The plugin corner

[radiance]

Yes, Soundtoys is a real class act. nother vote for soundtoys

[detonator]

Yes, Soundtoys is a real class act. nother vote for soundtoys

Real creative FX. Love to work with it when needed.

BTW totaly forgot some other briilliant stuff and it's made in Holland. Audioease Altiverb and all the Fabfilter plugs

[ultra-alex]

anybody mentioned audioease speakerphone? although i´am neither a post guy nor use plugins that much i still come back to that one. awesome tool. and let me add the mcdsp ml4000 and the digi, uups, avid real tape suite.
alex

[zebra50]

I love the Izotope RX noise reduction tools.
It's a lifesaver for making those noisy vintage toys sound quiet again.

[strangeandbouncy]

HI Stuart,



  I've recently discovered RX too, as part of my Berklee mastering course. It's brilliant! I have just removed ll the click headphone spill from some particularly sensitive acoustic guitar recording, and all the saliva noises from the vocal. ~ Amazing!


    Kindest regards,


    ANdyP

[living sounds]

My favourite parametric plugin EQ is Equality in min phase or analog mode. Not as good as a nice analog EQ, but better than most plugins.


As for weird modulation stuff I really dig the free Freqecho:
http://www.valhalladsp.com/freqecho.html

The same developer is about to release a pitch shifted reverb plugin, too, with a very Eventide like sound.

[MartyMart]

One of the best software Bus compressors ever is "The Glue" by cytomic- www.cytomic.com
and a bargain for $99!

UAD and URS are crackers also, stillwellaudio make some great "sound mangling" toys.

MM.

[grantlack]

Have any of you tried the Slate Digital FG-X Mastering processor?

i'll give the demo a go here in a few weeks, though my degree of legitimate mastering experience (think tree stump level) probably won't help me form much of an opinion either way.  i can definitely recommend slate's drum replacement software though.  trigger got me out of a pretty nasty bind with some unusable drum recordings that a guy slopped over ego.  of course, the band didn't have the coin to re-record and i don't have the mobility yet.  once i un-flipped all the phase sabotage in the cymbals and replaced the floor tom and kick, i was finally mixing!  it's set at a good price for the quality of the software and samples, and definitely useful for somebody relying on farmed out recording.  i imagine live mixes could see some benefit as well.

and no, i don't work for SSD  .

[zebra50]

I have just removed ll the click headphone spill from some particularly sensitive acoustic guitar recording, and all the saliva noises from the vocal. ~ Amazing!

That's pretty much my experience. I record an amazing acoustic guitar player, but he does really gentle quiet passages, and if you want to mic from a distance or use an old tube preamp or ribbon mic, there is always some noise. What I like about the izotope stuff is that it keeps the tone, but gets rid of the noise. Also good for amp hiss, hum, tube noise, wind (both types!)...

Carry on!

[Moses]

Another vote for the Brainworx v2. It's incredible! Also, the free BX solo is a very useful tool...

[Autophase]

In agreement with everyone who bigged up the Sonnox stuff, its lovingly put together and this comes out in the sound when used correctly.
Tube saturation is something where every plugin has failed.................... untill now.
WaveArts Tube Saturator.
I got this off the back of a review i read in tape-op, now people check this.
They started by designing their dream tube preamp (the schematic is included in the manual) They then built it (should appeal to us DIYers) They then proceeded to virtually model it, but where any other company would have modelled the whole device, they wrote an individual algorythm for each component (hence one instance at 24/96 uses about 80% of my CPU- quad core 2.6 4 gig ram!!!!!)
but you can hear where this power goes.
Make no mistake this is better than the real thing, better? why? Well it gives realistic tube warmth, without tube noise.
If you doubt me just try it, feel free to send me a mix and I will run it and sent it back.

[fazer]

I love the MD3 compressor from TC paired with BX digital EQ.   This is from massive pack 7.  The TC is to my ear the most natural for mastering levels when setup for ITB mixing.  And the desser is great In BX Digital.   Also the M/
S controls on BX Digital are easy to widen or center the mix.   

[living sounds]

In agreement with everyone who bigged up the Sonnox stuff, its lovingly put together and this comes out in the sound when used correctly.
Tube saturation is something where every plugin has failed.................... untill now.
WaveArts Tube Saturator.
I got this off the back of a review i read in tape-op, now people check this.
They started by designing their dream tube preamp (the schematic is included in the manual) They then built it (should appeal to us DIYers) They then proceeded to virtually model it, but where any other company would have modelled the whole device, they wrote an individual algorythm for each component (hence one instance at 24/96 uses about 80% of my CPU- quad core 2.6 4 gig ram!!!!!)
but you can hear where this power goes.
Make no mistake this is better than the real thing, better? why? Well it gives realistic tube warmth, without tube noise.
If you doubt me just try it, feel free to send me a mix and I will run it and sent it back.

The Tube Saturator sounds better than other plugins, but I don't think it sounds as good as a nice piece of hardware. Certainly not better, IMO.

[Kingston]

it gives realistic tube warmth, without tube noise.

tubes aren't noisy. crap gear and bad tubes are.

[living sounds]

Kingston, I think you misquoted.

[Kingston]

whoops. fixed.

[Autophase]

Just got sound toys Decapitator.
Wow, its great, kind of a squasher/distrortion.
Where I found it to excel where so many soft distortion plugs fail, its is really easy to get a raspy top end and a huge punch without sucking out the low end.
Try it on vocals.

[helterbelter]

http://www.uaudio.com/products/software/studer-a800/index.html

Somebody here got a UAD 2 ?

If so, check the a800 demo and let me know if I should upgrade my UAD 1 to 2 and buy this plug in. If this really does what it's supposed to do, then I'll get rid of most of my hardware stuff. I always have been looking for that analog tape sound, but I couldn't afford a machine in good condition, or suffer the pain of maintenance. I once had a pair of (professional) Tascams, but the costs of keeping them in good condition, and syncproblems and such..... aaarrrggghh. This was the reason for me to switch to computer based recording, but I never liked the sound.

[zayance]

I always believed that whatever emulation done inside a PC will lead to nothing compared to the real deal, even if the UAD1 plugs sound cool and are usefull, the visual looks nice and the settings etc... but on an A/B you know who's going to win.
It's the little response of UAD to the Heat plug-ins from Digidesign i believe...

[helterbelter]

Yeah, well,

I don't expect it to sound as real as the original either,

But if it does make it sound more like analog tape than anything else, then I'm into it for sure. Those hardware analog tape saturators don't sound like an analog tape either, and I haven't heard a tapesimulation plugin that does what I want.

But if somebody here has got a UAD-2, then he can check the demo for 2 weeks, and I'm curious for an unbiased opinion. That's why I ask here, and not at GS.