The plugin corner

[sr1200]

Hey just wanted to know if anyone has used VCC (slate digital).  An engineer at a big studio i frequent now swears by this and has gone as far as to say that when mixing ITB with it, its almost indistinguishable from the mixes hes running through the SSL4K at the studio.  Im on the fence right now, the examples i've seen sound nice and it's definitely doing something "different" to the sound.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=iGNkRmrwn3M (watch in HD sound is WAY better)

[living sounds]

Hey just wanted to know if anyone has used VCC (slate digital).  An engineer at a big studio i frequent now swears by this and has gone as far as to say that when mixing ITB with it, its almost indistinguishable from the mixes hes running through the SSL4K at the studio.  Im on the fence right now, the examples i've seen sound nice and it's definitely doing something "different" to the sound.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=iGNkRmrwn3M (watch in HD sound is WAY better)

I think the whole idea of simulating the signal path of an SSL is absurd. After all it's just loads of caps and 5534 op amps.

I think the interesting part of the console in reagards to sonics is the EQ and dynamics, and no plugin I've heard really does an analog EQ or compressor justice.

Just my 2 cents, of course.

[sr1200]

So i did the trial on the Slate VCC thing (if you have an ilok you can try it too... anyone with a newer version of protools should have an ilok anyway) Theres a lot more to this thing than meets the eye.  (and its not only an SSL emulator, theres an API model, Neve, Trident and "tube" (not sure the console, but i suspect an EMI or something)
Anywho... There's something different going on under the hood of this one.  Cant place my finger on it but it's not your typical "eq curve" kind of thing, it moves things around (in a good way).   I've been using the Neve setting, and driving just a touch, the kick gets all big and fat (eq-ish) but something happens to the stereo field.  The middle opens up somehow, thats the only way I can describe it.  All of a sudden the snare is just smacking the fillings in your teeth and sounds 3 dimensional.  I get a similar result from my analog summing box, but the plugin kind of takes it a step further.
Needless to say, I now own the plugin.  Even taking mixes i did long ago, when i pop this on the channels and mix bus theres just a new flavor and clarity.  Try it out if ya can... sooo worth the listen!

[Viitalahde]

The Sonoris Parallel EQ is getting love here lately. I mainly use it for minute post-capture adjustments. I especially like to use it for creating customized HPF/LPF slopes that actually sound good.

[SubhumanRecords]

Massey plugs,unlimited demo,if u buy them there cheap ass crap and best of all...They kick arse!!!!

[etheory]

Voxengo Elephant is the best native limiter I've ever used: http://www.voxengo.com/product/elephant/ - well worth checking out.

[Insomniaclown]

So i did the trial on the Slate VCC thing (if you have an ilok you can try it too... anyone with a newer version of protools should have an ilok anyway) Theres a lot more to this thing than meets the eye.  (and its not only an SSL emulator, theres an API model, Neve, Trident and "tube" (not sure the console, but i suspect an EMI or something)
Anywho... There's something different going on under the hood of this one.  Cant place my finger on it but it's not your typical "eq curve" kind of thing, it moves things around (in a good way).   I've been using the Neve setting, and driving just a touch, the kick gets all big and fat (eq-ish) but something happens to the stereo field.  The middle opens up somehow, thats the only way I can describe it.  All of a sudden the snare is just smacking the fillings in your teeth and sounds 3 dimensional.  I get a similar result from my analog summing box, but the plugin kind of takes it a step further.
Needless to say, I now own the plugin.  Even taking mixes i did long ago, when i pop this on the channels and mix bus theres just a new flavor and clarity.  Try it out if ya can... sooo worth the listen!

Console emulations seem to be the newest trend in plugin land. I picked up Sonimus Satson, and I really love the sound it brings to the table. Haven't tried VCC yet, but I do want to try Sknote's stripbus at some point. Soundtoys Juice should be interesting as well. If it ever comes out.

Speaking of Sknote, the GTS 39 compressor is really cool. Been loving it on bass and guitars so far. I think I'll be picking up verbtone as well.

A nice little freebie http://www.klanghelm.com/DC1A.html Input, Output and a selectable "Relaxed" mode. Simple as it gets. I have just used it on a snare so far, and it sounds very nice indeed. The full DC8C compressor looks impressive.

For anyone using amp sims, I just spent the day trying Kuassa Creme. Loving this amp sim! I also just picked up Recabinet, and I think it is worth the money. These 2 plugs together gets me a ripping guitar tone.

[rmaier]

Voxengo Elephant is the best native limiter I've ever used: http://www.voxengo.com/product/elephant/ - well worth checking out.

+1. Lots of others from Aleksey worth checking out, too.

[mata_haze]

Sony Oxford EQ, super esser and dynamics -> VERY transparent even when pushed
McDSP Compressor Bank and Filterbank
TLSpace reverb
although after readying this thread I am tempted on the Lexicon package..

Mattia.

[helterbelter]

I have just purchased a 2nd hand Duende PCIe with the channelstrip and  busscompressor, and the X-eq and the X-comp as add-ons. I'm waiting for the post to deliver it to me, but I'm curious to hear some reviews of forummembers here, so :

any opinions ?

Does it compare to the UAD and Waves versions of the SSL strip and busscompressor ?

