Hi all, I’ve been getting a withdrawal from plugin purchasing of late, so I’ve put together a bit of a shopping list of RTAS plugins that I’ve used a few times on trial and intend to buy very soon. I thought you may be interested in them!
The standard plugin package that comes with PT9 is pretty good, there are only a few holes that need plugging up, so to speak. I would say a nice reverb is always a good addition to the plugin arsenal of any sound designer/mixer. Here are two worth checking out
Overloud’s Breverb – A lovely reverb, at around USD$266 it’s much cheaper than a hardware unit! Widely respected for its quality and very low CPU hit. If you’re on an older CPU it might be a good addition.
Valhalla Room – This reverb caught my eye a few months back. Super affordable at US$50 and the chap who coded it has a solid background in DSP before going it alone. Lovely to support the independents, and the tails on this verb are definately high quality – also the user interface is a joy to operate.
EQs and Dynamics
DMG Audios Compassion and Equality – These are a more premium EQ and Compression tool but still very affordable in the grand scheme of things. Getting rave reviews by the film mixing community for their versatility – a real scalpel to have in your toolkit.
Brainworx Digital – I love the Hybrid EQ from these guys. IT’s not overly expensive, sounds super clean and it maps onto the ICON in an awesome way – whenever you grab/touch the Frequency pot on your parametric, it isolates the band for you so you can hear exactly what you’re doing. Some brilliant MS plugins here also worth checking out.
Massey Plugins - One of the first plugin developers for RTAS to really set a price point that was affordable to everyone, ex Digi coder Steve Massey has been making great plugins for years now. His limiter the L2007 is super clean and gets a good workout around the rooms at Trackdown. A Must-have.
McDSP – One of the earliest plugin developers for PT and now with V5 they are available on AU as well as RTAS. Colin McDowell is an absolute gem in the industry and his products are brilliant. Their native bundles are really very affordable for what you get (USD350 for their native classic pack)
Creative tools
SoundHack plugs – cool, cheap, oddness and stretching and fun. Great to take you to interesting places…
AudioFinder – Yes, PT has the workspace browser to find and audition stuff, and thats all good and well, but for a measley USD$69 you can have a very serious sound effects search, manipulation and processing tool like Audiofinder. Integrates with Soundcloud, sample editing before spotting to the timeline in PT, and many other features we used to pay hundreds of dollars for. Also, one license is good to use on any machines you own, so in my case its good for home and work so its half price! Again, support the independents!
Lowender – Last but certainly not least, if you work with LFE channels or do drum and serious bass and want more down below definitely check out Lowender – a software emulation of the classic DBX120 hardware unit. The obviously benefit being automation ITB over the hardware.
Ohmforce – lots of crazy affordable plugins and synths with distinctive growls.
Soundtoys – a little bit more cash than the others listed here, but amazingly powerful and creative plugins. Their native bundle is really very cheap for everything that is included.
