# Have you tamed your effects GAS?



## kitekrazy (Aug 31, 2017)

Since summer started there seems to be this explosion of deals with VSTs for mixing/mastering.

IK recently had a group buy and I ended up with 8 plugins.
Plugin Alliance always sends a monthly voucher and you end up with something free or a few plugins spending very little money.
Melda has a 50% sale every week.
Izotope has a loyalty program and reminds you everyday they have a sale.
Then there's Waves with their Platinum bundle that you can get at vendors for under $140.

I am coming from this at a novice or intermediate perspective. It's real easy to look at that Waves bundle and think 50 plugins for a great price. There's also the daily $29 deal. I start to think how many of those would I actually ever use. I have the Gold bundle and when I see a $29 deal I have to check and see if I already have it.
My knocks about Waves is not about quality. I don't like their installer after making a few mistakes. System Restore is my friend. Their licensing isn't convenient if you have two machines. With their irresistible deals I end up buying for a 2nd license. I look at this Platinum bundle for my main machine and slap Gold on the other one. If you have plenty of Waves stuff the WUP is sticker shock. There were two people on KVR discussing about God and Platinum at the same price and thinking would they use the extra plugins in Platinum. Then there is this talk that Waves will soon release v10 and try to collect on the WUP for all of those budget plugins.
This brings me up to Izotope. They give a whole lotta Izotope in their bundle for about $280. Unlike Waves you can put them on two machines and no WUP. From what one can read their stuff is very good quality. They seem to have done well this week selling their Elements series.
As for IK they never fail in their group buys. I've gotten some more vintage compressors, eqs, and couple channel strips. I have plenty of eqs and compressors now. The only drawback is their isn't any special upgrade pricing.
What I like about Melda and Plugin Alliance is they can have some unique effects. Melda has a multiband series. I like their GUIs and even their low priced plugins seem very involved. The more stuff you have the lower the bundle pricing.
Fabfilter doesn't give their stuff and those who have them never stray from using them religiously. They are expensive for a hobbyist and trying to save up for one goes out the window in favor of a sound library.
I do find it impressive when I see a video of users using stock plugins. I see this more with FL Studio and Logic users. I wonder who is responsible for that "3rd party plugins are obviously better" crusade?

How many of you basically stick to one or two developers? I may go that route for simplicity purposes. 

Basically what I think I'm doing here is talking myself off a ledge.


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## kurtvanzo (Aug 31, 2017)

If I were to start over I would get everything Fab Filter, Sound Toys, and Kush Audio makes along with the Lexicon PCM Reverb bundle and Altiverb 7. That would pretty much cover all my needs without the thousands spent on other plugins over the years.


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## jtnyc (Aug 31, 2017)

I use Fabfilter for EQ, compression, saturation and limiting and Soundtoys for everything they offer. I also use a few from Valhalla, and a few of the Logic stock plugs. I stopped using Waves years ago. The WUP thing was the final nail for me, on top of the fact that I don't like their cheesy marketing that names products after famous engineers. It's just a personal thing. I can't stand that kind of stuff. I had a gold bundle years ago and the plugs were ok, but nothing really stood out as anything that special. Fabfilter, Soundtoys and Valhalla are very special IMO. I could easily live with just those 3


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## guydoingmusic (Aug 31, 2017)

Simplicity I think is good. From my perspective anyways. I mainly use UAD, Soundtoys, and Slate Plugins. Granted, I have WAY more installed than from just those developers. I rarely reach for those other plugins though. Outside of the 3 developers I mentioned - I don't reach for many other tools unless they are a specific specialty kind of plugin like the Clariphonic. I've only bought a couple of things from waves and rarely if ever use them. So much wasted money honestly. Funny thing is... I don't have the heart to uninstall the ones I don't ever use. Go figure. Ha.

That's not to say those 3 developers plugins should be everyone else's bread and butter... but I think it does illustrate the trend that we all have those old faithful things that just work for us. In fact, I find myself using the built in eq in Cubase a lot of times. Which proves that I don't HAVE to have that other eq plugin.


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## Vastman (Aug 31, 2017)

Oh yes! Fab, sound toys, izotope, and a sprinkling of exotics like Zynaptiq... Don't use all the IK stuff and the thousands of others I've bought during frinzied moments of GAS.

Still susceptible to delays but that's about it...

Shifted to studio hardware now that I've RELOCATED and am saturated with libraries... Will be getting a 65 in LG B7 OLED next week.it's the ONLY computer/gaming/video production ready screen out there and in word, WOW!


