This can be any type of plugin, in any of the main formats. Format exclusives are welcome too. These can do many things at once well or one thing extremely well with the key being that it's innovative TO YOU. No virtual instruments ._. I'll start. McDSP 6050 Ultimate Channel Strip, Andrew Scheps Omni Channel, URS Strip Pro, DDMF Directional EQ, Elemental Audio Neodynium, 112dB Redline EQ, 112dB Redline Preamp, Fabfilter Saturn, Waves H-EQ, Maag EQ, Wavesfactory Trackspacer, TBProaudio AB_LM, Freiraum, Sound Radix Surfer EQ, Celemony Melodyne, Variety Of Sound Rescue, Voxengo Voxformer, Plugin Alliance Vertigo VSM-3.

Spoiler

 

Recently Gullfoss and ReCenter, I have to admit. I was surprised how well they work with such little tweaking.
And then those I always use: Virtual Sound Stage 2 and VintageVerb.

All of those common mixing eq- and compressor or harmonic enhancing plugins are pretty much exchangeable. Nothing worth mentioning.

 

Last edited: Apr 25, 2019

-Gullfoss .... most amazing plug release in years!
-Fabfilter Q3

 

Gullfoss and Soothe. They are really unique plugins.

 

Ohlhorst Digital (with Tokyo Dawn Labs) DeEdger
Oeksound Soothe, Spiff
Soundtheory Gullfoss
Sound Radix, Zynaptiq, Sonible stuff
DMG Limitless, Multiplicity, EQuilibrium
iZotope Neutron 2
Some of Meldaproduction, Plugin Alliance, Waves, Voxengo, FLUX:: and maybe some of airwindows plugins
Emulation of rare vintage stuff by Fuse Audio Labs, Black Rooster Audio
Kazrog True Iron
TDR Proximity

Maybe something i forgot) but mostly these ones

 

https://www.musicradar.com/reviews/tech/exponential-audio-excalibur-624340

 

- Dmitry Sches Diversion
- Cytomic The Glue & The Drop
- u-he Diva

+ All other plugins that successfully emulate analog and give a rich high level sound.

 

I've had a love affair with VSM3 for years now. As such, I recently tried Vertigos new VSC-3. Very similar in appearance to VSC-2, but a totally different beast under the hood! Very nice 2bus comp def worth a try.

I'll also echo others sentiments for Sound Theory Gulfoss and definitely FF Pro Q3 and its dynamic EQing.
Q3 has without a doubt changed how I EQ for the better.

Kazrog True Iron sounds pretty damn good for saturation, though Im not sure it feels "innovative" per se.

Freakshow Backmask is definitely innovative in terms of its GUI and interactions. Never seen another plugin like it!

Newfangled Audio EQuivocate is pretty cool is well.
Unfiltered Audio Sandman Pro and Fault are worth inspecting.

 

Soothe and Gullfoss. And ofcourse MspectralDynamics, same area.

 

Soothe and Spiff by Oeksound
Intensity by Zynaptiq

 

I beg to differ. Redline EQ and Waves H-EQ lets you mix and match EQ types per band. Neodynium isn't your average compressor either. Surfer EQ has bands that move with the source track. Redline Preamp has some amazing presets that emulate different kinds of analogue saturation and Maag EQ goes up to 40kHz. Get what I'm saying? There are some things out there that aren't your run of the mill mixing plugins. Stacking EQs and comps is fun and all but having tools that can address major issues in a short amount of time is great. Like McDSP's Channel Strip. Rearrangeable array of analogue comps, EQs, gates and saturation boxes. Without that specific plugin the sound of a big studio had been elusive from me for years. I didn't know that it came from daisychaining. People think analogue records sound great because of the summing but really it's because of the efficiency that comes with tactile surfaces (and because hardware does things that software can't yet ._. UAD come at me bro, jk). More work done in less time, with fresher ears. That's the point of the thread.

Yh, pretty innovative that one. I have it too. Can really save a vocal take or a mic that breaks up quickly.

I LOVE the Fuse VCL-4 and their other comps and Black Rooster's emulations are to die for. I find myself always using the VHL-3C, Magnetite, and the comps. Their LA3A sounds awesome.

