KVR Audio

ethereumIL · Post by **ethereumIL** » Sat Oct 10, 2015 8:15 pm

So, I'm getting a new workstation PC soon, and since I've gotta re-install everything anyway, I've decided I would "go legit" (as in ditch any cracked plugins I've acquired), as well as cutting the fat from my plugin collection (I had FAR too many). I've purchased (or downloaded in the case of freeware) a few favourites already, but I'd like some suggestions for what else I should look into to cover all my bases. Quality over quantity is what I'm going for here, I wanna keep things as minimal as possible. Also on a budget, so hidden gems, small devs and freeware are encouraged (as long as the quality is up to par), but I can spend a little. Recommend me any kind of plugin, I just wanna know what's good and affordable. I'm using Live and Pro Tools, so plugins that are available as VST *and* AAX are a plus, but I use Live more, so AAX is not a *must*.

So far, I've got:
- Klanghelm MJUC and SDRR
- Valhalla DSP ValhallaRoom and FreqEcho
- JsCompshaper
- Slate Digital Revival
- TDR VOS SlickEQ GE
- Acon Digital Multiply
- Image-Line Harmor

Michael L · Post by **Michael L** » Sat Oct 10, 2015 9:42 pm

Welcome! You are in luck-- There are already quite a few really good threads in the Effects and Instruments forums on unusual and forgotten freeware sound design plugins and synths. Some are general "best" threads while others look for alternatives to expensive plugins for specific effects. Worth the Search! Also visit bedroomproducersblog for freeware lists.
(PS. You might want to say what your "bases" are, eg what kind of music you do and how.)

DJ Warmonger · Post by **DJ Warmonger** » Tue Oct 13, 2015 6:48 pm

Image-Line Harmor

Harmor is unique beast of undiscovered potential, commonly regarded as best additive synth on the market. Keep it.

Lejurai · Post by **Lejurai** » Wed Oct 14, 2015 9:26 am

If DAW fx isn't enough.. http://www.toneboosters.com/tb-trackessentials-bundle/

Low price - High quality

whyterabbyt · Post by **whyterabbyt** » Wed Oct 14, 2015 9:49 am

ethereumIL wrote:So, I'm getting a new workstation PC soon, and since I've gotta re-install everything anyway, I've decided I would "go legit" (as in ditch any cracked plugins I've acquired), as well as cutting the fat from my plugin collection (I had FAR too many). I've purchased (or downloaded in the case of freeware) a few favourites already, but I'd like some suggestions for what else I should look into to cover all my bases. Quality over quantity is what I'm going for here, I wanna keep things as minimal as possible. Also on a budget, so hidden gems, small devs and freeware are encouraged (as long as the quality is up to par), but I can spend a little. Recommend me any kind of plugin, I just wanna know what's good and affordable. I'm using Live and Pro Tools, so plugins that are available as VST *and* AAX are a plus, but I use Live more, so AAX is not a *must*.

So far, I've got:
- Klanghelm MJUC and SDRR
- Valhalla DSP ValhallaRoom and FreqEcho
- JsCompshaper
- Slate Digital Revival
- TDR VOS SlickEQ GE
- Acon Digital Multiply
- Image-Line Harmor

Might help us if you fill us in on what sort of work you're doing. No point in suggesting a slew of stuff that's not relevant, eg if you're not mixing recorded bands, then suggestions for 'outboard' replacements (EQ/Dynamics etc) wont be as important. If you're doing mediaeval ballads, then synths/effects aimed at dubstep might be out of place.

ATN69 · Post by **ATN69** » Thu Oct 15, 2015 1:37 am

I don't know if you are familiar with FAB-filter but my advice is that you check them out. It took a Little while for me to realise exactly what you can do with their plugins, but now I use them for both mixing and mastering. They are flexible, easy to work with and they go easy on your CPU. The down side is that they don't come cheap. Pro-C (compressor), Pro-Q (Filter) and Timeless (Delay) are the 3 I use. My first impression of the GUI design was that they look like a toy, but don't judge the book by the cover.

