Recommended .vst plugins

[cynical1]

Greetings -

As I move more into recording with a computer and completely away from anything remotely resembling analog, I find myself seriously behind the curve.

I've experimented a little with different .vst and dx plugins. I am amazed at what they are capable of achieving with just a basic track. I am equally amazed at the shear number of available .vst and dx plugins...

My question is similar to one posted here regarding "Must Have Effects Pedals".

What are the "Must Have" .vst or DX plugins for digital recording?

Happy Trails

Cynical One

[ashcatlt]

I use GPlugs all the time, especially the compressors and filters. They're free, they're simple, and they do what they do. Nothing fancy or funky. No extra special warm, punchy, crunchy, whatever, but also no noticeable nastiness.

One thing that I use on every single project I record is Voxengo SPAN. Free realtime spectrum analysis. I know, I know: "Mix with your ears!" I strap this thing across the mix bus and refer to it often!


While you're at the Voxengo site, look at their other free plugs. Boogex is an amp simulator which sounds great, even when you make it sound horrible. It's got a number of cabinet/mic impulses included. MSED makes it easy and even kind of fun to play around with Mid/Side processing. Honestly, even their paid plugs are a great value.

For something a little weird and funky, go over by the Interrupter. Wow and Flutter can get out of hand fast, but I've used it at very low settings, and it definitely adds a hard to describe "organic, analog" feel. I love their delays, too, mostly because modulating the delay time actually changes the pitch of the repeats the way it would on a real tape delay.

I used to love the pluggo stuff, but haven't owned a liscence in almost ten years. The price is right for all the piles of crap you get with the bundle, though! Many of these are way out there nutball things you'll never find a use for. I used most of them, but not for anything anybody'd call music.

Those plugs are built on the Max/MSP platform. If you can spring for that, you can design your own plugs and do any darn thing the VST spec will allow.

If you've got a lot of time to kill, go check out the KVR database and Shareware Music Machine.

[andy]

Great links, Ash!

I have been using the built in effects of my program for years, and sorely miss an X/Y graph type spectrograph. I may find good use for a pitch corrector too (I'm more of a Mark Knopfler than a Dolly Parton!), so I'll look into some of those.

For myself, I try to keep my computer as clear of stuff as possible, as my home computer is also my studio one for the time being. I have the effects which were bundled with my recording program, and Steinberg Mastering Edition has proved to be quite handy.

As for synths and things, I like to have hardware versions (I just bought a Proteus 2000 with two orchestral sound cards over the cheaper 'soft' versions) so that I don't lose the use of everything if my computer goes down. It also means that if I ever come to playing keys live, I won't have to bring my laptop with me. However, I have used the Native B4 Hammond sim, which was very cool, and a Rhodes sim which was also great. EP78 or something.

*EDIT* Actually, it could have been EVP73.

[cynical1]

Thanks for the info. I've got the bass track down for the Potluck Jam, but trying to make a jazz/piano tone type bass with roundwounds sound like a down and dirty flatwound blues tone type bass when going DI is a challenge...for me at least...

I can can get what I want from the amp and cabinet, but it just comes up...missing something...going straight in.

This will give me something to work with. Reaper accepts most plugins, so I'm sure these will help. Again, I've never really done any recording on the computer, so this is a new experience...and a steep learning curve for an old analog "mic the cabinet" dinosaur... I love the interface and the ease with which you can mix and sequence...but I can't get the tone...

Thanks again for the input. (Pun intended) My work is cut out for me... (Pun equally intended...)

Happy Trails

Cynical One

[ashcatlt]

Here's some more random stuff I find amusing:

PSP Pianoverb. Apparently there's a trick where sometimes the engineer will put a brick on the sustain pedal and jam a mic on the piano to catch the sound of the strings vibrating sympathetically to whatever else is going on in the room. Never had the chance to try this, but I doubt this plugin sounds quite like the real thing. It's still really cool, and I'm hard pressed not to use it on everything.

I have the PSP delay plugs too, but I don't use them for...shall we say, reasons? Lots of people rave about the PSP vintage warmer, as though it was a miracle cure for that horrible "digital sterility". I have plenty other ways to distort and filter a signal, but you might like it.

GSi has some really cool donationware. Mr. Ray73 is as close as I'll never need to the sound of a real Rhodes. With my semi-weighted Axiom keyboard it responds very natural and is a lot of fun to play. Organized trio is a great-sounding B3 sim. 2 manuals plus pedals, all on seperate MIDI channels, and with seperate banks of automatable drawbars. To go with it, or anywhere else you might want it, Mr. Donald is a great leslie sim. I generally hate "Rotary" effects because they really don't sound anything like an actual speaker, spinning or not. This one does a pretty good job, and I think even models some of the sound of the Leslie amp as well. I should probably actually donate to these guys. Next time I make money off of my music, I'll remember them.

Delay Lama "the Virtual Singing Monk" I like to wiggle my mouse around really fast and watch his eyebrows go all wacky-wild. Then I crack up, and my five-year-old looks at me like I'm insane. Ah well... I've actually found a use for this thing in one of my songs. Eventually I'll finish that.

Somewhere out there, there's a VSTi buttslap synth. I think you can choose different butts and different things with which to slap.

[cynical1]

I found this one nosing in the Free Plugin Section/

Sonaksis FreeG

Very handy tool for determining RMS averages and peaks. But it does more then that. Here's the blurb from the site:

The Sonalksis FreeG is an intuitive tool that can be used for a variety of applications to increase the control and flexibility of the signal flow in the insert chain of the host.

To make the workflow and the overview of the signal processing easier, FreeG provides extended, customizable metering features and settings.
When working with digital audio, lack of fine metering and extended signal flow control in the host is a common issue. The intentions with FreeG is to improve the workflow in the host by providing these features in the insert chain.

By providing the possibilites of extended control of amplitude, phase and pan (stereo version) in the insert chain as well as fine metering, with user configurable industry standard parameter options, the range of applications for FreeG is almost only limited to the context of the actual usage and of course, the insert chain.

And it's free

Happy Trails

Cynical One