Good VSTs to use?

F

frankl1980

Guest
Hey guys,
I'm pretty new to this forum, and fairly new to producing as well. What's the latest latest anyone is using as far as VSTs? My main problem is getting my "current sound" game up. Thanks!

-F
 
It depends on what you are looking for. For mixing/mastering, the Waves plugins never fail. I assume you are talking about synths and samplers though. That is strictly a matter of preference. The best way to find out what you like is to download demos and figure out what VSTs you like before you buy them. As a word of advice, don't try to keep current as that will make you sound like everyone else. Try new stuff and use sounds you haven't heard or use common sounds in uncommon ways. If you make you "experimentations" sound good, then YOU might be the new sound!
 
Even tho this thread is 2 weeks old ill throw my 2 cents in:

So 3 guys with less than 15 posts between them agreed on Waves? No... you don't need waves.

In 2002 this would have been a good question to ask... in 2011, almost anything available commercially (and a lot of stuff available for free) meets a baseline level of quality in terms of VST instruments.

In my personal opinion, the "current sound" really comes more from a mastery of how and when to use FX... and, again, no, you don't need Waves. The FX that comes with your DAW should be good enough to start, you should be able to fill in some holes with freeware FX, and you might spend a little money on some commercial specialized FX plugins (for example, CamelSpace).

Learn to master especially your Reverb and Delay... learn when and how to use it.


And my number one advice is this: STOP TRYING TO COMPETE WITH COMMERCIAL RECORDING YOU HEAR ON CDs/THE RADIO. You can't. You just can't. Yes, music technology has advance a lot in the past decade or so and has come wayyyyy down in price, but you still just aren't going to be able to compete with professionals.

A professional with decades of experience, a professionally designed/built studio, and $1 million (or more) worth of equipment vs. an amateur with very little experience and some pro-sumer software/equipment in his bedroom. Hmmmm.... I wonder who would win that one?
 
I like Ohmboyz Ohmforce, It's a nice delay with lots of room for creating complex delays.

My only gripe with it is that if you have an LFO controlling something it doesnt kind of sync when you press play.

So you could get some real nice sounding stuff, but then if you press stop and then play again it can sound totally different.

Resampling the wet audio is a work around to that though.

Anyone here use Philta? That seems like a nice filter.
 
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most of my music is made with freeware plugins, theres some good stuff out there if you know how to search properly. you dont need to drop hundreds of dollars to achieve a decent quality production. just some decent speakers and the know how on your equipment :) check out the free stuff on my homepage below, a lot of which i use everyday.
 
World Wide said:
And my number one advice is this: STOP TRYING TO COMPETE WITH COMMERCIAL RECORDING YOU HEAR ON CDs/THE RADIO. You can't. You just can't. Yes, music technology has advance a lot in the past decade or so and has come wayyyyy down in price, but you still just aren't going to be able to compete with professionals.

A professional with decades of experience, a professionally designed/built studio, and $1 million (or more) worth of equipment vs. an amateur with very little experience and some pro-sumer software/equipment in his bedroom. Hmmmm.... I wonder who would win that one?
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That's wisdom
 
Yes, Pro-L is awesome, I also love their other plugins. For mixing, I almost only use their EQ, Comp and Limiter. Their UI are awesome, they can be completely transparent (or not). I wonder how I could produce without these ;)

My GotoSynth is NI Massive, originally for its huge bass sounds, but I end up using it for almost any sound. I also like obscure free vintage synth :)

Cheers,

Luc
 
Might as well jump in, I agree Waves, if you have the money, and the know how! Can't hardly beat Komlete 8, but I'm a Cakewalk user, so I will add that is a Dimension Pro-Rapture bundle on the Cakewalk Store, just google it if interested! Like a lot have already pointed out, lots of good freebies!
 
World Wide said:
And my number one advice is this: STOP TRYING TO COMPETE WITH COMMERCIAL RECORDING YOU HEAR ON CDs/THE RADIO. You can't. You just can't. Yes, music technology has advance a lot in the past decade or so and has come wayyyyy down in price, but you still just aren't going to be able to compete with professionals.