V0RT3X · Post by **V0RT3X** » Thu Oct 15, 2015 2:17 am

- Izotope Alloy2 and Ozone can make your mixing life a bit easier if you like All in one designs. The idea behind having these is that you get everything you need to mix a track which is kind of nice. Might not be cheap, but you can find used copies of Alloy2 on the market place for way less than the 199.00 MSRP. Ozone can also be found for low too if you look around.

- Izotope Trash2 is a pretty awesome multi-band saturation, distortion, filter, convolution and delay tool! Izotope officially lowered the price from 199.00 to $99.00 so you can find copies of this second hand now very cheap!

- Izotope Nectar Elements is good if you need effects for vocals. You can upgrade to the full version which has a ton of stuff if you do vocals or need to edit them.

I probably sound like a Izotope Shill, i just think you can save a lot of money using their stuff and avoiding all the vintage modeled fluff that can be distracting...

GHOST19 · Post by **GHOST19** » Sat Oct 17, 2015 8:49 am

You're pretty good to go already with the stuff you have, maybe you could use a good distortion plugin, MMultibandDistortion is high quality, has analog and digital distortion, is quite cheap and can be had at -50% during their eternal madness sales.
A generic sampler could provide you with bread and butter sounds, Plugsound and Structure can be had cheap when on sale.
DRUMMIC'A gives you a very high quality drum kit for free if you can complete a form in German.
Computer Music and Beat Magazine have some nice magware.

You may want to expand your synthesizers option at some point, but knowing Harmor inside out before will give you tremendous rewards.

ATN69 wrote:FAB-filter

Very good but very not good for low budget.

ATN69 · Post by **ATN69** » Sat Oct 17, 2015 11:10 am

GHOST19 wrote:You're pretty good to go already with the stuff you have, maybe you could use a good distortion plugin, MMultibandDistortion is high quality, has analog and digital distortion, is quite cheap and can be had at -50% during their eternal madness sales.
A generic sampler could provide you with bread and butter sounds, Plugsound and Structure can be had cheap when on sale.
DRUMMIC'A gives you a very high quality drum kit for free if you can complete a form in German.
Computer Music and Beat Magazine have some nice magware.

You may want to expand your synthesizers option at some point, but knowing Harmor inside out before will give you tremendous rewards.

ATN69 wrote:FAB-filter
Very good but very not good for low budget.

I agree FAB Q filter is not cheap but my advice was simply based on 2 things. For one its a good idea to spend some money on a good filter and second on a good compressor. No need to buy the whole bundle with everything in it. If you have a good filter and a good compressor then you have the most important for mixing and mastering. Why FAB Q filter? Because it is good, easy to work with and it does not waste a lot of CPU. For other effects I mostly use the ones I have in my DAW because they are more than good enough.

AegisPrime · Post by **AegisPrime** » Sat Oct 17, 2015 11:20 am

ethereumIL wrote:So far, I've got:
- Klanghelm MJUC and SDRR
- Valhalla DSP ValhallaRoom and FreqEcho
- JsCompshaper
- Slate Digital Revival
- TDR VOS SlickEQ GE
- Acon Digital Multiply
- Image-Line Harmor

TDR Kotelnikov GE and Kazrog's KClip (currently 50% off!! http://kazrog.com) are missing from that list

I can also vouch for the ToneBoosters stuff - great value if your DAW's built-in effects aren't up to snuff (hello Tracktion

)

Scotty · Post by **Scotty** » Sat Oct 17, 2015 11:29 am

If you could afford it ... Reaktor. It is all the effects and instruments that you will likely ever need. It won't stop you lusting after new stuff but it has a huge user library. You could shorten or even eliminate your efx and instrument wish list with this.

