Tools we use

[Xaleph]

I was going to give this an official name (something better than "Tools we use"), but I wanted to start a post that lists some VSTs (free and paid) that I know a good number of us use for mixing.  This is not intended to be a clone of a list of all possible VSTs, or like 2 people in our community use it so we put it here.  It's intended to be a place to find out what others use in our space that we find particularly useful.  Just replying with a simple name of a product isn't good enough for me to put it on the list (for the reason I stated above) - though you can always respond with plugins you personally found among the most useful (or just most used in each song).  I want to avoid this being a junk drawer that has no real value.  The value will come with a curated list of tools that we feel are worthy.  

 

For a list of DAWs we use and to find performers of specific instruments, please visit https://ocremix.org/workshop or ask in our discord.

 

 

 Sage Recommended

 

1. Instruments

1.1 Drums

Addictive Drums by xln audio ($159 || complete: $869) [drums]

ML Drums by ML Sound Lab (free) [drums]

Steven Slate Drums by steven slate drums (free || $119) [drums]

toontrack

• EZDrummer ($179)  [drums]
•  Superior Drummer ($399)  [drums]

1.2 Samplers

Native Instruments

•  Kontakt (player: free || regular: $299) [sampler] [instrument building tool]
  • Heritage Percussion by Impact Soundworks (free)  [sampler] [tribal percussion]
  •  Super Audio Cart by Impact Soundworks (gameboy: free || complete: $149)  [sampler] [chiptune]
  • Shreddage 3 by Impact Soundworks [sampler] [guitar]
    • Free -> Precision (free) [bass] & Stratus (free) [electric guitar]
    • Hydra ($149) [electric guitar] - this one is my favorite of the Shreddage Line
  • Impact Soundworks collection has a lot of instruments difficult to find, such as the Oud ($99)

Spectrasonics:

• Keyscape ($399) [sampler] [piano] 
• Trillian ($299) [sampler] [synth] [bass]

Spitfire Audio

• Spitfire Labs - free [sampler] [textures] [orchestral] [live instruments] 
  Notable Lab Instruments:  Arctic Swells,  Astral Forms,  Frozen Strings, Strings, Strings 2, Amplified Cello Quartet
• BBC Symphony Orchestra (free) [sampler] [orchestral]

1.3 Synths

Native Instruments

• FM8 ($149) [fm synth]
• Massive X ($199) [wavetable synth]
• Reaktor ($199) [modular synth]

Odin (free and open source) [semi-modular synth]

 Phase Plant by Kilohearts ($199) [semi-modular synth] 

Pigment by Arturia ($199) [wavetable synth]

 Serum by Xfer ($189) [wavetable synth]

Spectrasonics:

•  Omnipshere ($499) [hybrid synth] [wavetable synth]
• Trillian ($299) [sampler] [synth] [bass]

Spire by Reveal Sounds ($189) [synth]

Surge XT (free and open source) [hybrid synth]

VCV Rack (free || pro: $149) [modular synth]

 Vital (free || pro $80 || subscribe $5/month) [wavetable synth]

Zebralette (free) [spectral synth]

 

2. Effects

Deelay by sixthsample (free)

 Guitar Rig by Native Instruments (player: free || pro: $199)

Helix Native by Line 6 ($399) [guitar amp]

illformed Effects:

• dBlue Glitch (free but may require jbridge) [glitch] [stutter]
• Glitch 2 ($59.95) [glitch] [stutter]

iZotope: 

• Stutter Edit ($199) [glitch] [stutter]
• Vinyl (free) [vinyl record]

 Kilohearts Essentials by Kilohearts (free)

Slate Digital

• Fresh Air (free) [vintage exciter circuits and advanced dynamics processing]

TH-U by Overloud ($269)

Valhalla Effects:

•  Super Massive (free) [reverb]
• Vintage ($50) [reverb]
• Delay ($50) [delay]

Xfer:

•  OTT (free)

 

3. Utilities

FabFilter (Pro Q 3: $169)

iZotope Utilities:

•  Ozone (elements: $49 || standard: $199 || advanced: $399)
•  RX (elements: $49 || standard: $299 || advanced: $799)

SPAN by Voxengo (free) [eq analysis]

TBProAudio

• ISOL8 (free) [Mix monitoring tool]

Tokyo Dawn

• TDR NOVA (free || ge: €60) [equalizer]
• Kotelnikov (free || ge: €50) [wideband dynamics processor]

4. Non-DAW Tools

• Brad the Mad's Tempo Calculator (free) [Chart, lists given bpm subdivisions as ms and Hz; chart goes from 60 bpm to 179 bpm]
• Tuneform's Tempo Calculator (free) [converts bpm to ms]
• MIDI CC List (free) [Chart, lists common CC uses]
• Virtual Instrument Delay Chart (free) [Google Sheet, lists delay offsets for most orchestral sample libraries]
• Tap Tempo (free) [Webapp, click or tap a key in time with a piece of music to get its tempo]

Notes

 Native Instruments offers a starter pack with several of the recommended tools called Komplete Start (free)

Free(ish) DAWs (https://bedroomproducersblog.com/2015/11/11/free-daw-software/ - he updates this regularly):

• Reaper
• Cakewalk
• Sibelius
• GarageBand
• Audacity (audio)

Cheap Stuff / Sales

• Black Friday / Day after Christmas / Spring / Summer usually have sales
• Humble Bundle often has VSTs, sfx, and samples.

