If I have around £400 to spend on VST's/Plugins....

[Papalazarou]

.....Where should I spend it?! I really like the look of Output's Exhale and Signal, but, being a bit of a noob, I would welcome some input from the community on the best VST's/Plugins please?

Thanks,
Jamie.

[JonSolo]

Well what do you actually own? What kind of music do you make? I assume Ableton Live is your host...

More info...plz.

[Shift Gorden]

.....Where should I spend it?! I really like the look of Output's Exhale and Signal, but, being a bit of a noob, I would welcome some input from the community on the best VST's/Plugins please?

Thanks,
Jamie.

I was looking at that suite recently! Both of those look really interesting. I was in a similar situation. I did this (note: I really like analog emulations).

I upgraded NI Kontakt - that's really fun for making analog style synths. They've got a pretty cool modular system - took me a few YouTube vids to get my head around (a small part of) it. Managed to create some very nice sounding basses.

Waves Element is a really nice sounding analog emulator. I think I paid 50 bucks for it when it was on sale the other day - I really love it.

U-He Zebra I also picked up. Based upon rave reviews and messing around with the demo I really liked it's workflow. Can't wait to mess around with it more. Seems very capable.

I did pick up NI's new Flesh synth. I really wished I hadn't. The vids make it look so good - but it just doesn't fit with what I do at all. Ugh.

I wish Exhale and Signal had a demo....


EDIT: I think I meant Reaktor when I said Kontakt.

Oh - keep an eye on Plugin Alliance this month, they're having some insane sales...

[downfader]

Sooo much scope with that budget.

Personal faves are the V Station & Bass Station (I think they come in a bundle now), Waldorf PPG emulation pack with the drums. Arturia seem to be pretty classy too. All depends on what you intend to do with it all

[Papalazarou]

Thanks for the replies guys. Yes Ableton Live Suite 9.5 is my host. I am not sure what sort of music I am looking to make as I am pretty new to dance music. I am coming from a rock/folk background, but I have always loved electronica. Kind of chilled breakbeats. So I am open to ideas really. I would also love to have some soundscapes to work alongside my singer/songwriter guitar thing, as kind of background and complimentary sounds, as well as more complete electronic tunes. But I would say generally looking to produce chilled out breakbeats mainly. A little vague I know....

I did just look through Music Radar's best 50 VST's synths and their number 1 is a synth called Xfer Records Serum. It seems to take the best from Massive and a few other synths and looks really interesting https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYhnSuuVqBE

[Papalazarou]

Also, Shift Gorden, I agree on wishing there was a demo for Signal and Exhale. It's quite a lot of money at around £240 or so for a punt! If anyone has experience of these 2 instruments I would be happy to hear about it! (As would Shift I'm sure! )

[Stromkraft]

.....Where should I spend it?! I really like the look of Output's Exhale and Signal, but, being a bit of a noob, I would welcome some input from the community on the best VST's/Plugins please?

(Soft)synths that changed everything
These are my current personal favourites:

• Cakewalk Z3TA+ 2, a wavetable synthesizer that can sound as real as a hardware subtractive, does Frequency Modulation (FM) really well too or just plain Wavetable madness. It can import wavetable samples from all kinds of sources and the modulation possibilities are pretty deep. The presets are mostly BS from my perspective, so this is for learning programming your own sounds as well as playing your stuff.
  
  I feel rewarded using it currently for leads, pads and basses but I can imagine doing everything on it as it doesn't use extreme amounts of CPU either. Also has a bona fide arpeggiator and usable effects. It even has performance drift (to make the pitch vary as in an old hardware synth)!
• Native Instruments Razor. Razor in the Reaktor environment for very quickly building very otherworldly and/or acoustically behaving sounds. IMHO it doesn't compare to anything and has it's own space pretty much.
  
  Presets are so and so, but building sounds are so quick after you get under the hood and understand this is an additive synthesis affair with familiar controls (if you know the regular subtractive mindset).
  
