Must-have plug-ins?

[terminal3]

Originally Posted by dvdan

I'm also on the lookout for a nice orchestral plugin... any suggestions?

For easy mockups, good sound, a fair amount of built in effects and a good core library I like Miroslav Philharmonik.

For serious work, it's gotta be East West QL Platinum Pro XP... which is about thrice the price I think, but has three mic positions, a much bigger core library and a much 'bigger' sound to it.

I can get sounds quicker out of the former and thus it gets used on a lot of short-deadline day to day stuff, but the latter gets used when I've got a bit of time to 'get it right.'

[cane creek]

URS channel strip pro
Abbey road brilliance pack
SoundToys Echoboy & Crystalizer
PSP vintage warmer
Overloud breverb
And my UAD-1 of course

[mbezik]

over the years ive tried pretty much all the various plugins and the company that stands out above all the competition is waves, they do what they say and they do it with style......mercury bundle is THE ultimate collection of useable plugins on the market in my opinion - the L range of maximisers are some of my favourites

[conor_j]

My most used plugins would be


Refx Nexus
Rob Papen Blue
NI Massive
PSP vintage warmer
iZotope Ozone

pretty much used evertime I open my DAW

[dickiefunk]

Payware

Voxengo Elephant
DDMF IIEQ Pro 2.0
DDMF LP 10 Linear EQ

FreeWare

SIR
Electri-Q Posihfopit
Voxengo Boogex
Bootsies VST's
Kjaerhus Classic VST's
ReaPlugs
TLS VST's
Fish Fillets

[Meander]

NI Massive
Ni Battery
NI Reaktor
PSP Vintage Warmer
Rob Papen's Albino

Love the Ohmforce stuff as well but use the above guaranteed on everything

[kylewhit]

Been playing a long time but new to home recording so getting to know the cheaper/free VSTs. Use these ones often:

Kjaerhus Classics
Fish Fillets
Voxengo StereoTouch
Voxengo Boogex
StudioDevil BVC
FreeAmp2 or 3 (mainly for what the amp/cab emulator can do)
Baxxpander
Electri-Q
Mackie FinalMix
Sonalkis FreeG
Sonogram SG1
Betabugs Simple Squeeze (for when I don't want to think too hard! )

you can probably spot that I'm not a keyboard player...

[peavley]

I agree with Ian B .Jamstix 2 virtual drummer .The Bonzo add on is fantastic.Great plug in,price,support is exceptional.

[Malius]

Terminal3 - Do you recommend the Ampeg plug-in for DI'd bass? Does it make a good go at emulating real Ampeg amps/cabs? I noticed it a while ago and wondered if it would be a decent addition to my plug-ins.

[terminal3]

Originally Posted by Malius

Terminal3 - Do you recommend the Ampeg plug-in for DI'd bass? Does it make a good go at emulating real Ampeg amps/cabs? I noticed it a while ago and wondered if it would be a decent addition to my plug-ins.

Yes, yes and yes. It's one of my most-used and favourite plug-ins of all time. It sounds real, it feels good, it's rock-solid, if you do a lot of DI bass you can't go wrong. Sometimes I blend it with the dry DI signal, sometimes I don't bother with a dry signal at all and just use it wet.

[cane creek]

Im looking forward to the release of AU versions of 'Abbey road TG Mastering Pack' , 'Lennardigital sylengh1' and of course 'spectrasonics omnisphere' which i know will be a great purchase as im really missing Atmosphere since switching to a AU host (i didnt fancy using the third party wrapper)

[terminal3]

Originally Posted by cane creek

Im looking forward to the release of AU versions of 'Abbey road TG Mastering Pack' , 'Lennardigital sylengh1' and of course 'spectrasonics omnisphere' which i know will be a great purchase as im really missing Atmosphere since switching to a AU host (i didnt fancy using the third party wrapper)

+1 on the Abbey Road and Omnisphere.

I'm getting my a*** kicked right now because I can't run Atmosphere (the wrapper solution just isn't reliable). I have a big session that I've got to make some edits in that I did months ago where the bulk of the strings n' synths came from Atmosphere. I have to deliver in two weeks, and I'm not gonna have Omnisphere yet so it's gonna take some creative hoops on my end to recreate some of those evolving pads...

[Malius]

Originally Posted by terminal3

Yes, yes and yes. It's one of my most-used and favourite plug-ins of all time. It sounds real, it feels good, it's rock-solid, if you do a lot of DI bass you can't go wrong. Sometimes I blend it with the dry DI signal, sometimes I don't bother with a dry signal at all and just use it wet.

Excellent, just what I wanted to hear

I shall at it to my ever increasing list. Though at least I should be able to get a crossgrade deal.

[waxxy]

have you tried out the gforce plug in you won last week terminal?

[terminal3]

Originally Posted by waxxy

have you tried out the gforce plug in you won last week terminal?

Sort of, and it doesn't really work so far. Successfully ran it for about five minutes before it crashed and now won't load at all without "quitting unexpectedly" or bringing down my DAW. Waiting for an email back from GForce to sort it out, I'm sure it's probably a corrupt pref file or something that I can't find (I looked!)

Once it's up and running I'll give it a good run-through. The few patches I heard did sound amazing, until a big rick wright-esque Gm chord spanning two octaves brought the plug-in to its knees!!