Omnisphere
Falcon
Kontakt
Repro-5
Hive 2
Triton Extreme
XV-5080
Phoscyon 2
Decimort 2
Addictive Drums 2

If I could sneak in Guitar Rig 7 in there that'd be great.

 

ok here is my favorite
Xpand 2
cakewalk rapture pro
kontakt 7
massive
reaktor 6
nexus 4
spire
omnisphere
addictive drums 2
audio ease altiverb 7

 

I mostly use Repro 5, I practically never use Repro 1. Diva is great, but I just like that Prophet sound, it's so warm and cozy.

 

Avenger 2
Spire
Rhodes Affair 2
UVI Falcon
Real Strat
Guitar Rig 7
Korg Collection
Pulsar 1178
Ozone 11
Nomad Factory 80s Spaces

 

PA Brainworx SSL 9000 J
Boz Digital The Hoser
Fabfilter Pro-Q3
Overloud GEM EQP
Liquidsonics Reverberate
Izotope Ozone 11
TDR Limiter No. 6
DMG TrackComp2
A.O.M Invisible Limiter 3
u-He Diva
DDMF Plugin Doctor

 

Spire
DUNE 3
HALion 7 (Im mostly using Cubase. I don't know if it should really count as a 3rd party plgn in Cubase)
ANA 2
Kontakt
Obsession

Sparkverb
Movement
Invisible Limiter
SoundID Reference (Sonarworks Reference)

Pretty much my essentials here. Others I'll use DAWs'(whatever) own.

edit: I do almost trance and ambient. I don't use quite much third party plugins in one project since Cubase stock plugins are really enough for me. If features are enough and it doesn't sound bad, I will give the stock plugin a higher priority. For example I quite often use
Retrologue 2 GASE 5 HSSE3(->HS7 now)
Sampler track for samples and slices
MonoDelay / PingPongDelay / DoubleDelay for normal delay
MultiTap Delay for some 'fancy' fxs
StudioEQ / Frequency for normal/dynamic/sidechain EQ
Magneto II / Tape, Tube Saturation, the colour of specific hardware gear is not a must for me
FX Modulator since Cu12, for me now it replaces Kickstart and LFO tools
MultibandCompressor, (multi-band) Imager
SuperVision analyser
Oh and the Channel Strip Section (Pre Filter section incl.). Not a 'plugin', actually. It is super handy and it takes up 0 insert slots.

 

Last edited: May 8, 2024

Don't view this as criticism of the OP or his idea for this thread, but 10 single plugins are not enough for me to create a meaningful list.
That is why I will count the bundles I bought as single entries, since I got them as bundles not single plugins, so if I ever have to sell them, I can't sell them as single plugins either. Plus, by counting the bundles as single entries, I would be able to create a releasable track using only the plugins mentioned on the list.

1. Fabfilter Total Bundle
2. Soundtoys 5
3. DSP56300Emu Ostirus (FX)
4. Xfer Serum (FX)
5. VCV Rack Pro
6. Kirchoff EQ
7. Kirchoff Cenozoix Compressor
8. Native Instruments Reaktor
9. Sonarworks SoundID Reference
10. Flux Session Analyzer

 

Blackhole
Reason Rack Plugin (Over 500 RE's!)
Life
Unison Bass Dragon
Unison Midi Wizard
XO
chipcrusher
UAD Minimoog
Soothe 2
Mike E-Comp

 

Might be useful to provide context for these too, maybe stating also what kind of work/music you do, e.g. mixing, mastering, recording rock music, producing tech house etc, as they will skew what people use obviously.

 

" Some Sauce I Often Use " (ProdByHITS)
Kirchoff EQ << Dyn-EQ Section !!!
CL 1B << Discontinued Original Not MK2
1176 Purple << Bright Transient
The Glue << Good ol 30/.1
Duck << Not Always, Prefer Aligned Phase
ShadowHill << Sum
Orange Clip << Color
HITS USOLO110 << Pre-amp plugin i modeled after my own unit. FET Color !!!! NON-affiliated tho
Spiff << only when all fails for transient
Saturation Knob << using over a decade "try OverSampling it with meta-plugin" !!!
------------------------------------- Bonus
Phase Plant << On everything
Meta-plugin << Oversample Chains
J-Bridge << Offload Hacks

 

UAD2 Helios 69
UAD2 Neve 1073
UAD2 LA2A Teletronix
UAD2 Pultec EQ
UAD2 EMT 140
UAD2 Capitol Chambers
UAD2 Oceanway Studios Room
UAD2 Studer 800
UAD2 ATR-42
Kazrog True Iron

 

I do mostly mastering, with some rare mixing here and there. And the occasional music production for fun.

But here's some mastering ones...

