what are the must have vst plug-ins ?

[djanogil]

Which plug ins are "must have" for basic mixing duties?

[Tone Laborer]

UAD-1, Voxengo. Those are my favs of the plugs I have. I want some URS (?) eq plugs I heard at a friends, nice sounding , according to him, a pain to get installed and copy protection etc. Copy protection is just freaking getting OUT OF HAND.

I sure those with a more bad ass DAW than mine will have some more input.

Just keep spending money, and you'll find some you like.

[TheSweetener]

UAudio 1176 + Pultec
Digital Fishphones Endorphin
Waves RenVox
PSP Vintage Warmer

[TEMAS]

Altiverb.

+ I could live without Predatohm on kik, snare, toms and anything percussive. People think it's only used for distortion but for me its like a multi-channel version of an SPL Transient Designer.

[TEMAS]

Whoops - I meant to say couldn't, not could!!

[feyshay]

PSP Master Q
PSP Mix Pack
PSP Vintage Warmer
Elemental Audio's Neodynium, Firium and Eqium
Voxengo Elephant 2 or Finis by Elemental Audio.
That should suffice.

[celebritymusic]

Hi

UAD-1 1176 and LA, Pultec
Voxengo Analogflux Suite (mainly the Tapebus)
Spitfish deesser

I'm sure there's more, but the list is finally starting to get smaller.

Shaun

[MASSIVE Master]

UAD Precision EQ, LA2A, 1176... Pultec, of course... Voxengo Soniformer.

[Yutaka]

Originally Posted by djanogil

Which plug ins are "must have" for basic mixing duties?

Sonalksis EQ and Comp.
PSP Vintage Warmer

Took me a long time to learn how the Sonalksis compressor behaves in various settings, but when you understand it, it is very versatile and usable in almost any situation. I think their EQ and compressor are great purchase if you can afford only one EQ and comp.

BTW, I'm sorry that I have been anti-social lately and didn't call you, Jean. Let's hook up again soon for a drink....

[Rogervandeberg]

TC Classicverb!

[adamcal]

Sonalksis

Equim

Trackplug

PSP, vintage warmer and master comp

DB audioware deesser

URS eq's

Waves L2, trans X, meta flanger, doubler, IR1, ren comp, ren eq

timeworks compressorX

are the ones I like the most ATM.

[Alexi]

Originally Posted by TEMAS

Whoops - I meant to say couldn't, not could!!

very funny

[sekim]

Refined Audiometrics LPEQ, Samplitude's AM Track are the "must haves".

Some others that get used fairly often:

Voxengo Voxformer - really nice on acoustic guitars.

T-Racks EQ - works well when used sparingly for adding some attitude to sparse mixes.

Native Instruments AC Box - put the Refined Audiometrics LPEQ after it and it sounds as good as any tracked real amp/mic combo I've heard - as a reference, one of my amps is a fully restored Blackface Deluxe stuffed with Telefunken, RCA, Mullard, EVM12L.

Voxengo M-S decoder - the secret weapon for doing "real" mastering work.

Voxengo Tube Amp - "external summing makeup gain character" for all of us ITB guys.

Ambience - a nice sounding non-convolution reverb.

So there you have it - a couple of $1K units, a couple of $50 units, a bundled unit and a few freebies. Just goes to show price is not the determining factor (for me anyway).

[Confusionator]

My most important 3rd party plugin is a good tuner for guitars and basses, because I can't rely on my customers' tuners being adequately calibrated to one another and free of drift. I use C-Tuner, which is free. The current one seems to be here: http://www.samplerchan.com/.

Also, there's no reason not to have a convolution reverb of some sort, be it Altiverb, Waves, or the free SIR.

[RobR]

Altiverb = magic (my cpu hearts altiverb)
Wizooverb - on jazz & funk/soul kick drums and on double bass (eats CPU)
URS Fulltec - on evuryting mon. Reach for air, it's sweet like that "glisten" button
on a 9098IOI Rupert Amek Neve wahtever. ALL CAPS.
URS N Mix
PSP Vintage Warmer.

URS 70's/80's Comps/limssss

That's all I'm using on a mix as I type. Except I'm using it all like many times, see.
And it works all great. Then I wake up the next day. Load up PTLE, and get about 1,000000dy DAE-9136 errors. :(

plugins.

I could recall a an SSL session using 72 channel faders and 72 monitor faders and 5,000 patch points in 1/10th of the time it takes to bounce a PTLE track.

Rob.

[matt thomas]

If I couldn't afford much I'd get the sonalksis eq and compressor, fantastic value for money and very flexible, not to mention some of the best sounding at any price.

If I had a bit more dosh the URS are fantastic though not so flexible unless you buy a package.

vintage warmer is pretty much a must have

the digital fish phones because they are free

narco

[RDMS]

Pushtec EQ
JB Ferox
Kjaerhus Audio classic series
Glaceverb
Blue Cat's gain suite
SSL LMC-1

and Minirator MR1 test generator for finding out how ugly your listening environment is.....


p.s. I have all the Sonalksis gear... awesome....

[driskel]

only listing what I did not see:

drumagog (Drumagog Drum Replacer Plug-In)
PSP Delays
Celemony Melodyne (Plugin or stand-alone)
Elemental Audio Inspector XL

~driskel

[RDMS]

Oh yeah, got that... saved my ass a few times.
Had a young bloke come in with a snare skin that looked like a golf ball turned inside out... "Can you make me sound like Phil Collins?"....
Hmmmmmm....

[adisc]

vst doesn't have tone...

but I use successfully vst reverb impulse responses and I can say this zone beats the classic analog boxes for sure .

[DesertDawg]

Originally Posted by Tone Laborer

I want some URS (?) eq plugs I heard at a friends, nice sounding , according to him, a pain to get installed and copy protection etc. Copy protection is just freaking getting OUT OF HAND.

I've got the URS Neve EQ, and FWIW, I didn't have any issues with installation & copy protection protocols. BTW, I like it a LOT (thanks to the couple of GS'ers who turned me on to that particular EQ plug a few months back!).

[adoucette]

While being in other studios or at friends studios or my own Ive pretty much had the chance to try out every mid-high end plugin and vst instruments currently available.

Im very happy with PSP products, including their releases of the famous lexicon models. The mix Saturator sounds great as well as the mix pressor. URS makes a great set of compressors, especially my fav, the 1970 compressor. I own and use the waves API bundle ALOT, especially the 2500 comp, it can be a very musical comp. Also the waves SSL mixbuss comp works great to glue your mixes.

For reverbs the best ones I have heard for artificial are Steinbergs Roomworks, its hands down my favorite and comes with nuendo and cubase 3, and Wizoo Verb. Both bad-ass reverbs that sound great. Altiverb is my favorite convolution reverb.

Personally I never understood or agreed with the voxengo plugs.. personal choice of course, some people love them. Luckily alot of companies are allowing you to demo their products, nothing worse than buying something you never use.

[manthe]

Only posting my personal preferences (eg - what has beenworking fo rme for the last 5 years):

UAD-1 - As may of their VSTs as you can afford!
SSL Duende - As Many of their VSTs as you can afford
Nebula3 - + Commercial Libraries
IK Multimedia - CSR
Altiverb
Voxengo - r8brain Pro

etc.