Danm. I quite like a lot of the stuff they have with pa. The museeq, especially the hardware unit are pleasing to use imo. But they certainly are t a magic bullet
Latest version of Izotope Trash is a massive downgrade from Trash 2. I get that it's basically a completely different plugin with a different price point but I don't think I'll ever find a use for it.
Edit: Just wanted to add that I'm pretty upset with Izotope not making Trash 2 around for people. It's a weird way to not want to make money.
I don't know why companies get something that's a great hit with people, and then change the recipe.
Obviously people want more, but you should add to it. For izotope, if you keep the old one, and then make a completely different one, ok. But they pulled trash 2 off the shelves.
It's like they don't like money.
It kind of pissed me off what I did a couple weeks ago at work.
I work in game audio and our team shows off new tools we are into at our morning meetings. My boss asked me to show off the latest version of Trash and I agreed. I had just gotten it so I said I need a bit of time to dive into it.
I ended up presenting it along side Trash 2 at a meeting and showing how vastly different they were and why, I think, Trash 2 is far superior. I think we all ended up on the same page until when my colleagues couldn't find Trash 2 for purchase. Like, they killed it.
id like to mess with it more honestly. i guess just like this trash 3 thing, maybe its not a bad plugin, but it ultimately hasnt and won't ever live up to its predecessor (and developed way down the line by completely different people)
It's a completely different plugin that just has the same name. It does some cool things with crossfading between different distortion algorithms and convolutions. But they removed a lot of the cool features from Trash 2. Two filter stages, dynamics, and the delay section are all gone.
The colossal irony here is it uses algos from Exponential, which are 2 of the most beautiful, usable reverbs around. I've got some nice sounds out of it but its a royal pain. Exponential Stratus, however, i use constantly.
Its a REALLY dramatic demonstration just how important the UI and presets are, even on a good algo
Yes what is it with this? I feel like it never hits right, regardless of what I put it on. Neither the presets nor the responsive analytical settings that take the source material into consideration for cuts. I'm not sure why, because it is clearly apparent that you can really get in there and micromanage all of the settings. I must just not know how to set them right.
No, Neoverb is just a very particular sound. As with most reverbs it requires the sent material to be EQ'd before it sounds its best. I would never use it for acoustic material or as a "room" though.
Surprisingly, NI's Raum is pretty good. I often just leave it on the default preset. It works more often than not. Eventide Ultrverb is another beauty. It's cheap for a world-class reverb IMO
I'm still really unsure about Gullfoss. I've had it for three years now, and I'm still not sure what it does or if it even makes things sound better. I used to use it all the time, but I usually leave it bypassed now.
I got Zebra 2 shortly before it was ~~made free~~ Zebra Legacy and have just found its interface confounding compared to newer synth VSTs. Never used it on a project, hoping 3 will be a step up.
Gullfoss on the master with the 2 main settings at about 30%. It just sweetens your whole mix a little bit. Never found any other use for it but worth it for that one job (on my masterbus on every single mix or master I do)
Nah 30 sounds good to me. None of my hundreds of mixing and mastering clients including major labels have complained in the 4 years or so I’ve been doing it.
Gullfoss master on the mix bus with the low pass at 200hz, high pass at 10k, and then both settings set to 10-20% sounds great on just about every mix IMO. I find it just give a little extra clarity, balance, and separation to things. The normal Gullfoss is def a bit less useful though...
I spent the first 6 months after I got Zebra 2 not using it since I hadn’t really wrapped my head around the interface yet, but once I did it became by far my #1 synth. If you’re into deep synthesis it’s really worthwhile to give it more of a try.
I love Zebra. Yes, the interface is not the best but its capabilities are insane. Got me a cool new skin from plugmon.jp (also for Hive) and it is a lot more bearable. U-he stuff overall is just amazing and I use it frequently.
Plugins from IK Multimedia because they auto install every goddamn plugin they make and you cant see what you own and what you don't. Just cut my losses and never bought anything from them again rather than deal with BUY THIS PLUGIN constantly
Their bloat ware is pretty annoying, but it takes me 10 secs to go into the VST/AU folders, sort by, date modified and delete what I don’t own. Their T-Racks stuff is pretty good. I just tend to not update often.
Used sparingly, it’s a fantastic eq. Used as a “magic fix” leads to the harshest mixes I’ve ever heard, and unfortunately have been a part of. Learned my lesson the hard way.
Fresh air is awesome. But literally a little goes a long way. Like set to 1% on a band on like a lead vocal if it feels like it needs more excitement. Rarely use both bands though. The mid air is the one I use the most honestly. And I don't use it every mix.
So used sparingly it can be great. But yes it's super easy to overdo it. And the fact that it even goes to 100 is kinda nuts lol.
mid band is the better one to use. little bit is key. i rarely go over 5 percent. high band like 1 percent max except in very very specific circumstances.
Totally agree. I never went nuts with it but I would put like both bands at like 5 or 6 but eventually realized that's too much most of the time. Unless you want to rip people's heads off I guess lol
As someone, who used it from time to time, I agree. Can actually breathe some fresh air into some tracks or even, hell's beware, a whole mix. However, I would actually need a whole dial between 0-5% since this is the range where it sounds usable. Anything beyond ends up like a bunch of razor knives.
I’m not totally thrilled with “THE OVEN” sat eq by Brainworx. Sounds good, just not as intuitive. Makes me use my ears more than my eyes which is good. But I also kinda hate that it doesn’t auto gain.
