What are your top five favorite FX plugins that really helped you in your music production ..?

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FabFilter pro-Q3
soundtoy decapitator
PSP NobleQ
Xfer LFO Tool
Cytomic Glue

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1) The TDR free plugins: NOVA, Kotelnikov and SlickEQ (i'm not mentioning Proximity because I don't know how to use it).

2) Voxengo meters: SPAN, Correlation and MSED.

3) Airwindows Ditherbox, mostly on TPDF settings.

4) Klanghelm free plugins: DC1A3, MJUCjr and IVGI 2.

5) Kilohearts Limiter (I would say Loudmax but that one is more like an LA-2A with fast attack).

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DMGAudio - Limitless
DMGAudio - Multiplicity
DMGAudio - TrackMeter
u-he - Colour Copy
Soundtheory - Gullfoss

bonus/cheater entries:
Unfiltered Audio BYOME/Triad
Melda Production Creative Fx Bundle, or MXXX to put it all (and more) in one place.

Honorable mentions:
HY-SeqCollection/2
Newfangled Audio Saturate

Please forgive the edits. Not sure why I have been having trouble getting my posts to stick... :shrug:
Last edited by Teawhyelleare on Sat Jul 20, 2019 2:21 am, edited 2 times in total.

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-Standard Clip from Sir Audio
-Ghz Wow Control
-Airwindows Drum Slam
-GRM Pitch Accum
-soundhack binaural

Hard to call my top 5, I put these just to go off board and the beaten path a bit, these are all up there though and do get regular use. Airwindows has a number I use regularly, of course w/ some of the usual suspects of highly regarded companies, a few of which have already been mentioned.

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Honestly, I'd rather pick 5 companies, including their entire catalogues. Each of these developers has allowed me to clean up, expedite, enhance, and improve my workflow, sound quality, mixing, mastering, and even theory. I simply refuse to part with anything made by:

DMGAudio
u-he
XferRecords
Madrona Labs
Unfiltered Audio

I won't go in to excruciating, gushy detail here unless requested, but I could happily live with just these catalogues hosted in bitwig or live, and likely never need another plugin. DMG, u-he, Xfer, and Madrona are the homes of some of the very best dudes in the industry, in my opinion. And by best, I mean that they are wholesome, good hearted, gifted, and responsive dudes who lovingly release whole lines of products that are unmatched in any quantifiable terms, including (but not limited to): usability, sound quality, attention to detail, technical ability, and home grown support. They constantly push the envelope of what is possible, and push the boundaries of DSP out. Using their tools fills me with joy and helps me to continue to expand and push my own creative boundaries.

(Fair warning, I don't know anything about the UA dudes. They seem cool, but they don't like talking to me, and their support and engagement do not match up with the others. Their plugins, however, are phenomenal, and I like to think that they are just somewhat reclusive and bound by the alliance)

If you are looking for some seriously underrated/unknown game changers, I highly recommend these additional 5 honorable mentions:

Creative Intent - Temper, Tantrum (Seriously, TANTRUM :o) (Seriously AMAZING developer)

HY-Plugins - HY-Delay4, HY-SeqCollection 1/2, etc. (Seriously, AMAZING developer)

tritik - KrushPro, moodal, tkdelay, Krush (Seriously, AMAZING developer)

Soundtheory - Gullfoss (Seriously, Gullfoss) (Seriously, AMAZING developer)

DSAudio - Tantra, Diversion, etc. (Seriously, AMAZING developer)

They all meet the same qualifications as above, but they aren't forerunners of the list because their plugins are more specialized. I still refuse to part with a single one. And one last bonus mention:

Melda Production - I know people know about Melda, but I am just getting going, and based on what I've experienced so far, the masses are sleeping on this powerhouse.

Just wanted to give a shout out/a touch of free visibility to these amazing beings, companies, and creations. I'm at the point where I am pretty much exclusively using these 5(+5) catalogues and my DAW, and passing everything else along.

In regards to this question: "Was there something that went beyond just being helpful to making a dramatic difference?" I am happy to go in to more detail in regards to any/all of the mentioned plugins, but I feel like I should stop ranting for now. Just feeling really grateful and blessed and stoked :D
Last edited by Teawhyelleare on Sat Jul 20, 2019 7:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Sonic Academy Kick 2
For my music, the kick is the bedrock. With Kick 2, I never have to worry about it ever again. I can craft something completely original, or I can use standard 808/909 presets.

DS Thorn
I don’t know what it is about this synth, but it cuts through like a knife. I use it for rolling basslines and every time I use it, I get to my happy place.

Fabfilter Pro-L 2
I didn’t really start understanding LUFS and loudness until I started using this. I mean, I understood the principles, but it never clicked until they released this.