  As this synth is in Reaktor I can add anything I feel is missing in the synth. I'm just getting into the Reaktor environment itself that was just released as version 6. It's very deep and I like it much more than Max.

Effects plug-ins that changed my studio life. These are usable by anyone no matter musical style.

• Waves NLS, Non-linear summing plug-in that I use on more or less all my individual tracks and busses. Emulates over a hundred unique Neve, SSL and EMI channels and their interaction. All I care about is the sound. Subtle, so you think it doesn't do anything so you remove it and wonder what did you just do? Undo! You can also drive the channel pretty hard to a point for saturation.
• Waves V-EQ3 and V-EQ4, classic 3-band Equalizer modeled after the Neve 1066 and 1073 and 4-band equalizer V-EQ4, modeled after the Neve 1081. I sold my cool Scheps73, as these two are like silk. 1 minute of dial in and I got the track sitting in the mix. I like EQ8 for fixing problems and ducking, but hey…
• Waves C4, multiband dynamics processing with highly musical qualities. Great for fixing problems and balancing a sound. I also use it on busses to have different compression in different bands. I'm always surprised over how well it sounds. Deep and very useful.
• TDR Kotelnikov, a free, unique, unashamedly digital and extremely useful compressor to get you hooked on Tokyo Dawn Records. What other reasons could they have making this free? There's an even more useful paid-for version, but make no mistake about it. This is a Pro compressor. (Yeah, I know I've been on about it already)
• EAReckon EAReverb, Wonderful authentic and superb room reverb, for when you need that sound, with lots of detailed controls. I use this for vocals, staging or just giving that presence around a sound. To me nothing else comes close for room reverb though I use other reverbs too of course. Currently there's a new version 2.

[ChangoM]

.... my singer/songwriter guitar thing, as kind of background and complimentary sounds, as well as more complete electronic tunes.

If vocal clips are part of your Live projects, you may want to consider iZotope Nectar 2 (demo available):

https://www.izotope.com/en/products/mix ... ng/nectar/

It is not a midi instrument, but rather a plug-in audio effect in Live specifically designed for the human voice (sung and spoken). If your aim is to contort and punish vocal waveforms to produce synthetic sounds, the built-in effects in Live may be fine. But if you have a need to bring out the best in vocal clips, polish them, reduce problems, add strength, clarity, and texture, and to create the perfect balance between the voices and the instruments and the recording space, Nectar allows you to do that with a very soft touch optimized for natural vocal waveforms.

There may very well be better plug-ins for this that have come out since I started using Nectar several years ago. Nothing else has been on my radar.

[Syver]

You can get NI's Komplete 10 for that price: best value for money

[störgeräusche]

i got the arturia collection 4
currently @ half price, approx 200 EUR i guess (paid 209 swiss francs)
13 synths & 1 drum machine

[login]

Get Syntorial so you learn to program synths http://www.syntorial.com/

Once you complete the tutorial you will know what features you want in a synth.

Avoid expending money until you really know what you need and want.

And check out the secondhand market at kvraudio.com forum.

[Emanresu0891]

There are plenty of tutorials on youtube

If I had a budget of $400 and I was new to this knowing what I know now I would get Native Instruments Komplete
You will get everything you need plus more that you will be able to use down the road.

You will be able to cover all electronic genres with Live 9 and Komplete

https://www.native-instruments.com/en/p ... -products/

[Stromkraft]

Get Syntorial so you learn to program synths http://www.syntorial.com/

Once you complete the tutorial you will know what features you want in a synth.

Avoid expending money until you really know what you need and want.

And check out the secondhand market at kvraudio.com forum.

All sound advice.

[musikmachine]

You can get NI's Komplete 10 for that price: best value for money

My first thought and high quality instruments, staples of my productions.

If you can get a copy of Komplete elements or other NI stuff you can usually corssgrade for less.

[ejlif]

I would get Komplete. It's the best bang for the buck by far if you only have 400 to spend. I have bought a lot of plugs and NI stuff is good seems to be stable and sounds OK too.