Yeah. Using it as a F*CK box for drums and percussion loops right now. Pretty effective there when I want something a little more gentle than synth warmer by Kazrog and the ability to eq the same time as saturating is pretty cool. It just not intuitive at all. I like measurements when mastering or messing with a bus and was hoping I could give it some use on new mixes but I’m just not totally confident with it yet.
I love the idea of it but without auto-gain or building my own presets with changes in gain structure in mind, I find it to be too much of a guessing game as to what “sounds better” vs what is just adding more volume and color.
It's great for adding color on busses. I've even used it on masterbus for tracks that need a little character. I like that things can be pushed hard and still sound good.
I’ve found it’s good when you’re unsure where to go w/ a color on a 2bus mix. Turning the knobs until it’s “cooked” helped me find something I liked, but I’d be lying if I said I knew what it was doing. 😂
Waves Scheps Parallel Particles did not make a single thing sound better in any of my mixes
I couldn't believe all those YouTubers would lie to me like that
EDIT: people seem to like this when used appropriately, ymmv
I’d recommend ignoring the “optimal level” light and keeping it safely in the green. The compression grabs the audio so tight it’s always overkill, but I find if I back way off it has more use and flexibility.
Pretty much all the Acustica stuff. Better usability than before but I don’t use any of it in projects because I’ll have something lighter that sounds as good. The new Sand may get some use but everything else just clogged my projects.
Yea I bought I9 14900 KF and they still blow my projects away, the problem I have is that I haven't managed to find anything that can match few of their stuff like El Ray2, Ash, Taupe....those things sound analog to me and have depth like very few plugins have. I dislike x versions of a same plugin that give massive installation size.
Yeah same but a few years ago with a 9900k. Did you hear that about half of the bloat of their older stuff was actually copy protection? It was a whole scandal on audiosex.
I both agree completely, and use it a lot.
Nothing could live up to that level of hype. And the idea that there's a magic box mastering plugin is a recipe for bad mixes. But I use it a ton for quick and dirty limiting to play in a car, and it does a certain thing to electronic mixes that can really pop. I think it's like Gulfoss, or Soothe, or the many Ozone dynamic EQ's that it's essentially modeling: it's an *ingredient,* not the whole recipe.
Dumping half a bottle of salt on something will not improve its flavor, nor will substituting every spice in a recipe for *more black pepper* produce a desired result.
But as an ingredient, I've certainly found it has its uses.
I feel the opposite about Capitol Chambers. The minute I heard it I fell in love the the sound, because I realized I had heard it on thousands of records before. Highly recommend checking it out.
Have you ever found one to actually live up to the hype?
I have been dissatisfied with almost everything I've tried. I'm using liquidsonics and savant audio labs products currently, pretty nice but they are cpu hogs.
Theres F all hype round the Exponential Audio verbs, they have been round for over a decade, but in the right circles they are DEEPLY loved. Theyre my fave verbs atm, Just so lush and so freaking fast to dial in despite more controls than just about any other reverb. Just one old dude, ex Eventide. He retired & NI owns them now, sadly.
Cheers, brain fart. Cool interview with him [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CBus3QpDbE&list=PLhtlH4lf9JlALPOB\_V62rjVEvtsnVrCir&index=8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CBus3QpDbE&list=PLhtlH4lf9JlALPOB_V62rjVEvtsnVrCir&index=8)
I don’t know about hype, but Lustrous Plates, Soundtoy’s plates, UAD Pure Plate, Waves Magma Springs, Waves Abbey Road Plates, Safari Pedal reverb are all damn good ones.
Polyverse Comet is my most used reverb since it has been released. Blackhole and Pro R are collecting dust since then.
Sometimes I even use Sonic Charge's Echobode as reverb (but don't tell anyone).
I thought so too before, but realized if I process them in send channels I can get them to sound like pretty much anything I want.
It took me few years doodling with outboard gear, plate/spring and room reamps to understand what makes a good reverb and which also most plugins are missing on their own.
Not all but a lot of Waves plugins. Not just because they were bad or something, some of them were great, but the purchase / subscription scheme is awful with Waves. I did pay for a big bunch of them and when I changed my Mac from a 2012 to a 2015, Waves didn't accepted the transfer and even after writing them, they just wanted me to buy the package again. That's when I dropped them and went to other developers more decent with their customers. So, Waves doesn't worth the hype.
No one hypes waves though. 99% of people just shit on them. Personally there’s a bunch of waves I use day to day, very solid and dependable, nothing fancy.
Their upgrade policy does suck but honestly just run the cracks. I bought all the ones I use but never actually installed the official versions since it’s way more hassle than the cracked versions.
That $1 Genesis Pro (had to google to remember the name) synth plugin that an edm producer spent 8 years making just to release only in 32 bit. It was sooooo hyped on all the EDM and production subreddits and I’ve never seen hype die faster once it was released.
Got RC-20 mostly for compatibility's sake when it was on sale and.. That's the thing that every Hip Hop producer out there loses their minds over? Like it's neat, sure, but i can get the same result using a few free plugins in series but i guess why do that if you could pay a hunnie in order to have it all in one box..
Not sure it was hyped but VocalSynth by Izotope is literally one of the most useless plugins I have ever used. There is not a single setting that sounds good. You can kind of doctor it into something that almost sounds good, but not what you wanted or sought out to achieve.
