What (effect) plug-ins have really impressed you lately?

[Aiynzahev]

Either an instant wow, or just an appreciation over time of being exceptional in some way. I'm thinking of plug-ins that set themselves apart through quality of sound and or features.

This year I'd say Unisum and Kelvin impressed me a lot, especially Unisum. It's extremely clean and transparent character, and yet it being a chameleon, allowing for blends of styles from FET, VCA and Opto. At the same time for all it's complexity you can just stick on a preset and It can do some great things. I'd feel fine having this as my only compressor, it's not too heavy on CPU and latency is decent.

Arturia Fragments for just being an instant example of what I've always expected from granular effects. The combination of good design choices and presets.

Cinematic Rooms. I don't need to say much about this, it's incredibly versatile and the favorite of my reverbs now. I'd feel just fine having this as my only reverb.

[WatchTheGuitar]

It’s simple to use and maybe doesn’t have the depth some other effects have, but I really like Audio Damage’s Other Desert Cities as a modulatable delay with some granular options. Even just sticking to the default preset makes things sound good, I find it’s particularly handy to stick on incoming audio from my modular which has no hardware effects.

[Vortifex]

Edited

[vurt]

audiothing - gong amp.

does what it says on the tin and comes with a free cushion.

[Dombaeb]

United Plugins Hyperspace worth be mentioned here… It has wonderful sounding algorithms (6 of them), resonator, shimmer, and other sound design modules… Everything is veeeery far beyond expectations.

It can handle everything from room/hall simulations to larger than life esoteric delirium spaces from the other side. Hyperspace would be the only reverb I need, but it’s CPU heavy toy…

[zfy]

Modnetic for sure. I've tried pretty much every tape delay VST, Outer Space, NI Replika XT, D16 Repeater, GS-201, ValhallaDelay, Arturia's 201 and many more... But this one really stuck with me. It does more of a 501 sound instead of a 201, the chorus is super super nice (especially on the "Watery" setting). The reverb is alright (impulse responses, though I'd go for Black Rooster's RO-SPR if I wanted a spring reverb). A cool thing about it is that you can choose the routing between pre-echo, post-echo, and parallel for the reverb and chorus. You can also do reverse delays. The GUI is pretty much perfect for my taste. I don't use any other delay anymore. Diffuse from the same company is also something worth look into, it's a weird delay/reverb hybrid thing that I use mostly as a reverb low in the mix in conjunction with another more traditional reverb

[Aiynzahev]

Have to second Modnetic and Hyperspace. Modentic is extremely versatile and the GUI is exactly to my taste. Hyperspace has some amazing algo's, I'm just waiting for it to go on sale again.

[Junolab]

Also love Unisum and Kelvin. One of the best audio developers out there!

[e@rs]

Sinevibes Corrosion 2 and Dispersion 2.

[martiu]

Permut8, that thing just keep on giving.

[Unaspected]

I'm not a bot - nor am I affiliated...

However I am going to say that I really enjoy using Audiority's plugins. The delay units are something really special - as tone boxes as much as they are musical delays. Luca obviously has a great ear for tone and vibe because he is able to replicate it in his plugins to a very satisfying degree of accuracy.

Soothe continues to please me for both effect and utility.

[dangayle]

All of the Fors M4L devices are amazing.

[db3]

Hyperspace has some amazing algo's, I'm just waiting for it to go on sale again.

Hyperspace is currently 50% off from variety of places. I thought it sounded great when I demoed but didn't pick it up because it adds 512 samples of latency before oversampling.

[dionenoid]

DMG Multiplicity.

Not new, has a steep learning curve, but it has become an undispensable tool lately.
It's so versatile ; I use it as a de-esser, transient designer, dynamic eq, bass enhancer, deharsher, hf limiter, or straight up compressor. Possibilities are endless, highly recommended.

[an-electric-heart]

Gullfoss was a bit of a game-changer for me... you just slap it on the master and it makes your music sound a little bit better... and only a little bit, but it's impossible to go without it now.