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Don't forget Stock plugins!!!

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Scottyb

Senior Member
I know we search and search. All of us. But after looking and looking and (yes) looking some more. Downloading trials and demos. Endless A/B comparisons. Cheap ones, expensive ones. Lo and behold I found the reverb that I love. The stinking stock Matrix Reverb plugin from Apple that comes with Logic. That also works with other DAWS once you have it.

It's amazing! I'm so stupid for not looking at and appreciating what I already had!

Either way. Don't forget your stock plugins guys! You might find that magic plugin you were searching for!

: )
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I use quite a lot of the stock Cubase plugins myself and I love them. Especially Quadrafuzz for saturation/distortion,the stock compressor all the time for simple stuff, stock EQ a lot, envelope shaper etc.

I have other external plugins that I use for more specific situations of course, but stock plugins are usually more than enough for the workhorse stuff. At least at my level, since I'm definitely no mixing engineer, but I get by with my skills.
 
Similarly, don't overlook your own sample material as well! I know we've got all these fancy virtual instruments, but sometimes the most magical thing for your track won't come from an overproduced
spitfire library, but rather, from a rickety old tambourine sample you recorded in your bedroom with a $15 "amazon special" microphone.
 
rMancer said:
Similarly, don't overlook your own sample material as well! I know we've got all these fancy virtual instruments, but sometimes the most magical thing for your track won't come from an overproduced
spitfire library, but rather, from a rickety old tambourine sample you recorded in your bedroom with a $15 "amazon special" microphone.
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Indeed, I found this video very inspiring recently, will be giving this idea a go:

 
When looking for a replacement for my beloved R4 reverb (since it is now EOL), on a whim I gave one of the stock Logic algorithmic reverbs, Chroma, a try. After a bit of tweaking, I was able to get it pretty close to my "go-to" R4 preset, a slightly modified version of the Famous Large Hall factory preset (actually, it is sort of a mix between the Famous Large Hall and Fat Vintage Hall presets).

Is it an exact match? Of course not, but I think it is surprisingly close for just a few minutes of fiddling. Do I still prefer the R4's sound? Yes, but only very slightly. And I am sure I can get it even closer with some more tweaking.

I almost bought Cinematic Rooms during the recent sale, but was able to save a good bit of money. I'll still eventually get Cinematic Rooms, but for a straight R4 replacement, I was very pleasantly surprised by Chroma.
 
Apple, Reason Studios, Steinberg etc invest millions of ££s, €€s, $$ in their recording software.

Perhaps many people view built-in plug-ins as inferior so convince themselves into buying pricey 3rd party ones even though more often than not they’re unnecessary, nor superior.
 
For me, stock plugins = less mental energy.

When mixing, if you've got maybe 2,3 choices per plugin type, there's less decisions to make ("Which EQ do I use?") and less self questioning. The mix will kinda be what it will be and you don't end up downloading trial plugins at 3am in the morning.
 
As a REAPER user, I try to use the stock plugins as much as possible. The ones shipping with this DAW may seem rather rudimentary but they are very powerful, resource-efficient, and transparent.

The only commercial developers whose plugins I use on a regular basis are Valhalla DSP and IZotope. As a Komplete owner, I also have a suite of FX and tools by Native which I'm occasionally using as an alternative to these. Finally, let's not forget about all the sound-shaping options built into most Kontakt libraries.

I wholeheartedly agree that less is actually more when it comes to plugins and that having too many choices can often be a pain. But then again, this also applies to sounds and libraries. ;)
 
Cyberic said:
Apple, Reason Studios, Steinberg etc invest millions of ££s, €€s, $$ in their recording software.

Perhaps many people view built-in plug-ins as inferior so convince themselves into buying pricey 3rd party ones even though more often than not they’re unnecessary, nor superior.
Click to expand...
I think it's almost always a matter of bland design that tends to make people feel like the stock plugins don't get the job done compared to flashier looking third-party plugins. There's also a bit of a creative uniqueness that's lacking in stock plugins. The things that third-party plugins do to stand out from the competition. Regardless, they almost always get the job done once you've found your rhythm.
 
I'm not crazy about the Reaper ones, but then I'm kind of learning that I'm more of an analog guy anyway.
 
I have used quite a lot of stock plugins over time. But since like 2-ish years i am more and more into thirdparty plugs, since they have a better workflow/gui and/or better control (audio quality) over the results. More specialistic in a sense. Also another side reason to use more thirdparties, is because of standards. Most courses e.g. use several thirdparty plugs, which makes reproduction easier to do.
So it is two folded for me.