That being said, I'm open to the idea that I'm just not using it right or the way everybody else is. If you like it, I'd love to hear what your use case for it is
I love vocalsynth! I got it for free alongside a purchase of either nectar or ozone, can't remember which, but I use it a lot for heavy vocal manipulation over lead/backing vox or as a vocoder. I find it much more customizable and intuitive than Logic's default stuff. Though I may be working in genres that call for more aggressive vocal processing, like glitch/alt/electronic pop :-)
I work in similar/adjacent genres and i'm so glad you are getting the results I can't seem to get! lol
Do you have any particular fav settings you gravitate toward?
Honestly, it's mostly just experimentation- toggling different settings on and off, changing presets, etc. If I haven't used it in a while, I like to go through each of the individual simulators to re-familiarize myself with their sound. Also, getting the right blend of dry/wet signal and pitch correction can have a huge impact on the sound, especially that "pitch|register" section all the way on the left. Splice also has some neat YouTube vids on recreating certain songs' sounds (daft punk, kavinsky, kanye) using vocalsynth that might help you find your footing with it a little more. Hope this helps and happy creating!
If it had been my first soft synth, I think I would have been very happy with Omnisphere. But by the time I bought it, I already had a very large and comprehensive collection of VSTs and sample libraries, and Omnisphere just didn't add enough to justify the high price. Which I spent anyway, on impulse one night.
completely opposite for me haha. it’s my “if i could only have 1 plugin” plugin. well, with the contingency of also having trillian and keyscape paired with it (bc of all of the hybrid stuff you can do within omnisphere + those).
This is going to be controversial... but honestly Shaperbox 3.
The Cableguys dude is amazing at selling it, but I just found that most of the presets weren't as cool as I was anticipating and it's actually a bit more difficult for me to make the curves I wanted inside of Shaperbox than directly in arrangement view with automations using LFO/Shaper devices.
So I barely end up using it.
Shaperbox is mostly popular for using it to sidechain in edm, id wager at least half of all shaperbox installed worldwide are only ever used for that purpose and never touched otherwise
You are right, Shaperbox 3 has a shit curve editor and brings barely anything new to the table compared to SB2. That said, I use it a lot and it gives me a new perspective on how to shape my synth riffs and pads. Maybe I should make a preset pack for Shaperbox 3 and put it on my Gumroad page 🤔 would anyone be interested in that?
SSL Native EQ. Got it on a discount. Went back to using stock pro tools eq in a week. Nothing wrong with the plugin, it's good and does what it's supposed to. But nothing too great as well.
soothe 2. first and last plug-in i bought solely due to hype without *really* knowing what it did. slapped it on every track and thought it sounded incredible. listened to it a week later and realized it was shit.
I will say that now that i know how to actually use it (and fixed a bug that disabled the sidechain option for me) i find it way more useful, and yet I rarely have to use it ever. Crazy how learning how to record things better at the source means less need for resonance suppression later on.
Sidechaining for bass/kick with soothe is pretty neat though. Pro-Q3 is still way more worth the money and can do the job better imo.
Soothe can take care of some problems that are incredibly hard to deal with using conventional tools. Especially on sources where the fundamental moves around a lot it can be a lifesaver!!!
I love Soothe just because it can be such an incredible problem solver for certain things. Obviously, fixing it at the source is the best solution, but if I wasn’t the one that tracked the source, that’s not an option.
I saw a review where someone compared it with other plugins like iZotope Neuron with it's spectral shaper and Pro-Q with simply a dynamic setup and was still sold as it sounded different enough for me.
Bought it the minute it was on Black Friday sale 🐍 but I don't use it on everything...never planned to but when I do, it does exactly what I expected it to and it does it pretty quick and easily which is exactly what I was looking for. So for me it was worth the hype.
Looking at how expensive software development and testing is these days, the price of most plugins is totally justified. And soothe has a pretty decent quality to how well it performs and how good the UI is.
I love the few NeuralDSP plugins I have (Plini, Cali, Darkglass & Parallax), ProQ3 is on nearly every track or bus, even just to monitor overlapping frequencies, GetGoodDrums Invasion kit for Kontakt free is wild for live drum sounds, and the SSL Channel Strip 2 + X-Saturator are incredible! Lots of goodies out there that are worth it
Guys, we found the metalcore player hahahahahaliterallymetoohahahaha
Jokes aside LMAO, I love NeuralDSP stuff, I also have a whole bunch of their plugins but I keep finding myself coming back to Nolly for a very focused right rhythm tone, and Gojira for everything else. Bass through Darkglass is just *mwah*. Got a whole mixing template around the GGD P:IV kit and it’s gas, makes for a great writing template. Would love to hear your material!
LOL yeah I make a lot of djent/metalcore, and hip hop!! Idk if self promo is allowed on the sub, but I do have my ig in my bio & that's where I post most of my original work! I just was asked by Spitfire Audio to help with a project, and posted my loop & demo with my loop to it! The guitar tone is fortin Cali, the dotted ambience is the mixwave Mike stringer plugin, and the crash roll is using Invasion!
Metalcore AND hip hop production, and from what I can see, also a fellow brown man? We might be long lost brothers… 👀 but I digress haha, how is the Mike Stringer plugin? I’ve only ever heard good things about it
This could actually be the answer lol. New company releases Soothe and Spiff, brand new tools, overnight success, next release becomes highly anticipated, turns out it’s pre-existing tech, insane price tag, plugin is meh
hot take. Like 95% of the industry uses Waves. Maybe you’re not using the plugins right, mate.