I've stayed away from DMG. Tried Limitless and Equilibrium on my trashy rig and it hogged CPU. I'll have to try it on the studio rig. I will say that their gate is amazing. I wanna try the DeEsser just because the gate was that good but right now I have plenty of those.

The Flux stuff is great too. Their limiter is one of my favourites and the EQ is one of the best for high frequencies. I wanna try Soothe so bad! People never vote on requests made on the sister site.
Neutron actually looks interesting. Never thought I'd say that about an Izotope plugin. Their Vintage Limiter is pretty amazing though.

 

Cableguys - Shaperbox *
Eventide - Fission
Overloud - Echoson
Dialogaudio - SequenceProcessor & ModulationProcessor 3244 *
Audiothing - Fog Convolver
Kilohearts - Multipass *
Flux - BittersweetPro v3 & Syrah
Fabfilter - Q3
a special mention to Gullfoss & Sandman Pro

* = these are innovative for me, others are damn good

 

Yeah, I know. Plugins always do find solutions for a lot of "problems". But the real problem for me often is that they find solutions for problems I never knew I do even have.

(At the moment I only try to find plugins that have a very simple, fast and efficient way of solving very fundamental problems. And it could be that soothe is also one of those but I have not tried it out yet.)

I do not even use the "send" function that every daw has. I am very conservative what the process of mixing is about. So I will complement my original statement with one addition:

"All of those common mixing eq- and compressor or harmonic enhancing plugins are pretty much exchangeable. Nothing worth mentioning in the case of my style."

 

Last edited: Apr 25, 2019

I like The Glue but I only ever use the master bus comp when it comes to SSL emulations (btw The Glue is an SSL comp just in case y'all didn't know) and the drop seems cool but you know, read the thread maybe? No virtual instruments ._. If I add another synth to my collection it'll be one too many. Thanks though. Diva really is a great synth though. Been using it for years. Really unique and warm sound.

This looks intimidating and I like it c:

I just went on their website and holy shirt. Everyone go check out their website

EQuivocate looks awesome and confusing and Sandman Pro looks like it could replace Eventide's H3000 Band Delays for me.

I was actually gonna add that one in my list! Brave you are. Foolish you are not.
@Gizmoz Your list is dope.
And to everyone saying Fabfilter Pro Q3. Yes definitely. The dynnamic EQ thing is absolutely awesome. The Pro-MB is awesome for me too. I'd love if someone can give an equal/better alternative because I have a bunch of MultibandComps and none of them are as flexible as Pro-MB.

Big thank you to everyone participating in this thread btw! Trying to keep up with replies but I am definitely going to check out every plugin on this list and I'm sure lots of you are perusing.

 

Last edited: Apr 25, 2019

Thanks for clarifying. I understand now. I'd say Soothe is definitely worth a try. Heard a demo and been sold ever since. As per your mixing style, two words to accentuate your workflow - parallel processing. Mix knobs are your friend. Comps, EQs, anything you can find with a mix knob should really help. I'd even suggest using sends for processing as long as your DAW's/plugin (idk how it works) delay compensation is tight. There are plugins that can do that manually. In any case, a bit of googling is required but you can do some amazingly transparent processing using sends. Another thing that comes to mind is plugin hosting plugins like Nugen's Sigmod and Blue Cat's Patchwork. Patchwork has a mix knob so you can host your favourite comps that don't have one and viola :v mix knob. They both have frequency splitting capabilities and other things that can really help get the most out of your plugins.

 

innovating plugins..... geeee. nothing spring to mind.
There is nothing new under the sun

 

If the criteria has "No virtual instruments" then none.
By the time I use any of these tools I've pretty much completed the project from a creative perspective. The rest is simply mixing. For me.

 

Gullfoss is the best plugin that has been released recently, It's amazing what it does and how simple it is.

 

I don't really have a list because i am so noob. So many amazing plugins...
ATM I am pretty amazed at this thing called "Fruity Limiter".

 

Sorry its not a plug in, but bitwigs modulation system is verry innnovative and well done - many of the modulators themselves are innovative.

In terms of VST - i really liked Sound Radix Surfer EQ when i tried it with computer music magazine.