Synth wise, Pigments has been my top favorite for the last year. Really easy to get into, really deep so you can get lost for hours.
You don’t need anything else.
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Anyone using both VintageVerb and Room from Valhalla? I use VintageVerb constantly and love it, but curious about whether Room would bring some different and desirable flavor to the table.
I’m careful to not dump too much cash into my plugin collection and I don’t think I need another reverb…but I am curious if anyone has experiences with both they’d like to share.
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It’s also my single most favorite plugin synth. Sound and GUI are just really good.
I’m surprised no one has mentioned Soothe 2. It’s incredibly useful. You can sometimes get similar results with multiband compressors and EQs, but Soothe is just so quick and easy.
I will second the chorus of enthusiasm for Soundtoys. I rarely use anything else (plus ableton native plugins).
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One of my favourite plugins is the VHS Audio Degradation Suite for Reaktor. Sounds gorgeous on a mix, or on individual sounds. So many controls for emulating tape, and a snazzy interface to boot. And best of all it’s completely free. All hail Reaktor!
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One of my new favorite plugins, that caught me by surprise, is Freakshow Industries’ Mishby. Great for sound design and destroying the signal, but also can be wonderful used in subtle applications.
Other favs:
-Mv Meter
-Soundtoys 5
-Eventide Anthology XI
-Unfiltered Audio: Silo, Triad, & LoFiAf
-Sugarbytes Wow2
-XLN RC-20
-MetricAB
-Bx Masterdesk
-Blackbox HG-2MS
-Shadow Hills Class A
-Neutron 3 Advanced
-Bettermaker EQ232D
-Amek Eq200
-SSL Channel Strip 2
-SSL Bus Comp 2
-UAD Helios
-UAD Destresser
-UAD LA2A
-UAD Pultec
-UAD A800
-Ableton Glue
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I’ve used the native Ableton plugins forever and they work really well. This is a great list of others I need to try.
I keep reading that the Universal Audio/UAD plugins are best in class, assuming you have the interface and computing power to run them. But how do UA plugins stackup with the native Ableton plugins? Can you really hear the difference between someone who is using all native Ableton vs someone using all UAD–without looking at their bank account?
The Fabfilter plugins are all awesome and I use them on everything.
Soundtoys are great especially Decapitator, Echoboy and Devil Loc.
I’ve recently got Shaperbox and that’s super fun.
Baby Audio are worth having especially Super VHS and Crystalline.
In terms of synths Dune 3 is amazing I can believe people don’t talk about it more.
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Dune 3, all of U-he’ synths, Reaktor, and Massive X are my main stays.
Dune 3 is deceptively simple looking, but when you start to dig in you begin to realize just how powerful it all is.
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UHE are amazing.
I tried all the synths and it came down to Dune and Hive.
I massively preferred both of them to Pigments.
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Yeah, I agree with that. Not sure what it is about Pigments, but definitely dig Hive and Diva much more. Maybe it’s the layout. A very capable synth though.
One testament regarding U-He’s stuff is that Hans Zimmerman still rocks Zebra. Read recently that it’s his primary synth sound creating tool, and has played a big role in its ongoing firmwares.
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Soothe 2 is the most useful plugin you’re going to find for production. There is no direct hardware equivalent yet. Worth every penny.
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My core ones fwiw
- Diva - sounds gorgeous
- Pigments - sounds glassy & digital (you may not need these if you have Logic stock synths to use)
- Augmented Strings/Voices - I personally love what they’ve done with the blend of samples & synths here
- NI Play Series - similar to the above. Easy to start, can tweak deeply if you want.
- Spitfire Labs - A brilliant sound source
- NI Kontakt 7 - Also a brilliant sample sound source
- Sugarbytes Effectrix - Old gold for adding subtle glitch to tracks. The interface is too damn small (it really does look 15 years old), but for light twisting of a sound it’s still my go-to.
- Output Portal - A hugely playful granular effect. I’ll try this one at least a few tracks in a song usually. Transform a sound completely, or create a cloud of atmosphere.
- Valhalla VintageVerb - I love this thing, it just instantly has character and adds a vibe to things.
