Ableton Forum

I have a budget to spend on some good plugns, but it seems like all the ones I want require iLok - URS, Sony Oxford, Waves

Anything recommended out there that doesn't require iLok - looking mainly for compression/eq

I already have wave arts and psp.

Beatport wrote:I have a budget to spend on some good plugns, but it seems like all the ones I want require iLok - URS, Sony Oxford, Waves

Anything recommended out there that doesn't require iLok - looking mainly for compression/eq

I already have wave arts and psp.

UAD has some really good compressors and EQs but requires a hardware card.

Voxengo has some good plug-ins although they are more about having many parameters to tweak the sound so they can have a learning curve.

sonalksis is pretty sweet.

also big ups on vexengo stuff

Voxengo, Sonalksis.. and real bargain compressor(s) at -

http://www.stillwellaudio.com

Great price, full no-restrictions demos.

uh, don't waste your time with those. good stuff for sure, but for a small budget, get the Stillwell Audio suite.

cheap as all get out and sound amazing!

I'd go for PSP Audioware.
Voxengo is a great value.

UAD but you need the card

djsynchro wrote:UAD but you need the card

Thankfully THIS dongle actually provides substantially more benefits than simply being an authoriser!

http://www.stillwellaudio.com/

+1

Excellent plugins, all of them

the 1973 EQ is magic and the Vibe EQ is really warm.
Rocket compressor is really efficient too...

http://uhbik.com/

Uhbik... nice set of effects from U-he

on sale for $149 ($99 if you own other U-he stuff)

very high quality

deva wrote:http://uhbik.com/

Uhbik... nice set of effects from U-he

on sale for $149 ($99 if you own other U-he stuff)

very high quality

Not really for mastering purposes though, which I think is what hes going for.

The Sonalksis Essentials bundle for 600 dollars (or 300 for educational license qualifiers) is totally awesome, plugins designed by ex AMS-Neve employees. although not emulating vintage Neve gear is one of my best ever purchases. PC VST or Mac OSX AU plugins and if you have both systems, you are allowed to download both for no extra cost. The EQ and compressor are totally awesome especially. No ILOK or other dongles.

http://www.sonalksis.com/index.php?section_id=2

PSPAudio are pretty good, especially the Mastercomp, that is one awesome compressor for mastering. Mac users though need ilok unfortunately for the bundles and some individual PSP, PC users do not.

RNDigital plugins are really good, although they were better value when they were Elemental Audio.

Most Sonnox stuff requires ILOK now, pity as their stuff was awesome.

jlgrimes wrote:

Beatport wrote:I have a budget to spend on some good plugns, but it seems like all the ones I want require iLok - URS, Sony Oxford, Waves

Anything recommended out there that doesn't require iLok - looking mainly for compression/eq

I already have wave arts and psp.

UAD has some really good compressors and EQs but requires a hardware card.
.

+ 1

UAD has the only close to real hardware sounding 1176 and LA2A plugins, excellent reverb, chorus, cannot go wrong with UAD. Only thing that can really compare to UAD sound quality is McDSP plugins but that is TDM only.

I'm not knocking UAD stuff at all, it is excellent. I would highly recommend it. I especially like the Space Echo and EMS140 plate reverb. LiquidMix and TC Powercore are also all great.

However, unless you want to specifically emulate vintage gear, it is not always the best option for your sound, and DSP cards and boxes are costly options.

For me, the Sonalksis stuff for compression/EQ/gating is just as good sounding as UAD, you can recreate vintage sounding plugins as you have massive tweakability in both the EQs and compressor, but it does not aim to copy it directly, but they sound brilliant anyway. Stuff like an LA2A sounds great, but it is quite a limited plugin with some fixed values.

The Sonalksis programmers are ex-employees of AMS-NEVE so they certainly know how to make a great sounding range of plugins and they run in 64 bit mode with no latency. And no PCI/PCI-E slot required for an external DSP card.

If you have the money, I would recommend both actually. I also recommend Voxengo plugins, Elephant for 90 bucks is the best mastering limiter out there period for me.

actually, I am completely sick of seeing vintage gear emulations. I actually want the most radical weirdest messed up digital effects I can find.

I would buy an eventide or Urei or lexicon if I wanted the real thing. So I guess my question should be - who has the most F%cked up effects?