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GMC Forum _ GEAR & PRODUCTION _ What Are Your "must Have" Plugins?
Posted by: SixStringSamurai Oct 26 2013, 09:45 PM
I've recently moved to Mac, and am getting to grips with having a recording computer that's good enough to handle heaps of active plugins, hahah (my old one would just crash if there were more than 3-4 tracks with amp sims).
I know some of you guys like Todd make really great use of plugins and get great tones out of them - so I thought I'd pick your brains a little.
What plugins do you need to have in your DAW? What do you recommend?
Posted by: Socky42 Oct 26 2013, 10:21 PM
Before I got my Axe-FX, I always used Overloud TH2 with MixIR2 as a cab simulator.
http://www.guitarampmodeling.com/ is a great place to get free cabinet impulses and preset ideas.
And you can't go wrong with iZotope Ozone 5 for an 'all-in-one' plugin setup I guess. http://www.izotope.com/products/audio/ozone/
Posted by: verciazghra Oct 27 2013, 01:48 AM
Waves collection has most of the stuff I need with the exception of Kontakt, fm-8, massive, Amplitube, superior drummer, Izotope Ozone, poulin pretty much gets me by.
Posted by: Jim Seekford Oct 27 2013, 05:02 AM
Im fairly new to the plug in type guitar environment but I have some feedback. Overloud was pretty good but it did seem to slow my computer down. I tried to try headcase but it was just for windows? Amplitube is awesome, I like to get the Carvin, Orange, Soldano, Fender amps and run them in stereo, mixing and matching with unlimited effects ect... I only like a nice amp and reverb though. So many more variations but with some tweaking they are really nice sounding.
I have my computer power my amp and Logic at the same time so no headphones. That's real cool. I am very happy with the configuration I have now!
Posted by: SixStringSamurai Oct 27 2013, 05:51 AM
I guess I should mention what I'm currently using.
Scuffham Amps S-Gear 2 for low/medium gain tones.
Peavey Revalver for high gain tones.
EZDrummer with Rock Solid expansion pack.
EZ Mix 2.
Posted by: Sinisa Cekic Oct 27 2013, 03:31 PM
I recently also started to use WaveLab, awesome plugin collection..
Posted by: sammetal92 Oct 29 2013, 08:25 AM
EZMix 2, Overloud TH2, Guitar Rig, FloorFish Noise gate, Voxengo SPAN, keFIR, Ignite Amps NRR1, Ignite Amps TPA1 Power Amp. These are pretty much all the plugins I need to make my Rhythm and lead tones 
Other than these, I use a lot of equalization and compression. For those I prefer ReaEQ (Reaper's built-in Equalizer) and ReaXComp (Reaper's built-in Multiband compressor), which I've found are VERY good and very efficient when using CPU and Memory
Oh yes, for my MIDI bass, I use 4Front Bass to produce the actual bass sound (recommended by the great Darius Wave 
) followed by an Amp simluation, done by using Amplitube 3's free Solid State Bass preset. Adds pick attack and some realism to the MIDI bass
Posted by: vonhotch Oct 29 2013, 03:00 PM
I just got TH2 and really like it so far. I'd say that and EZdrummer right now. Besides the other million miscellaneous free plugins I downloaded.
Posted by: Todd Simpson Oct 30 2013, 12:56 AM
Can't believe I almost missed this thread!!
Ok then. Fav plugins
1.)OVERLOUD TH2
Loooooooooovvvveeee it Wads of my custom presets are available to download in my TH2 VAULT thread in my personal forum and with each and every lesson in the lesson thread for the past several dozen lessons.
http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/guitar_forum/index.php?showtopic=42250&hl=Vault
2.)Scuffham Amps S-Gear
You already know all about this one I've been emailing with Mr. Scuffham and he is talking about adding a METAL amp and Pre Eq! Spiff I've got an S-Gear VAULT as well with a few presets in my person forum thread.
http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/guitar_forum/index.php?showtopic=50266&hl=Vault
3.)Guitar Rig 4/5
Both are solid and I've got PRESET VAULTS for both in my forum. I was a HUGE fan of Guitar Rg 4 for quite some time and have made wads of patches for it. Until I ran in to TH2 and was smitten
4.)IZOTOPE OZONE
This is a very controversial plugin. Some people HATE IT and despise how it sounds. Understandable as it can ruin a mix with ease. However, used sparingly, it can save you an enormous amount of time/tweaking. There are several presets that are somewhat usable off the bat but that lend themselves to a bit of tweaking and them bam. Great sounding patches to add to your 2Bus/Stereo Out Bus, and or your drum bus, vocal bus, etc.
I know some of you guys like Todd make really great use of plugins and get great tones out of them - so I thought I'd pick your brains a little.
