You can only have 5 plugins including instruments what are they?

PolarityMan · December 2022

Oh noes! your DAW of choice has been modified by evil aliens so it can only load 5 plugins, which 5 do you pick? Here's mine:

GGD: Architects
Archetype:Gojira
Fabfilter Pro-Q2
CLA-76
Serum

What would I miss most in that setup? Prob referencing but I could use pro-q2 and solo'ing to acheive a shonky version of metric A/B so had to bump it off the list in favour of serum.

sev112 · December 2022

An amp, a board power supply, a light for my music stand, the powered speaker, and a charger for my ipad

octatonic · December 2022

Five isn't really enough to cover much more than the basics.

Empirical Labs Arouser (Compression)
Fabfilter Pro Q (EQ)
Soundtoys Decapitator (Analogue Saturation)
Liquidsonics Seventh Heaven (Reverb)
Valhalla Delay (Delay)

I wouldn't swap any of those out in favour of Serum, but if I had a sixth Serum would be it.
It is the best plugin synth by miles, IMHO.

distressed · December 2022

octatonic said:

Soundtoys Decapitator (Analogue Saturation)

Just came to post this.

Danny1969 · December 2022

I only ever use 5 plugins

Xpand 2 for instruments.
Protools EQ
Protools compressor
Protools Dverb
Protools medium delay

That's it, I don't have anything third party installed so can't use it.

Everything like drums, guitars and bass is tracked real with amps in rooms and I try get a sound I like without any plugins at all.
I used to have all the cracked wave plugs and a lot of Massey stuff but generally I think the stock plugs work OK for me.

octatonic · December 2022

Danny1969 said:

I only ever use 5 plugins

Xpand 2 for instruments.
Protools EQ
Protools compressor
Protools Dverb
Protools medium delay

That's it, I don't have anything third party installed so can't use it.

Everything like drums, guitars and bass is tracked real with amps in rooms and I try get a sound I like without any plugins at all.
I used to have all the cracked wave plugs and a lot of Massey stuff but generally I think the stock plugs work OK for me.

Are you mixing ITB, or using outboard?

Nerine · December 2022

SD3
Pro-Q 3
Pro-C 2
Saturn 2
Pro-R

Fabfilter make the best plugins.

hollywoodrox · December 2022

Eventide h3000 factory
neutron
ozone
Dexed
& my oberheim one ,I can’t remember it’s name , it might be OB X D

thecolourbox · December 2022

If I could only use five, to cover all I need to do I'd go for:

Native Instruments Drum Lab (hybrid acoustic and electric drum kits)
Native Instruments Scarbee A-200 (epiano instrument)
Waves CLA Mixdown
Roomworks (reverb included in Cubase)
Helix Native

This is assuming I can use eq and compression in the built in channel strips in Cubase

monquixote · December 2022

My most used are probably:

Pigments (If I'm excluding DAW plugins) - Synth
Fabfilter L-2 - Limiter
Soundtoys Echo Boy - Delay
Softube Drawmer 1972 - Compressor
Baby Audio Crystalline - Reverb

I'd have a lot more Fabfilter as well, but I only own the one plugin from them.

Interested to hear about what you guys use Decapitator for as I'm struggling to get a sound I'm really happy with and end up falling back on other saturators. I know it's legendary so it's clearly me.

Lodious · December 2022

Superior Drummer
Helix Native
Soundtoys Little Plate
Modartt Pianoteq
Arturia V collection (ok that’s more than one plug-in)

PolarityMan · December 2022

octatonic said:

Empirical Labs Arouser (Compression)

I forgot about arouser, although I only really use it on vocals at the moment, prob because I get a bit agressive with i and its easy to over-egg it and introduce alot of that weird papery high end if you have lots of arousers kicking about.

Sporky · December 2022

Kontakt and Helix Native.

octatonic · December 2022

PolarityMan said:

octatonic said:

Empirical Labs Arouser (Compression)

I forgot about arouser, although I only really use it on vocals at the moment, prob because I get a bit agressive with i and its easy to over-egg it and introduce alot of that weird papery high end if you have lots of arousers kicking about.

You can avoid a lot of that by using less compression and/or going for opto mode.
It is the same with a Distressor, which is absolutely my favourite hardware compressor.
It is so versatile.

But yes, EL products are easy to overdo because they sound so good.

Big Freq nearly made the list too.

Bod · December 2022

Nerine said:

SD3
Pro-Q 3
Pro-C 2
Saturn 2
Pro-MB

Fabfilter make the best plugins.

Saturn 2 makes my list too. Still thinking about the others...

duotone · December 2022

Superior Drummer 3

EZ Keys
Scheps Omni Channel (Waves)
Helix Native
Valhalla Supermassive

Danny1969 · December 2022

octatonic said:

Danny1969 said:

I only ever use 5 plugins

Xpand 2 for instruments.
Protools EQ
Protools compressor
Protools Dverb
Protools medium delay

That's it, I don't have anything third party installed so can't use it.

