Which Plugin Alliance deals were MUST HAVES?

[hibidy]

@mpressor: I'm mpressed with it

I don't like the negative ratio stuff that much. What I like is it's instant grat on a drum channel. And, depending on your settings you can get some omph w/o making everything else clip (like the master buss ) where other comps can do similar things, but then the master buss clips like crazy.

[kylen]

Oddly enough I think I'm enjoying the SPL Vitalizer MK2-T more than anything I've tried.

I picked up the Alpha comp, very interesting and nice sound (a little learning curve there), TwinTube is fine. But the Vitalizer really has the ability to reach in and cleanup 'masked' problem areas as it says in the manual - which happens to be what I'm working on right now, a mixed that was over-glued so to speak.

Excerpt from the software Vitalizer MK2-T manual:
"...By shifting louder frequencies slightly in time,
softer and formerly overlapping sounds are "unmasked" and
made audible. The audible effect of unmasking could be described
in general terms as more clarity and depth in a mix..."

I'm surprised how natural the MK2-T plugin sounds - the last time I tried to do that kind og thing was with my BBE 462 (and the software plugin) it really didn't work out so well - you remember fingernails on a chalkboard sound maybe not that bad but on the road to it anyway.

I bet the hardware Vitalizer MK2 must really sound fine!
So I'm glad I picked up the Vitalizer & Alpha. Really pleased with them.

The TwinTube might grow on me but because there are problems with it someone recommended Melda MultiBandSaturator and I'm glad I'm getting to know that one also. I think I have enough harmonics/saturators now.

I learned a lot from the Plugin Alliance sale this month and everyones comments on their experiences - nice!

[bmanic]

I don't like the negative ratio stuff that much.

The negative ratio stuff can be very handy when you want to absolutely kill/remove peaks while rising the sustain of sounds. For this you need to utterly smash your offending peaks at very fast attack and release settings.. then blend it in behind the original signal. Very effective.

Cheers!
bManic

[Ah Xoc Kin]

IMO it really pays to read their manuals and watch the videos for some (most?) of their plugins.
Here's one for the Passeq:
http://www.releasetime.de/test-spl-anal ... 8-plug-in/

It's easy to get bad sounds with a few of their plugins, so I've spent a bit of time learning "best practices."
I have not purchased any of their plugins during this sale but thanks to other sales I have 21 of their plugins
I'll give Vitalizer a try.

[bmanic]

I'm surprised how natural the MK2-T plugin sounds - the last time I tried to do that kind og thing was with my BBE 462 (and the software plugin) it really didn't work out so well - you remember fingernails on a chalkboard sound maybe not that bad but on the road to it anyway.

Here's another trick:

If you have a sound with moderate high frequency content and you like what the vitalizer is doing (or a similar kind of processor) but the signal becomes too shrill after you use the "vitalizing" feature.. try cutting away the high energy before the plugin with a gentle 6dB/octave lowpass filter. Then simply bring back the brightness with the plugin. This way you force the plugin not to have too much high frequency content to distort before you bring it all up.

Same trick can be used with microphone placement. For instance on guitars, try setting the microphone on purpose, way off center, to make it really dull. Then simply use a high shelf (or the vitalizer) to bring back the highs. This can sound much more natural than trying to capture the high frequencies in the first place.

Cheers!
bManic

[kylen]

Here's another trick:

If you have a sound with moderate high frequency content and you like what the vitalizer is doing (or a similar kind of processor) but the signal becomes too shrill after you use the "vitalizing" feature.. try cutting away the high energy before the plugin with a gentle 6dB/octave lowpass filter. Then simply bring back the brightness with the plugin. This way you force the plugin not to have too much high frequency content to distort before you bring it all up.

Nice!

Now that you mention it the PSP MixTreble2 has that exact control built in to its transients section - although I'm liking the Vitalizer more at the moment. Nice thing to try with the Vitalizer - thanks!

[chokehold]

IMO it really pays to read their manuals and watch the videos

Definitely!
Takes a while, but is definitely worth it.

Not only do they explain what each knob is and does, but they also go way down into theory for the nerds amongst us, and there are always hints at how to set-up the plugin(s) for specific uses, and what to use them for.

For now I only got the Maag EQ, because I'm so much in love with it.

Demo'd it for a while, used it on a few projects I've been messing about with lately. I bypassed every plugin that was already in the various FX chains, and only inserted the Maag EQ on the various single tracks. Overall, I got a way better mix sound out of it than with any other EQ I tend to use, and the whole metal guitars/double bass drums/low g# tuned bass/growl+scream shebang sounded a lot more "professional" than what I was already quite happy with.

I don't know how it does it, but turning the "sub" knob up quite a bit, and then cutting out most of the 40+160Hz material made my tube-amped mic-recorded low-tuned high-gain metal guitars sound soooo br00dal! Thin enough to fit over a modern distorted bass, but there was so much "thump" still in there, even without the "real" low-end.
Then turn down the 2.5kHz shelf a few ticks and add some "Air" at 5-10kHz... OMFG-IJIMP!

Still not sure about the Vertigo.
I did try it and it did sound great, very smooth and silky. The T-Racks Black 76 somehow always brought the mids up a little, but apart from that I could actually match the two up relatively closely. The Vertigo just didn't sound so much better than the Black 76, that it would be worth another $119 to me right now... hm.

[kenobi77]

I'm interested as to why no one has had much to say on the Brainworx Digital V2 plugin as it generally seems to get quite rave reviews from magazines and users, and the impression i get is that its a very deep product.

I'm curious to hear from owners or people who passed on it, is it because it's a mastering tool and you are more interested in mixing/sound design tools, or does it just provide a solution to a problem that no one faces, or is just not that special?


cheers

[jcoutu1]

They have a killer Black Friday sale going on now, so I'm giving this a bump.

[hibidy]

lawd knows I bought quite a few of these. The only one I sold was the rockrack because I have too many amp sims.

[e@rs]

I got bx_digital V2, Mpressor and Alpha. Also liked Maag eq but the GUI is so small. Museq was sweet but a CPU hog. I'm really confused about bx_XL V2. Wasn't that impressed with Vertigo or the SPLs... And that DSM is interesting, I'll keep an eye on it.

[alexfalcao]

I tried the newly released Elysia museq and I felt in love with it. It's a no brainer for me with some Black Friday prices, you can find it bellow $80.00 on some online shops.