Heavyvocity has some good textural tools (instruments & effects)

 

Sample Packs:

• 99 Sounds’ (free)
• 99 Sounds’ two 99 Drum sample packs (free)

 

To Add

To Review

SINE Player, Soundpaint, Musio
Orchestral Tools, 8Dio
NES VST

 

 

Edited Friday at 05:13 AM by paradiddlesjosh
Added a Non-DAW Tools section, formatting

[100_PERCENT ROEMER]

Oh man, you gotta add Famisynth to the list! Not only is it 8-bit heaven, it's 100% free.

http://mu-station.chillout.jp/plugins/FAMISYNTH-II/index.html

[gravitygauntlet]

Hey Xaleph, I think you've pulled some of my VSTs from the Discord server anyway, but here's a list of some stuff I use commonly:

VST Instruments

• u-he's Zebra2, Hive, Diva. All the u-he synths are notable for having free versions with very limited paywall restrictions; the free versions don't limit settings at all, they just play static or randomize notes intermittently after 20 minutes of rendering/use. This can be worked around by reloading the instance, and it's obviously an easy workaround for final mixdown.
• FM8 by Native Instruments - goes on sale a lot
• FMDrive - very cheap Genesis/Mega Drive synth that can read the original instrument files
• Roland Sound Canvas - not free but essential for a lot of GBA/SNES type sounds. A lot of them make up GBA soundfonts unaltered; Golden Sun, Pokemon, etc.
• Sforzando and Samplelord are both worth bringing up as soundfont interfaces; the former is free and the latter can notably read some proprietary instrument files used in E-mu kits like the Proteus.
• Performance Samples has paid VSTs but also a lot of freebies; I use the strings and percussion a lot. They just require a certain version of Kontakt.

VST FX

• Guitar Rig - I use Guitar Rig 5 specifically. Its amps/cabinets are really diverse and convincing and I use the reverb effects on pretty much everything.
• Convology XT has a free version with a lot of convolution reverb presets. I use them in conjunction with these Impulse Responses a lot to emulate how reverb effects were achieved on the PS1.
• EliteReducer 2 and CMT Bitcrusher are both free bitcrushers.
• MeldaProduction has a lot of versatile free FX; I use MCompressor for sidechaining and MVibrato for gated/tremolo effects.
• ToneBoosters has a lot of free legacy FX i.e. Barricade.
• Tokyo Dawn Records has some good free/paid FX like Kotelnikov; I use the paid version on my master bus pretty much all the time.

 

 

Edited April 18 by gravitygauntlet

[Xaleph]

https://equipboard.com/xaleph if you want to know my gear

DAWs

• Reason Studio
• Ableton Live
• Audacity
• Garage Band

Notable VST/REs

• Objekt (Reason RE - paid)
• Serum
• Vital
• Kontakt (SAC, and others)
• Spitfire Labs
• Spitfire BBC
• Ugritone (Doom & something else?)
• Reason ( Kong / Radical Piano / Pangea / Klang / Mimic / Thor / Europa)

Notable Effects

• Guitar Rig Pro
• Kilohearts
• Reason (Audiomatic / Scream / RV7000 Mk II / Echo / Pulveriser / Sweeper / Synch EM / Alligator)

Notable Utilities

• Psyscope
• iZotope Ozone Advance / RX
• Musescore

[paradiddlesjosh]

I figured I should share my Equipboard as well.