Operator
9/10 times Operator is the synth I throw on after an arpeggiator or anything else where I need to focus on the melody when writing. The only thing Ableton could do to improve this would be to add the unison from Wavetable.

Goodhertz Can Opener Studio + Toneboosters Morphit
I’m counting these together, since I never use them apart. Due to circumstances, I can only produce using headphones. These make it easier to hear clearly what I am doing.

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It'd be interesting to, after a certain number of pages, go through this thread and see which plugins get multiple hits—tally them up, style of thing. Maybe I'll do it at 6 or 7 or so.

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sleepcircle wrote: Sun Jul 21, 2019 11:18 am It'd be interesting to, after a certain number of pages, go through this thread and see which plugins get multiple hits—tally them up, style of thing. Maybe I'll do it at 6 or 7 or so.
I'm the OP, and keeping track in my own mind. The ones I never heard of, I look up,... so thanks to the people who have posted, I do check everything out.
Ones that appear to be mentioned a few times are: SDRR, DC8C, Fabfilters, Gullfoss.
Last edited by MasterTuner on Sun Jul 21, 2019 1:10 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Reaper (win), i7-7700k, 16GB

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heavymetalmixer wrote: Fri Jul 19, 2019 6:23 pm 3) Airwindows Ditherbox, mostly on TPDF settings.
Hi heavymetalmixer. Could you go into why you think this has really helped your productions? I like StudioTan a lot but it's way down on my list of things that make big differences to the music. Interested to hear your thoughts.

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s28 wrote: Sun Jul 21, 2019 1:08 pm
heavymetalmixer wrote: Fri Jul 19, 2019 6:23 pm 3) Airwindows Ditherbox, mostly on TPDF settings.
Hi heavymetalmixer. Could you go into why you think this has really helped your productions? I like StudioTan a lot but it's way down on my list of things that make big differences to the music. Interested to hear your thoughts.
Because unlike most of the mixing/mastering engineers out there, I always have this plugin ON in the mixbus. That way, I can always hear how the mix/master would be after being rendered, because dither does change the sound and I can notice that change.

When rendering I leave the plugin ON and deactivate dither and noise shaping from in the rendering options.

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heavymetalmixer wrote: Sun Jul 21, 2019 1:34 pm
s28 wrote: Sun Jul 21, 2019 1:08 pm
heavymetalmixer wrote: Fri Jul 19, 2019 6:23 pm 3) Airwindows Ditherbox, mostly on TPDF settings.
Hi heavymetalmixer. Could you go into why you think this has really helped your productions? I like StudioTan a lot but it's way down on my list of things that make big differences to the music. Interested to hear your thoughts.
Because unlike most of the mixing/mastering engineers out there, I always have this plugin ON in the mixbus. That way, I can always hear how the mix/master would be after being rendered, because dither does change the sound and I can notice that change.

When rendering I leave the plugin ON and deactivate dither and noise shaping from in the rendering options.
Cheers! I know it changes the sound, can hear the difference in the various Airwindows dithers, I was just wondering as to how it helped and you make a good point.

I always preferred Naturalize or PaulDither.

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  • TAL Sampler Whilst an instrument, the character it imparts I see as an effect.
  • Valhalla Vintage Verb Learning new tricks with this after years. Great design and sound.
  • Sonimus Satson Owned since release and it is very useful. The filters and saturation are great.
  • Valhalla Delay New but has already added something to my sound.
  • Kazrog True Iron Great for tucking in sounds, highly recommended.

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scored my first multitrack in 1991. not sure i've used five effects in the last decade.. so for contrast

#1 is definately host eq

stereo delay on everything
reverb (xoxos) just ok reverb, but low cpu
MDA dynamics (ancient, no oversampling, i don't push it)

occasional gate and phaser i can recall. does this correlate with most skill development, dunno, but its gelled that way for so long it probably represents something.

i coded some wild effects, like a fft cascade, but in composition, i've only used the demo .wav i recorded with that effect :hihi:
you come and go, you come and go. amitabha neither a follower nor a leader be tagore "where roads are made i lose my way" where there is certainty, consideration is absent.

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Plugins that help with my mixing are pretty boring (not actual effects):
Klanghelm VUMT Deluxe
Voxengo Span
Blue Cat’s analysis plugins, especially FreqAnalyst Pro and Multi
*edit, also* Blue Cat Gain Suite

Ultimately, learning mixing techniques from research here on KVR, YouTube, and instructional content from sites like Groove3 have been the most helpful for improving my skills with mixing and working with DAWs.
Last edited by Tappistry on Mon Jul 22, 2019 4:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Plugins, which really help me:
Airwaves consoles
Blue Cat's gain suite - grouping and reversing are heaven send
MMultiAnalyzer
TB Isone with TB Morphit

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