I've only been tracking and mixing for just over a year and I chose to have about 3 to 5 each of the bread and butter plugins to keep my options open as well as to learn the strengths and weaknesses of each plugin. I have not counted them but here are the plugins that I use right now. Some are new (Black Friday) so I only just started using them last week.

All Slate plugins (love the new Custom EQ in particular... The Slate stuff are my most used plugins)
Maag EQ4
PSP NobleQ and NobleQ ex
PSP Echo
Soundtoys Echoboy
Relab LX480
Valhalla Vintage Verb & Plate
T RACKS White 2A
SKnote Disto ( tough one to work with for me so far.... not loving it)
Klanghelm MJUC & SDRR
Komplete 10 (more for my son than myself, but I do use some stuff in there)

I'm wanting to add an LA3A and the Softube Summit Audio TLA 100A after the Holidays and I still need a D esser as well. I don't have any 3rd party surgical EQ's and have stayed away from them so far because I want to get to a point that I know frequencies by ear before I start using a fab filter type EQ where you can see all of the bands. I'm not ruling them out... I just chose to start out this way. I'm really digging some of the new Black Friday plugs that I just got and overall I think I've got a great toolbox that IMO, is not overloaded.

 

This is a cool thread !

my top 10 :
SPL Eq Rangers
CLA 1176
Creative Filter
Valhalla Reverb
SSL Stereo Comp
Melda Multiband Comp
T-racks Stealth
CLA Vocals
Emt Mastering Tape
Event Horizon

Synths:
Arturia Collection
Exs24
Maschine 2
Spire
Es2

I wanna try the Klanghelm ! what's so special about it ? can anyone recommend a good valve emulation ?

 

Sometimes a Dev. just gets a Plug in right and Tony nailed this one. I don't feel like I have enough experience to say that this is the best compressor(s) that came out this year, (many are saying this) but I can say that it's my favorite one for 2015. It's hard to make it sound bad. It's a superb character comp that adds weight and tone for days. And the price is insane. Awesome plugin.

 

We should start another thread explaining why we kept each plug in individualy. This can turn into a great source of info for begginers to intermidiate/advanced users.

 

You named almost everything. Nothing left

 

Yeah, I wanted to play but when my list hit 99 plugins I realized that I wasn't playing right. :P

So I'll try just a few of my faves by category . . .

VCA Comp: SKnote C165a
(Surprisingly versatile once you get to know it well. Those auto attack and release times are always worth an audition before you choose to dial in your own settings - it's shocking how often you'll go back to them after dialing in your own times. Don't turn the limiter on - if you want to limit just crank up (down?) the attack time of the comp. And the EQ controls on the "sidechain" that affects what the detector "sees" really lets you alter the tone of the compressed signal.)

Opto Comp: NI (Softube) VC2A
(I think there are a few decent LA2A emus out there, but I find that most of them also impart a "thickening" to the processed audio, which can be awesome on something like bass, but I don't like it on vocals where I'd more often rather keep the detail and clarity while still getting the leveling awesomeness of the opto-comp - that's what the VC2A does for me.)

FET Comp: Boz Digital +10dB Comp
(Try driving it with the comp ratio set at 1:1 - harmonic bliss.)

Tube Comp: SKnote STA-Limit
(Manages to capture the tone of tube gear without sounding like an "added effect" . . . I don't know what that Quinto does differently, but his vintage emus all sound more "alive" to me than those from other brands.)

SSL-style Buss Comp: Airwindows Logical
(Presence ... Mmmmm yeah.)

All-Around Comp: DMG Compassion
(This thing can do it ALL, if you're willing to put in the time to learn all of its parameters. If I could only have one comp it would have to be this one.)

Multiband Comp: FF ProMB
(So flexible. Brilliant for sidechaining to duck a specific frequency in relation to another track.)

Limiter: FF ProL
(I don't use limiters all that often, but when I do I haven't found anything as transparent as ProL - though I actually like it in Dynamic mode most where it is a little less transparent but really imparts a nice vibe to the transients.)

Gate: FF ProG
(The interface is just so intuitive. It takes no time to find the shape of the gate you're looking for.)

DeEss: FF ProDS
(As above, a super friendly interface. Recently I've started running multiple instances set at different, narrower frequency bands and dialing in specific parameters for each of them, rather than running one instance with a wide band to try and cover all of the different sibilant sounds in the vocal.)

EQ: DMG Equilibrium (FIR/Analogue/Rectangle/32K - butta.)

Reverb: Valhalla Vintage Verb
(With the 1.5 update it's really all here now. And if you happen to be just learning about reverbs, what they are and how they do what they do, this is a great place to be because you can just tweak all those different parameters that are laid out so plainly in front of you, and hear the results of those actions. All of the different Modes sound great, and there is always one that will give you the sound you are after… Usually two or three to choose from. I'm also using Airwindows NonLinearSpace for unusual verb effects these days.)

