What plugins/software are essential or very handy for mixing (5.1,) sound design, editing, ADR, foley, etc.?

Right now I'm looking at:

Synchro Arts VocALign PRO V4
Audio Ease Altiverb 7 XL
iZotope RX 2 Advanced
Massey L2007 Limiter

Regarding Izotope RX2, I have the basic (non-advanced) version. Is it worth the $800 to upgrade?

Add to your list:

Cedar DNS One (if you can afford it)
Audio Ease Speakerphone 2
McDSP ML4000

I'm also running the non-advanced versions of RX2...but as I have C4, WNS and DNS One in addition to RX2, I haven't seen the need to upgrade to RX2 Advance

Forget L2007 if you want a True Peak limiter. Don't get me wrong, it's great, but no good for True Peak.

Waves W43 is remarkably useful.

I still like the notching in Waves' Q10 as well.

DMGAudio EQuality and/or EQuilibrium.

Been using FabFilter Pro-L for limiting duties lately here.

McDSP FutzBox is more easily automatable than Speakerphone if you need that. Speakerphone is great for "offline" sound design though.

I use the L2007 every day, because I love how it sounds. And in most cases I'm fine if I set it 1 dB lower than the true peak spec. If not a tool like NUGEN LM correct (which is great) will catch them.

Touting my own horn - UNVEIL for removing reverb & UNFILTER for getting rid of comb-filtering, resonances and roll-offs fastly heh

Don't blow your wad.

If your mixing , let your work dictate your plugin needs.

Work on your mix routing. The more work you do the more you will realize what you need.

Eventually you will want good NR, Loudness metering, TP limiting , futz, reverbs, surround tools. Do a search this topic has been covered a few times over

Everyone mixes with diff styles and tools. You can do great mixes with pro tools proprietary plugins.

It's not the arrow it's the shooter *edited non PC expression

Apart from RX none of the above are essential. RX is not very good when used as a real-time plugin. Cedar is much more effective when mixing. RX is more a tool when editing IMO.
With VocAlign the least of them all. If at all it's an editing tool. Personally I never liked it. Always sounded weird. I prefer skillful editing.

L2007 is a good limiter but you can not link parameters beyond stereo. It will only work as a multi-mono plugin beyond stereo.

AV7 is a bit obsolete at the moment because it doesn't work in PT11. It's not essential there are alternatives like ReVibe.

What IS essential nowadays is a loudness meter and good EQ. All else depends on what you are mixing.

Sent from my GT-N7000


+1 futzbox and w, 43

I would add massey desser
Rbass I like for fattening up thin stuff, lavs etc

I'm sure he isn't that stupid to use it professionals yet.

Sent from my GT-N7000

For surround mixing Spanner is essential

A great eq = Equilibrium

No it's not.
Everything I mix is surround.
Never even seen the plugin.

What's a good loudness meter? What would a good EQ be?

I like the channelstrip EQ. I use it almost exclusively. Though sometimes I reach out for the Sonnox.

There are a couple of options:

VisLM, Waves, Izotope etc.

EQ:

AVID channelstrip, Equality, Massenburg EQ (sounds great but not good for surgical work) and about another 500 others I guess. Question of taste. If you haven't tried a few, start with the on board channel strip. It will get you very far. While doing that demo a couple of alts to see what the differences are.

(I'm not even sure if you're on PT)

Equilibrium by DMG audio.
You can use it to set up an eq for notching and an eq for general eq.
That's what I did. Two of them in series for two different jobs.

I can live only with Avid EQ7, Avid Reverb
All the rest is extra.
The extra is:
WNS or DNS one
RX2
NoNoise DeCrackle
Altiverb XL
NF575
ReVibe
Nugen ISL
...and many many more.

I haven't seen VocALign used in years, I gave up on it as Pitch N Time & cutting always got me better results.

Altiverb is OK, but the interface is too big and clunky with big knobs for things I don't usually touch. But if you're heavy into FX design work its good to have.
TL Space then sometimes Vallhalla and now going to start trying R2.

iZotope impressed me so much when I first got it that I just went for the Advanced when I upgraded to RX2 & never even questioned the difference.

Massey L2007 here too.
Also have the Massey De-Esser which is definitely better than the Digirack's and maybe as good as the Waves - just haven't compared head to head.

If you're asking about "essential" plugins...and are on a budget, the first thing you should invest in for mixing in addition to the stock protools plugins is NR and a good reverb, and possibly a loudness meter.
The PT stock eqs and dynamics are certainly workable for many circumstances.
Once the work starts coming in, then invest in higher quality eqs, dynamics, etc.
(Stuff like Equilibrium is awesome, but avid channel strip or eq7 will, and does the trick.)

Add a Cedar (if budget allows) or WNS (if you're tight on funds). Izotope RX is handy, but not really great for realtime broadband NR.
There's a ton of reverbs out there....personally I wouldn't go with altiverb. (I own it but barely use it) There's a lot better verbs, that are much more flexible and easier to deal with on the mix stage.

Speaker phone is handy, but great futz type of effects are also easily attainable with a combo of eq, compression and verb.
McDSP N575 is something I find essential, but if I didn't have it, I'd use the avid channel strip.

I could go on....

Now if you're looking at sound design plugins, that's a whole other conversation......

If you are doing all the work in your own studio, then you can work with any plugins you want, but if you need to interface with facilities I suggest that you inquire which plugins they have available and choose your arsenal accordingly.

Even if they allow you to install your own plugins on their systems if you supply the iLok there can be issues. If the client wants to do updates at the facility and you are not available, that can create very awkward situations when you need to use the iLok on your current project. This situation occurred for me more than once until I decided to not use any plugins that the facilities I work with didn't have their own iLok for.

I also like a good delay for outdoors etc, ive been using H1 delay from Waves (i dig the ping pong setting) , though you could get away with the stock avid delay or reverb using early reflections only

Sent from my GT-N7000

I wish ilok and software companies would allow for a small fee a back up of your ilok, so it could be used in situations like above. I work in two places, it's pain dragging everything around.


Sent from my GT-N7000

I learned the same lesson. Not worth the hassle. My plugin usage has narrowed considerably but I manage.

I care about the quality I KNOW I can deliver by using the plugins I use in my template.
If I am getting hired to do a mix, I use what I am used to using.
But it's a pretty easy install.
UAD is one install.
Then I install DMG audio Equilibrium and Equick.
Lowender.
And then the UPM-1 unwrap.

Done.
Maybe all of 10 minutes.

If youre looking for a true peak/intersample limiter, loudness meter and some character I'd suggest all three are in the Avid Pro Limiter, which is PT11 compliant. Its bundled with an audiosuite tool for end of program loudness analysis pre normalisation to spec and it also has the meters in the plugin for short term and integrated.
The saturation is nice too and its DAMN clean.

+1 for futzbox and reliable automation over speakerphone

+1 for W43 for real time clean up and RX2 standard for editing, NR combo

No grief from IT when installing software?

Nope.

Look at IOSONO's Anymix Pro. Fantastic for panning 5.1 and upmixing.