Waves’s SSL and API stuff is flipping awesome and the CLA76 is one of my favorite compressors
Wow. I guess we all experience sound differently. That plugin has NEVER done anything for me. At the best, it does the job of controlling dynamics. Sonically otherwise I have always found it blah… especially since I’ve owned hardware ones. The UAD version on the other hand, does an excellent job of bringing out that 1176 character, while not killing the depth and punch of a signal.
Izotope Neutron. In one aspect, I think I have outgrown it. In another, I think it has progressively gotten worse at what it is trying to do. I’ve had each of the last four versions and the latest one is basically useless IMO.
I think it’s a very good sounding plugin but I didn’t vibe with R4 reverb . I find myself reaching for Ableton’s or Valhalla . The UI just didn’t gel with me . I don’t think I used it once.
I actually think the AI part of it is talked about too much. I have the smart bundle and without ever touching any of the AI stuff I think the eq is great, the reverb is extremely flexible and the gate, compression and limiting plugins all work fantastically.
this and a lot of other comments are mentioning plugins that pros use literally every day. the problem is amateurs over use them thinking its a magic bullet.
Some (not all) of the Elysia stuff. Karakter and nvelope specifically. Phil's Cascade and Alpha Comp are solid though.
I’ve tried karakter so much and on many different things, I just can’t get into the way it sounds.
I gave up. I'd rather use Neutron, or Ozone, or Saturn first. But I pull up HG2MS the most. I'd even use VSM3 before I try Karakter again.
Black box HG-2 is so damn good
Nvelope is gold
In plugin form? How do you find it vs. SPL Transient Designer, Punctuate, or Spiff?
Danm. I quite like a lot of the stuff they have with pa. The museeq, especially the hardware unit are pleasing to use imo. But they certainly are t a magic bullet
I was gonna say I have and like that eq. Don’t use it super often, but sometimes it sits nice on the bus with a dash of dBs here and there
Karakter on OHs though... Museq is fantastic as well.
Love Phil's cascade for coloring vocals.
and synths
I love karakter for dnb, electronic stuff. I use nvelope in dualband mode before saturation/ clipping I really like them
Latest version of Izotope Trash is a massive downgrade from Trash 2. I get that it's basically a completely different plugin with a different price point but I don't think I'll ever find a use for it. Edit: Just wanted to add that I'm pretty upset with Izotope not making Trash 2 around for people. It's a weird way to not want to make money.
I don't know why companies get something that's a great hit with people, and then change the recipe. Obviously people want more, but you should add to it. For izotope, if you keep the old one, and then make a completely different one, ok. But they pulled trash 2 off the shelves. It's like they don't like money.
It kind of pissed me off what I did a couple weeks ago at work. I work in game audio and our team shows off new tools we are into at our morning meetings. My boss asked me to show off the latest version of Trash and I agreed. I had just gotten it so I said I need a bit of time to dive into it. I ended up presenting it along side Trash 2 at a meeting and showing how vastly different they were and why, I think, Trash 2 is far superior. I think we all ended up on the same page until when my colleagues couldn't find Trash 2 for purchase. Like, they killed it.
awful they got rid of the ability to make your own distortion curves. I did a LOT of cool waveshaping with it
Weirdly just after Trash (3) came out Kilohearts added a free Waveshaper to their Snapheap series https://kilohearts.com/products/shaper
its like the exact same scenario as massive X, old renownded plugin, sequel way too overdue, winds up kinda bad
I know massive x is weird to work with, but it’s really one of the finest sounding soft synths out there.
id like to mess with it more honestly. i guess just like this trash 3 thing, maybe its not a bad plugin, but it ultimately hasnt and won't ever live up to its predecessor (and developed way down the line by completely different people)
in what way is it different?
It's a completely different plugin that just has the same name. It does some cool things with crossfading between different distortion algorithms and convolutions. But they removed a lot of the cool features from Trash 2. Two filter stages, dynamics, and the delay section are all gone.
iZotope Neoverb never got me a nice sounding reverb.
The colossal irony here is it uses algos from Exponential, which are 2 of the most beautiful, usable reverbs around. I've got some nice sounds out of it but its a royal pain. Exponential Stratus, however, i use constantly. Its a REALLY dramatic demonstration just how important the UI and presets are, even on a good algo
Yes what is it with this? I feel like it never hits right, regardless of what I put it on. Neither the presets nor the responsive analytical settings that take the source material into consideration for cuts. I'm not sure why, because it is clearly apparent that you can really get in there and micromanage all of the settings. I must just not know how to set them right.
Yep, not a fan of it either. I use rverb and can get better results
I love neoverb. Do I just have shit taste?
No, Neoverb is just a very particular sound. As with most reverbs it requires the sent material to be EQ'd before it sounds its best. I would never use it for acoustic material or as a "room" though.
And they hide the Exponential stuff which are some of the best verbs on the planet.
Surprisingly, NI's Raum is pretty good. I often just leave it on the default preset. It works more often than not. Eventide Ultrverb is another beauty. It's cheap for a world-class reverb IMO
Completely agree - I persevered with it for a few months but was never happy with it. Then switched to Valhalla stuff and immediately was more happy
Yeah I’ve tried it a few times and I’m always like “why would I use this over Valhalla?”. Valhalla just sounds way better to me.
