For financial reasons I recently sold 99% of my analog gear (kept the converters) and I'm planning to move to a fully ITB setup.

I know a lot of these choices are subjective and come down to personal workflow and taste, but after almost 20 years working mostly with hardware stuff I feel a bit lost with the sheer amount of options on the digital side.

Right now I'm on Cubase (version 12 atm), since I've start my career on it. I'm considering upgrading, but I'm not sure if it's really worth it, or if I should look at other systems instead. I'm open to suggestions (apart from Pro Tools).

I mainly do mastering and some mixing too and I'm not planning to record much since I will moving to a pretty small room.

I'm looking for recommendations on:

• whether it makes sense to stick with Cubase or switch
  
  
• essential plugin bundles that are worth the investment
  
  
• individual plugins that you consider gold standards for mastering\mixing

Any advice or personal experiences would be appreciated. Thanks.

No AI driven replies please, I need real life experiences.

 

If Cubase is the DAW you know, stick with it.
Any reasons to change the DAW? Workflow changes?
For plugins, it´s a huge blackhole

 

Nope. Just pure curiosity about if there's something out there more appropriate for the analog/digital switch.

 

For bundles UAD (and familiar territory for you) If anyone tells you otherwise, don't listen. You could mix ITB with solely UAD and not that many of them and do great work.

Ironically I've gone the opposite of you and get more and more hybrid as the years go on lmao.

Nonetheless, UAD, McDSP, some softube I'd look into. These are gonna be closest in terms of what you're used to and also the quality you're used to.

Of course plugins now are all decent but yeah my 2 cents.

Acustica/Nebula is also fantastic but that entails an entirely separate convo about the way you'd have to run them.

 

Thank you. This is a point I forgot to mention… I wouldn't want to end up with hundreds of plugins that all do the same thing (like a dozen emulations of the same compressor) and then find myself only using a handful of them. My analog workflow was fairly simple, and I'd like to keep it that way.

 

Most of the DAW´s plugins do the job, you may just need to learn around them.. No matter what DAW

 

I agree up to a point; stock plugins are underrated and over the years I've used them quite a lot for small refinements and adjustments, but I've always noticed a lack of "character"… maybe because I'm used to analog gear, but the few times I mixed using Cubase's stocks everything always felt a bit sterile to me, regardless of the recording quality.

 

Your answer is built into your question. Look for emulations of the hardware you are used to using/owned. Most devs offer some type of demo/trial which you can use to compare rendered files or plug-in vs. plug-in.

 

There's no need to change your DAW, Cubase has mostly everything you'll ever need.

About plugins... if you're used to hear real hardware all of them will sound "lifeless", however if you manage to find a plugin/developer that you feel the same way as their analog counterparts, congratulations! Just use them regarding what others think.
Maybe you should try monthly subs from UAD or Softube, as they are known for their analog "fidelity", and see how it goes. Other brands like Arturia, Slate digital or Brainworx also sounds good but they took some liberties when it came to emulation, for better or worst (specially Waves, don't even try them).

PS: First time here! Not a bot or something, I'm real

 

Stick with what you know: Steinberg Cubase. Before you update, test whether you actually need an update. FabFilter is top-notch quality: www.fabfilter.com/shop?currency=eur&vat=0 If you don't already have an audio interface: https://audient.com/products/audio-interfaces/id14/overview/ You'll need the driver for your DAW.

 

You kept your converters and sold your preamps? What's in your mic locker? Or, did you sell all of your mics too?

 

If I was switching to all in DAW mixing, I would find the Michaer Brauer video about going from a nice studio to all in the box. He does the exact process you will be doing, no matter what plugins you end up at. Not because every single UA plugin is "the best", but because they are repeatable and sound good. Half of them are just like upgrading your DAW stock eq and compressor plugins. It's not hundreds of randomly selected plugins like Waves. It's like 60. You know what they all do. I think it would save you a lot of time.

 

On the plugins side, if a single company is a must I would go with Plugin Alliance or even with iZotope if I wanted to totally give up the analog ghost.

 

you had 100 analog gear ? thats massive

 

Depends what your missing - what was your analog setup? When I was an engineer I worked purely analog (80's, 90's) - I worked on SSL's, Studers (A800 and A820) and printed to an Ampex ATR. I left the industry before it shifted to digital. When I got back into music I had no gear so it was all ITB and for me it lacked that analog mojo I grew up with. So I took advantage of an UAD Xmas deal an got a bunch of emulations - Studer A800, Ampex ATR-102 and Pultec EQP. Basically I'm trying to replicate the signal path at the studio I worked at:
Per channel:
Studer A800
Slate Digital Virtual Console
Mix Buss:
Unfairchild (love this for a buss compressor)
Pultec EQP
Ampex ATR-102

Would be great to do a side by side comparison with the gear to see how close these emulations are, but for now it gives me the analog feel I was missing - the warmth and glue to use some overused terms

I grew up on Cubase (been using it since it was called Pro24) so am biased, but I'd say stick with it, it'll do everything you want, IMHO only go to something else like Pro-Tools if you're doing a lot of recording.

 

Acustica Audio, FabFilter, DMG audio, Oeksound and Izotope.

Greatest tools for ITB mixing and mastering, I'd look into those first.

 

I can definitely recommend three plugins that have always proven useful to me:

- KClip for clipping (crispy mode)

- Elysia Alpha Compressor for clean compression

- SPL Iron for colored compression.

I often use both compressors in succession...first Alpha, then Iron.

 

Stick with what you know for sure. What genre?

Here's a few:
Sonnox
Soundtoys
Kotelnikov GE (On sale right now!)
Fabfilter
UAD
Soothe
Izotope Tonal Balance
Lindell
SSL
MAAT

 

Nah.

Fabfilter bundle, or DMG audio bundle, or Izotope Ozone. Izotope RX too, for noise removal and such.

With all the stuff available it's kinda hard to tell what even is gold standard anymore, but these ones i've seen a lot around:

-Some SSL console emulation: way too many options options around. SSL, UAD, Slate Digital, Waves, PA, try them all and pick your favourite.
-Some SSL bus compressor emulation: Same as before.
-Some Neve 1073/1081 emulation: Same as before.
-UAD collections: 1176, LA-2A, Pultec.
-PA blackbox HG2MS: I'd say the not MS version is more common, but just get the MS version, same stuff with more functionality.
-Valhalla: Delay, Hall and Room reverbs.
-TDR stuff: Just get all the free stuff and work your way from there.
-Waves: CLA 2A, CLA 76, Puigtec EQs (As alternatives to UAD, also very common), Abbey road plates, API 550, Renassaince Bass and Vox.
-Oeksound Soothe
-Your DAW's stock plugins.

Also you may want get a decent metering plugin that does at least Peak, True Peak, LUFSi, LUFSs, Phase correlation. Also a frequency analyzer, bonus points if it's all in one plugin.

 

This, and also FabFilter. iZotope and Native Instruments have some cool stuff that's fun, easy, and sounds good.