I was gifted a custom 3 plugin bundle from universal audio, however, choosing 3 plugins has been very difficult for me. Never have felt this indecisive in my life & was wondering if some of you had any recommendations to check out . I have 14 days left to choose so I appreciate any insight

Here are the plugins i already own currently:
24 Plug-Ins associated with System 1

• 1176LN Plug-In for UAD-2
• 1176SE Plug-In for UAD-2
• Ampeg SVTVR Classic Plug-In for UAD-2
• Antares Auto-Tune Realtime Access Plug-In for UAD-2
• Brigade Chorus Plug-In for UAD-2
• Century Tube Channel Strip Plug-In for UAD-2
• Fender 55 Tweed Deluxe Plug-In For UAD-2
• Galaxy Tape Echo Plug-In for UAD-2
• Helios Type 69 EQ Plug-In for UAD-2 (Legacy)
• Helios Type 69 Preamp and EQ Plug-In for UAD-2
• LA2A Plug-In for UAD-2
• Lexicon 224 Plug-In for UAD-2
• Marshall Plexi Classic Plug-In For UAD-2
• Neve 1073 EQ & 1073SE EQ Plug-In for UAD-2
• Neve 1073 Preamp and EQ Plug-In for UAD-2
• Oxide Tape Plug-In for UAD-2
• Precision Mix Rack Collection Plug-In for UAD-2
• Pultec-Pro Plug-In for UAD-2
• Pultec Plug-In for UAD-2
• Pure Plate Reverb Plug-In For UAD-2
• Raw Plug-In for UAD-2
• RealVerb-Pro Plug-In for UAD-2
• UA 610-A Tube Preamp and EQ Plug-In for UAD-2
• UA 610-B Tube Preamp and EQ Plug-In for UAD-2

I mainly produce melodic bass music & hip hop beats but have dabbled in rock/indie/pop music as well. I track acoustic & electric guitars, pianos & synths, and vocals through my apollo twin; however, im not limited to choosing unison plugins since i mostly track with them just as a monitor/not printed to audio. I like to add the plugin back on the recording most of the time. My goal is to pick 3 plugins to help round out & diversify this collection of plugins as much as possible in order to get the most value out of my money.

Thank you in advance for the help!!

Ampex tape plugin really adds sheen on whatever you add it to. Maybe my favourite UAD Plugin.

Oceanway for vocals (and other instruments). Haven't had it long but a real unique UAD offering.

API EQ Collection for EQ on a good deal of frequency points (more than Pultec) without being too intensive on resources.

been a while since I was on UAD, but do they still have the Fairchild as an option?

I would get the 800 and 102 tape sim and Dimension D. But would be a shame to waste a pick on a cheaper plug like the D.

They do but i typically use fab filter pro-l2 as my limiter of choice since its very visual & sounds good to my ears. My workflow is usually clipping the non-tonal transients a couple times throughout the project then running through pro-l as a final maximizer to get my desired lufs (try not to go past -4db of gain reduction cus past then i notice some weird sounding/boxy/hollow sound when it starts to clip the tonal elements)

Do you have any insight on the ampex vs oxide tape which i own currently?

And in terms of the api eq is it much better than say fab filter pro q 3, waves, brainworx, eventide, kilohearts, melda, izotope, native instruments, etc... have a lot of eqs at the moment so just wondering why id reach for api vs what i have currently

Ocean way definitely seems interesting for drums and vocals really subtle use of reverb and seems easier to setup vs trying to dial in a reverb size/time & dry/wer

Great about the Fab Filter... my work flow is VERY similar! I was recommending Fairchild as a "flavor" option... when getting the freebies it is nice getting a flavor option, I think. (if you don't like mango curry, at least it was free- thinking)

How about putting a list of options that UAD has available, minus the options you already have or know would be redundant and we can vote on 3 we think would be good? Tally up the votes, then disregard the votes and pick from that?

I have UAD-2 and SSL Duende, so my UAD picks are usually far away from SSL flavors. I also have Waves, SoftTube and RnD, so try to focus my personal preferences around the limitations / benefits those packages offer.

BTW!!! Waves is offering a free CLA EchoSphere plugin- black friday deal... might as well jump on that.

... adding in about my experience with hardware API EQ, I LOVE the hardware API EQ. Haven't tried the UAD, but the hardware is perfect. The problem is if you do have those other EQ's mentioned above it may be redundant... kind of my point above regarding "limitations / benefits"

meaning if you were to get the UAD API, you might want to consider dumping one of the others you mentioned. GASsing is a serious affliction- plugin GASsing is something many people are never cured of.

yeah i would definitely be on an episode of hoarders if it was in regards to plugins lol

its tough to decide for this exact reason. guess im looking for like a desert island plugin/unique offering from uad to fully maximize this promotional deal i have

was thinking about api2500, distressor, culture vulture, vsm-3, autotune advanced (but have the antares version & uad autotune access so thought possibly was redundant), shadow hills mastering compressor, ocean ways studio, ssl buss (not sure which one), fatso jr/sr, 33609, api vision strip, manley voxbox

but those were just from researching online and seeing those come up frequently. i left what i was looking at intentionally to get an unbiased recommendation based on the current plugins i own.

and thank you! i have the echosphere already as i am a hoarder as mentioned below haha

I'm still pushing your "fully maximize this promotional deal" into areas of the mango curry. Stay away from SSL and Auto-Tune and go for Distressor, Culture, Shadow and/or Manley.

It sounds like you got the basics and foundation type plugins covered- go for flavors you're not going to get elsewhere.

Love the mango curry metaphor haha. Im not exaclty sure what the culture vulture and shadow compressor do differently than traditional plugins. How would you describe them/their best uses?

Distressor was pretty cool, i demoed api2500 and used it on drums but the distressor was the only plugin that did something equally as cool to me. While i loved the api2500 because of the create space preset and other presets that really brought out the character of drums while keeping them dynamic to my ears i would like to also stick to “mango curry”. So leaning towards distressor as it seems to be a little more unique. Would you sacrifice the shadow hills or culture vulture for the ocean way studios or no?

poop. forgot OceanWay. ok... Distressor, OceanWay, and either Manley or a tape emu you were interested in or???

I have the oxide tape so not sure if i should be interested in any other ones

To be honest i have a hard time wrapping my head around what tape does aside from some saturation & i work at such loud volumes that the gainstaging required for these types of plugins usually has me reaching for other tools

Short info from the FAQ

I just purchased a Custom Bundle. How long do I have to choose my plug-ins?

You have 45 days from purchase to choose your Custom Bundle plug-ins, and your demo times will be reset after your purchase so you can try out each plug-in that interests you during this period. If you haven't picked your plug-ins after 45 days, the most popular plug-ins will automatically be chosen to complete your bundle.

I'd recommend the LA-3A, it's a really good compressor and it uses a lot less DSP than the LA-2A.

Waves has a new plug-in guide in PDF format. I know not UAD and I know it will be heavy on pushing WAVES, but might help give you ideas:

https://www.waves.com/1lib/pdf/downl...-guide-pdf.pdf

So far i went with the distressor and ocean way studios. Need 1 more! Also thank you everyone for the very thoughtful responses to this post