Note: i am not a sound engineer by any means.. so my ears might play tricks on me with third parties.
 
A while back I got a little too curious and did a very precise shootout between Logic's stock "vintage console" EQ (the one with the Neve-looking UI), UAD Neve 1073 channel strip (the more recent one with the fader), and my actual hardware AMS-Neve 1084 preamp+eq. While the knob settings needed to be a little different between the various software vs hardware in order to achieve the same sound (by ear), I was able to get soooo close as makes no difference.

Obviously there are workflow and use case differences, but I was able to duplicate a "beef up live war toms" setting that I had on the hardware when using either piece of software. I was very impressed.

I did similar "duplicate the sound of the hardware" tests with my hardware Distressors vs UAD and Empirical's Arouser plugins, as well as Arturia's most recent ProphetVS-V vs my hardware Prophet-VS (both keyboard and rack), a variety of MiniMoog emulations vs my re-issue Moog Model D, and a variety of Jupiter-8 style synth plugins vs my MKS-80 (that I bought new when it was a current Roland product!).

The biggest surprise was that I was able to get the lowly ES-2 poly synth that's been a stock Logic plugin for nearly 20 years to get super-close when right up against the real MKS-80. Which is a good thing because I've been using ES-2 as my primary analog synth plugin ever since it came out. That said, I only use a small handful of analog synth sounds, but ES-2 rocks for the sounds I use - and total recall, host-sync for LFOs, and total automation make life way easier than using the hardware.

I did 200+ hour-long episodes of tv scores and a dozen feature films using stock Logic plugins, with only TC MasterX5 as a mastering processor on my stem sub-masters.

Now if only Logic had a good "Finalizer" or Ozone-type mastering plugin...
 
I so much love the ES2! Kind of grown with time, and it's super flexible as a synth.
Some of the UI elements are hidden (like the extra waveforms in the oscillators), or the capabilities of the vector envelope, which I think is pulling away many new users thinking that is a simple, or an inflexible synthesizer.

Alchemy, oh wow, it sounds amazing and is beyond flexible!

Honorable mention to Sculpture. I love it deep in my heart and I can play hours with it, but somehow never fit in the mixes, which is probably me.

For the rest of the logic plugins, nothing beats double clicking on the EQ slot! Most of the times I do it without thinking, and I rarely reach out to the rest of the EQs that I have installed. Same for the logic compressor.
 
Scottyb said:
Don't forget your stock plugins guys! You might find that magic plugin you were searching for!
Click to expand...
Stock plugins are great as long as you don't turn their usage into a religion. ;)

Personally, I have more plugins that I could ever use and often with multiple choices I rotate those that I use more at a specific time. E.g. this year, I have barely touched u-He's Presswerk compressor, next year I will use it more... etc.
Changing options is a way to keep myself entertained (or to give a little "extra kick")

When speaking about stock plugins, as a Logic user some come to my mind.

Autofilter is an option I will always love to use. (Funny thing is that I had a long phone call with the Emagic team around 20 years ago when I asked them to implement more filter options, when it had only LP. Some weeks (or months??) later it got the additional filter types.

Also the Tuner just works.

As does the Gain plugin, which I (ab-) use all the time. It's great to switch L and R or to enable mono (for checking a mix in mono).

The Pitch shifter is a great alternative to Little Alterboy and works better on some material.

The frequency shifter is also a nice one. (allthough I use the one from Melda more)

From the instruments, I bought ES2 when it came out and it was a great work horse (until it got more and more replaced by Absynth and Zebra2)
Another one was the E-Piano that has a very distinct sound (the attack is very unique). I still use it from time to time, when I want that sound.

And then there are some Plugins which offer amazing options but I still don't use them a lot.
Like the Delay designer (with fantastic options e.g. when it comes to pitch the delayed signal)
I used it a lot ten years ago, maybe in 2023 i will use it again. ;)
 
I don't delude myself into believing that 3rd party plugins have some special fairy dust built into them that somehow makes them - or my music - sound better. However, I'll get a 3rd party plugin if it has some kind of special utility, or because it's doing something very particular that's not possible or complicated to do with other plugins. So basically when I see something that will make my life easier or make me less distracted or annoyed, I might get it. If the price is right, that is.
 
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