I'm not making this to crap on PA (although they probably deserve it for many reasons), rather I wanted to create a thread to help people who are looking at buying PA plugins make good purchasing decisions.

This could also be which ones you like (in addition to which ones didn't impress you) if people want to share that too. Also, this isn't strictly that you DISLIKE the plugin, it can also be that you thought it would be better than it ended up being, OR you found a much better replacement plugin.

I fell down the PA rabbit hole and bought a bunch of their plugins that didn't impress me at all. Here goes:

1. Dangerous BAX (no harmonic saturation, no better than Analog Obsession BAX)

2. Elysia Museq (it's nothing special really, not sure what I was expecting from it, no special analog character imo)

3. Vertigo VSC-2 (I don't dislike it, I find it a bit flat sounding though, Lindell SBC is better imo)

4. Maag EQ4 (weird interaction between bands, actually a cool concept but can drastically alter sound if you're not careful, I just don't find it useful/special)

5. Lindell Channel X (GUI is awful to point I don't want to use it and I'm not usually picky. sound is decent though)

6. Bx_delay2500 (lacks important functions that free plugins like Deelay have)

7. Unfiltered Audio Silo (I want to love it, but it's kind of a one trick pony and many of the different granular envelope modes cause brutal clicking )

8. SPL Iron (I genuinely like this but ffs add oversampling to get rid of the aliasing. I know they never will)

9. Bx_stereomaker (Ozone imager has much better algorithms and works for more use cases)

10. Bx_console N (the worst Neve emu I own imo, the recent VoostEQ Neve strip sound much better)

Interested to hear what you guys like/dislike!

 

bx_refinement is a bell filter at 2kHz for $200.

Awesome company.

 

Yeeesh. I can happily say I don't own that one hahaha

 

Don't get me wrong, I really do like the Unfiltered Audio plugins, Sandman Pro is absolutely fantastic, one of my all-time favourites, and SpecOps is weird at first but once one gets used to it's really quirky in a good way.

That said, Indent 2 is a missed opportunity, sure it's a harsh distortion box which it's meant to be, but even with the extensive modulation it's really hard to get anything useful out of it. Fault is kind of in the same boat, but at least with that one I get consistently something unusual but usual.

 

Interesting. I also really like Unfiltered Audio and what they do. Triad is really cool and I also like Sandman Pro, Bass Mint. Spec Ops is my wishlist.

I haven't messed with Indent 2 or Fault but I own them. I'll have to mess around with them to hear what you're describing.

 

all of them... snake oil

 

all of them are pure trash i only use uad and slate digital to mix my songs there's no point in paying for plugin alliance nowadays with the new uad offers i used to defend plugin alliance becouse they were a better alternative to waves back then still they sound bad to me i just dont like them

 

Please explain to me how Kirchoff EQ as a whole is snake oil.

There's like 300 plugins from 50 different manufacturers. Some of them are good, some of them are bad. No they're not all snake oil.

I bought SPL De Reverb to remove reverb from voiceovers. It removes reverb from voiceovers

 

New UAD offers are pretty good. Their model with forcing you to use their interfaces is hilariously dumb and I think they realized that. Slate is fine too but VMR doesn't blow me away compared to anything else I've tried but I like VTM and use Trigger 2.

 

Also Metric A/B is the most useful plugin I've ever used for mixing and mastering. UAD and Slate don't make anything like that (though maybe they should)

Many of the Brainworx plugins are kinda trash tho. Bx Limiter is a joke compared to Pro L-2, Limitless, Ozone Maximizer.

 

A lot, but i'll keep it down to 5, just my opinion, nothing scientifically proven about it:

-Shadowhill mastering compressos (both versions): Idk, the timings just feel weird, too short or too long, specially the opto part, i guess i was expecting something that's somewhat more musical, like it followed the envelope more nicely if you know what i mean. Happens a lot with fairchild emulations, some devs manage to make it hug dynamics somewhat nicely and others you're like "what the hell is even that?". Different type of comp, i know, but hopefully you get what i mean.