• DMG Limitless (once you learn it, it can give you euphonic results)
• Pulsar P455 MDN Sidecar (the goo king. instant vibe & space & depth)
• MAAT FiDef (special sauce)
• SSL X-Saturator (gives analog-esque depth)
• Ozone 11 (specifically these modules: Impact, Imager, Clarity, Dynamic EQ, Master Rebalance, Maximizer)
• Tone Projects Basslane Pro (lots of utility but also can give euphonic results)
• Tone Projects Kelvin (for aliveness)
• DDMF MagicDeathEye (stylish compression)
• TDR Infrasonic (must-have utility)
• TDR Arbiter (fav mastering de-esser)
• The God Particle (if the song needs to be "packaged". Adds fullness at the sacrifice of "openness")
• Leapwing DynOne (add density without losing transients)
• Leapwing StageOne 1, or Mathew Lane DrMS, or RJ Sideminder ME2, or Ozone Imager (depending on what sounds better in that song)

And more recently, Cenozoix by TBTECH has become a regular go-to. It has been replacing MagicDeathEye lately. Cenozoix will likely stay in my template for a long while now. It sounds great to me. And there's basically every compression type you can think of. And i find it much easier to use than P11 Abyss or Acustica Tiger.

You may have noticed the lack of EQ in that list. That's because i still haven't decided which one to commit to. I just keep trying new things, lol. Lately i've been trying out the Vertigo VSE-4. I really like it. It's not the most "alive" sounding, but i can't think of a more transparent digital EQ off the top of my head. You hardly notice the boosts until you bypass them. Very good for tone shaping without creating artefacts. It's also got some nice saturation features. Great for carving the low-end too.

I also like the bx_digital v3, purely for the workflow of it (i.e. notching out shitty frequencies in either mid or side), rather than the sound per se. The sound is fine / average / good enough

Meters:
Youlean Loudness Meter
TDR Prism
TB ISOL8

Ok that's way more than 10. But i could've listed way more. There was some restraint

Edit: Add SplitEQ by Eventide in there

 

Last edited: May 7, 2024

Silver Bullet MK2
Neold U2A
bx_channel 9000
Pulsar Modular P455
Pulsar Modular P44
Fabfilter ProQ3
Fabfilter ProL2
Harris Doyle Natalus DSCEQ
Goodhertz Tupe
Prime Studio Charly Unlimited

 

For music production...

Instruments:
Teletone Tympo
Slate & Ash Choreographs
Teletone Scarbo
Teletone Ondine
Teletone Le Gibet
Teletone Electro
Spectrasonics Extensions: Unclean Machine + Undercurrent
Toontrack Superior Drummer
XLN Audio XO
Felt Instruments Nisko
Ample Bass P or NI Scarbee Rickenbacker Bass or IK MODO Bass
u-He Diva
Arturia Analog Lab
IK Multimedia ToneX

Utility
Scaler 2!

 

I'm on a journey to reduce the amount of plugins to a very few favourites. So...
- FX:
all Fabfilters
MJUC
VintageVerb

- VSTi:
Addictive Drums (if I'm lazy to record my own kit)
Pianoteq
Ampeg SVT bass
Blue Cat Axiom

 

Me too. We should not be reading this thread lol

 

U-He bundle, is there someone who doesn't like them?
Tone2 bundle, as i do mostly electronic music and they are the best digital sounding ones
Synapse audio bundle, especially Dune 3 which i love since version 1
Omnisphere 2 my favorite of all
Avenger 2 the most fun to play with
Nexus 4 when i have no time to make my sounds
UVI Falcon for its outstanding synth collection
Arturia for its outstanding synth collection...(shit i already said that)
Serum
Sylenth1
i also like Little One a lot but i HATE its browser. You can't load custom presets without erasing your factory bank. Who does that in 2024? Seriously.
Among the new synths i want to point out Phase Plant, VItal and Current but i don't know my way around those so i did not choose them.

Top 10 FX
My favorite mastering tool, Ozone
Elevate (i have yet to find a tool that make your track loud without killing its dynamics like this tool)
Wavespacer , the EQ spacing tool for lazy people like me
My UAD octo and my complete collection of plugins.
Flux bundle
Soundtoys 5
Fabfilter ProQ 3
Reason Rack plugin BVX Vocoder, and bassline generator...also for lazy cunts like me...
Valhalla Super massive

 

Last edited: May 7, 2024

1. Melodyne
2. Ozone 9
3. some synth emulation. possibly diva.
4. Valhalla room

 

1. Arturia Jup-8 V
2. D16 Group Audio Software Drumazon 2
3. Devious Machines Infiltrator 2
4. FabFilter Pro-Q 3
5. Plugin Alliance Kiive XTComp
6. LiquidSonics Seventh Heaven Professional
7. Plugin Alliance Lindell SBC
8. Vertigo Sound VSM-4
9. Sir Audio Tools Standard Clip
10. TDR Limiter 6 GE

i actually dont think any third party plugin is essential to make music. if it was just me with a microphone, computer, quite room and speakers on an island though; i feel like these would be all i need to make a project

edit: oh and a midi keyboard, audio interface, cables, mic stand, etc.

 

Last edited: May 7, 2024