Airwindows: which effects are the „must use“ ones?

[Calenberger]

Airwindows seem to be a quite cool developer / collection of plugins.
However, it‘s a bit overwhelming to sort out the unique „must use“ ones. Which are unique, which are special?
Some recommendations?

[s28]

Depends what else you use and what your into but here are a few I like that are well worth checking out.

CStrip (very useful channel strip, can shape a track just with this sometimes, I hope he expands and does another, a colourful strip would be great)
Buttercomp2 (very tranaparent compression, can work great on busses)
Vibrato (can make some great modulation effects with this)
Channel6 (really good for tightening/cleaning sounds up whilst adding a bit of colour)
Acceleration/Slew2 (both very useful for taming or knocking off some top end very transparently or with slew2 as an interesting effect - most useful)


My advice would be to just use a few at a time and keep your folder small. I have less than 20 in my folder even tho I know what almost all of them do and have been using them since the windows port, I just think that many plugins in a folder is too much and not condusive to quick/good decisions. This is different for everyone tho.

[andrelafosse]

Busscolors, To Tape, To Vinyl, Channel: These are all meat-and-potatoes console/media/hardware emulations or approximations, and they sound great.

Aura, Air: fabulous high-frequency "air band" boosters.

Spiral, Curve/Recurve, Purest Drive, Interstage, Desk: more subtle sweeteners/analog-ifiers. Not necessarily something that's night-and-day obvious on one individual instance, but cumulatively they add up to a lovely sound.

[acousticglue]

Just began messing with them but BiQuad2 update is liked. I also use Iron Oxide and Buttercomp2, slew and others. The BussColors stuff not yet

[jochicago]

As "must have" I'd say having Monitoring on the post master is the kind of thing you'd want to save on your template permanently.

[heavymetalmixer]

PurestGain, Ditherbox (always ON in my mixbus on NJAD, I even render through it), Floor (like RBass) and ToTape 5.

[satYatunes]

It IS overwhelming, if you are not using them regularly. I get confused easily and sometimes the plugin name does not help either (not all but a few). That's why I have a text file in the plugin folder to remind me what each of these does. I am in a cleaning spree so just deleted a bunch of them, not cause they are bad but I have something else that I like. I kept these:

Code: Select all

ADClip7		- Loudness Maximizer
Air		- A different bright EQ from any other
BassDrive	- BassDrive is an old secret weapon, like a kind of bass amp
BassKit		- Centered bass reinforcement with subs fill. Clean and controllable
BitShiftGain	- Gain
BusColors4	- Console Emulations
Capacitor	- Filter
Channel7	- Console Emulations
CStrip		- Channel Strip
Density		- Smoothest Saturation or Anti-saturation plus Highpass
Desk4		- Distinctive analog coloration
DubSub		- DubSub is a fully featured bass doctor
Dyno		- Dyno is a lot like Mojo, but for intensity instead of loudness
EQ		- Just the EQ out of CStrip
EveryTrim	- Left/Right, Mid/Side, and Master in one plugin
FathomFive	- Bass Enhancer
HardVacuum	- Tube style saturation effects
HighImpact	- Grit and punch without fatness
IronOxide5	- The old school, heavily colored Airwindows tape emulation
IronOxide5Clas	- 
Loud		- Distortion and demolition of air molecules, modeled
Mojo		- Mojo is a biggenator that also works as a loudenator
Monitoring	- Monitoring is your one-stop shop for final 2-buss work
NonlinearSpace	- Airwindows flexible reverb plugin
PurestGain	- High-res noise shaped gain, with smoothed fader
SidePass	- Highpass on the side channel. 
StereoFX	- Aggressive stereo widener
TapeDelay	- An old school tape echo with pitch swerve effects
ToTape5		- The highest quality Airwindows analog tape emulation
ToVinyl4	- Bass Enhancer

[kingozrecords]

the free high gloss dither is crazy good.

[Symphony Sid]

the free high gloss dither is crazy good.

Really?? You're a developer of sorts yourself and you can't support Chris's Patreon with something???

[kingozrecords]

the free high gloss dither is crazy good.

Really?? You're a developer of sorts yourself and you can't support Chris's Patreon with something???

I think people should give him Patreon for sure, he's a dedicated person that I admire. But I'm making ends meet myself. Maybe when I sell plugins things will be different .

[el-bo (formerly ebow)]

the free high gloss dither is crazy good.

Really?? You're a developer of sorts yourself and you can't support Chris's Patreon with something???

I think people should give him Patreon for sure, he's a dedicated person that I admire. But I'm making ends meet myself. Maybe when I sell plugins things will be different .

You can't spare $50 for a plugin you refer to as "crazy good", from someone you supposedly admire But when people buy your plugins, "Maybe" things will be different.

f**king millenials

[Symphony Sid]

You can't spare $50 for a plugin you refer to as "crazy good", from someone you supposedly admire But when people buy your plugins, "Maybe" things will be different.

f**king millenials

+1000

[jochicago]

f**king millenials

Don't start with that. The people bringing up "millenials" are usually the baby boomers, who are first hand responsible for every mess we are in while diluting the equity the previous generations left them. Meanwhile most millenials are not old enough to be in executive positions yet. If I were a baby boomer I would go out of my way to prevent a conversation from becoming about the generations.

[yellowmix]

f**king millenials

simpsons.jpg

[el-bo (formerly ebow)]

f**king millenials

Don't start with that. The people bringing up "millenials" are usually the baby boomers, who are first hand responsible for every mess we are in while diluting the equity the previous generations left them. Meanwhile most millenials are not old enough to be in executive positions yet. If I were a baby boomer I would go out of my way to prevent a conversation from becoming about the generations.

The millenials bit was a joke. I would no more assign a negative trait (or even a positve one) to an entire generation than I would to an entire race, sex or species.

I guess I should keep the jokes away from my serious posts