How do Cubase efx compare to ??

So I have Cubase 10 pro now. The effects are pretty impressive, especially the channel strip and so forth. I’m wondering how these affects such as eq, compression, limiting, etc compare to similar effects from companies like waves, sonic, uad and so forth? Are they professional level effects that could be used for professional level production, or is it still necessary to pay the extra money for the third-party plug-ins that do the same thing? I’m interested to hear peoples views on this

I ask because I’m tempted to get rid of all my third-party plug-ins at this point, sell the ones that I can, trash the others.

No you don’t “need” 3rd party plug ins for commercial work. There may be benefits such as a tool working more easy, or the familiarization aspect, but you don’t need 3rd party to be “professional level.” You didnt mention genre, and that has some impact on your choice of tools.

You can’t compare Waves to Cubase factory because each plug has a different level of quality. They were created over different times.

Sorry I’m not familiar with “Sonic.”

UAD is more about hardware emulation. It takes a lot to code it so good and as several including Evanna would agree, they are very close. Whether or not you “need” hardware emulation would be another topic.

I would correlate money and quality but only to a degree. There are many exceptions for example Limiter No. 6. Some tools free could be sold for good money while other tools that cost a lot might give poor returns.

Why would you sell what you have if it is all 64 bit? Something may come in handy in the future. If it was free originally and you get no benefits, then if course trash them.

If you’ve already got the third-party plugs, do an A/B test and pick the one you like best. Everyone has different ideas of “quality”. What might sound “pristine” to you, might not sound “funky” enough to someone else. Or visa-versa.

It’s all about taste and genre. I’ve seen people make amazing sounds with built in plugs and I’ve heard really bad mixes with $1,000’s worth of plugs on them.

Professional plugins? To me there are inexpensive plugins, free plugins and expensive plugins and no such thing as a professional plugin. In the distant past Steinberg’s plugins were not very good. Hench the need for third party plugins. Today a lot has changed. In my experience the included plugins with Cubase today are every bit as good as any other plugins. If you need a plugin type that is not included or one that has a feature/s that you want, a third party plugin is a excellent option.
Don’t dismiss the ones included until you have really found you need a plugin from another developer.

+1 This, absolutely.

If you stumble oves some kind of sound or production technique that’s totally droolworthy and you find out the name of some tool that’s been used for that and you try to do it with Cubase tools and fail miserably or it’s just not managable timewise or workflowise to use in Cubase then you can save yourself some headache by getting some specific tools for the trade. Having that said Cubase stock plugins in 2019 take you a loooooooooooooooooooooooooong way and since they’re there why not check them out and get to know them? :sunglasses:

You guys. I love that you support the Cubase plugins but - likewise - as Cubase plugins improve, so do the ‘aftermarket’ plugins. Waves and Izotope quickly come to mind but I have others that I like equally. I think one of the benefits of aftermarket is that they are specializing, involving various producers and engineers that are known for their good results. Many times they ‘stack’ processes (either obvious or hidden) that flow quickly (less CPU) than if you created your own stack. WaveLabs is slightly different, more ‘fix it’ oriented, and maybe offering some serious tools, but still you have to appreciate that the main goal of either Cubase or WaveLab is to create a solid environment to get the recording and editing process sorted, not to concentrate fulltime and to give full attention on/to plugins.

And seriously, as many issues that crop up with either program as new versions are offered, what makes you think that there is any serious time to spend on plugins? I give all credit to Steinberg for creating the VST domain, but clearly, IMO, they are not in the plugin business.

We love that you support the aftermarket, too! :smiley:

Thank you HowlingUlf! It’s about time I got some appreciation around here. :slight_smile:))

I appreciate all the insights

Cubase has got good plugins. Very clean and good quality but I’ve noticed it doesn’t do everything well.

Eg for me the delay plugins are ok but when I then heard waves delay I couldn’t believe it. The waves version sounded so much more lush and rich and the presets were great so I didn’t have to waste time trying to get the right sound and I could not get cubase to sound the same. Waves was in another league.

I’ve also found no good inbuilt gater plugin for edm style pads. I think you have one as a midi fx but not audio. I would have thought that was fairly fundamental.

There’s no vocoder anymore. So that needs a. Separate purchase.

There might be some more but those come to mind first. Reverbs panning eqs are good though.

I found out the C10 Frequency plugin now also works with WL10.
:smiley: :slight_smile: :laughing:

The Steinberg default plugins are mostly ok plugins. People tend to buy plugins that is ok, as long as you take a good look at the basic set plugins C10 has, you might not need others. The Autopan, Frequency, Brikwall Limiter are easy ones and often needed by me. For Frequency i started to use Fabfilter Pro Q2 more because i could not use Freqency in Wavelab 9, in WL10 you can. Thx Steiny.