I’ve been using logic pro stock plugins prety much my time ive had the daw. recently I got a couple free arturia ones and they add a bit more flavour to the sound. so now im thinking of getting some others. What would you say are essentials or good value plugins that enhance productions. Im thinking more fx side but all are considered
Did you know that a majority of Disclosure’s early albums were all done with stock logic plugins ? What do you think you’re missing in your sound ?
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I’d suggest not to buy plugins just because they are “essentials”. All the basics (and beyond) are covered with stock plugins from Logic/Ableton/Bitwig etc., so maybe it is better to start by knowing all of them before spending money.
Still, if you want to spend some cash on plugins the best way to do it is to learn what plugins are used by the producers/musicians/sound designers you like. That way you’ll have some familiarity with the sounds and you’d know what to look on them.
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Toneboosters, Tokyo Dawn Labs, and Valhalla are my favorite “insane value” brands… there’s a crazy deal on SSL Native 9000k plus Bus Compressor right now if you want SSL branded stuff. Plug-in Alliance sales can get you some good ones, you just have to wait until the normally inflated price drops for two days a month.
edit: almost everything has demos, so you can see for yourself if they really are adding anything to what you are trying to do. If not, don’t buy them.
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Black Box HG-2.
I’ve been using it on busses for the last 6 months. Blows my mind that it’s free with the SoundWide intro bundle free offer deal for the next week or two.
Just a really good saturation with little added latency and lots of control. Fantastic tone box.
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Logic Pro comes with a ‘SSL’ compressor, so even that is not essential to buy.
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At least 80% of the techno tracks I’ve heard on HATE channel on YouTube clearly used that stock plugin on the master. So yeah, I would define it as “essential”, at least for techno.
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Definitely no ‘essential’ plugins from a pedantic perspective, and even then the advice you get will be from individuals whose needs may differ from yours.
That said, I adore Valhalla VintageVerb. It’s on everything I produce. Also love Valhalla Delay, it’s just beautiful and I love the interface. Those two alone are ‘better’ than stock Live plugins - though the stock Echo is fantastic, the Reverb is a little long in the tooth. Props to Valhalla Shimmer as well for the elegant interface and for being a shimmer reverb that is actually useful!
However two plugins I use on absolutely everything are iZotope Neutron and iZotope Ozone. Fantastic processing, great sounds. They’re versions I got free with other purchases, so I’m a bit biased. Also big love to FabFilter’s individual plugins - Pro-Q3, Pro-MB, Pro-L and Saturn see a lot of use here.
Between Valhalla’s reverb/delay/modulation stuff, FabFilter’s utility stuff and iZotope ‘one-click soundgoodizers’, I don’t think I could ever truly consider anything else to be essential.
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I love Trackspacer. Don’t know if I’d say essential but it really helps with getting certain parts to cut through.
Other then that I mainly use Bitwig stock plugins. I should maybe hunt down a fancier reverb but overall I’m pretty satisfied with them.
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Love the H-Delay, use it all the time. I think the H-series is a great collection.
Would recommend oeksound Soothe 2, fab-filter pro-Q and pro-L
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Depends on your style of music.
i like tape delay and spring reverb, so Audiothing is a great small company.
Arturias tape delay and BB delay and their spring reverb sound great.
Personally, I like Valhalla, Fabfilter, Soundtoys too.