Plugin bundles

[Magnetic Services]

I've only bought one plugin in my life, but as I get more and more into mixing I'm considering one of those plugin bundles. Most of the time I use Reaper's stock plugins or free stuff from VST4free. I'm a good enough mixer that I can make it work, but I find myself longing for something better-sounding and easier to use; something made with care and thought for the user experience!

I'm looking for a one-stop-shop, rock-solid set of great sounding plugins that I'll never have to worry about compatability issues, etc. with, and can use on 2 computers (home and studio). FWIW I value a balance between simple interfaces and number of parameter options. I don't like the one-knob "makes-it-sound-like-tape" stuff, nor do I want a zillion parameters on a bland grey UI.

Anybody got suggestions, brand loyalties, etc? I'm willing to consider a subscription but would rather pay a bulk price or installments. Bonus points if they have good customer service.

Thanks audio gurus!

[kslight]

I’ve used Waves forever, but I’ve recently been doing a lot of work using predominantly izotope’s O8N2 bundle..if I could start all over with one bundle this would be it.

I think it sounds great, has useful features (masking metering, multi band gating, compressing, transient shaping, saturating...), or can be simple if you don’t want to do that tweaky.

Assuming you’re looking for EQ, dynamics, etc..not delays and reverb and whatever.

Retail price is high but I managed a crossgrade from ownership of other products and caught sales and I got it pretty cheap.


Plugin Alliance stuff is also cool, build your own bundle with those guys. I love the unfiltered audio plugins for sound design.

[Magnetic Services]

Assuming you’re looking for EQ, dynamics, etc..not delays and reverb and whatever.

Good point! I'm actually totally satisfied by the Reaper EQs and Comps, and I have a Lexicon unit that I should really be using more for my 'verbs.
I guess I'm in the market for more interesting delays, effects, etc. As well as distortion/tube/amp sims. Noise reduction and restoration stuff would also be nice.

[Nick Sevilla]

I have the following plug in bundles,
which I have owned for years and years with no issues.

Waves Mercury. If you are going to buy Waves, buy this one. It has EVERYTHING except for the ocassional one off. You get free plug ins when they release them. There is a once a year maintenance fee which varies. Mine is currently 300. I bought it originally for 1/2price as a member or NARAS, but now you can find this bundle for the same price I paid, without being a member of anything.

Nomad Factory - I have whatever ultimate bundle they have, do not remember what they call it now. These are a SECRET WEAPON. They usually fit where other plug ins fail. My favorite for doing Mastering jobs, and also their Blue Tubes stuff is stellar. Favorite right now is their new Garbage plug in. Massive fun.

UAD. This one requires their own hardware processors. Best Goddamned tape emulation, the ATR102, that I have ever used. Blows everyone out of the water. Also, their other reverb plug in emulations are very very useful. Their compressors too. Only drawback: They require their own CPU hardware. They do have constant sales, and thank you coupons, which get me in trouble from time to time.

After that, instrument wise I have the Arturia Collection (version 5). They are really useful plug ins. Recently had to replace a shitty sounding B3 Hammond with the plug in, as it had the wrong sound for the song, and it was also recorded like shit. This plug in made it a quick 3 minute job to replace the offending B3.

Cheers

[kslight]

Assuming you’re looking for EQ, dynamics, etc..not delays and reverb and whatever.

Good point! I'm actually totally satisfied by the Reaper EQs and Comps, and I have a Lexicon unit that I should really be using more for my 'verbs.
I guess I'm in the market for more interesting delays, effects, etc. As well as distortion/tube/amp sims. Noise reduction and restoration stuff would also be nice.

Well for restoration Izotope Rx is the standard. I have the “regular” version that came with the bundle I crossgraded to. Actually it was a large reason I crossgraded, I wasn’t sure how much I would use neutron 2 and ozone 8.

For effects and amp stuff, Plug-in alliance is worth your time. Brainworx actually makes a lot of UAD plugins so you know they are good. 14 days trials on everything too so pick and choose. Sales are frequent.


Soundtoys bundle I also have and it gets used a lot. It is top quality but get it on sale for half off...for $500 I would say I don’t use it quite enough for it to be worth that much.


Eventide stuff is cool too, of course. But I only own their freebies because how many plugins does one need...

[digitaldrummer]

I have some similar bundles I use a lot...

Waves - SSL bundle -- I use this all the time. Same with the Renaissance EQ/Comp and few others that I think I got in the Musicians2 bundle. And the CLA compressors. Otherwise I have mostly one-offs of Waves stuff. Waves has so many sales and was recently selling the SSL bundle for $199 (I think). I paid something like $450 several years ago and got a good deal when I did buy them.. this makes me sick. just kidding I've gotten my money's worth for sure.

UAD - aah, yes, you have to have the hardware. But these always sound better than most similar plugins from other places. I've been buying more and more of these.

SoundToys - I upgraded to the full bundle on a good sale once. there are a few I use all the time (I love Devil-Loc Deluxe) and a few that I'm still getting to know but it's always been stable and sounds great.

