How do you like PM/Plug&Mix Plugins?

[Caine123]

i have some plugins from them like ANALOGER, Monster Boost etc. but with all my fabfilter plugins, tracks stuff, soundtoys plugins i dunno if i really need/use them, as the comps etc. dont really do something special, or have special colourization?

so im checking about what u think about them.

[soulone82]

[Tappistry]

Wait ... FabFilter and PM in the same sentence?

Is this a troll thread?

[Caine123]

yeah why not? ;D

[DrReacto]

Fabfilter and PM? WHy not?
Fabfilter does have amazing UIs and great workflows, but Plug & Mix, despite their lack of fancy graphics, can get the job done. It's still the same zeros and ones affecting the audio. It's not like one is using a better grade of tubes or transistors. Puremix.net did a segment where they mixed an entire song with only Plug & Mix plugins. It almost seemed like an experiment at first but it sounded great!

[donkey tugger]

Plug-in snobbery now eh?

I like the P&M stuff. Don't use all of them as I have better stuff for a lot of things but there are some gems in there- I like the amp sims (particularly 'Magic Queen', which does chimey Vox type stuff much better than any other amp sim I've got - marvellous with the 12 string ) 'Moogy Filter' is an immense tool for wah-wah type stuff; the vibrato is great for adding a bit of wobble; the 'Dimension D' is the mother of aL 80s OTT choruses, and 'clarisonix' is a great simple BBE style enhancer, to name a few of my faves.

[Boone777]

Just for fun. Monster Boost and Analoger analysis in plugin Doctor in IMD mode (intermodulation distortion).
I don't know where aliasing starts but there is quite a lot going on and noise floor is pretty high.
That does'nt stop me from using them once in a while when it sounds good.
Analoger in tape mode with drive cranked at max.
MonterBoost also cranked.
I added SDRR2 in tube mode for comparison.

[sjm]

No idea how serious this thread is. I use the PM things a lot, because they do what the name says. You plug them in, dial 3 knobs and forget. There's a place for simple one trick ponies that can do a job.

I think it's safe to say that since I bought the bundle, I've been a lot more productive simply because the plugins are so simple, and that encourages you to focus on actually writing a song, rather than fiddling with plugins. There's a big workflow bonus there. Sometimes I'll switch out the PM stuff for something else later on if I feel I need to. But when I'm mucking around on guitar and think "flanger/amp/chorus/distortion/envelope pedal" it's nice to be able to dial in a decent sound in ~3 seconds, just like with a stomp box of old. I find something like Guitar Rig far too slow to load and finicky in this regard. It's not very good for capturing inspiration right here right now.

I'd say you get a lot more value out of the bundle if you play guitar than if you don't. The amp sims have their place. The British does a nice punk tone (IMO), the California can do twangy slight distortion quiet well. Magic Queen is a favourite for dirty leads with a bit of grit; not as brittle in the highs as the British.

Some of the plugins are a bit more esoteric, so I only use them sparingly. I quite like the chorus, flanger and delay as stomp boxed on guitar for certain things. Anyway, I'm pretty sure there's a PM plugin on every single track I've made since buying the bundle.

Is it for the OP? Judging by the phrasing of the first post, I'd guess not. But given the thread title, I thought I'd ramble for a bit.

[Boone777]

I like the plug and play part too. I think it is safe to say that you won't break the bank with those if you use just 4-5 plugins in the bundle it's a no brainer I bought second hand for 40$.

[Bug Music]

Strange, I had never heard of them until yesterday.
(Public service announcement: if you have an M-Audio account log in to see if you can get 5 of these free out of the VIP bundle)

I logged into my M-Audio account and downloaded the bundle demo yesterday.
I spent a couple of hours with them last night and have to agree with what you guys are saying.

I am primarily a guitar player, and they do seem to be geared that way, what with the stomp box styling minimum controls and all.

There does seem to be a fair amount of fluff and filler in the whole bundle, but some of them do really sound quite good.

The amp sims stood out to me too, of course they are kind of one trick ponies and will never fully replace TH3 or Amplifikation Vermillion for me, but they do sound pretty damn good and I will find a use for them.

