The list of best plugins decided by users is...

Interesting post, although I do admit freely I cannot see what relevance it has to the thread.

I would also - even though this is OT - take SERIOUS issue with you on overly loud masters. The recent anniversary edition of “Nevermind” is almost unlistenable to, and sadly the situation is not improving.

Again ot but I also agree with nevermind anv…also I got the best of the police in my car cd changer along with some more modern stuff like the automatic to name one. I mainly listen to the police as im really enjoying that perticular cd at the moment.but when the cd has finnished it changes to the next one and being a quite recent cd its been a loudness war master for sure as it blasts out.i do have it turnd up as the police is quiet but when it’s turnd up it sounds good really thick and a real full quality to it . Where the modern stuff just a big flat wall of noise even when at a good level it doesn’t sound as nice. .

Anyway back to topic I just bought softubes trident a range plugin…love it nice addition to my eq’s thomann still have some of the release versions at its release price so bargain. :wink:

I don’t have that one myself (I have the UAD version though which I do like) but for me, now we are on Softube plugs, the real killer is the Summit Grand Channel.

Hell yeh I used it in demo mode and its the next softube plugin im going to buy its very good indeed. To be very honest if I could go back before I started buying plugins I would probably just gone softube only.with maybe one or two others.they just work so well I really like them and the way the sound.but now im getting into analog gear currently saving any spare cash for a drawmer 1968 MKII. :mrgreen:

I really do like HALion 5 and I also enjoy Chromaphone a lot (though I seriously wish it was VST3). Both are relatively easy to use and the structures (for the complexity that they represent) are easy to keep in mind (and the visual on screen is great as well) when making sounds and composing.

There are a number of free VSTs that are very good too, there should be several mentioned (some by me, but a whole lot of people use nice solid great freeware) in the forum. Thank you for developing those, people! :smiley:

Never seen Chromaphone before - it looks like a similar idea to the old 80’s Linn Drums. HALion 5 is an amazing piece of kit, it really is - this is my main tool in that department too, as Kontakt requires the Play engine and I have read far too many horror stories to take the risk.

Summit Audio Grand Channel is really neat - I bought this one as soon as I saw it because I have very fond memories of the TLA-100 compressor when I was still doing FOH mixing on tour, and had 2 of these in my rack which I used for main vocal & Acoustic Guitar. It’s similar to the LA-2A in general operation & character but still has a very different sound to the Teletronix - I loved it then & Softube have done a great version.
Which reminds me - have any of you guys any experience with the Softube Valley People Dynamite? This is another one I know the hardware quite well, and was seriously thinking about grabbing me a license for this as well.

I haven’t tried the dynamite yet.i bet its very faithful to the original being softube.but again a little tip thomann are doing release version of that…for around £50 steel!

It’s really nothing like the old Linn machines (e.g. LM-1 and LM-2) which are based on samples.

Chromaphone is a synthesizer based on physical modeling, which generates the sounds mathematically. This means that the sound engine is fluent or rather organic (as opposed to a sample player) and rather renders the sound by combining algorithms. One can of course, say such things about many synthesizers today, but Chromaphone specializes in modeling. I.e. it uses simulations that typically are not associated with a synthesizer at all, such as materials, shapes, even physical relationships between objects, that are combined to generate the sounds.

If you play computer games, then this “physical modeling synthesis” can be compared to a physics engine. It is very much a “computer” game until you add such an engine, which makes it come alive, or seem almost “real”.

So there really is no comparison (to the Linn’s mentioned). Though that does not invalidate their beauty one bit. :slight_smile:

I wanted to stop by and say thanks to Eddie for persuading me to get Superior Drummer. I hooked up with a good deal for the holidays and took it while I had the chance. Initially it was pretty difficult to get up and running but I finally got smart and bought the Steven Slate Mixer Presets. Everybody’s talking about Steven Slate Drums these days, so I decided to give his presets a shot. Best drum sound I’ve had so far.

Ok, back to FX plug-ins… :mrgreen:

Bane if your not already I highly recommend you use the audio render bounce when your done with it in midi programing. Maybe copy the slate presets and use then in your plugins in cubase. .I use to leave it in sd and do my mixdown like that but the last few months I been bouncing all mics and bleads separate and deleting the bleads and mics I dont need…and for some reason whether its due to me gain staging them and or using my plugins on them but it just sounds better. . (To my ears anyway) was chatting with a friend of mine a while back he never bounced he gave it a try n now he always bounces his drums. .ps vol2 n 3 really good I just got them last week some lovely drums their…:slight_smile:

Hey Andy,

That’s an interesting concept never thought of doing that before to make it sound better. Are you using lots of 3rd party VST effects on the drums or just Cubase built-ins? I don’t suppose they have the built in Superior plugins available as VST.