Slate - I really like the sounds of every Slate plugin I have (and I have many) but these also have more bugs than any other plugin I've ever used. But to be honest I feel like my setup has stabilized right now, but I still get the occasional hang/crash that I'm 98% sure is caused by one of these (same symptoms I used to get, but it occurs much less often - and yes a session w/o them worked fine). But the Virtual Console and VBC go on almost every project (if I master it, or at least if I'm providing an approximation...).

btw, I'm running Pro Tools 2018.1 on Windows 10.

Mike

[GeorgeToledo]

I have and use a lot of the stuff mentioned, but I have to say that if I was going to recommend *just one* plugin bundle, it would be Softube Vol 1, especially when it's during one of the sale times of year...and at one of the plugin sellers like AudioDeluxe or pluginboutique. I may be remembering wrong but I think it was around $150 the last time it was on sale, which is a staggering value for what is in there.

[Magnetic Services]

Reviving this thread because I have a better idea of what I want now. I definitely need Instruments AND effects, but not a ton of either. I need a solid yet basic set of:

-Sampled classic pianos/synths/keys
-Acoustic/electronic drum kits
-Misc orchestral/world instruments
-A handful of good comps, EQs, delays, etc.
-Versatile reverb(s): acoustic spaces plus plates & springs

Currently looking at Komplete Select: https://www.native-instruments.com/en/p ... 11-select/. Anybody know of something comparable/better? Budget is under $200, preferably no subscriptions. Looking for a step or two down from "the ultimate package," more like "the essentials."

Edit: also considering switching to Reason for the all-in-one package. The instruments and effects are phenomenal, but can anybody vouch for the audio workflow of it? Like many of us, I'm used to tracking bands in a "normal" DAW.

Thanks y'all.

[kslight]

Reviving this thread because I have a better idea of what I want now. I definitely need Instruments AND effects, but not a ton of either. I need a solid yet basic set of:

-Sampled classic pianos/synths/keys
-Acoustic/electronic drum kits
-Misc orchestral/world instruments
-A handful of good comps, EQs, delays, etc.
-Versatile reverb(s): acoustic spaces plus plates & springs

Currently looking at Komplete Select: https://www.native-instruments.com/en/p ... 11-select/. Anybody know of something comparable/better? Budget is under $200, preferably no subscriptions. Looking for a step or two down from "the ultimate package," more like "the essentials."

Edit: also considering switching to Reason for the all-in-one package. The instruments and effects are phenomenal, but can anybody vouch for the audio workflow of it? Like many of us, I'm used to tracking bands in a "normal" DAW.

Thanks y'all.

It almost sounds like you are asking for Logic if you want an all inclusive deal.


I have Reason, have been using it since it was new. I don’t know that I could recommend it based on it’s included sample instruments.

I think you can get a demo though.

As fas as recording workflow...I’ve used it like this. And you can edit and such (as opposed to Ableton which is very difficult or impossible to really edit real instruments in), but some features are sorely missing, like markers and grouping tracks...unless something has changed since 9.5. I wouldn’t want to cut a full multi-miked drum kit or anything in Reason but comping vocals is easy enough once you figure it out.

I also used to like Reason because it was fast and stable, but ever since they implemented VST support (9.5) it has really become a bloated sluggish mess and i am gonna lay low from updating it for awhile until they figure it out.


Native Instruments seems like a safe choice but I have no experience with that.

[Magnetic Services]

Native Instruments seems like a safe choice but I have no experience with that.

Safe is good. I'm always terrified that everything will stop working when I walk away from my computer, so I really value stability in software. And since Kontakt has been around for so long it seems like a good bet. Most of what I want is sampled instruments, anyway. Also being a cheapskate, I sprung for this deal:

https://www.musiciansfriend.com/pro-aud ... adType^PLA

They actually have to mail it to me, which seems weird these days. Comes with a $30 credit toward an upgrade though, so I figure I'll work my way up slowly

I am also trying Reason but ReWire-ing into Reaper is a pain in the ass.

[kslight]

Native Instruments seems like a safe choice but I have no experience with that.

Safe is good. I'm always terrified that everything will stop working when I walk away from my computer, so I really value stability in software. And since Kontakt has been around for so long it seems like a good bet. Most of what I want is sampled instruments, anyway. Also being a cheapskate, I sprung for this deal:

https://www.musiciansfriend.com/pro-aud ... adType^PLA

They actually have to mail it to me, which seems weird these days. Comes with a $30 credit toward an upgrade though, so I figure I'll work my way up slowly

I am also trying Reason but ReWire-ing into Reaper is a pain in the ass.

Rewiring is a pain. Something changed either in Reason or Pro Tools and I couldn’t even get it to work last time i tried it. I used to do it all the time because Reason doesn’t handle timecode or video.

I kind of use Reason as a big sampler/fx more than anything. The timestretching is not the same as other DAWs.