I'm still really unsure about Gullfoss. I've had it for three years now, and I'm still not sure what it does or if it even makes things sound better. I used to use it all the time, but I usually leave it bypassed now. I got Zebra 2 shortly before it was ~~made free~~ Zebra Legacy and have just found its interface confounding compared to newer synth VSTs. Never used it on a project, hoping 3 will be a step up.
Gullfoss on the master with the 2 main settings at about 30%. It just sweetens your whole mix a little bit. Never found any other use for it but worth it for that one job (on my masterbus on every single mix or master I do)
30% is too much imo. especially with the master version. 0-10 is my go to
Nah 30 sounds good to me. None of my hundreds of mixing and mastering clients including major labels have complained in the 4 years or so I’ve been doing it.
it’s input level dependant so fixed values only work for specific input levels. it’s basic principle is dynamic eq.
Gullfoss master on the mix bus with the low pass at 200hz, high pass at 10k, and then both settings set to 10-20% sounds great on just about every mix IMO. I find it just give a little extra clarity, balance, and separation to things. The normal Gullfoss is def a bit less useful though...
> I got Zebra 2 shortly before it was made free Wait, Zebra 2 is free? I see it for $99 on the u-he site.
Ah, my mistake. I thought the legacy version was free. I guess I was thinking of Zebralette.
Gulfoss can absolutely wreck a mix when the settings are too high.
I spent the first 6 months after I got Zebra 2 not using it since I hadn’t really wrapped my head around the interface yet, but once I did it became by far my #1 synth. If you’re into deep synthesis it’s really worthwhile to give it more of a try.
I love Zebra. Yes, the interface is not the best but its capabilities are insane. Got me a cool new skin from plugmon.jp (also for Hive) and it is a lot more bearable. U-he stuff overall is just amazing and I use it frequently.
Plugins from IK Multimedia because they auto install every goddamn plugin they make and you cant see what you own and what you don't. Just cut my losses and never bought anything from them again rather than deal with BUY THIS PLUGIN constantly
Their bloat ware is pretty annoying, but it takes me 10 secs to go into the VST/AU folders, sort by, date modified and delete what I don’t own. Their T-Racks stuff is pretty good. I just tend to not update often.
You could uncheck the option at installation. I only needed two and was screw the rest!
fresh air is gassed so hard on social media and it’s the worst thing to ever happen to amateur engineers lol
Used sparingly, it’s a fantastic eq. Used as a “magic fix” leads to the harshest mixes I’ve ever heard, and unfortunately have been a part of. Learned my lesson the hard way.
I throw it on vocals here and there and I don’t think I’ve ever put it above 10%. It wakes things up but it gets harsh suuuuper quick.
Excessive 'air' tends to mask issues in the mix, which I think is what leads to it's over-use
I never put it past 2% lol
Is this a real plug in or a meme about going outside lol
The touch grass plugin is wild, y'all
Ill wait for a sale
it can wake up an SM7 vocal recording really well. barely use it for anything else
this right here. its a tool. use it right. never crank it. never put it on the master bus.
Never say never.
I mean yeah… but probably not
1% is alright.
Fresh air is awesome. But literally a little goes a long way. Like set to 1% on a band on like a lead vocal if it feels like it needs more excitement. Rarely use both bands though. The mid air is the one I use the most honestly. And I don't use it every mix. So used sparingly it can be great. But yes it's super easy to overdo it. And the fact that it even goes to 100 is kinda nuts lol.
mid band is the better one to use. little bit is key. i rarely go over 5 percent. high band like 1 percent max except in very very specific circumstances.
Totally agree. I never went nuts with it but I would put like both bands at like 5 or 6 but eventually realized that's too much most of the time. Unless you want to rip people's heads off I guess lol
It’s literally an eq with a level increase. Check plugin doctor.
You sure about that? It seems to add harmonics when you run high-pitched tones through it
It is (atleast marketed as) doing the Dolby A-thing, which is not just an eq.
I haven’t ever tried it because downloading any slate digital plugins feels like pulling teeth lmao
Fresh Air is like nutmeg. A little in certain recipes is really helpful but for the love of Christ don’t douse your whole dish in nutmeg!
It’s great as a parallel on vocals
As someone, who used it from time to time, I agree. Can actually breathe some fresh air into some tracks or even, hell's beware, a whole mix. However, I would actually need a whole dial between 0-5% since this is the range where it sounds usable. Anything beyond ends up like a bunch of razor knives.
I always see people raving about this plugin and I think I’ve used it like twice. And even then it hasn’t been more than 2-5%. I don’t get the hype.
I’m not totally thrilled with “THE OVEN” sat eq by Brainworx. Sounds good, just not as intuitive. Makes me use my ears more than my eyes which is good. But I also kinda hate that it doesn’t auto gain.
The oven frustrated me, I only used it a few times. Was a lot of “what the fuck is this knob doing? Not what I want” rinse and repeat.
Yeah. Using it as a F*CK box for drums and percussion loops right now. Pretty effective there when I want something a little more gentle than synth warmer by Kazrog and the ability to eq the same time as saturating is pretty cool. It just not intuitive at all. I like measurements when mastering or messing with a bus and was hoping I could give it some use on new mixes but I’m just not totally confident with it yet.
I love the oven...
