I provide this as a public service, by all means make your own judgment.
My brother and I made a challenge (to each other), a “synth challenge” if you will, whereby we make a song using only synths and at least one guitar track. Originally I think it was kind of a “Cubase synths are better than your crappy Sonar synths” thing, but it took on a life of its own.
Anyway, when I finally was done with mine I was still looking for…something. So I decided to try the trial version of the RND plugs and see what they would do.
First, the stock Cubase 6.5.3 plugs (Studio EQ and VST dynamics):
And then the RND plugs version, with the settings as close as I could get them to the first version (the eq curves aren’t exactly the same in the RND plugs, and I had to disambiguate the VST Dynamics and use the RND Compressor but use the Cubase gate/limiter - as a result this one is a little louder but not much and that’s not really a function of the RND plugs):
My verdict? I think the RND one sounds better, maybe “warmer” is the word…but $799 better? Not sure about that.
Still, it was a fun excercise and I think it is interesting to see exactly what effect it has on the sound.
Fascinating test! In mix done using the RND plugins, all the instruments were audibly more distinct, each standing out more clearly in the mix.