at some point one will have to delve deeper.

 

The 112dB Mikron series is not quite one-knob, but fairly simple to use.

 

In this case, look for Eventide bundle too. She might be interested in all the super-duper reverbs, choruses and all the other beautification stuff.
You never know where it'll lead. Maybe she'll be one of the prolific sound designers in 7 years.

 

Awww that's sweet, kinda reminds me how my boyfriend helped to set up my computer and all those things since I didn't know how to properly use a few programs but he did it easy for me. Speaking of audio, you could also try to get her some Romplers that have lots of sounds. I used to have a hard time understanding synths so I pretty much stayed with Romplers or randomly experimenting.
If you want you could also just install plugins that have lots of built-in presets so she can play around with. That's also another way but anyways I hope she has fun.

 

if she's new to music production, i would get the basics down, before adding the world of plugins to complicate the process.
teach her how to set levels, mix and balance. why vocals go in the middle and always get mixed on top, etc.
crossfades, drum beats and breaks.

there is a whole lot to know before opening a can of plugin worms to complicate and potentially destroy a mix.

 

AirWindows, Acustica

 

waves one knob series. so she can make tracks brighter, compressed, etc.

 

Reaper comes with a nice set of basic plugins, teach her reaper and show her how to use the in built reverb plugin.
Reverb and echo are going to be 2 of the easiest plugins to explain and teach her how to hear the difference in sound.
as you get to the more esoteric plugins it will be difficult to get her into the required headspace with a foundation on which to navigate her aural journey, without that basic foundation.

 

That is nice. But my question would be - does she want to make music or mix it? If it's the former, you can just let her make music and then you can mix it for her. Or, nowadays, every musician has to know how to mix/master..? Also, what DAW?

Anyway, from your list I'd chose iZotope Neutron. Not a super-fan or anything, but it's a magic button/preset browsing plugin. And if for some reason she wanted to know what's going on under the hood, you can just show her

Valid point.

 

as a Reaper user, I gotta admit Reaper plugins are very ugly,
it really depends what kind of audio work we're talking about, but although makes zero sense to dive into third-party plugin rabbit hole, it's also questionable whether to stay with Reaper's plugins only

 

Abletunes

 

What about EzMix?
I know, I know. Not the best sounding but it has:
- mainly one knob presets
- a trillion of them presets which are detailed like in (4 effects preset: compressor, eq, delay, reverb)
- extremely light. although this may not be a problem with a decent CPU and you installing it