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## mc_deli (Aug 31, 2017)

All the resellers, deals, affiliates, and punters buying loads of plug ins... I think it's also connected to the avalanche of (mostly poor) how-to videos. Everyone is looked for short-cuts. 95% of people are probably wasting their time and money. Extra plug ins are not going to make the difference between something listenable and not. Of course, for 5% of people, the ones making actual listenable music (not even "professional" quality output, whatever that is) it might make all the difference. 

That percentage is from the hat of course but there are a lot - a lot - of hobbyists out there. VI-c is different of course - there is a much greater % of pros here than on GS I reckon. But you get the point.


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## enCiphered (Sep 1, 2017)

kitekrazy said:


> Since summer started there seems to be this explosion of deals with VSTs for mixing/mastering.
> 
> IK recently had a group buy and I ended up with 8 plugins.
> Plugin Alliance always sends a monthly voucher and you end up with something free or a few plugins spending very little money.
> ...




Nice post. I have the same feelings about this deal explosion, really insane..

I stopped buying from Izotope due to their aggressive spamming, this is so unprofessional but they´ll never learn.

I used my monthly Plugin Alliance voucher for Fiedler Audio Stage and am more than happy about the deal. I´m doing a lot of sound design these days and it adds a unique, fresh ambience to my sound.
And I have to say, PA never dissapoints in terms of quality, so I´m very thankful for their regular vouchers for existing customers.

Waves..
Until now I never paid for any update plans. To be honest, I don´t even understand what exactly I should pay for. They don´t even have a version history of updated plugins on their website, I mean every other developer releases a frequent version history of his plugins on his site where you can read what was fixed, what is new, what new functions have been implemented.
I´m using Waves plugins for more than 5 years but I never got a single mail from them about an updated plugin. Never!
Or do I only get informed about updates if I pay the 300 bucks first?
Sorry, I don´t get it..
Having said that, their plugins are very good and I use them all the time.

Rob Papen released a new reverb plugin a few days ago, the reverb market is oversaturated..
Instead of making his good synths even better, add some nice features like sample import, better, scalable GUI´s etc.. he decided to make another reverb plugin.
I don´t think we need more delays or reverbs. For what?!

Or another console emulation of some ancient studio technology..
Many musicians and producers still believe that it is cool to sound outdated.
It´not.

To sum up and answer your initial question:
If you already have a plugin arsenal that covers all your needs, go only for deals which help you stay creative!


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## mouse (Sep 1, 2017)

All I have are Fabfilter, UAD and Soundtoys for main use and these do absolutely everything I need.

Soundtoys in particular are perfect for all manner of sound design while the others are great for mixing and mastering.

I do like a few select plugins by Ohmforce, Eventide, Dmitry Sches (Tantra) but if I was starting, I'd just get the Fabfilter bundle and Soundtoys and leave it at that!


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## premjj (Sep 1, 2017)

kitekrazy said:


> Since summer started there seems to be this explosion of deals with VSTs for mixing/mastering.
> 
> IK recently had a group buy and I ended up with 8 plugins.
> Plugin Alliance always sends a monthly voucher and you end up with something free or a few plugins spending very little money.
> ...



Glad somebody brought this up. I was myself planning to start a similar thread. 

"Analog, Warmth, Saturation, Glue, 90% off, Punch, Bite, Flash Sale". There's always another plugin/library/effect around the corner tempting us. 

And then there are the free goodies being offered every now and then.


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## wst3 (Sep 1, 2017)

I am trying to pare down my plugin collection if for no other reason than to make it easier to find stuff. And 'by developer' seems like a really good starting point.

I use UAD stuff a lot, for emulations I think they are the best. Their tape machines, plate, and Ocean Way are favorites.

I use Soundtoys - all their stuff.

I use PSP effects a lot too. Something terribly cool about their approach to effects.

I use Zynaptiq more than I would have expected. Their fixit stuff is much more than just fixit stuff, and Adaptaverb is amazing.

I also have Phoenixverb, R4, and Excalibur from Exponential - these are truly amazing feats of coding. They sound awesome and they are so flexible. (Downside, you can spent a lot of time tweaking!)

I ended up picking up the Eventide bundle on sale, mostly I use the Instant Phaser and Instant Flanger, but the rest are starting to grow on me and I turn to them more frequently.

Speaking of flangers (not something one hears here everyday) the Fix Audio Designs/Softube Fix Flanger and Doubler are amazing.

And then there is Waves. I have Gold and a (very small) handful of other stuff from them. They sound great. In the 1990s there really wasn't anyone doing what they did. Good thing too, because as a business they have a lot to learn. Their WUP program made sense once, but it has outlived its usefulness and the constant sales is so contrary to WUP that it makes them look silly. Which is ok, they can look silly as long as they keep putting out great sounding plugins. If one is just getting started I don't think there is a more useful bundle than Gold - a great sampling of processors and effects, and you could track and mix an album using nothing more. Tastes will mature, and you'll want more. But I don't know anyone that has ever completely deleted their Waves plugins. Even in spite of some truly awful business missteps (was it v8 to v9 when users could no longer authorize their plugins - which was part of the justification for iLok in the first place? oops!)

