... what would it be and why?

Purely subjective question here.

I've been trimming down my plugin selection and started thinking about possibly scaling it down to only one plugin suite. The obvious answer for a lot of people would be Waves simply because the amount of plugins it comes with. But for me I'm looking for consistency in usage.

I tend to revolve around UAD, Soundtoys and Eventide the most. UAD tends to fall in the same category as Waves for me, its a lot of stuff... albeit quality all around. Eventide and Soundtoys are almost equal for me in terms plugin selection and what they can do. Eventide more so with some plugins like Quadravox and H9 Series which are just incredible. Soundtoys cover almost everything, especially if you consider what you can do with the Effect Rack.

It would be very difficult to choose between them but I personally use Soundtoys the most these days. Their plugins are just straight up workhorses, sound great and get the job done. Lately, Echo Boy and Little Plate have been my go-tos for delays and reverbs. They just sound great and pretty much nail the sound I'm looking for with almost no effort.

 

Last edited: Jun 6, 2018

Difficult to name just one developer but if I had to then I guess it would be Fabfilter as I seem to use them the most with Soundtoys and Vengeance coming a close second. Mind you I couldn't live without Soothe from Oeksound as a single plugin so it makes the question even harder.

 

probably slate

 

if it had to be one, probably Fabfilter or Soundtoys, but I would miss Audio Damage stuff a lot.

 

Ableton.

 

Purely subjective? If it's just about the fx (not instruments) I'd prefer MeldaProduction. The suite is quite complete, state of the art (x64/VST3), reliable and very well equipped, at a moderate cost. Alternatively: FabFilter, BlueCat or iZotope. Also, consider using the effects of your DAW, some are not that bad at low load and free.

 

Hofa System, Melda , kiloheartz toolbox ..

Choosing one? KHz Toolbox

All because they are rock solid and creative.

 

Fabfilter FX Bundle, without a doubt would be my primary choice,
https://www.fabfilter.com/shop/fx-bundle
for music stuff I'd pick Overloud bundle of everything,
from Waves only few plugins are really useful,
then Melda Plugins are definitely interesting pick if you need all-round suite

 

You should only limit yourself to three plugins for every type of processing.
So you'll need more then one bundle.. but use only one or two from each.

Waves, fabfilter, soundtoys, valhalla, audio damage, plugin alliance, softube, t-racks, black rooster audio, izotope, native instruments, kilohertz, klanghelm, that should be it

Edit; we need more bundles

 

Last edited: Aug 16, 2018

That's tough. I use one plugin from each dev pretty much lol, Valhalla for reverb, NI and ableton for delay, overloud and waves compressors, fabfilter eq, wavesfactory and soundtoys for saturation/distortion

Overall I'd probably go with fabfilter if I had to choose just one, their plugins are absolute beasts and they have algorhitms for digital and analog emulations where it's needed so they're pretty flexible too.

 

Nebula

 

Fabfilter - the whole lot!!!

 

I'm locked in with my UAD system. I'd stick to it. Actually, if I could have all of their plugin suite, I'd die a happy man.

If I had to go dongleless, I'd go for Acustica Audio Acqua plugins without hesitation except for high CPU load.

Lightweight and good all rounder is Waves.

 

You could get by with just mastering the native plugs in your DAW if we're talking Cubase, Ableton, Studio One etc. There's something about using the built ins that makes the composing process more transparent to me. I don't think having a shit ton of plugins helps one write better music at all, quite the contrary.

This does NOT apply to Reapers Native plugins. Those need to be hidden from sight at all costs...

 

This would make an interesting topic.

 

Fabfilter is one bundle solution.
1. Good quality.
2. Easy to use
3. Efficient
4. Lots of options to control your audio.

 

well ill put my opinion in, if using ableton you do not need 3rd party plugins, the stock ableton ones do the job just fine, its why its called live suite, on my last system i had far too many plugins to be fair, so on my new build pc i only have fab filter, no need to bloat your system with things you do not need, just my thoughts thx

 

If everything was tracked through quality analogue hardware I would choose Fabfilter with Slate second.

If everything is staying digital I would choose Acustica Audio's Nebula with AA's Acqua's second.

 

umm the phaser is decent, and ReaSamplomatic is pretty useful..

but for $60 including the DAW itself .. I didn't expect the best in the industry...

 

Last edited by a moderator: Jun 6, 2018

You said it all.