I may give that a try down the road, just now getting up and running with the whole Superior concept, indeed the SS presets sound better than EZ which was pre processed of course. So the NY Vol1 really is good material in the right hands. Did dabble in the mixer some, people say it’s hard mixing in the Cubase mixer–try Superior’s!

It’s interesting you mention the N.Y. expansion packs. What would you say is the advantage in purchasing those?

Its great when you bounce with the bleads separate too because your compressor only reacts to the one drum. I was at first leaving the bleads in the tracks but some of the bleads in the toms were too much coz when you bounce that way the bleads are at default level and I wasn’t getting the desired results. You can leave each blead unprocessed and blend to taste. I tried to set bleads how I wanted in sd first but they still came out in default. .you may be able to do it I just went the way I described as it’s full control. :wink:

Im mainly using softube plugins on my drums but have used some cubase ones too all sounds nice…the main thing for me with them being audio files is setting the gain so its at a nice level. I always leave sd’s bounce at 0 but the ambience mic and sometimes the oh’s can be need 2 or 3 db of gain using cubase to get to optimum level for my plugins. And some of the harder hits on the snr or toms need to be dropped a touch so not to overload the plugin.

The sdx’s are fantastic the v3 especially lots more drums sampled like Ludwig for one.also the desks they went through and the rooms v2 you get allaire and the hit factory I guess your advantages are mainly lots more drum choices they can also be added with the x drums option to the original avatar kit.the kicks sound especially great one of the ambience channels in v3 has an fx one. cant remember if 2 has as im spending more time on v3 at the moment.anyway it sounds very nice im not sure if its more room or reverb? I loaded it up in an old track muted the old reverb send on the snr in cubase and just went with the fx track in sdx 3 and it worked VERY well.also they come with the engineers who tracked the drums presets and nir z’s groves in midi again

Thanks Andy.

I just got everything sounding decent with the presets, have you ever tried to recreate these exactly in Cubase? That could be a tall order to reproduce all that to precision with different plug-ins.

Anyway, yeah I’m sure the SDX’s are fabulous. If you ever get Rock Warehouse, I’d really like to know how that compares to NY Vol 3. Can’t justify that much outgo on drum samples quite yet when I’m still using bass and strings patches from HALion Sonic SE, haha.

Ha ha fair enough.

I haven’t tried to reproduce any of the presets to be honest. .I just like to use my plugs on them :wink:
Also I couldn’t as their is a transient designer in the sd ones. .I dont have a vst transient designer might invest in spl one one day.

By the way I see you got an ezx in your signature you can route that into sd you know and ezdrummer too.i use the vintage sticks and brushes ezx in mine.

I see. To be honest I see what you are saying, and it is obvious that even these presets have their limits in usefulness. None of his presets have that nice super thick rock snare sound I often reach for. Actually the default drums do sound quite awful without a fair bit of processing and I often find myself adding reverb regardless of what is done.

I compared the demos of N.Y. Vol. 3 with those of Superior and the Volume 3 were much better. I think it sounds even better than Rock Warehouse in most genres.

I did buy Pop! EZX during the holidays as well. For the demo song I’m making with it, I did actually load it in Superior Drummer if for no other purpose than the humanization engine. I notice that SD really takes velocity a lot more seriously than does EZ. For instance, I had to make some ride rhythms have a very low velocity in EZD to sit well, but SD plays them too low! I’m finding between that and the small mapping differences that I have to re-work a lot of my MIDI files. Interesting.

Yes with the ride another benefit of bouncing your drums if you select the oh option it splits all the cymbals to separate tracks so you can really lift the quite ride parts to sit well within the mix and kit…

Same goes with the snr drum once its in audio you can eq and compress the snr into a more punchy rocky sound than you can imo in sd itself.

So… The Lexicon PCM native Reverb bundle is heavily discounted at jrrshop.com at the moment and I have been reading good things. Any users here? Care to comment on comparisons with the stock verbs in Cubase? I’m using 6.5 so the conv verb is part of the package and it sounds sweet. I tend to strike when the price is right and given that this bundle debuted just shy of $2000 when it was released back in the day, picking it up for $299 seems a much reasonable deal. Warning…requires iLok2 for those averse to said security measure.

Regards,
Andrew

Hi Andrew

I have never used the lexicon plugins sure someone else will chip in on them.but have you tried the classic studio reverb bundle from ik multimedia. A lot cheaper and they sound very nice indeed. €79 as well is a great price for them.they might not be as good as the lexicon I have no idea as I never heard them. But I can vouch for the CSR plugins great plugs

Thanks Andy,
I will check them out. I must say the reviews I have been reading for the Lexicon bundle are doing nothing to satisfy my gear lust :smiley: People are raving about the pack and 50% off is just going to result in behaviour that will get me in trouble with the Dept. of War and Finance :sunglasses:

No worries.

I forgot to mention the cpu usage is stupidly low too.