- RC-20 - for adding a bit of a character & movement to a sound
- XO - Basic but super fun drum sequencer
- Stock Ableton stuff. Specifically the newer effects like Spectral Resonator.
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…since pandemic i go with the uber modular mega plugin…bitwig.
only other stuff that can still add something essential to my daily sonic equasion is…
xo for sample management, laying out basic groovegrids and export that expllicit sample selection to bitwigs drummachine container and make it run by the also from there exported first draft of a midi file…
h3000 plugin for that prestine eventide shinyness…
a bit of analog simulated channel strip cult…
some microtonic…
some sonible smartness…
some swedish skaka for da shaky spice of top loop groovin’…
aaaaand shaperbox…to shape all the shapes…
all the rest might be nice to have but prooved to be not essential for real at all, since it can also be done in way more efficient ways within bitwigs endless options and was nothing but a waste of money, time and all essential focus…
last thing it might need is the fab filter stuff…since that’s simply sort of an industry standard…
and i wait for fors to become a standard third party plugin company to give us opal…that’s truu fresh and swedish approach right there…
while bitwig might evolve again big time with next to come version 5, as it always does and make even more things totally obsolete…
but leave me alone with all these next new fancy synth “innovations” and next even better than the real thing compressor plugins…that’s all just gas in ur head…
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What are your current favorite plugins?
Curious what other Elektronauts like. mine:
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PA Oven: really dig it on master/busses for gentle saturation/thickening. next level soft sat imho.
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Kiive ADC1: didn’t have the cash for Softube Chandler stuff, went with this one. dunno how close it comes to a real TG1 but it’s super nice on drumbus (i even dig it on master). kinda touchy to dial in but when it works it shines. check out his free Warmy, great pulltec clone with low band up to 400hz
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Red Rock Sound AQ-550 and BQ-A: again didn’t have cash for pricier EQ emulations (i’m a big sucker for trident stuff), great unknown EQ’s. saturation is superb, the 550 is one of the best algo emulations imho. bit sketchy to buy though (but seems legit)
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DDMF Magic Death Eye: both the grey and black (master) version. grey mono rocks on drumbus, black is really nice on master. Pal of mine has a 5k$ varimu and told me this convinced him mixing ITB is totally possible.
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Analog Obsession stuff: so many great freebies, subscribed to his patreon for a while. currently using BusterSE (great SSL comp clone), Blendeq (Neve mode is killer on drumbus), Merica, TREQ, Britpressor, Fiver etc etc - great stuff, first plugins i recommend to friends.
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Zebra2: didn’t got $ for Pigments/Phase plant last BF sale, forced myself to rediscover Zebra2. damn this synth rocks. might be not the greatest for big clean supersaw/EDM style sounds but discovered it rocks hard for IDM and less slick music genres (slap a nice preamp emu after it) honorable mention for DIVA, use it in every project
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Chipsynth SFC/MD/OPS7: lovely emulations. grab a pack of SNES and MD sound files + one of those 20k DX7 preset packs and discover interesting lofi sounds. OPS7 is spot on, the others can sound like 80ies hardware with super interesting mids imho.
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I’m really enjoying the Fors collection for Max . All really well thought out and presented
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Mine are:
- Gulfoss, use it on every track. Just magic for revealing detail, taming stuff
- Shadow Hills Class A Mastering Compressor - great on the master buss but also good for drums
- Blackbox HG-2 tube saturator from Plugin Alliance, lovely saturation
- Valhalla Delay everything from bread n butter delays to weird stuff
- Audiodamage Dubstation 2, typically on a send for dub delays
- Valhalla Vintage Verb, Supermasive, and Room for most reverb duties
- Pigments for whenever I need a soft synth
I’ve actually been gassing a bit for Zebra Legacy because I’d like to mess with Dark Zebra,
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Been recording lots of Machinedrum only stuff lately, the go to drum bus has been
EQ->Valhalla VintageVerb (between 0-8% wet)->Decapitator->AberrantDSP Shapeshifter. Getting some real nice saturation and noisy bits
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Been using Knobcloud a lot recently. So much more convenient than the KVR forum. Got Black Box HG-2MS today for £10 then used the voucher for a free license transfer.
It’s the best way to use those vouchers. 
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