DAWs

• Presonus Studio One 4
• Ableton Live 10

Notable VST Instruments

• Adam Szabo Viper (Virus TI emulation)
• Arturia Analog Lab V Intro
• Decidedly DecentSampler (the VSTi is free, with free libraries available at their website and Pianobook)
• ML Drums by ML Sound Lab (Essentials, Luxe, Meld -- the free version is a stripped-down Essentials kit)
• NI Battery 4
• NI Kontakt 6 and Kontakt Player 7 (Pianobook also has many free Kontakt libraries -- full version of Kontakt required for those)
  • 8dio Claire English Horn
  • The Alpine Project
  • Ferrum Free Edition
  • ISW Shreddage 3 (Precision Free, Stratus Free)
  • ISW Heritage Percussion
  • ProjectSAM The Free Orchestra
• Orchestral Tools Free Series (Layers)
• Orchestral Tools SINEfactory (Clutch, Crucible, Dynamo, Gearbox, Helix, Lucent, Manifold, Ratio, Rotary)
• Plugin Alliance x Brainworx bx_oberhausen
• Steven Slate Drums 5.5
• Spitfire Audio LABS
• Spitfire Audio BBC Symphony Orchestra (Core -- Discover is free and covers all the basic articulations/techniques, and the top-level Pro version has more soloists and mic placement controls)
• Spitfire Audio Originals (Epic Strings, Epic Brass & Winds, Cinematic Percussion, Cimbalom, Media Toolkit)
• Toontrack Superior Drummer 2
• Vital

Notable VST Effects

• Arturia MiniFuse Bundle (this came with my interface)
  • Arturia Chorus JUN-6
  • Arturia Delay TAPE-201
  • Arturia Pre 1973
  • Arturia Rev PLATE-140
• Korneff Audio El Juan Limiter (a free emulation of the legendary L1 Limiter)
• NI Guitar Rig 6 LE (free with Komplete Start)
• NI Supercharger (also free with Komplete Start)
• Plugin Alliance Ampeg SVT-VR Classic
• Plugin Alliance Black Box Analog Design HG-2
• Plugin Alliance x Brainworx
  • bx_console Focusrite SC
  • bx_masterdesk (Classic available for free in the PA FREE bundle)
  • bx_opto
  • bx_rockrack V3 (Player available for free in the PA FREE bundle -- only does presets)
• Plugin Alliance Maag Audio EQ2
• Plugin Alliance PA FREE
  • bx_cleansweep V2
  • bx_solo
  • bx_subfilter
  • Double MS
  • Free Ranger
  • niveau filter
• Tokyo Dawn Records TDR Nova
• UrsaDSP Lagrange (granular delay)
• Voxengo SPAN

Notable Utilities

• Akai EWI-USB
• Evans x Sunhouse Hybrid Sensory Percussion v2
• Presonus Notion 6

[Sengin]

Gonna have to mention FabFilter for their top notch effects (their UI has basically become the de facto UI for digital effects), but especially Pro-Q, Pro-C, and Saturn.  As a bonus, they have many fantastic tutorials on how to use their tools, which are basically tutorials on how to use EQ, how to use compressors, etc in general.

Sonible I have less experience with, but their smart:limit is a fantastic limiter.

[Xaleph]

16 hours ago, Sengin said:

Gonna have to mention FabFilter for their top notch effects (their UI has basically become the de facto UI for digital effects), but especially Pro-Q, Pro-C, and Saturn.  

Pro-Q is like an industry standard.  I see it everywhere.

[paradiddlesjosh]

These resources aren't plug-ins: they're great reference tools!

• Brad the Mad's Tempo Calculator (Chart, lists given bpm subdivisions as ms and Hz; chart goes from 60 bpm to 179 bpm)
• Tuneform's Tempo Calculator (converts bpm to ms)
• MIDI CC List (Chart, lists common CC uses)
• Virtual Instrument Delay Chart (Google Sheet, lists delay offsets for most orchestral VST instruments; organized by instrument section, brand, library, and articulations). Use these as a starting point and adjust to your project as needed
• Tap Tempo (Webapp, click or tap a key in time with a piece of music to get its tempo)

I was chatting in the Lounge on Discord with folks last night discussing the importance of tools like the tempo calculators: some time-based effects plug-ins (reverb and delay, but also the attack and release controls on compressors, limiters, gates, expanders, etc) have no tempo sync function. If you can convert the subdivision into ms or Hz, you can manually sync your plug-ins to your project tempo/tempi (plural of tempo).

You can also use this chart to maintain a relative pulse while changing meters: in the example I gave from a project Seph and I are working on, there's an intro segment at 90 bpm, 4/4 time that evolves into a verse in 12/8 using the same structure as the intro. 12/8 is functionally equivalent to 4/4 with a triplet subdivision, but most DAWs only give tempo expressed in a quarter note bpm, so maintaining 90 bpm gives an incorrect pulse from the click. But if you check the chart, you can see that a quarter note at 90bpm equals 0.667 seconds (666.6 repeating ms, or 667 for simplicity's sake) and a quarter-note triplet equals 0.444 seconds (444.4 repeating ms). Scroll down the chart and you'll find 135 bpm has a quarter note value of 0.444 seconds and a dotted quarter note value of 0.667 seconds: for all intents and purposes, the quarter note value of 90 bpm equals the dotted quarter note value of 135 bpm!

[Xaleph]

Feel free to edit the post to add sections/links.