AI provided aggregate scores for what is most "highly rated"

DAW: CockOS Reaper

EQ: FabFilter Pro-Q (4)

* Includes saturation options

Compressor: FabFilter Pro-C (3)

* Includes saturation options and various compression characteristics

Clipper: SIR Audio Tools StandardCLIP / Kazrog KClip (3)

* StandardCLIP is wideband and known for transparency. KClip offers both wideband and multiband.

Limiter: FabFilter Pro-L (2)

* Wideband. Low distortion. Various limiting characteristics. Integrated loudness metering and dithering options.

Honorable mentions, each of which offer entire plugin suites

* DMG Audio
* TDR Tokyo Dawn Labs
* Toneboosters

 

Fabfilter will probably get recommended by almost everyone, so that should tell you that this is a great choice if you had to choose just one thing. Thankfully, if you don't mind riding the rough seas, the sister site has that, plus plenty of other quite good stuff like Izotope Ozone/Neutron. Valhalla's stuff is great for reverb/delay.. they even have some good freebies.

I also own a whole lot of UAD's plugins, and they didn't cost me a lot of money, cause you can buy these in bundles on great sales, and they also give out freebies from time to time if you pay attention. But yah, you can stockpile on a bunch of their plugins just watching for sales. I think their plugins sound pretty good, whether it be their channel strips, compressors, space echo, tape emus or other stuff,.. But you can demo them and decide for yourself.

As for DAW, I'm on Reaper now because i got tired of paying so much for a DAW upgrade so often, but the DAW I used before it was Cubase. If I had a lot more money, I would have stuck with it. I'm pretty content with Reaper too, just some things are easier in other DAWs, but Reaper is stupidly powerful, has great (top?) performance, and is cheap.


If you're in need of a VSTi, the genre you produce definitely matters, but Diva IMO is the best of the best and will fit just about everything.

 

Last edited: Feb 7, 2026 at 4:59 AM

This is a good list of digital mixing plugins to add to UAD analog plugins. Then you need some specialist items and you are almost done.
Soothe2, Gulfoss, as examples of them. This is where you are more into personal preference and workflow.

Daily driver stuff:
EQ: Fabfilter Pro-Q4,
Compressor: Fabfilter Pro-C3
De-esser: Fabfilter Pro-DS
Gate: Fabfilter Pro-G
Reverb: Valhalla Vintage Verb
Delay: Fabfilter Timeless 3
Limiter: Fabfilter Pro-L2, DMG Limiless
Clipper: Kazrog Kclip3, Sir Audio Standard Clip
Bus Compressor: U-He Presswerk, Cytomic The Glue
Saturation: Soundtoys Decapitator, Fabfilter Saturn 3
Tape: U-He Satin or other

 

Since you are used to Cubase, I see no reason to switch except maybe if you are fed up with its workflow.

As of the plugin bundle for mastering, there are too many options available so briefly, I would name:

Waves, Slate, UAD, Fabfilter or Softube.

Any (or a mix) of these should get you covered.

 

I only have one composer/producer friend who uses Cubase. All my other friends use Logic or PT or both (except two: they use DP).

My point is: I can't comment about Cubase, but I know from my friend that it works great for him. Based on that, I wouldn't switch.

However, he doesn't do any Mastering. I'm sure Cubase is quite overall capable - but then what's the point of Steinberg's WaveLab?

The Mastering engineers of my generation (X) that I know use old school DAWs like Pyramix, Saw, Sequoia and SADiE. I use DSP-Quattro.

The 40 and under non-institutional generation (but not only) use Reaper. So if you were going to switch for a Mastering Grade DAW, then Reaper is likely your top option (cost/ratio/features is impressive, and it's multi-platform and highly customizable).

As regards plugin bundles "worth the investment," based on their subscription model, I'd stay away from Waves and Slate.

My Individual Plugin Recommendations for Mastering are:

• PSP (MasterComp, MasterQ2, Xenon)
• FabFilter (MB, Q, L2)
• Sonible (smartEQ, smart limit, truebalance)
• Elysia/Brainworx (Alpha Compressor)
• RV Audio (Disseptor)
• Noiseworks (Dynassist)
• Submission Audio (Flatline 2)
• Three-Body Technology (Kirchhoff EQ, SpecCraft)
• ADPTR Audio (Metric A/B)
  
  Also consider:
  
  
• Bloom - Oeksound
• Silencer - Black Salt Audio
• Sound City Studios - Universal Audio
• SplitEQ - Eventide
• SplitS - apulSoft

Otherwise, you can pick from any of the following (most recommended for Mastering in bold):

- [ ] Metric Halo
- [ ] Eventide
- [ ] Softube
- [ ] Apogee
- [ ] Lexicon
- [ ] Sonnox
- [ ] Pulsar
- [ ] PSP
- [ ] Boz
- [ ] bx
- [ ] TC
- [ ] UAD
- [ ] Sonible
- [ ] iZotope
- [ ] FabFilter
- [ ] Zynaptic
- [ ] Oeksound
- [ ] Soundtoys
- [ ] Massenburg
- [ ] Native Instruments

 

I recently had a similar crisis with my ITB arsenal, my hard drive was full of crap that i didn't actually use, i can recommend you the following given of what i left;

1. Fabfilter is way more tan enough if you come from analog, no fancy bs, but also great flexibility and transparent, digital sound, you can achieve almost anything substantial with it and go along for years, specially for mastering purposes. If i need to do something extraordinary, Plugin Alliance has it covered for me, there's some niche effects that i love from the company.

2. If you want to go for analog emulations, Softube and UAD are top notch, i'd also consider Kiive, SSL and Slate Digital (mostly for their Virtual Mix Rack)

3. A good consideration is Izotope, now with the recent Native Instruments (parent company, fyi) crisis is difficult to tell their future, but they have some of the most advanced digital tools in the market. Their Ozone suite is simply amazing, i enjoyed Neoverb and VocalSynth a lot too. But Ozone is insanely powerful, you can do almost anything with it, mastering and mixing wise.

To list some alternatives;
- Sonible (AI/Advanced algorithm focused company, interesting solutions to simplify processes)
- Waves (IMO artificial sounding, but they have a plugin for almost any use case scenario, and some of the most iconic and extensively used plugins in the market)
- Soundtoys (Great analog emulations, HQ sound, unique behavior in most of their plugins)

 

Last edited: Feb 7, 2026 at 7:59 AM

i kept the AD122 and the ISA One; also cut my mic cabinet to the bone: bunch of 57s, a SM7B and my beloved C80. as i said i didnt plan to record anything "big" due to moving to a smaller room

 

thanks anyone! I will do some deep research on all the stuff suggested

 

I think the order in which you get them does matter way more than the actual processor. So I'd start with the more expensive stuff and then switch and stick to the free ones, because in terms of workflow they are better in general.