-BX_Consle SSL 4000 E: There's a certain "bite" and dryness that i like about SSL EQs, i really love that for distorted guitars, but not a lot of devs put it in there. At the time i was hearing very good things about this plugin and expected it to do that, but nope.

-SPL IRON: from demos i've heard of the hardware i built this idea in my head that it's a vari-mu comp with more punch and kinda mid-ish, but the plugin seems to lean more towards bigness. Not bad, but pretty much the opposite of what i was expecting.

-Tomo audio labs LISA: Look at this thinkg. Just look at it. What the fuck.

-SPL PQ: Nothing bad with it, just unimpressive.

 

Yeah, bx_limiter is mad trash, but bx_limiter True Peak, tho... Great plugin, I like it more than Pro-L 2 (yes, I know it's a bold statetament but I'll stand by it).

 

i actually really like the Lindell SBC, is sick for the mix bus and sounds pretty close to the API 2500 hardware ive used, closest ive heard actually. if i wasnt able to get it for free, i wouldve bought it because i like the sound and ease of use - the hardware and the up keep of that, is something i didnt want to invest in; and paying to use the studio room that has it, is even weaker. so that was an amazing find personally

i havent used any of the others so idk about the rest

 

yeah i didn't like shadowhill compressor, maybe i didn't know how to get a good sound out of it.
i like the bx_consoles and Lindell series. i know that there are better emulations but my machine wont run them, and im actually satisfied the dated stuff. Good enough. Even waves i use now and then, if it was good for making back top chart music in 2010, then it is enough.

 

I agree with you about SSL 4000E and SPL Iron. 4000E sounds a little soft to me and not in a good, saturated way. I haven't touched it since picking up the SSL Native Channel Strip 2 (9000k). SPL Iron just didn't vibe with me compared to other mixbus and mastering compressors (Elysia, Shadow Hills, Lindell are better imo).

Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor I actually liked on a few sources I tried it on. Its not for everything but I like the dual phase compressor and the way it brings out background elements on softer music.

Tomo audio labs Lisa can go fuck itself. What even is that monstrosity.

 

Completely agree. Lindell SBC is really nice. Every time I use it it stays on the chain even if I mix it in at a low percentage. Other than the Neve emu I really like the Lindell stuff. They're missing out on a market by not doing an SSL channel strip. I bet it would be better than Brainworx.

 

That's pretty interesting. I have Limitless, Pro L-2, Ozone Maximizer and Newfangled Elevate so I don't need to pick up bx_limiter True Peak.

I saw this video and was kinda confused about the brainworx limiter.

I don't agree with all of his testing methodology. The track he used was too loud imo but what I did notice is that under identical (albeit not ideal) conditions bx_limiter true peak isn't able to handle aggressive limiting conditions.

 

Agreed. I hate waves marketing and licensing but I still use a few of their plugins and have no issues with them. I wouldn't use many of them for mastering though as I find many waves plugins a bit flatter than the competition.

Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor is obnoxious to use but decent imo. I'd be curious if the Acustica version is significantly better.

 

I watched the video and saying that this fella has a methodology is being too generous. Looking at the waveform of the track he's "mastering" you can clearly see that it's already a freaking block with nearly no dynamic range whatsoever, it's a joke.

Granted, the plugin probably doesn't work well under extreme settings (e.g., mastering electronic music who must go above -9 LUFS for some reason), but for bass covers who must oblige by the -14 LUFS law it works pretty well and sounds really nice.

 

I've used some of them but not all, and have my favourite, but since we are talking about the that doesn't impress, I think I might have few that I've tested and ended up disliking in memory

1. bx_enhancer - shouldn't even exist in 2024. never before that I've trying out a plugin that feels so boring that I abandon it right away.
2. Pro Audio DSP DSM V3 - tried my best to learn it, read the manual few times, still dont know what it's about. fuck this shite.
3. the delay and reverb I dont remember its name. fucking ancient shit. M/S this M/S that. Algo sounds like shit. wtf
4. ...

damn cant think of more, am I a PA fanboi ? fuck..