A professional with decades of experience, a professionally designed/built studio, and $1 million (or more) worth of equipment vs. an amateur with very little experience and some pro-sumer software/equipment in his bedroom. Hmmmm.... I wonder who would win that one?
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Agree.............don't need Waves. Agree.............that it's impossible to get a "profession recording" that competes with commercial records. Don't agree on the fact that it's impossible to get quality that is as good or better than a commercial facility. Think of it this way, You record drums in a small untreated room..........you can use all the plug ins in the world and you won't get the sound of the room out of it, or if you do you lose a lot of the drums "sound". If you already have quality drums recorded.......the only thing you can do now is ruin it with plugs. But from a big studio or a bedroom one both can be equal.........one is a real world experience, the other may be too "commercially sterile" or "has a nice overly saturated compressed sound". Today........all of that expensive shit in a big studio has been created "very closely in some plugs so they say" for free or the cost of taking a fat lady out to eat. the reward for having a console, Neve, SSL, and blah, blah, blah......is saying you have one. But I have 7 of them from different companys (not really just a point) that are not as good as the real deal, they all are different, but that small difference is not determining the final factor.

Agree that knowledge is more important. But 4 stereo players, two car systems (one with a great sub), 3 earbuds, 3 headphones, laptop speakers, and computer speakers > Studio with expensive great sounding loudspeakers and other "professionally trusted" speakers. The person putting in the work to go through all of those different speakers and headphones and have a good trained ear on all o those is the winner. Recording? Hell naw.....ain't no way possible to beat a big studio. But..........a lot of sounds out there have been recorded in big studios or great home studios....so the potential is there.




My experience is all limiters have a sound about them. I hate the sound of Wave L3. It's cool when it's not pushed to all hell....but when you push that shit the highs make the final sound like plastic or some shit. I got so much quality free shit that I don't use one specific one every time though I have my first thoughts. One thing, though....for the low.....and you want to really push some shit without it sounding all yellow (the color of bright the way my ears see them) then this is a good purchase.


http://www.toneboosters.com/tb-barricade/

You can push that mo fo!
 
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There are a shitload of bands using Pro Tools, and Sonar, and other high-end DAWS! The days of a room full of faders, and mixing boards the size of half the studio, are going to become less and less, not gone by any means, but if you look at how much it costs to rent a studio for an hour, and the cost of getting DAMN close, if not better than some small studios with a $400 software package, guess where I'm going? Nowhere, I got it at home!

You will always have old fashioned type, that won't change, but it's all going in the digital direction, has been for a long time, makes sense, less cluster-**** of cables, and snakes, and 20 amps, seperate reverb units for each instrument, ya get the idea. I do this as a hobby, and I suck at it, but I do read, and know more and more bands are recording their own music, and saving a shitload of money! With the wall of sound, I can get my mix louder than yours stuff going on, who can tell what good music is anymore....very few!
 
Im not exactly 100% sure of the points the last two posters are trying to make, but the bottom line is if you think an amateur in his bedroom with $1,000 to $2,000 worth of music software and $500 - $1000 worth of hardware (monitors, interface, etc) is going to be able to get a mix to sound just as good as something worked on by potentially 5 professional engineers with years of education and experience in a million dollar studio... you are insane.

ACCEPTABLE, or GOOD, yes.... just AS GOOD as a professionally mixed/mastered release from a major label, no.
 
you still just aren't going to be able to compete with professionals.
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i have to question this. for the type of stuff that is coming out now is in most cases all in the box.
just take dj khaled last project, if you can't get a better sound then that at home then you just suck.

 
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Who said anything about an amateur being able to make as good as music as a professional? With a high end DAw, with a "professional", working with good musicians, or in some cases, by themselves can, and do make just as good music, as taking it to a "big" studio, that's what I'm trying to say. Never mentioned using $200 interfaces, or wherever ya got your numbers(my sig.), maybe, I already acknowledged I am no professional, not even close, just saying with the right tools, a professional can get a sound you won't be able to tell the difference. There are too many preconceived notions when it comes to mastering, your ears can play tricks on you, you don't need a big studio anymore, but I will stop, because I can tell I am up against a professional, and that's fine, you know more, have more stuff, I get it, I also keep up on what's going on in the world of production, I shall bow out gracefully now.
 
^ huh?

I am first of all by no means a professional. My response was to the question asked by the original poster, who is pretty obviously also not a professional.

So my advice to HIM was to not fall into the trap a lot of people fall into of thinking "IF I JUST SPEND MORE MONEY ON PRODUCT X, MY MIX WILL FINALLY SOUND AS GOOD AS THE NEPTUNES (or whatever)"
 
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