Fake Effects Plugin Deals

[LunarKitten]

TDR Kotelnikov, the free version is all you need for mastering compression, GE version gives you some nice extras. One of my all time fav plugins.

What is a good setting to start with to get SSL type of buscompression?

First what DAW are you using?

Cubase

Secondly don't think that just because there is an SSL badge on something that it's a sign of some kind of better quality, superior behaviour or it's a sortcut to a magic professional sound. None of this works that way. There are hundreds of Bus compressors out there and each one will claim to do all sorts of magic - and remember Bus compression in itself is a sticky topic.

I see, I wanted to give the so called SSL style buscompression a try, since I have never mixed into something like this.

Use Kotelnikov for now as has been already suggested.

Okay.

On manufacturers you'll need to familiarise yourself with how each one operates sales-wise and that will take a while. Waves for example sells everything at $29 with many 2 for 1 promotions usually running weekly. Waves update system (some would say scam) requires you to pay a yearly upgrade tax if you wanna run the latest version. This can be a problem if you are on a mac. I won't go into all the details now but suffice to say not all sales tactics are equal in the plugin market.

Okay, thank you for telling me.

Here are some of the best known developers:

Fabfilter - the current kings of the market - of course there are haters.
Universal Audio - Industry stalwart, many of their plugins have been on sale recently.
Izotope - they offer an excellent all in one mastering solution.
Softube - Excellent plugins but they are always expensive.
Goodhertz - the Hipster choice, rarely on sale and sales are meagre when on sale, great plugins.
DMG - the purists choice, no sales and expensive high quality tools that many engineering oriented folks love.
Arturia - Offer a great value bundle of analogue modeled plugins worth investigating as a beginner because it offers so much value.
PSP - Oldschool keeping it realz
Eventide - Hardware manufacturer now makes plugins too.
Soundtoys - Used to work at eventide back in the day, were leading makers of plugins for 20 years have slowed down recently.
Sonnox - Ancient plugins, still some of the very best.
Kush - For cool kids only.
Slate - Former innovator now known for their subscription model.
Plugin Alliance - Bargin Bin Kings with many hidden gems.
U-he - KVR darling and allround GOAT.

That is an excellent list. Thank you very much!

I'm going to look at my plugins and make a list. With what I have, I don't know how much new plugins would add to them, because I have no idea how much better if at all they are.

I am going to look into Arturia plugins and UA deals. If I see a Plugin Alliance bargin bin plugin I find interesting I'm going to ask here if it is a good one.

It is suprising to me that ancient sonnox plugins are still so popular.

TDR, Waves and Sonnox are my fav ones and the devs I highly recommend.

Nice. I think I saw great black friday deals for Waves plugins. Maybe that is a good time to get into these ones.

[neverbefore]

Softube - Excellent plugins but they are always expensive.

Softube can be expensive but also have very good sales on indvidual items quite often - particularly for older plugins

[Kappa_Beta_Hi-Phi]

Cubase

Ok yes Cubase doesn't have a great inbuilt Bus Compressor. If you want to add colour to your mixbus try the Magneto plugin in cubase in combination with Kotelnikov. Read the Kotelnikov manual first.

[Kappa_Beta_Hi-Phi]

Softube can be expensive but also have very good sales on indvidual items quite often - particularly for older plugins

Softubes marketing shenanigans are tiresome to say the least. You have to hawk for their deals which are never straightforward because they post the best deals to individuals who must repost for everyone else.

Also the good stuff is always expensive and you may be lucky to catch a reasonable deal once a year or you might miss it. Their prices are not competitive especially since UA have gone full bargain bin.

Yes you can scoop up the older stuff or Tape or whatever for a good price that's true.

[neverbefore]

Softube can be expensive but also have very good sales on indvidual items quite often - particularly for older plugins

Softubes marketing shenanigans are tiresome to say the least. You have to hawk for their deals which are never straightforward because they post the best deals to individuals who must repost for everyone else.

Also the good stuff is always expensive and you may be lucky to catch a reasonable deal once a year or you might miss it. Their prices are not competitive especially since UA have gone full bargain bin.

