Ableton Forum

I only use ableton devices but now I want to get familiar with some vsti plugins. I don’t like to try everything so I would like to know which are the best, most useful and helpful. Of course effects and instruments.

reaktor - you buy one app but you get almost 2000 intruments/effects.

don't let the title misslead you, you can also use these for different styles: http://www2.tranceaddict.com/forums/arc ... 907-1.html

these guys make some excellent software, for both electronica and real instrument samplers: http://www.native-instruments.com

and for audio processing:
http://www.waves.com
http://www.voxengo.com
http://www.pspaudioware.com

some of these guys have freeware or trail versions you can check out, too. good luck.

--jt

OOh I hear that Angstrolooper is well worth sending the guy some money for!

nah, it's shit really.

Seriously though it very much depends on what music you make.
These are my top VST instruments that I always fall back on:

Vaz Modular3 - excellent sound , quick modular plugability.. nice
FM7 .. damn expensive- but if you have a big midi controler it is just amazing.
Lounge lizard - I use loads of electric piano, I just love it.70s child I guess


Plenty of others obviously, but I tend to make a lot of my own stuff in SynthEdit for the other stuff.
I have a load of drum synths and lead stuff, effects etc. Its a good option if you are on a budget as SE is about $20 and you can make your own. Obviously you need some knowledge of synthesis or you are doomed!

I wont take up space by listing effects .. mainly waves trueverb for a decent reverb.

absynth for drones, pads. noises-reaktor for effects and noizy+everything else.
audiorealism baseline for bleepbleep gurgly sounds.

you might not consider these first, if you just want sounds/FX, but for modular sequencing/chaining (rewire or VST)

- plogue bidule
- energyXT

are both excellent and cheap.


there are masses of VST, so a google or search of this forum or many others (http://www.kvraudio.com/) will give you more info than you need. It will be quicker than waiting for people to re-post the same information they've discussed many times in the past.

your choice in VST will depend on the type of music you want to make.

Absynth and Reaktor user here! They both kick ass. Operator and either PSP or Ozone are all that I need to add.

Pluggo has great bang for your buck. Over 100 plugs for US$199. Operator is very user friendly( and sounds awesome), particularly if you only use Live.

Crystal. For those of us that don't really want to shell out for Absynth...
http://www.greenoak.com/crystal/

(It's free by the way)

Oh and most of reFX's instruments are very nice: http://www.refx.net/
(They do a free one called Claw... you wouldn't think it only had a single oscillator when you hear it!)

http://www.lanstarr.com/

StarrSynth

Great sub-bass sounds for mixing under your bass synths.

-Ben

Depends entirelly on what kind of music you are into, but there are tons of quality free VST stuff out there.

Head over to http://www.kvraudio.com/ and have a look in their huge database.

Just as an example, this is a very cool free tempo synched multi filter multi LFO plugin:

http://www.devine-machine.com/minion/index.html

I know Reason is not a plug-in (rewire), but this has everything in one package. KVRAudio is an awesome resource for free plug-ins (Crystal, Stardust, Ugo Synths, GuitarSuite, Cyanide 2, KarmaFX, MDA, Elemental audio's Inspector and Kjauerhaus classic plug-ins are essential freebies. You theoretically could do fine with freebies.
I went the expensive route. PSP Vintage Warmer and PSP MasterPack are fantastic. PSP Nitro is my favorite plug-in after PSP's VW. Other than that, Voxengo's Pristine Space light is a good cheap plug-in right now.
Finally, for equalizers check out Elemental Audio's Firium and Equim. Pick up a unique compressor Neodynium in a discount pack. I use Spin Audio's RoomVerb2.
Other than that, there have been many prior posts on this subject.

check out z3ta @ http://www.rgcaudio.com/

and if you want a nice new moog emulatioon with a fresh aproach check out

http://gforcesoftware.com/HomePage.do;j ... 28A5FC9C0B

but both of these are going to give you a erm... how should i say ... heavy sound

z3ta is very heavy and minimonsta can be downright mental....

you can use the mini as a filter plug as well , and you can whack lfos on ANYTHING . then morph between patches using a lower octave on your controller.. like i said heavy. (z3ta's fx section can be used as independently aswell)

want something nice and light instead? try albino 2. http://www.linplug.com/Products/Albino_2/albino_2.htm

Michael-SW wrote: Just as an example, this is a very cool free tempo synched multi filter multi LFO plugin:

http://www.devine-machine.com/minion/index.html

Yeah minion rules... I'd almost fare to say its the coolest free plug out there.

Another nice one is endorphin, a saturation compressor. Makes shiz sound phaaaat as.

http://www.digitalfishphones.com/main.p ... &subItem=3


In fact all of the digitalfishphones plugs are nice.

Absynth 3 would be my vote, it gets a lot of reputation as a pad an drone synth, but it makes killer basses and can do anything a subtractive synth can do.