Izotope may have the most musical equalizer and compressor I've ever used - hardware or software. The company is still maturing, and they too have made some monumental missteps. I own RX, and I have the plugins they originally bundled with Sound Forge. That's enough for now, although Ozone really does sound gorgeous, and could finally bump me off my dependence on UAD emulations of hardware I used to swear at 30 years ago<G>!

All that sounds like a lot, I'm actually somewhat surprised that's all I've accomplished in my shrink the plugin list quest. (and there are a couple other one-offs in there too, but I'm too embarrassed to list them!) Coming from a background where having multiple compressors or reverbs in the studio was a luxury it is shocking. Viewing it from the perspective of 2017 maybe it isn't as gauche as it first appears? These tools offer subtle (or in some cases not so subtle) differences that can make a recording ever so slightly closer to what I hear in my head. I guess that's ok.

(Hint to UAD owners - if you haven't already done so hide all the plugins you haven't purchased - makes the list easier to navigate and reduces temptation!)


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## kitekrazy (Sep 1, 2017)

I think with reverbs it's different. There are developers that concentrate only on these.
I have almost all of the TRacks. I should use them.


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## rrichard63 (Sep 2, 2017)

Three inter-related factors that contribute to GAS: (1) I find it very hard to decide on plugins during a demo period. Which EQ (for example) am I going to end up using on acoustic guitar (for example)? I'm not going to know the answer until I've played with them all for a while. (2) In music production, small differences can be important. At the same time, it is time-consuming to evaluate them. (3) Different projects can require different sonic signatures -- and therefore different tools.

On a different aspect of the discussion, add DMG Audio to the list of plugins that should make everybody's short list.


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## Wes Antczak (Sep 2, 2017)

I've really cut back compared to things that I used to get a few years ago. I didn't decide so much as my budget decided for me, lol. I have all of the usual suspects, including Soundtoys, Izotope, Fabfilter, Eventide, Izotope, etc., etc. And (for me) staples like Lexicon and Relab. Part of this was the result of searching for the tools that worked for me, e.g. getting something because the demo seemed, good, and the price was right. Then in "daily use" it turned out that some things were not nearly as useful as I thought they might be.

Now it's time to pare back a bit and focus on the things that I actually do use.

In a way, the same thing holds through for sample libraries and synths.

I'm also taking a step back and incorporating hardware back into my setup. Especially in terms of synths, sometimes I find myself being a lot more creative just being able to reach out and turn a knob and on dedicated synths that I know well, where the process seems much more fluid and intuitive with no need to even think about the actual process.

I'm currently finalizing my new setup where everything is seamless regardless of whether the sound source is virtual, real, or acoustic. The best of all worlds so that neither the computer, or any of the separate elements are the creative canvas but everything in the studio is the canvas.

At the end of the day and over time, so much music has been composed with just pencil and paper so sometimes I ask myself what do I _really_ need anyway?


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## kitekrazy (Sep 2, 2017)

My next goal in music production is to ignore sales from BF to Christmas.


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## premjj (Sep 4, 2017)

kitekrazy said:


> I think with reverbs it's different. There are developers that concentrate only on these.
> I have almost all of the TRacks. I should use them.



Any idea how the TRacks analogue emulations stack up against the other brands?


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## Living Fossil (Sep 4, 2017)

premjj said:


> Any idea how the TRacks analogue emulations stack up against the other brands?



They are great. I specially like their EQ81, the SSL emulations and the 432 (Sontec-EQ).
I also use Amplitube (with some of the collections) a lot.


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## premjj (Sep 4, 2017)

Living Fossil said:


> They are great. I specially like their EQ81, the SSL emulations and the 432 (Sontec-EQ).
> I also use Amplitube (with some of the collections) a lot.



I've just splurged on some other stuff already else the Tracks Max Upgrade is at 199 Euros right now.


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## kitekrazy (Sep 5, 2017)

Living Fossil said:


> They are great. I specially like their EQ81, the SSL emulations and the 432 (Sontec-EQ).
> I also use Amplitube (with some of the collections) a lot.



Good to know. I have almost the whole collection. I don't know what it is but I have a lot of IK stuff and forget to use them.


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## Publius (Sep 8, 2017)

I have also observed what I consider to be a permanent lowering of plug in prices--across the board. This makes sense since there are many good products competing for a niche market. Not like the waves thousands of dollars good old days (for them), when they were sort of the only game in town.

