off from waves, I need a new bundle...

[dlmorley]

A friend whose opinion I trust is impressed with Liquid Mix. I'm probably going that route too. Maybe worth checking out.
For reverb, I really like CSR Classik Reverb.

[soypancho]

I've been using three Wave Arts plugs for a while now and they work just fine for me. The channel plug-in has a gate, two compressors, up to 10 bands of parametric eq, RTA, limiting, and tons of presets for everything. I also bought their reverb plug and their L2 limiting clone for $400 total. They also offer a multi-dynamics plug-in and a stereo imaging plug-in. Having all that in one plug-in is awesome and because I use it on literally every track, manual delay compensation is a snap (PT LE ).

They have 30 day trial for every product with no other limitations (i.e. quitting after 30 minutes). I downloaded them just to try it out and when 30 days was up, I had to pay for them because all of a sudden my mixes were completely raw.

http://www.wavearts.com

[DJDJ]

If you can swing it, Sony Oxford

[PoorGlory]

+1 for Wave Arts. I love the Trackplug (compressor/gate/EQ)... even though it's chock full of features, every one of them sounds great. It does introduce latency in PTLE, so manual shifting of the tracks is needed, but worth it. Their multiband dynamics is good, reverb is great, and their limiter is ok. I would rather use L2, but I've gone the Massey route on that one.

I'd say Wave Arts is the best bang for the buck, and a purchase you won't regret. I hope they release a mastering-style EQ soon, and maybe improve on their limiter a bit.

[AudioFocus]

the UA cards are awesome unless you are using PTLE (no ADC). Other than that I can highly reccommend the McDSP stuff as well as the Sound Toys plugs. These are in my main aresenal and I love them, especially the McDsp stuff. Analog Channel makes me... well you know. I'm pretty sure you can get 14 day trials of each.

Creston

[jdjustice]

i second the McDSP or Sony Oxford recommendations.
the thing is, with Sony Oxford (SONNOX) the user interface is a bit more convoluted than with McDSP (i think they will probably fix this soon).
McDSP has great precision text-entry tools and the like: sliders or knobs, etc...

for some reason i have never liked the Wave Arts plugins.
i have demoed them twice, 30-days each time, and felt they didn't stack up sonically to my other plugins.
i wanted to like them because the price is right and i am a professional plugin collector

Sonalksis is great imo, they are bread-and-butter tools and sound very good.

anyway after you have a basic dynamics and equalisation package, i definitely recommend checking out SoundToys' Native Effects bundle for awesome delay and filtering effects.


cheers.
~j.d.

[deve]

for reverb I'd say variverb of samplitude9 fx suite vst. it is simply amazing

[AlexLakis]

What DAW software are you using?

VST? RTAS? TDM?

[ForgottenG]

I did try the Wave Arts plugs and loved them. I forgot until this post. Now I have to add them to my list again. I am using UAD Plugs and I an happy with them. The delay compensation for Protools is a pain, but don't get me started on that.

[dannygold]

Another vote for wave arts.

[Coyoteous]

Originally Posted by dannygold

Another vote for wave arts.

and another!

+ AirEQ, PSP MasterComp, AngelTone and the better free or included plugs for/from Logic/WB, DP and PT - gets me where I need to go...

Thanks everyone for the recommendations!!

I just installed the internet connection on the studio... I'll will check them right now.

BTW I'm using cubase (vst).

Pier

[Lagerfeldt]

It's been mentioned:

+1 Sonalksis
+1 CSR

And of course Sony Oxford are now native.

[devonw]

Massey!

[Unclenny]

Originally Posted by dlmorley

A friend whose opinion I trust is impressed with Liquid Mix. I'm probably going that route too. Maybe worth checking out.
For reverb, I really like CSR Classik Reverb.

Thinking about Liquid Mix....any users?

[sonicdefault]

Hey Pier! Glad to hear you made it through Waves detox alive. I'm with you! Since everybody has already mentioned all the good plugs... I'l' just say I agree.

By the way fellow slutz... I'm sure you've noticed that Sony changed it's name for it's plugin division to Sonnox. I bet they're working on updating all their plugs.