I ended up choosing 3 amp sims out of my 5 free plugins, I liked American Tweed (obvious), Magic Queen (Vox sim), and ToneStack (general purpose sim that sounded really good with Strat single coils).

The other one that really impressed me was Analoger, it sounds a bit similar to VintageWarmer2, but can get a bit more nasty when driven hard.

I also picked EchoFlex, which again should be obvious, not the greatest tape delay plugin I've ever heard but with just a couple of knobs (like a stompbox) it is really easy to dial in a nice guitar sound.
Every other delay I own has way too many controls for a simple guitar player.

The whole bundle sort of reminds me of the old mda bundle with nicer interfaces (not that that is necessarily a bad thing), none of them sound truly horrible, and minimal controls make it quick and easy to dial in a decent tone.

Just my $.02 though, as I said I am a guitar player, and probably the target audience for these so... YMMV.

- Jay

[Brother Charles]

Ya know what guys? I actually really like many of the P&M VIP pluggies. They’re fast to dial in, very light on CPU, and sound great! Personally, I often reach for PM Echoflex, Dimension 3D, Digital Plate, and others. As others have mentioned, the VIP bundle works great for we guitarists!

Tremendous value. One of the best bang-for-the-buck deals ever.

[Bug Music]

Yeah, I'm still playing around with a few of the others in demo mode, and I'm really on the fence.
The M-Audio deal also lets you upgrade to the full bundle for $49.

I really don't need 50 more plugins to scroll through every time, but a buck a piece is mighty tempting.

- Jay

[sjm]

Yeah, I'm still playing around with a few of the others in demo mode, and I'm really on the fence.
The M-Audio deal also lets you upgrade to the full bundle for $49.

I really don't need 50 more plugins to scroll through every time, but a buck a piece is mighty tempting.

I'd also say that whether you will get value out of the bundle depends very much on what music you make and what plugins you already have. When I bought the bundle, it was because the stomp box guitar FX filled a gap. There were maybe 7 or so FX that I particularly liked when I demoed them. At least half of them made me go, "I doubt I'll ever use that".

The thing is, I've ended up using almost all the plugins at some point, simply because they're available to me. Some of the stuff that wasn't on my radar initially gets more use than the things that caught my initial attention. This might also partly because I like experimenting with different sounds and genres. If you are always making the same thing, you probably have your 10 trusted plugins that you use all the time and are set in your ways.

In a way, it's like Komplete. The more varied your music, the more you'll get from Komplete. And like the VIP bundle, there's stuff in Komplete that I only discovered later. I hadn't really paid attention to a lot of the FX in Komplete. Now the vintage compressors feature in most of my tracks. It's a nice surprise when you find yourself needing a particular effect, and voila - it's there in your plugin collection already.

[Bug Music]

Damn this place !
Just bought it.
I spent a little more time with the other plugs some of you guys mentioned, and figured with the $49 deal, "what the hey" !
As I said 5 were "instabuys" for me, and another 5 I really liked enough to keep demoing them, now after reading this thread I've found a few more that I like too.

I figured if I even ended up using 10 out of the 50, that's still cheap enough.
Although after hearing what other folks thought were keepers, I may end up using a few more than 10, so thanks for mentioning those.

Like I said earlier, I hadn't heard of these, and didn't know I needed them until yesterday.

It really does seem like they were going for quantity over quality though, there are a bunch single plugins that could be very easily consolidated into one effect, for a bundle of maybe 20 plugins tops.

But hey I reckon the price was right, as long as I don't have to re-scan my plugin folder too often.

Kind of reminds me of the way Audified made all those separate stomp box plugins that they sold as "guitar player" bundles years ago.
Anyway I'm happy with the purchase, thank you guys for cluing me in to the other plugins I missed, I will be busy for a while now checking out the rest.

- Jay

[shidostrife]

(Public service announcement: if you have an M-Audio account log in to see if you can get 5 of these free out of the VIP bundle)

Thanks! I have 2 keystation keyboards registered so I could get 10