Yes you can scoop up the older stuff or Tape or whatever for a good price that's true.

agree they are very annoying - I much prefer devs who have clear fair year round pricing with maybe loyalty discounts and perhaps the occasional deal that doesnt undercut the price regular customers bought the plugin for on release three weeks previously.

[Kappa_Beta_Hi-Phi]

OP here is a decent deal but I am only half heartedly recommending it for you. You are getting a very good bus compressor SSL style and a bunch of other things you may or may not need/use but which are of good quality.

https://www.pluginboutique.com/product/ ... Exclusive-

Just be aware that you will probably be able to get the bus compressor at around $60-$70 price point during the year so you have to ask yourself if the other stuff is worth the $30-$40?

The Bus Compressor itself is actually very good all in one style solution for your master bus (minus limiting and deessing/deharshing), I use it myself and it is recommended. If you commit to this BC I wouldn't even dream of getting another BC for several years (or at all) if I were you, so it's a commitment.

The other stuff is useful - a good transient shaper, a good saturator an ok delay and a vocoder (not something that will be too useful outside of very specific use cases). So the deal will at least cover your transient shaper and saturator needs. It's a decent deal all things considered.

[rod_zero]

The best way to avoid the predatory marketing of the plugin industry is just to stick to the DAW stock effects for a while, until you develop your skills more and become more knowledgeable about what is really missing, also according to your needs.

The plugin market is oversaturated and developers are in a race to the bottom with their discounts, so most of the time you are just a month away from a new sale.

[LunarKitten]

Ok yes Cubase doesn't have a great inbuilt Bus Compressor. If you want to add colour to your mixbus try the Magneto plugin in cubase in combination with Kotelnikov. Read the Kotelnikov manual first.

Magneto is not included with my version.

Just be aware that you will probably be able to get the bus compressor at around $60-$70 price point during the year so you have to ask yourself if the other stuff is worth the $30-$40?

I think that is a better deal for me. I don't really need the rest.

The best way to avoid the predatory marketing of the plugin industry is just to stick to the DAW stock effects for a while, until you develop your skills more and become more knowledgeable about what is really missing, also according to your needs.

The plugin market is oversaturated and developers are in a race to the bottom with their discounts, so most of the time you are just a month away from a new sale.

I agree with you, but some deals make me reconsider. I saw this deal 30$ for the SSL bus compressor and I decided against getting in. In retrospect I'm not sure if it was the best idea to skip on it, since it strikes me as a pretty nice deal and it is something I don't have. It is actually this deal that made me rethink my approach. Some deals are just pretty nice, yet do I really need these plugins. Not really. It's a weird problem to have. I recently picked up 4 software instruments for 10$ and that is a nice deal. Unfortunatly 3 of them don't work for me at all(they don't even have VST3 support). That kinda sours me on the idea on buying plugins tbh. But you are right, sticking to what I have for now saves me money and perhaps even trouble.

Plugins like Saturn are more for star enginieers, the ones who work on big productions.

[_al_]

I saw this deal 30$ for the SSL bus compressor and I decided against getting in. In retrospect I'm not sure if it was the best idea to skip on it, since it strikes me as a pretty nice deal and it is something I don't have. It is actually this deal that made me rethink my approach. Some deals are just pretty nice, yet do I really need these plugins.

You know, you might actually find it easier if you follow a handful of well respected developers, rather than looking around for random plugins.

Sometimes I'll see people praising a plugin here on KVR, and it's by a dev that I'm not too familiar with. Demo looks and sounds good, so I buy it.
A month or two later, I am no longer using that plugin, and am back to using what I was using previously.
Avenger, Infiltrator, Rift... the list goes on... bought and never use. And these are well respected plugins / developers.

But in contrast to that, there is devs that I watch very closely (Melda, Cableguys, Fabfilter, Valhalla etc), because there is a much better chance that I will be using their plugin years from now.