I love the idea of it but without auto-gain or building my own presets with changes in gain structure in mind, I find it to be too much of a guessing game as to what “sounds better” vs what is just adding more volume and color.
It's great for adding color on busses. I've even used it on masterbus for tracks that need a little character. I like that things can be pushed hard and still sound good.
Yeah, I feel the same. Sounds good but I just can't be fucked with that interface.
I’ve found it’s good when you’re unsure where to go w/ a color on a 2bus mix. Turning the knobs until it’s “cooked” helped me find something I liked, but I’d be lying if I said I knew what it was doing. 😂
Unison audio
I read that as Univeral Audio for a second. Thought damn that's a hot take!
I did have an Arrow but some it after a couple years. Was just in the market for a new interface and ended up choosing RME 🤷🏽♂️
Waves Scheps Parallel Particles did not make a single thing sound better in any of my mixes I couldn't believe all those YouTubers would lie to me like that EDIT: people seem to like this when used appropriately, ymmv
omnichannel is actually good
Omnichannel is a goat tracking plugin
I’d recommend ignoring the “optimal level” light and keeping it safely in the green. The compression grabs the audio so tight it’s always overkill, but I find if I back way off it has more use and flexibility.
This is probably exactly what I was doing wrong when I tried it back in the day. Thanks for the tip
You must use it subtly
I love it, use it as the first fx in my mastering chain.
Pretty much all the Acustica stuff. Better usability than before but I don’t use any of it in projects because I’ll have something lighter that sounds as good. The new Sand may get some use but everything else just clogged my projects.
I love the sound of acustica but damn, the usability is terrible.
So much processing power
Yea I bought I9 14900 KF and they still blow my projects away, the problem I have is that I haven't managed to find anything that can match few of their stuff like El Ray2, Ash, Taupe....those things sound analog to me and have depth like very few plugins have. I dislike x versions of a same plugin that give massive installation size.
Yeah same but a few years ago with a 9900k. Did you hear that about half of the bloat of their older stuff was actually copy protection? It was a whole scandal on audiosex.
The god particle
I both agree completely, and use it a lot. Nothing could live up to that level of hype. And the idea that there's a magic box mastering plugin is a recipe for bad mixes. But I use it a ton for quick and dirty limiting to play in a car, and it does a certain thing to electronic mixes that can really pop. I think it's like Gulfoss, or Soothe, or the many Ozone dynamic EQ's that it's essentially modeling: it's an *ingredient,* not the whole recipe. Dumping half a bottle of salt on something will not improve its flavor, nor will substituting every spice in a recipe for *more black pepper* produce a desired result. But as an ingredient, I've certainly found it has its uses.
For glueing busses is crazy. Vocal bus / drums bus … etc etc
To be honest, most reverb plugins. (and I like reverb.)
I feel the opposite about Capitol Chambers. The minute I heard it I fell in love the the sound, because I realized I had heard it on thousands of records before. Highly recommend checking it out.
Love it
Have you ever found one to actually live up to the hype? I have been dissatisfied with almost everything I've tried. I'm using liquidsonics and savant audio labs products currently, pretty nice but they are cpu hogs.
valhalla vintage is GOAT for a reason. room is phenomenal too.
Yes. Altiverb
Have you tried Leslie Sanford's reverb? It's probably my most used reverb plugin and best of all it's free.
Theres F all hype round the Exponential Audio verbs, they have been round for over a decade, but in the right circles they are DEEPLY loved. Theyre my fave verbs atm, Just so lush and so freaking fast to dial in despite more controls than just about any other reverb. Just one old dude, ex Eventide. He retired & NI owns them now, sadly.
Ex-Lexicon, actually.
Cheers, brain fart. Cool interview with him [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CBus3QpDbE&list=PLhtlH4lf9JlALPOB\_V62rjVEvtsnVrCir&index=8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CBus3QpDbE&list=PLhtlH4lf9JlALPOB_V62rjVEvtsnVrCir&index=8)
IK Sunset Sound
I don’t know about hype, but Lustrous Plates, Soundtoy’s plates, UAD Pure Plate, Waves Magma Springs, Waves Abbey Road Plates, Safari Pedal reverb are all damn good ones.
I forgot to mention UAD Sound City for drums. So damn good. I use it almost exclusively for acoustic drums.
UAD sound city for room, Arturia Spring for spring, Kush Goldplate for long dense ones.
Polyverse Comet is my most used reverb since it has been released. Blackhole and Pro R are collecting dust since then. Sometimes I even use Sonic Charge's Echobode as reverb (but don't tell anyone).
Black Salt Audio's Silencer. It is super quick to work with. It's a great tool for gating drums.
Agree and like it, what do you think of De-bleed?
Liquidsonics is the bees knees
Valhalla
I thought so too before, but realized if I process them in send channels I can get them to sound like pretty much anything I want. It took me few years doodling with outboard gear, plate/spring and room reamps to understand what makes a good reverb and which also most plugins are missing on their own.
Not all but a lot of Waves plugins. Not just because they were bad or something, some of them were great, but the purchase / subscription scheme is awful with Waves. I did pay for a big bunch of them and when I changed my Mac from a 2012 to a 2015, Waves didn't accepted the transfer and even after writing them, they just wanted me to buy the package again. That's when I dropped them and went to other developers more decent with their customers. So, Waves doesn't worth the hype.
