Timeless, irreplaceable plugins and bundles that really worth it.

[bmanic]

Plugins I use in every project since many years back:

• FabFilter Timeless (my go-to delay plugin since a few years back, now that I finally figured it out)

at the bold text.

I own this one for 3 years I think, and still have no idea how to make something useful out of it [don't like the presets either (sorry, probably some are yours )]. And I tried multiple times, always switching to something else. Hopefully V3 will make more sense to me.

Oh don't worry! My presets for the original release are hopeless (some are quite fun but fall into 'special FX' category) and useless for the most part.

I've become MUCH better at using it now though. Here, have fun exploring a bunch of new ones:

Actually musical and useful presets for Timeless 2

[bmanic]

I own this one for 3 years I think, and still have no idea how to make something useful out of it.
And I tried multiple times, always switching to something else. Hopefully V3 will make more sense to me.

Kinda the tragedy of our era, don't you think ?

We accumulate literally HUNDREDS of tools (plugins), large chunk of them can do magical things... yet we fail at operating them like we thought they should be used, and end up abandoning them altogether, opting for MUCH simpler tools.

The fault in case of Timeless falls on us testers (and of course FabFilter too) as we got way too carried away with all the potential and went for a lot of silly stuff that is very "sound design" oriented.. whereas most people just want a delay to be a delay.. then perhaps purchase something more esoteric for all the sound design crazyness.

Timeless 2 is capable of both. Unfortunately it does have it's limitations, like the filter types which all have baked in distortion of various kinds, which can be a bit tricky to handle. It also feels a bit long in the tooth now due to the cluttered GUI and the overall sound quality which is not on par with something like Valhalla Delay (which is of course sublime and hard for any delay to compete against!).

I'm pretty sure the next iteration will be simplified in the way FabFilter has been doing lately with all their revisions. I just hope it doesn't loose too much of it's uniqueness. We'll.. Timeless 2 works just fine and FabFilter are amazing at supporting old plugin releases so I'm not too worried.

[e@rs]

bmanic, the presets problem is secondary in my case, so don't be too harsh on yourself (btw I dig distortion on filters, so I don't have a problem with that either). Yet neither tweaking presets nor starting from scratch made any difference for me. Looks like I simply fail to be compatible with Timeless (or Twin) in its current incarnation, in both operation and results. But thank you very much for the additional presets! (Funny name for the folder.)

Michey, yeah I'm somehow guilty of what you said. Although I prefer simple tools that do the job quickly and don't break the workflow with too many options, I can work with more complex ones if I find them natural to operate (unfortunately not the case with Timeless). I also try to keep my GAS under control and buy less and less plugins with each year that passes.

[bmanic]

Do give the presets a try though. I've really tried making them "musical" this time around. But yeah, there is indeed an inherent "tonality" to Timeless 2 that just doesn't work for some things. Most of it comes from the filters distorting, thus it's very important to explore ALL the filter types and also explore the input drive knob as it makes a big difference in how much the thing distorts.

Unfortunately you can't compensate the loss of gain at the input on the output as the Wet knob only goes to 0dB and can't actually boost the output. This is indeed a design flaw in the plugin itself.

[sguyader]

+1 for the Tokyo Dawn Labs TDR plugins. The bundle is cheap with regards to the quality of the plugins.
+1 for Klanghelm's plugins also.
Plugin Alliance has also great plugins, I especially like the brainworx stuff. Most can be had at a good price when there's a discount.
Last, I will mention Schepps Omnichannel by Waves, a great channel strip which can also be had for a good price if you wait for a discount.

[e@rs]

Do give the presets a try though. I've really tried making them "musical" this time around. But yeah, there is indeed an inherent "tonality" to Timeless 2 that just doesn't work for some things. Most of it comes from the filters distorting, thus it's very important to explore ALL the filter types and also explore the input drive knob as it makes a big difference in how much the thing distorts.

Unfortunately you can't compensate the loss of gain at the input on the output as the Wet knob only goes to 0dB and can't actually boost the output. This is indeed a design flaw in the plugin itself.

Of course I will check the presets. Yours are usually the first ones I check in the newer releases from FF anyway.

Timeless 3 and Twin 3 are the ones FF should focus next imho. (But I wouldn't be surprised if it's Pro-MB 2...)

[soulone82]

Anything made by King Oz, the manager of King Oz Records!

[trusampler]

+1 for Softube stuff, incredible value right now with the August sale.

[hlecram]

NI Komplete. You can hate on ni all you like, but komplete is a pretty sexy package altogether! While the entry point seems expensive (there are ways of course), it goes a long way and the upgrade paths later on are quite affordable, too.

Cheers
Marcel

[Calenberger]

NI Komplete. You can hate on ni all you like, but komplete is a pretty sexy package altogether! While the entry point seems expensive (there are ways of course), it goes a long way and the upgrade paths later on are quite affordable, too.

Cheers
Marcel

When you're right, you're right!

[e@rs]

Do give the presets a try though. I've really tried making them "musical" this time around.

And I did. And I think you succeeded, they're pretty darn good. I only used them on a snare in a track I'm working on, but without any tweaking I got all kinds of lovely, really usable results. Then (just to be sure that I don't praise you too much ) I went back to the original presets that came with Timeless 2 and tried almost all of them again; and again, I couldn't find a single one to like.

So, and thank you again for them!

[leeleema]

+1 for Softube stuff, incredible value right now with the August sale.

Unless I'm mistaken, there doesn't appear to be an August sale?

[leeleema]

NI Komplete. You can hate on ni all you like, but komplete is a pretty sexy package altogether! While the entry point seems expensive (there are ways of course), it goes a long way and the upgrade paths later on are quite affordable, too.

Cheers
Marcel

When you're right, you're right!

I'm no NI hater and I use a lot of their products, but I always found Komplete to be way way way too much stuff. I mean how much hard drive space does it even take up? Also, you would have to go Ultimate to get the good stuff like Replika XT and Molekular and get even more stuff in the process! Or, just get individual products that you know you are going to use.

[PatchAdamz]

Kazrog
True Iron

And well priced.

[Calenberger]

NI Komplete. You can hate on ni all you like, but komplete is a pretty sexy package altogether! While the entry point seems expensive (there are ways of course), it goes a long way and the upgrade paths later on are quite affordable, too.

Cheers
Marcel

When you're right, you're right!

I'm no NI hater and I use a lot of their products, but I always found Komplete to be way way way too much stuff. I mean how much hard drive space does it even take up?

It's quite easy to install only the interesting items on your HD and to leave out the others. Native Access is very helpful for that. One restriction: imo it's not that easy to deinstall via Native Access... So you should think about what you really want before you start to install.