"All in one" mixing/mastering for a beginner: iZotope MPB2 or Slate Everything Bundle?

[Tappistry]

Hey everybody. I got Reaper up and running late last year, slowly learning my way around it. I'm a hobbyist musician. I play Chapman Stick, guitar, and I've also been fiddling with a few soft synths and a midi controller. I'm looking to record some songs for fun, start a Sound Cloud page (or maybe Clyp instead, because Sound Cloud's future looks dim these days), and maybe do some YouTube videos. I signed up for the Groove3 access pass to help me with mixing tutorials, as well as some product specific ones how to use Blue Cat Destructor for guitar. So I'm definitely in the noob phase, and I'm trying not to get too ahead of myself with plugin purchases!

For an all-in-one mixing/mastering "bundled solution," which would you pick? Consider that the cost of the Slate Everything Bundle is roughly the same as a crossgrade with coupons & Plugin Boutique loyalty cash, which one would you choose and why?

[mgw38]

That is a bit apples and oranges. The Slate bundle is more of a general purpose bundle. MPB2 is much more geared towards mixing/mastering. When I started out, the first thing I got was Ozone and I have been using it ever since. Tried different things, always came back. I couldn't say why, it just always gave me the better results.

[Tappistry]

That is a bit apples and oranges. The Slate bundle is more of a general purpose bundle. MPB2 is much more geared towards mixing/mastering. When I started out, the first thing I got was Ozone and I have been using it ever since. Tried different things, always came back. I couldn't say why, it just always gave me the better results.

Good to know, thanks!

[ilmai]

Also being relatively newbie, I researched a lot and demoed various options, and in the end found TDR (Kotelnikov, Limiter no.6, SlickEQ) and Klanghelm (MJUC, SDRR) plugins much more to my taste than any all in one solution. They're also very cheap or free. Also bought Fabfilter Pro-Q 2 because no other EQ can match its usability IMHO. Part of it might be that because of some bad experiences in past and forum horror stories, I'm kinda allergic to iLok and refuse to buy anything that requires it (e.g. Slate, Waves plugins). But that's personal and not a suggestion to follow suit.

Try the free or demo versions of various recommended plugins and see what feels most intuitive to you. Don't ignore your DAW's plugins, you already have them. You can always switch later when you have more experience and know what you actually need.

[Daimonicon]

I'm kinda allergic to iLok and refuse to buy anything that requires it (e.g. Slate, Waves plugins)..

Waves doesn't require ilok. Before yes, but about the last three years, no.

[Daimonicon]

Hey everybody. I got Reaper up and running late last year, slowly learning my way around it. I'm a hobbyist musician. I play Chapman Stick, guitar, and I've also been fiddling with a few soft synths and a midi controller. I'm looking to record some songs for fun, start a Sound Cloud page (or maybe Clyp instead, because Sound Cloud's future looks dim these days), and maybe do some YouTube videos. I signed up for the Groove3 access pass to help me with mixing tutorials, as well as some product specific ones how to use Blue Cat Destructor for guitar. So I'm definitely in the noob phase, and I'm trying not to get too ahead of myself with plugin purchases!

For an all-in-one mixing/mastering "bundled solution," which would you pick? Consider that the cost of the Slate Everything Bundle is roughly the same as a crossgrade with coupons & Plugin Boutique loyalty cash, which one would you choose and why?

Do yourself a favor and save your money on plugins. The stock plugins on every DAW are not inferior to seperate plugins. Nothing wrong getting sthat but start with the stock plugins and learn how to use them first. Once you know how to master EQ, compressor etc you know what what you're looking for in seperate plugins. And forget the hyped marketing that your mixes will sound better and more pro just because you buy their plugins. That's a big reason why so many plugins end up in the market place here. Oh, this plugins were'nt that good so I sell them and buy some other plugins and hopefully they will make my mixes sound better. A trap too many fall into.The hard truth is no plugins are better than others. It's all about skills and which ones you are most comfortable with. Oh and I've seen alot of pro's using the stock plugins and tell how good they acutally are. Invest in something better, pro mixing videos in the genre(s) you play. That will save you years of learning.

[ilmai]

Waves doesn't require ilok. Before yes, but about the last three years, no.

That's good to know, thanks for updating my outdated knowledge. No idea where I got that from, maybe from an old forum post somewhere...

[Zexila]

Do yourself a favor and save your money on plugins. The stock plugins on every DAW are not inferior to seperate plugins. Nothing wrong getting sthat but start with the stock plugins and learn how to use them first. Once you know how to master EQ, compressor etc you know what what you're looking for in seperate plugins. And forget the hyped marketing that your mixes will sound better and more pro just because you buy their plugins. That's a big reason why so many plugins end up in the market place here. Oh, this plugins were'nt that good so I sell them and buy some other plugins and hopefully they will make my mixes sound better. A trap too many fall into.The hard truth is no plugins are better than others. It's all about skills and which ones you are most comfortable with. Oh and I've seen alot of pro's using the stock plugins and tell how good they acutally are. Invest in something better, pro mixing videos in the genre(s) you play. That will save you years of learning.

Spot on!

[ilmai]

Completely agreed, with one caveat: I didn't rush to buy plugins before I had some idea of what I need, but the superior usability of Pro-Q compared to the stock Bitwig EQ was really helpful for learning how to EQ. Vice versa, the Bitwig compressor has nice visualization of what it's doing, so it was better for learning than for example MJUC.

My revised newbie to newbie advice: don't buy plugins until you know what you need, but if you still want to, go for usability over stock plugins. No plugin will make your songs sound better if you don't know what you're doing, and usability helps the learning process. And always demo first.

[Tappistry]

Thanks for all the suggestions guys. Looks like I need to give the stock Reaper plugins a chance.

I'll continue with the Groove3 courses for now and there's also what seems to be a TON of free material on YT.