Delay: SoundToys Echoboy
( when it comes to delay this thing is the biggest box of fun ever. The kind of effect you can lose yourself in for hours and hours. For A nice distortion effect try setting the delay times to zero, the mix to about 80% dry, and then switch through the different emulation modes and play with the other parameters.)

Chorus: SKnote DDD
(So big, and so lush, and yet somehow does an amazing job at not smearing the input signal. I borrowed the real thing from a friend for a week, and actually prefer Quinto's plug-in . . . Blasphemy!)

Phaser: D16 Fazortan
(All of these little silver boxes are great, but this is the one I find indispensable.)

Console Emu: Airwindows Console / Busscolors combo
(No other consul emulation I've tried comes close to matching what this does to deepen the soundstage. This one doesn't just introduce some saturation and nonlinearities to each track but rather creates an entire system of negative and positive harmonic distortion summing that deepens the space between each track. It's a work of pure genius. If you can host AU's buy it and learn how to use it.)

Tape Emu: U-He Satin
(I didn't much like tape emus until I tried this - always too dirty, or muddy, or smeary - but this gave me everything I wanted from tape with none of that. Of course if you dive into the advanced parameters you can also use it as a vintage sounding tone-shaper effect.)

Saturation: Airwindows Iron Oxide
(Now if you do want some in-your-face, mean and gritty tape saturation this'll give it to you in spades.)

Stereo Imaging: Mathew Lane DRMS
(Hmmm ... I want those delay echoes to sound like they're coming from behind me ... done.
Set Focus to 80% and Field to around 150%, flip the phase on both of them and set both of their delay times to around 0.30 - 0.60 ms.)

Other Special Things I'd rather not live without: SKnote Soundbrigade, Airwindows Aura, Airwindows Cojones, Airwindows Floor . . .

Alright, there's 20-ish that comprise 98% of my mixing needs. Otherwise I use many of the Logic bundled plugs.

A few promising new things I've purchased recently but haven't yet played with enough to comment on specifically:
SKnote Disto, Boz Digital Manic Comp, Sonimus Britson + Satson

 

Last edited: Dec 6, 2015

This is a genius idea. I'm game. Let's do it.

 

I think it would be cool if we all worked with the same raw stems/song.

 

I use komplete ultimate & omnisphere and sylenth1 & what left i use hardware synth
And this is just few of the effects plugins that i use in my work
By the way this is good topic (it's good to know the plugins that people use in their work)
​

 

Last edited: Dec 8, 2015

@returnal @mercurysoto do you guys make rnb/hip hop/trap? what is your preferred genre?

 

Fl studio huh? Nice. Wasn't expecting to see UAD in there. Well done.

 

My Main Daw is Avid Pro Tools HDX & Logic Pro
FL Studio i use it for sound design a lot and even for old school hip hop & R&B & Trap music
Logic I Use it for Rap and hip hop stuff and even for score films
I use Pro Tools To record Live Sessions Like Rock Or blues Or jazz

i use also ableton live too it's good for house and dubstep

using DAWS For Me it depend on the projects and people who work wit me in the projects
a lot of co-producers they come with Session in their favorite daw & it's good to be able to work on any daw is great thing

 

ekh might as well:

 

I completely forgot this free gem - airwindows 'Channel' now called 'Channel 4' - stick this baby after your drum bus and it is game over !

 

I mostly do straight rock music, recorded from live instruments most of the time. Sadly, I don't know much about EDM. However, I am truly interested in this experience. Right now, HOFA has issued their 7th Xmas mixing contest. We could use those stems for this exercise and at the same time try our hand at that contest.

 

No, sorry, more a synth pop dude - but I'd be happy to try my hand at mixing stems from any kind of material.

 

If you're adding instances of Channel on your buses don't you also have to pair it with an instance of Bus on your 2-bus (Stereo Out, Master Bus, whatever you wanna call it)?

 

• Limiter No6, this baby is amazing
• Britson channel
• Brainworx Bx digital V2 and MaagEQ2, Waves API 550B, T-Racks EQ 73 EQ81 and Prog EQ 1A, Studio One stock eq Pro EQ
• T-Racks Black 76, White 2A and 670, The Glue, Klanghelm MJUC, Studio One stock compressor
• T-Racks Hall, Plate, Room, Echo, Studio One stock delays
• Waves J37 and RBass, Voxengo LF Max Punch, Klanghelm SDRR, Reviver
• T-Racks DeEsser
• AmpliTube
• Lindell plugs
• Brainworx bx meter, Klanghelm VUMT, Waves WLM Plus, LUFS Meter, Nugen Visualizer
• Izotope Ozone 7

So those are the plugs i would take with me on an island along with a book "How to build a boat, for dummys"

 

I didn't know about this HOFA contest. I'll check it out.