[sr1200]

What DAW are you using?  As i recall the duende had some issues with certain hosts. Which is one reason that it died off.

[helterbelter]

Yes, I've read some issues when using Cubase 4, which I use, but with a proper install it should be working excellent.
(regarding Cubase,  I must say that I consider changing to Reaper)

[dmlandrum]

For the record, I've been using Reaper for about two years now, and have been very happy with it. I personally find its MIDI editing is kinda clumsy, though, so if that's important to you, take that into consideration. In the end, though, I don't do enough with MIDI for that to matter, as everything else about the program is excellent.

As for plugins, I have been making my first album using nothing but free plugins and what comes with Reaper. The vast majority of all the others I use are from Variety of Sound:

http://varietyofsound.wordpress.com/

NastyDLA is the closest I've ever heard to a real tape loop delay in the digital domain. I haven't heard them all, though, so that opinion may vary, but for the price, it can't be beat.

ThrillSeekerLA is my go-to track compressor for just about everything except drums, for which I reach for DensityMkII, also from VoS. And I just noticed that DensityMkIII is out now. Time to go read up on the differences.

Getting away from VoS, there's the PushTec EQ from LeftoverLasagna: http://www.leftoverlasagne.com/leftoverlasagne/plug-ins.html. They're a graphic design company making GUIs for other plugin companies, as far as I can tell, but their one sample offering is actually pretty good.

Finally, I really like Reaper's own ReaEQ for the transparent, surgical stuff. If you don't use Reaper, you can download the ReaPlugs package here for any Windows host that supports VST: http://www.reaper.fm/reaplugs/

[helterbelter]

Been reading more and more about Cubase vs Reaper, and I've already decided that going to add it to my daw computer for a thorough comparison. Have to finish the project I'm working on first, this will take a few months.

Though, I do hope my Midi needs are supported in reaper. Especially the drum editor is a necessity for me, and the reaper manual didn't tell me something similar is present in Reaper. That would mean I have to use both, and that's not the way I want to work.

Cubase 4 does crash on a regular basis, and I'm tired of this. I once spoke to a sales person about this, and his reply was : "maybe you should upgrade to Cubase 6". That's not the reply I'm expecting when I spent so many euros on a daw. Especially because this update costs another 200 euro, and the update from SX3 to cubase 4 was a waste of money already. Maybe I'd better go back to Cubase SX3. Better sounding standard plugins, and the GUI was also better IMO.

[rmaier]

This link explaining drum mapping might help (disclaimer: I use Reaper but never midi):
http://www.recordiola.com/reaper-drum-map

Ralph

BTW, Have to agree with dmlandrum about the transparency of ReaEQ (this thread being about plugins). Came in very handy on a recent classical guitar project for cleaning up some nasty low end rumble.

Nobody talks much about Reverberate. I started using it almost as soon as it came out and haven't really felt the need to look for another convolution reverb since, especially when paired with Bricasti impulses. Anyone else use it?

[dmlandrum]

The little MIDI I've been doing is drum editing, but I did it in a weird way, wherein I used a sampler plug-in to map different round-robin samples to different notes, and then did my actual round-robin manually. This really had more to do with the sampler I used (Shortcircuit 1) than anything, but I can't help but think a more elegant solution is possible.

I've been taking a serious look at reViSiT Pro, a VST-based tracker. It would also make a pretty good sampler in general, I think, not just drums.

For step sequencing, StepChild seems to be getting some decent comments. This one's free.

ERA also gets a lot of good comments about it.

[helterbelter]

This link explaining drum mapping might help (disclaimer: I use Reaper but never midi):
http://www.recordiola.com/reaper-drum-map

This is just what I need for my drumstuff. It's exactly like the Cubase drumeditor.  awesome.

[dmlandrum]

Nobody talks much about Reverberate. I started using it almost as soon as it came out and haven't really felt the need to look for another convolution reverb since, especially when paired with Bricasti impulses. Anyone else use it?

Are you sure you're not talking about ReaVerb? I use that, with the Bricasti IRs. A fellow on the forums figured out how to do a true-stereo setup using two instances of ReaVerb and Reaper's routing capabilities, which are vast. I have this set up as an effects preset which I can pull into any session.

http://forum.c**kos.com/showthread.php?t=107409

ReaVerbate is the algorithmic reverb that comes with Reaper. I've found use for that one as well.

EDIT: Good going on the profanity filter with the above URL. Oh well, you can figure it out.

[rmaier]

No, I'm talking about LiquidSonics Reverberate (although I'll be the first to admit that I haven't dug into ReaVerb). The LiquidSonics plugin is really deep and sounds great, enough so that I haven't really needed anything else.

http://www.liquidsonics.com/software_reverberate.htm

[dmlandrum]

D'oh! Of course. I should've remembered that one.

ReaVerb + routing has gotten me to a good set-up for no further outlay, but it does have that classic "FFT window size" latency to it, which I seem to recall Reverberate has solved.

I'm also going to take a listen to the Valhalla Room and Shimmer plugs. I actually kinda prefer a really good algorithmic reverb to IRs. Child of the 80s and all that.

I also use Valhalla FreqEcho and am quite impressed by it.