Ableton Forum

What are some of the better free and pay compressor, eq, and delay type plug ins? I've been out of the game for the last several years and I'm not up to date on these kinds of things.

Thanks in advance

Hmmm... Waves!!!

Get ready for a multi-page list of everything currently available, seriously. Questions like this typically result in everybody mentioning their fave, but by the end of reading it, you're probably better off having used kvraudio.com to just do a search and sort through reviews. Reviews on soundonsound.com are very useful as well.

but since you asked nicely...
My most-used compressor and EQ are the ones native to Live. I think they work+sound great. When and if I don't use them, I use my fabfilter bundle, with the Pro-Q and Pro-C. Very nice stuff, the compressor in particular. But again, for most EQ and compression needs, I think Live's stock units are excellent.

-M

i have never tried them but heard alot of good things about fab fiter

check them out

Toneboosters - Track Essentials bundle is great and well priced.

DDMF - Some free (for PC), paid plugins are well priced too.

Airwindows (if you're on Mac) - This guy rocks! Heaps of free and paid plugs.

I'd appreciate a long list. I remember Waves being good but expensive. I still have some Audio Damage plug ins. I also have some type of "Fish" compressor, limiter thing.

But technology changes fast and I've been out of the mix just long enough for a whole slew of new cats to jump in the game right?

I'm no plug-in whore but I have a few faves, some which I own and some I wish i did:

I love DDMF IIEQPro (very reasonable price)
I also use DDMF's NoLimits which again is a good price and works well for me
Cytonic The Glue is a very highly regarded compressor

A for Waves, I wouldn't touch them with your dongle, but that's just me...

Thanks Scu'

Your list reminded me I have the PSP filter and I also have the Audio Damage dub delay < which I love.

I'm going to check out some of the free plugs on your list.

Ad

i recently bought the Apqualizr EQ and I think it improved my sound.
good stuff!

DMG Audio :

-Equality eq.
-Compassion : amazingly versatile compressor (and whatnot) toolbox, but you can keep it as simple as you like.

Flux plugins :

-Solera 2 : a very versatile mastering compressor, de-compressor, expander and de-expander. bear in mind that this can take quite some time to learn.
-Epure 2 (a very good and amazingly smooth sounding eq).
if you're interested in those two, it might be better to buy the 'mastering bundle, since it's cheaper and you get the 'Pure Limiter 2' as well.)
-Syrah is also a very good compressor, with only a few controls to get a good sound very quick. amazing on drums. also very suited for mastering.
the only downside to Flux is that they require an ilok (like Waves).

Fabfilter's Pro-C compressor is also very good (although not as flexible as Compassion or Solera 2 in terms of options....IF you need those options, that is), not that big fan of the Pro-Q's workflow and sound though.

all these plugins have mid/side processing, the compressors all have internal sidechain eq's as well plus dry/wet balance for parallel processing.

DMG Audio, FabFilter, SoundToys...

for compression cant go past psp vintage warmer 1 or 2

I've heard nothing bot praise for Cytomic's The Glue bus compressor, modeled after an SSL bus compressor:

http://www.cytomic.com/glue

The native ones work great for me. Never ventured into the ones you pay for since I already had these and never had an issue w/ them.

nothing new just extra votes for

DMGAudio : Equality / Compassion
Cytomic : The Glue