Everything like drums, guitars and bass is tracked real with amps in rooms and I try get a sound I like without any plugins at all.
I used to have all the cracked wave plugs and a lot of Massey stuff but generally I think the stock plugs work OK for me.

Are you mixing ITB, or using outboard?

I don't do any professional mixing anymore because my hearing just isn't good enough anymore. I do a reference mix with the stock plugs and if it works I send it to a mix engineer in Dunstable who's done my stuff for a few years. So I guess It's not really that important for me to have great plugins. I don't think he uses a great deal either though because until recently he was mixing all our stuff on a 2012 Macbook Pro

I think I went through a phase where I thought the plugins could fix a lot of problems and some were good for fixing things ... I used to use Drumagog and Slate samples all the time plus loads of Waves CLA and Altiverb but I found the more plugs you use the smaller and more harsh things get.

I've been working with a drummer / producer recently who's got some great mic's, preamps and compressors and I prefer the sound of the sources processed with that kit before it hits the converters. The drums I'm getting from him sound great just loaded in the DAW with nothing on them at all. I'm probably imagining it but I think the less digital processing the better.

andy_k · December 2022

Pro Q3
Slate suite ( I know it is cheating, but it includes KHZ plugins )
Pluginguru Unify ( takes care of ALL instruments, drums etc }
All the rest is Reaper native ( Limiter is amazing)
All done in 4.

Nerine · December 2022

Bod said:

Nerine said:

SD3
Pro-Q 3
Pro-C 2
Saturn 2
Pro-MB

Fabfilter make the best plugins.

Saturn 2 makes my list too. Still thinking about the others...

FF don’t make a bad plugin. All of them are stellar. Technically great, insanely flexible, cleanly programmed, easy to use, sound great, perfect GUI etc.

I think a lot of people class them as bland or not “colourful” because the GUIs are so simple and don’t look like a console, or a classic SSL or Neve EQ etc.

Saturn 2 is one of the best saturation plugs there is. It rivals all of the analogue modelled stuff that has a realistic GUI and probably outperforms them in real terms.

I have the latest versions of

Pro Q
Pro C
Pro L
Pro MB
Timeless
Pro R
Saturn

You don’t really need anything else from a mixing perspective. I’ve got shedloads of Soundtoys, Waves, Slate, Brainworx, Lexicon, Avid, etc etc.

FF are the ones I wouldn’t give up. In fact I’m using them exclusively so I can get rid of my Slate subscription and I’m gonna move to Reaper to save me £100 per month on PT ultimate and the Slate bundle.

In fact, I’d go as far to say that there are only a certain number of ways you can process an audio signal. I think you could match pretty much any plug-in chain using just FabFilter stuff.

For example, an 1176 into an SSL EQ in the Slate VMR. You could easily recreate that with Pro C and Pro Q if you know what you’re doing. It just doesn’t “look” like you’re using the aforementioned classic pieces.

The FF stuff is far quicker to use and doesn’t interrupt your workflow as much.

kjdowd · December 2022

UA Neve 88RS
UA EMT 140 plate
Superior Drummer
FF Saturn 2
Ozone (or UA BX masterdesk - tricky pick)

I would miss many - inc all the rest of the FF stuff, some Slate stuff, DDMF magic death eye, UA Oxford inflator, soundtoys echoboy and the arturia classic synths etc etc but could live with these 5

Winny_Pooh · December 2022

Fabfilter pro L2
Tdr Kotelnikov
Waves H-delay
Any multiband digital eq
Relab sonsig rev-A

PolarityMan · December 2022

Lots of fabfilter love...Im a big fan too

fretmeister · December 2022

Helix Native
Whatever it's called - Butch Vig vocal plugin
Easy Drummer 2
Something to do with a horn section (I'm exploring this option at the moment)
The standard stuff that comes with Reaper.

Snap · December 2022

Guitar Rig 6
Omnisphere 2
Kontakt
Soundtoys Radiator
Addictive Drums 2

stratman3142 · December 2022

Superior Drummer 3
NI Massive X
NI Kontakt
Helix Native - As well as using it as an ampsim, I reckon I could probably get away with Helix Native for most of my effects, not that I do normally.
iZotope Ozone

Jungle_Face_Jake · December 2022

Waves CLA 76 compressor
Waves Abbey Road Studio 3 monitoring simulator
Celemony Melodyne
Softube TSAR-1 reverb
The God Particle

LastMantra · December 2022

EZ drummer
EZ mix

mudslide73 · December 2022

Ozone
Nectar
Slate Drums
Helix Native
Waves Puigtec eq.

Keefy · December 2022

1. Reaverb

I do most stuff outside the box. I have 3 different spring reverb units (2 of which I built myself) but I prefer a plate for vocal.

Catthan · January 2023

I’m very inexperienced and can’t get full advantage of all the plugins I own so 5 is actually a lot lol.

BX ssl 4000 E
Libra (IRs)
BX townhouse buss compressor
Logic delay
GGD drums

AlbertC · January 2023

Valhalla Room Reverb
FabFilter L2
Kontakt
Addictive Drums
LABS

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You can only have 5 plugins including instruments what are they?

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