KVR Audio

audington · Post by **audington** » Wed May 24, 2006 1:02 pm

If you had to compile a suite of free VST plugins that would rival Waves, what would they be?

Essentially, without trying out millions of plugins, I'm trying to find a short-cut to the best free reverb, delay, EQs, compressor, limiter.

Cheers

.jon · Post by **.jon** » Wed May 24, 2006 1:13 pm

best verbs: Glaceverb, Ambience (donationware) and SIR (convolution) (they all have downsides)

dlays: depends on what you want, but arcDev Dubb box and Echotank XL, ephonic Retrodelay and Interruptor's Bionic Delay are all used here... with Overdubber and Echographz

Haven't found one to do it all.

eq: poshifopit (PLParEQ is _the_ best, but I'm not sure if it's available anymore)

comp: vanilla compressor, blockfish

limit: TLS Pocket Limiter, TLS Maximizer, W1 Limiter.

paulmerchant · Post by **paulmerchant** » Wed May 24, 2006 1:31 pm

Some repeat from others. I almost always use free software and have found in recent years great stuff:

Reverbs: Glaceverb and SIR (and, for a great quickie, Classic Reverb)

Standard Compression and More: The DigitalFishPhones stuff is on par with the best

Mastering: I've just started using T-Sledge

Those would be the reasons why I don't worry about the Waves plugs anymore. Although I'm sure they are great, too.

pschelfh · Post by **pschelfh** » Wed May 24, 2006 1:46 pm

The free ones on my PC :

Kjaerhus Classic Series : a bit of everything. Simple but good sounding to me.

Blockfish : great compressor/saturation

Gvst FX Package : some very nice delays and filters in this one.

iZotope Vinyl : Lofi simulator. It seems there's a new version available, I'll have to check it out.

Smartelectronics SupaPhaser : very nice sounding phaser and some other nice fx on their site.

Simulanalog Guitar Suite : guitar amp and stomp box simulation.

SIR : convolution reverb.

SSL LMC-1 classic console mic compressor.

Peter.

Max el Belga · Post by **Max el Belga** » Wed May 24, 2006 9:57 pm

George Yohng's W1 Limiter !

audington · Post by **audington** » Thu May 25, 2006 8:35 am

Many thanks for your help guys, I've downloaded everything mentioned (bar 1 or 2 that I couldn't find) so I've got plenty to be going on with

All the best

hoffy · Post by **hoffy** » Thu May 25, 2006 8:43 am

willmorton wrote:If you had to compile a suite of free VST plugins that would rival Waves, what would they be?

I wouldn't bother. I could compile a list of cheap VST plugins that could rival Waves, but you get what you pay for. It's like asking for a free alternative to a Ferrari. You could walk, but it's not really the same thing, is it?

K Audio classic series is probably the closest thing and even that's way off, and some of the waves plug-ins you will find in the diamond bundle just don't have alternatives. Like the doppler and others.

ObsoleteAcc99 · Post by **ObsoleteAcc99** » Thu May 25, 2006 8:45 am

[DELETED]

audington · Post by **audington** » Thu May 25, 2006 8:54 am

hoffy wrote:
willmorton wrote:If you had to compile a suite of free VST plugins that would rival Waves, what would they be?
I wouldn't bother. I could compile a list of cheap VST plugins that could rival Waves, but you get what you pay for. It's like asking for a free alternative to a Ferrari. You could walk, but it's not really the same thing, is it?

K Audio classic series is probably the closest thing and even that's way off, and some of the waves plug-ins you will find in the diamond bundle just don't have alternatives. Like the doppler and others.

Well, I can't say publicly why I'm doing this, but trust me I have my reasons - and it's not down to the cost, I have Waves Gold at work. Besides, I don't need a suite of plugins to replace Waves completely - really just the reverbs, delays, limiter, compressor, and EQ. The phasers, doppler, Enigma, etc I just don't need.

Anyway, I've got a lot to be looking at (or listening to!) and I haven't needed to download 1000s of plugins to find them.

All the best

Rangtangtang · Post by **Rangtangtang** » Thu May 25, 2006 9:09 am

Whith such a price tag Waves is telling us that their plug bundles are that good you should buy them. Well, I have tried the Waves Demo's and I wasn't entirely convinced, compared to what is about for free, to be honest. Another important point is some people like different versions created by different programer's, because they add a lot more to the pallete. EQ for example, Im supprised how different EQ's can sound?

headquest · Post by **headquest** » Thu May 25, 2006 9:28 am

I feel that a "half way house" is probably the best solution. Certainly there are some excellent freeware effects to be had (The Kjaerhus Classics, Vinyl, Ambience, etc)

... but also there is some outstanding commercial effects from companies like Voxengo, Kjaerhus, Wave Arts, etc, often better than Waves imho, and much more reasonably priced. Oh, and without a dongle too.

A couple more freebies for you to download:

http://www.voxengo.com/product/SPAN/
(frequency analysis tool, especially useful at the mastering stage)

http://www.voxengo.com/product/boogex/
(convolution-based guitar amp simulation).

Have fun!

arke · Post by **arke** » Thu May 25, 2006 10:26 am

willmorton wrote:If you had to compile a suite of free VST plugins that would rival Waves, what would they be?

Essentially, without trying out millions of plugins, I'm trying to find a short-cut to the best free reverb, delay, EQs, compressor, limiter.

Cheers

Reverb:
Kjaerhus Classic Reverb

Delay:
Kjaerhus Classic Delay

EQ:
Not sure, I use the one that came with FL Studio.

Compressor:
Kjaerhus Classic Compressor

Limiter:
W1 Limiter

audington · Post by **audington** » Thu May 25, 2006 11:01 am

Does anyone know where I can get the Slim Slow Slider plugins from, particularly his EQ? His page is down. Thanks

AVBunyan · Post by **AVBunyan** » Thu May 25, 2006 2:03 pm

hoffy wrote:I wouldn't bother. I could compile a list of cheap VST plugins that could rival Waves, but you get what you pay for. It's like asking for a free alternative to a Ferrari. You could walk, but it's not really the same thing, is it?

Thank you hoffy -

The word rival is the wrong word I feel.

Why try to "rival" and compare to Waves? Why not compare to Voxengo, Kjaerhus, WaveArts, etc?

Why do many of the big studios still have Waves in their arsonels? They have the money to buy anything. Do they buy and use Voxengo, Kjaerhus, WaveArts, etc.? These are decent plugs but do the big boys use them? - I don't know - some may.

Don't get me wrong - I like Voxengo and Kjaerhus plugs

The free VST's are a great way to start and if your funds are low or just a hobbyist and they are fine but...but...they do not "rival" Waves - sorry.

Granted Waves verbs are probably their weak link but I believe their "weak links" are equal to or better than most "mid-level" plugs are there.

A friend of mine came back from Germany where he witnessed a "very, very nice" studio track and mix and guess what he saw them using? Do you know what plugs he didn't see?

Later

Vkingo · Post by **Vkingo** » Fri May 26, 2006 5:49 am

Check out the BetaBugs stuff.

Free alternatives to Waves?