That said... I think everyone here praises Fabfilter and Valhalla, so you could auto-add those to your list

But the thing is... some people love what others hate. Don't know what music you are making, but if it's electronic, you really will find yourself gelling with certain companies, and the way they build their plugins

[Kappa_Beta_Hi-Phi]

Well OP the good news is that deal for the SSL BC plugin will come back around sooner rather than later.

Here is an alternative to consider. I used this for years myself. It's good:

https://www.plugin-alliance.com/en/prod ... essor.html

Perhaps sticking to Kotelnikov is best; the paid version is on sale for $10:

https://www.pluginboutique.com/product/ ... elnikov-GE

Very much worth it IMO.

Slick EQ M is also on sale for $20 and very much worth it from the same store. You can get a free EQ or Synth which are also very good with a purchase from that reseller. If you are buying two things make sure that you make 2 separate purchases so you can get both the synth and the EQ! Pro Tip right there.

[concealed identity]

Why can't you use those AIR plugins in Cubase? Cubase also supports VST2 plugins.

[DCrown]

Start with TDR and learn how to use these plugins.
If you want everything in a bundle, Waves is the best bang for your buck imo

Waves Platinum about 70 plugins
https://www.waves.com/bundles/platinum
It's 99 USD sometimes

Waves Horizon more than 80 plugins
https://www.waves.com/bundles/horizon
I think it's 189 sometimes

I also had Plugin Alliance 1 year subscription and Slate digital trial subscription and Waves Horizon is many times better than both of them.
Only about 5 plugins out of more than 100 pa plugins got some use, most plugins are less than mediocre.
About 80% of Waves Horizon plugins got some use in a production and about 25% still regularly in use still after many years!
There are legendary plugins like RBass, all Renaissance plugins are fantastic, MV2, IRL convolution reverb, Vitamin, Kramer HLS Channel (the only plugin that gives me analog vibe, what a emu ! and Kramer PIE Compressor!! absolute unmatched masterpieces), L2 mastering limiter, MaxxBass, MetaFlanger, H-Delay, Vocal and Bass Rider, WLM Plus Loudness Meter (the best imo!), Super Tap delay, TransX,linear Phase Comp and Eq, CLA 76, LA2A, LA3A compressors, Kramer Tape and more
Even the included electric grand 80 piano is great.
All simple to understand and use with fast and top results
You won't need anything else any more!

[Kappa_Beta_Hi-Phi]

Counter point: avoid waves at all costs.

Just stick to TDR OP.

[DCrown]

Counter point: avoid waves at all costs.

Just stick to TDR OP.

What a very smart post lol

Let me guess, wup is a bad thing?

Haha
Never had to pay wup after 10 years.
And Waves have best customer service, they even called me twice by phone to solve a problem and once it took more than hour and some settings in my pc caused the problem, it was no Waves issue and customer service could solve it!

And Waves proved about one year ago that they listen to their customers by stopping their subscription only model.

It's no secret that Waves still is used a lot in professional productions.
By far the best and most experienced dev!

You won't regret buying a Waves bundle!
On sales it's about 2USD per plugin only!!!!
2 USD /plugin or even less for about 75% top notch quality (75% of a bundle) and some people complain about wup, that's unbelievable!

But as I wrote before I recommend starting with TDR to learn plugins first and you will probably still use their plugins in future.

[Kappa_Beta_Hi-Phi]

I personally don't care about WUP either - other than it being a completely anachronistic business practice from 25 years ago of course. People should be aware of it though. If I was starting again I would simply avoid waves because I don't have high confidence in their market position right now. They are a falling giant and everyone knows it. Walking dead IMO.

UA have gone full waves mode and I would recommend the UA equivalent of all their emulations. The old waves utilities are not worth it when TDR will cover those bases with aplomb. The odd very specific edge case where waves have something that a competitor offers at a much higher price may be worth a look but OP doesn't need to worry about those right now as they are inexperienced in mixing (Centre, Bass rider, Rbass etc).

I mean you clearly have a hard on for waves nothing wrong with that - I own pretty much all they make but OP would not be any worse off if they never bought a waves plugin IMO.