What plugins do you need to have in your DAW? What do you recommend?
Posted by: Mertay Oct 30 2013, 10:32 AM
http://www.acustica-audio.com/ Nebula plug-in is still to my ears the best at (some) emulation of studio gear although I guess the mac version is using the latest tech and isn't very cheap (I use nebula 2 on pc which is rediculously cheap). Also it needs a certain workflow so though excellent sound, not for everybody.
http://www.meldaproduction.com/ they work great for me, bundle prices are good but wait for discounts if interested. Check out the freeware too, if you like it its upgradable.
Posted by: tonymiro Oct 30 2013, 10:34 AM
VST plug ins that you need. For a guitar player about the only one you may initially need are those to re-amp and Todd's suggestions are good.
Most daws come with a lot of recording/mixing type vsts already and so have plenty of eqs, compressors, time stretching/warping, reverbs, echos/delays and so on. Some people don't use them as they just assume that they aren't that good because they're 'free', which often isn't the case. So it's a good idea to look at what your daw came with before you think about getting others.
To be honest many home and semi-pro studios could get a lot more from the vsts that come with their daw if they spent more time using them and gaining experience in how to use them effectively rather than jumping from one vst to another. How many really know the difference between optical and vca compressors and what they are particularly good at? Probably very few but the internet is awash with people who have emulations of API 2500s, Shadow Hills, Elysia, SSL comps and so on yet don't seem to know much about except that they look nice.
We get an awful lot of mixes sent in for mastering that sound 'digital' and which are poorly gainstaged. Very often they have a lot of unnecessary vsts piled on to the tracks just because the mix engineer had them. We also see an awful lot of mixes that have been wrecked by mix engineeers putting processing on the 2 bus inappropriately.
Having lots of plug ins will not make you a good engineer, really knowing how and when to use a few good ones may.
Posted by: Todd Simpson Oct 31 2013, 01:38 AM
Sage advice here from Toni per usual He brings up a GREAT point. Many DAWs come with a fine suite of built in plugins (REAPER and LOGIC come to mind) that are neglected simply because they come with the software. LOGIC in particular has a large variety of build in signal generation and signal processing that many times get overlooked. So just because plugins come with a DAW, don't assume they are crap. Often, they are worth getting to know.
Also, key advice here on the 2 Bus. (Quickie background info: The "2 Bus" just means the Master Bus usually controlled by the Master Volume slider in your DAW. You can add effects to this and it impacts the entire mix. It's easy to badly ruin a mix by improper 2 bus processing. Sometimes, folks new to mixing will apply far too much compression and EQ to the master bus resulting in something that no mastering engineer can help very much. It needs to be remixed more often than not)
The best advice I can get on recording is to try to get the BEST POSSIBLE sound in to the DAW. Make sure you have good amounts of level going in and as little noise as possible. I often suggest recording guitars direct and using sims or at the very least recording guitars direct to one channel clean and feeding the miced amp signal to another channel. You can mix the clean signal under the effected/amped signal to get back some pick attack that is sometimes lost. Also, you can duplicate the clean channel and apply sims and mix that in with the track the has the actual amp on it. Mixing is an art and takes a lifetime to get really good at so start now
"Mastering" takes two lifetimes, so it's often best to simply find a good mastering engineer (like Mr. Miro) that you trust and simply give your mixes to them for mastering. You can experiment with "mastering" at home and it's a good idea to do so!! Also you can master your own recordings for sharing on sound cloud and such. But I honestly suggest going pro for any tracks you really plan to spend money promoting/making cps/usb drive copies for distribution/adding to iTunes/etc.
Todd
Most daws come with a lot of recording/mixing type vsts already and so have plenty of eqs, compressors, time stretching/warping, reverbs, echos/delays and so on. Some people don't use them as they just assume that they aren't that good because they're 'free', which often isn't the case. So it's a good idea to look at what your daw came with before you think about getting others.
To be honest many home and semi-pro studios could get a lot more from the vsts that come with their daw if they spent more time using them and gaining experience in how to use them effectively rather than jumping from one vst to another. How many really know the difference between optical and vca compressors and what they are particularly good at? Probably very few but the internet is awash with people who have emulations of API 2500s, Shadow Hills, Elysia, SSL comps and so on yet don't seem to know much about except that they look nice.
We get an awful lot of mixes sent in for mastering that sound 'digital' and which are poorly gainstaged. Very often they have a lot of unnecessary vsts piled on to the tracks just because the mix engineer had them. We also see an awful lot of mixes that have been wrecked by mix engineeers putting processing on the 2 bus inappropriately.
Having lots of plug ins will not make you a good engineer, really knowing how and when to use a few good ones may.
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