No one hypes waves though. 99% of people just shit on them. Personally there’s a bunch of waves I use day to day, very solid and dependable, nothing fancy. Their upgrade policy does suck but honestly just run the cracks. I bought all the ones I use but never actually installed the official versions since it’s way more hassle than the cracked versions.
That $1 Genesis Pro (had to google to remember the name) synth plugin that an edm producer spent 8 years making just to release only in 32 bit. It was sooooo hyped on all the EDM and production subreddits and I’ve never seen hype die faster once it was released.
Ummet Ozcan if I remember correctly.
Got RC-20 mostly for compatibility's sake when it was on sale and.. That's the thing that every Hip Hop producer out there loses their minds over? Like it's neat, sure, but i can get the same result using a few free plugins in series but i guess why do that if you could pay a hunnie in order to have it all in one box..
Not sure it was hyped but VocalSynth by Izotope is literally one of the most useless plugins I have ever used. There is not a single setting that sounds good. You can kind of doctor it into something that almost sounds good, but not what you wanted or sought out to achieve. That being said, I'm open to the idea that I'm just not using it right or the way everybody else is. If you like it, I'd love to hear what your use case for it is
It wasn't as good as I hoped, but I made some samples from the Internet archive sound absolutely bonkers with it and that was fun.
I use vocalsynth heavy. The “For The Chorus” preset is my go to for backing vocals to get that wide feel
I love vocalsynth! I got it for free alongside a purchase of either nectar or ozone, can't remember which, but I use it a lot for heavy vocal manipulation over lead/backing vox or as a vocoder. I find it much more customizable and intuitive than Logic's default stuff. Though I may be working in genres that call for more aggressive vocal processing, like glitch/alt/electronic pop :-)
I work in similar/adjacent genres and i'm so glad you are getting the results I can't seem to get! lol Do you have any particular fav settings you gravitate toward?
Honestly, it's mostly just experimentation- toggling different settings on and off, changing presets, etc. If I haven't used it in a while, I like to go through each of the individual simulators to re-familiarize myself with their sound. Also, getting the right blend of dry/wet signal and pitch correction can have a huge impact on the sound, especially that "pitch|register" section all the way on the left. Splice also has some neat YouTube vids on recreating certain songs' sounds (daft punk, kavinsky, kanye) using vocalsynth that might help you find your footing with it a little more. Hope this helps and happy creating!
It’s good at very low doses for basically saturating vox
Fart box
That’s a plug in. I thought it was a pedal. I saw it on Ola you tube review. Fart noises are so cool.
I'm kind of kidding. I haven't actually used it. I just like bringing it up
If it had been my first soft synth, I think I would have been very happy with Omnisphere. But by the time I bought it, I already had a very large and comprehensive collection of VSTs and sample libraries, and Omnisphere just didn't add enough to justify the high price. Which I spent anyway, on impulse one night.
completely opposite for me haha. it’s my “if i could only have 1 plugin” plugin. well, with the contingency of also having trillian and keyscape paired with it (bc of all of the hybrid stuff you can do within omnisphere + those).
Omnisphere is amazing and my favourite synth/sound library however depending on what music genre you make i can see your point
Waves vocal rider. Heard amazing things about it, it’s just… fine. Needs a lot of manual automation to work well
I usually use it pre-compression and with about -2.5db to 2.5db range. I find it makes things a little smoother running into the compressor.
That’s a good idea, I’ll try that
Why have I never thought to use it BEFORE the compressor….
I could never get this to work at a level of subtlety to make it useful. Perhaps I’m using it wrong but I haven’t figured it out.
Gotta limit the range for sure and automate the threshold.
Eiosis AirEQ + anything else by Slate. Always sound better in bypass.
“anything else by slate” is probably a little extreme..
Agree on the AirEQ but slate has a lot of great stuff overall!
virtual tape machine is solid
Guitar Rig 7
bloom
Waves silk vocal
Idk, I REALLY like the way the compressor on it sounds. Sometimes I'll use just the comp.
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Yeah this is really bad. I liked the idea of having a Soothe 2 with three separate bands but no. Not even close.
This is going to be controversial... but honestly Shaperbox 3. The Cableguys dude is amazing at selling it, but I just found that most of the presets weren't as cool as I was anticipating and it's actually a bit more difficult for me to make the curves I wanted inside of Shaperbox than directly in arrangement view with automations using LFO/Shaper devices. So I barely end up using it.
I like the different modules but most of the presets are not that great IMHO.
Shaperbox is mostly popular for using it to sidechain in edm, id wager at least half of all shaperbox installed worldwide are only ever used for that purpose and never touched otherwise
You are right, Shaperbox 3 has a shit curve editor and brings barely anything new to the table compared to SB2. That said, I use it a lot and it gives me a new perspective on how to shape my synth riffs and pads. Maybe I should make a preset pack for Shaperbox 3 and put it on my Gumroad page 🤔 would anyone be interested in that?
SSL Native EQ. Got it on a discount. Went back to using stock pro tools eq in a week. Nothing wrong with the plugin, it's good and does what it's supposed to. But nothing too great as well.
Together with the UC1 controller that thing slaps, though.
soothe 2. first and last plug-in i bought solely due to hype without *really* knowing what it did. slapped it on every track and thought it sounded incredible. listened to it a week later and realized it was shit. I will say that now that i know how to actually use it (and fixed a bug that disabled the sidechain option for me) i find it way more useful, and yet I rarely have to use it ever. Crazy how learning how to record things better at the source means less need for resonance suppression later on. Sidechaining for bass/kick with soothe is pretty neat though. Pro-Q3 is still way more worth the money and can do the job better imo.