[Jonboy79]

Originally Posted by devonw

Massey!

I'm fairly certain those are still RTAS only. Great plugs though.

[n8tron]

as far as bundles go wavearts is like was stated before, a good one to look into. I enjoyed their trackplug... their verb I only used as a demo and for a short period of time, I didn't like it, but now I've discovered I wasn't using it correctly, I didn't "get" their whole different reverb settings for pre-delay verb or whatever. I wish there was a way to demo it again...

anyway, wavearts is a great company, you may notice that all their updates are pretty cheap, and they even went back and updated their old versions to UB so people who like them can still use them and not have to pay for the new versions. pretty amazing really. Plus they offer tiered prices for if you buy more plugins or what not.

[Whitecat]

+1 wave arts

they're not sexy or trendy, but they're solid and affordable, and the company is great. good upgrade policies (so far!) and excellent support.

I always start with something crazy (waves!) - but often end up going back to something from the power suite.

I love masterverb too, it's probably my most-used reverb.

[MelodyMan]

Originally Posted by terminal3

I love masterverb too, it's probably my most-used reverb.

Cosign. Great reverb and VERY cpu-friendly to boot.

Ok I've tried the wave arts bundle.

The trackplug is really cool! It sounds pretty nice to me and having all those controls in one preset is really helpful. Plus the nice price.


On the other hand I didn't like the other plugs. The reverb, or the maximizer... didnt sound very natural to me.

I'll stick to the channel strip and look for a reverb somewhere else.

I was pretty happy with trueverb but now I'm into my no-waves-policy

Regards

Pier

[MelodyMan]

Originally Posted by Pier

The reverb, or the maximizer... didnt sound very natural to me.
I'll stick to the channel strip and look for a reverb somewhere else.

The reverb needs tweaking, because the presets are a bit overdone. It is also a matter of taste. Masterverb is at its best used as a subtle reverb to open up your mix and get a bigger sound.

To each their own, though.

Originally Posted by MelodyMan

The reverb needs tweaking, because the presets are a bit overdone. It is also a matter of taste. Masterverb is at its best used as a subtle reverb to open up your mix and get a bigger sound.

To each their own, though.

Hmmm good point.

I will try it again tweaking a little more the parameters instead of just passing trhough the presets... I'm too impatient

Pier

[xist]

Sonalksis, IK's CSR, Altiverb (if you can spend) are safe bets (also regarding cpu resources, stability, etc.)

Originally Posted by xist

Sonalksis, IK's CSR, Altiverb (if you can spend) are safe bets (also regarding cpu resources, stability, etc.)

Hey thanks Xist, but CSR and Altiverb are too expensive for me...

I have checked Sonalksis website and they dont make any reverb... the other plugins are really cool, if they had included a reverb on their 'essentials' bundle I would buy it without any doubt.

I have found a company called Arts Acoustics that only has a reverb but it looks very promising

http://www.artsacoustic.com/index.html

Regards

[manning1]

pier...
before u spend lots of money.
chek out the reaper plug ins.
theres a huge number covering everything you could want.
then..if not happy....look at other alternatives.
but a lot of users really like em...so i would be surprised if u didnt.
at least try em out.
cockos.com is the link.

[NuSkoolTone]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned the URS plugs? Pretty Solid and I think could get you pretty far. Their bundles are reasonable IMO. I recommend all the EQ's And Comps, but most notably the EQs.

Also don't forget about Tri-Tone Digital, very affordable and kick ass.

[Third Story]

URS & UAD are both killer plugs!

[dkelley]

Originally Posted by xist

Sonalksis, IK's CSR, Altiverb (if you can spend) are safe bets (also regarding cpu resources, stability, etc.)

ALtiverb? safe regarding cpu resources??????

I heartilly disagree with that statement. I have yet to be able to run altiverb in real time on either of my (admittedly 3 year old) boxes, both very fast p4s with at least a gig of ram per box.

I hear it's great, too bad it takes more horsepower than I've ever needed with any other plugin or software in my entire career...

Don