AegisPrime wrote:
ethereumIL wrote:So far, I've got:
- Klanghelm MJUC and SDRR
- Valhalla DSP ValhallaRoom and FreqEcho
- JsCompshaper
- Slate Digital Revival
- TDR VOS SlickEQ GE
- Acon Digital Multiply
- Image-Line Harmor
TDR Kotelnikov GE and Kazrog's KClip (currently 50% off!! http://kazrog.com) are missing from that list

I can also vouch for the ToneBoosters stuff - great value if your DAW's built-in effects aren't up to snuff (hello Tracktion )

Scotty · Post by **Scotty** » Sat Oct 17, 2015 11:30 am

Scotty wrote:If you could afford it ... Reaktor. It is all the effects and instruments that you will likely ever need. It won't stop you lusting after new stuff but it has a huge user library and you will find most of what you desire there ready to download. You could shorten or even eliminate your efx and instrument wish list with this.

AegisPrime wrote:
ethereumIL wrote:So far, I've got:
- Klanghelm MJUC and SDRR
- Valhalla DSP ValhallaRoom and FreqEcho
- JsCompshaper
- Slate Digital Revival
- TDR VOS SlickEQ GE
- Acon Digital Multiply
- Image-Line Harmor
TDR Kotelnikov GE and Kazrog's KClip (currently 50% off!! http://kazrog.com) are missing from that list

I can also vouch for the ToneBoosters stuff - great value if your DAW's built-in effects aren't up to snuff (hello Tracktion )

ATN69 · Post by **ATN69** » Sat Oct 17, 2015 12:32 pm

I decided to try out the free effects bundle from Melda and I must say that I am impressed. The bundle comes with loads of different effects but Melda give you the option to pick and choose prior to installation. So I picked a few and so far I tried the Dynamic EQ, Compressor, Reverb and delay. Every one of those comes in 2 categories. The standard and multiband. This is totally free. I checked the CPU performance and these plugins hardly load the CPU at all. That's one plus for me. Second is that the EQ offer FFT in the background so you can both see and hear what you are doing while tweaking. That's another plus for me. The GUI looks nice and I did not have to read any manual before using it. And the GUI is can be re-sized by dragging.

It says free but I don't know if there was any time limitation to this or any other limitations because I just down load these 20 minutes ago. But if you want good stuff for free then I advice you to check it out

https://www.meldaproduction.com/plugins ... ectsBundle

GHOST19 · Post by **GHOST19** » Sun Oct 18, 2015 11:21 am

ATN69 wrote:I decided to try out the free effects bundle from Melda and I must say that I am impressed. The bundle comes with loads of different effects but Melda give you the option to pick and choose prior to installation. So I picked a few and so far I tried the Dynamic EQ, Compressor, Reverb and delay. Every one of those comes in 2 categories. The standard and multiband. This is totally free. I checked the CPU performance and these plugins hardly load the CPU at all. That's one plus for me. Second is that the EQ offer FFT in the background so you can both see and hear what you are doing while tweaking. That's another plus for me. The GUI looks nice and I did not have to read any manual before using it. And the GUI is can be re-sized by dragging.

It says free but I don't know if there was any time limitation to this or any other limitations because I just down load these 20 minutes ago. But if you want good stuff for free then I advice you to check it out

https://www.meldaproduction.com/plugins ... ectsBundle

The free effects are the ones listed at the bottom of the link, already a very nice selection. The installer has every Melda effect included (worth ~€1000), the payware you installed will run in demo mode.

ATN69 · Post by **ATN69** » Sun Oct 18, 2015 11:49 am

The free effects are the ones listed at the bottom of the link, already a very nice selection. The installer has every Melda effect included (worth ~€1000), the payware you installed will run in demo mode.

I did not notice any limitations so far but there must be since they are running in demo mode. But on Melda website they also mention that the user can pay 55 USD to get a license. I been trying to find information about exactly what does that mean? If I can get all those effects included in the free bundle and buy a license for only 55 USD to make them all hot, then its a real bargain. But as I said, I am not sure what that license really cover.

Simplifying and diversifying my plugin collection... suggestions?