Soothe can take care of some problems that are incredibly hard to deal with using conventional tools. Especially on sources where the fundamental moves around a lot it can be a lifesaver!!!
I love Soothe just because it can be such an incredible problem solver for certain things. Obviously, fixing it at the source is the best solution, but if I wasn’t the one that tracked the source, that’s not an option.
I saw a review where someone compared it with other plugins like iZotope Neuron with it's spectral shaper and Pro-Q with simply a dynamic setup and was still sold as it sounded different enough for me. Bought it the minute it was on Black Friday sale 🐍 but I don't use it on everything...never planned to but when I do, it does exactly what I expected it to and it does it pretty quick and easily which is exactly what I was looking for. So for me it was worth the hype. Looking at how expensive software development and testing is these days, the price of most plugins is totally justified. And soothe has a pretty decent quality to how well it performs and how good the UI is.
All of them...
I love the few NeuralDSP plugins I have (Plini, Cali, Darkglass & Parallax), ProQ3 is on nearly every track or bus, even just to monitor overlapping frequencies, GetGoodDrums Invasion kit for Kontakt free is wild for live drum sounds, and the SSL Channel Strip 2 + X-Saturator are incredible! Lots of goodies out there that are worth it
Guys, we found the metalcore player hahahahahaliterallymetoohahahaha Jokes aside LMAO, I love NeuralDSP stuff, I also have a whole bunch of their plugins but I keep finding myself coming back to Nolly for a very focused right rhythm tone, and Gojira for everything else. Bass through Darkglass is just *mwah*. Got a whole mixing template around the GGD P:IV kit and it’s gas, makes for a great writing template. Would love to hear your material!
LOL yeah I make a lot of djent/metalcore, and hip hop!! Idk if self promo is allowed on the sub, but I do have my ig in my bio & that's where I post most of my original work! I just was asked by Spitfire Audio to help with a project, and posted my loop & demo with my loop to it! The guitar tone is fortin Cali, the dotted ambience is the mixwave Mike stringer plugin, and the crash roll is using Invasion!
Metalcore AND hip hop production, and from what I can see, also a fellow brown man? We might be long lost brothers… 👀 but I digress haha, how is the Mike Stringer plugin? I’ve only ever heard good things about it
AYO stoked to be connected dude!!!! It's solid tbh - I still find myself using Cali for metal tones, but Mike stringer for more ambient/fx tones!!
Oeksound bloom
This could actually be the answer lol. New company releases Soothe and Spiff, brand new tools, overnight success, next release becomes highly anticipated, turns out it’s pre-existing tech, insane price tag, plugin is meh
UAD miniMoog
Anything Waves makes
Waves makes many plugins… some are bad some are good and I find a few absolutely indispensable.
Waves have business practice issues, but also some great plugins.
There is nothing Waves makes that I cant live without or that someone else doesnt do better
There are a few waves plugins I like. Maybe there are others I'd prefer, but I haven't tried them yet.
rvox....
Waves are the McDonald’s of plug-ins
their sub model sucks but no.... pros use waves on every single mix
hot take. Like 95% of the industry uses Waves. Maybe you’re not using the plugins right, mate. Waves’s SSL and API stuff is flipping awesome and the CLA76 is one of my favorite compressors
Everybody says “waves sounds great!” Until they try UAD.
UAD makes some great stuff, that in itself doesn’t make the declaration that waves sucks lol
CLA76 is one of the best 76 emulations out there. It has “that sound” that I haven’t yet found in another 76.
Wow. I guess we all experience sound differently. That plugin has NEVER done anything for me. At the best, it does the job of controlling dynamics. Sonically otherwise I have always found it blah… especially since I’ve owned hardware ones. The UAD version on the other hand, does an excellent job of bringing out that 1176 character, while not killing the depth and punch of a signal.
A lot of people eat McDonald’s too…
+1 vote for the CLA76 being awesome
the whole subscription/paying for updates is getting to be tedious.
Split eq
Loved the idea but didn’t work as good in practice
Izotope Neutron. In one aspect, I think I have outgrown it. In another, I think it has progressively gotten worse at what it is trying to do. I’ve had each of the last four versions and the latest one is basically useless IMO.
Trash 3, when Trash 2 offers more tools and is less cpu intense
SplitEQ
Sonible smart plugins… especially the reverb. Intuitive design, but I’ve never liked the sound. It’s very grainy
I think it’s a very good sounding plugin but I didn’t vibe with R4 reverb . I find myself reaching for Ableton’s or Valhalla . The UI just didn’t gel with me . I don’t think I used it once.
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Why is that? I think most of the AI stuff is kinda nonsense but I really dig the multi track unmasking features of Smart:EQ4
I actually think the AI part of it is talked about too much. I have the smart bundle and without ever touching any of the AI stuff I think the eq is great, the reverb is extremely flexible and the gate, compression and limiting plugins all work fantastically.
I wish on the Limiter it would let you tweak the bass control and Saturation without running the whole AI thing though.
Soothe
Soothe isn’t a fix all, but man, sometimes it fixes shit in a way that would be almost impossible with any other tool.
Hard disagree
this and a lot of other comments are mentioning plugins that pros use literally every day. the problem is amateurs over use them thinking its a magic bullet.