I recently got a good deal on waves gold, though nowhere near $140 for platinum as a deal. As a long time isotope customer I got their producer's bundle for a really good price. I also bought a few of the $29 waves specials, gimmicky stuff like the abbey road red console one and an Eddie Kramer tape simulator of some sort. I have a hard time imagining what a waves gold wup could do to generate interest--those plugs appear to be original equipment from many years ago, including the smaller bitmap based graphic interface which is too small on modern monitors--only changes I can see is they get them to work in windows 10. Maybe I answered my own question: an upgrade to a re-sizable gui for the waves stuff--not buying wup is one way I can mitigate my over-investment in waves.

As a result of this, I have lots of overlap in functionality.

Knowing what I know now, if I got a do-over, I would simply buy the waves h-series and the isotope producer's bundle. Or maybe just the h-reverb and the isotope producer's bundle. I think the isotope stuff is pretty good, and the producer's bundle has sort of an 'everything but the kitchen sink' twice over, except for a reverb.

Probably would have been pretty well off with simply the Cubase plugs. Their artist level reverb was really low quality to my ears, but since I have gone to pro level, that pro level reverb might have been pretty good--or good enough. In any case, the waves h-reverb is very nice to my ears.

In any case, I got waves gold for what would be the retail price for a single plug-in, so maybe its not the money so much as the distraction of too many compressors and the like--not knowing which one to use.


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## synthpunk (Sep 8, 2017)

The TR 432 mastering EQ plugin is top-notch! I like it slightly better than the UAD Massenburg.

I thought the gas had passed as well until I heard the Hendyamps Michelangelo Tube EQ. 



premjj said:


> Any idea how the TRacks analogue emulations stack up against the other brands?


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## higgs (Sep 8, 2017)

I've had reeeeally bad GAS the last year.

Currently covering 95% of what I use/need:

Waves - used these for so long that I'm efficient with them making it hard to move away, particularly for the REQ plugs, WLMs, PAZ, and a couple others
Fab Filter - Pro-R, Pro-Q2, and Saturn
Soundtoys - For fun and mangling
Melodyne - Melodyne + Soundtoys = some serious creative possibilities when I start thinking outside the box
Valhalla - I use these verbs more than any others. I've other ""nicer"" verbs, but still haven't found a real go-to (though Lexicon might be in my future)
iZotope - RX6 and Ozone, which in reality could replace the Waves plugins I use
Some UAD - but I'm becoming less enchanted with being tied to their hardware to use the plugins I've bought (tricky little fuckers they are)

Now put the above list next to my full GAS list, take the difference in money from said GAS list, and I could have the second set of monitors I've been pining for. Time to sell...


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## premjj (Sep 8, 2017)

synthpunk said:


> Hendyamps Michelangelo Tube EQ



That's $2,650 !!


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## synthpunk (Sep 8, 2017)

My Irish grandfather used to say, life is short, work hard for your money and spend it on the things and people you love.

It sounds wonderful. I might still get a couple Pultec clones in the next 6 months but I'm still debating if they would truly be a upgrade over the UAD plug-in.



premjj said:


> That's $2,650 !!


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## Nathanael Iversen (Sep 8, 2017)

I don't get very excited about FX plugins - I think of them rather functionally... The new Resonant EQ in Cubase 9 is excellent for controlling resonances, hi/low pass filtering, and all general correction. It is now able to work in linear mode, which I use extensively, and also M/S. I use it everywhere - it is my "standard" EQ. I do coarse hi/low pass stuff in the "PRE" section of the Cubase mixer.

I did pick up the Waves F6 Dynamic EQ recently on $29 sale, and that is WONDERFUL on vocals - every EQ band has a threshold and ratio control - on vocals it is very transparent. I have Melodyne Studio for pitch stuff, and it does what it says on the tin - it is also very invisible used in moderation.

I have the full Slate subscription for "color", but I use it in moderation - a couple of those plugins in a row and the sound can get "veiled" - I suppose like old gear. I A/B the color plugins carefully and decide if I want what they are doing or not. The 1176 clones are great on drums, and the red FG-something-or-another compressor I also use on bass. I use the Slate "red" vari-mu buss compressor all the time - mostly in M/S mode - it is wonderful on the drum buss and on the master. Used in small doses it does some glue magic stuff and allows fine mix balancing. It makes me want to buy a Manley VariMu and try the real thing... 

I also have the Flux mastering plugins, but they don't see as much use - I use the compressor more than the EQ's. The compressor is VERY adjustable and invisible. A good choice for dynamic control, but not for color. 

I do use Auto-Align from Sound Radix for drums - it does exactly what it says, sounds great, and is invisible except for making the drums super tight. It is a standard fixture in my "band" template. 

I use the 2B-2C reverbs and VSS for spatializing stuff.


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