Yea, play with cake and introduce 3rd party stuff.  I find I keep going back to the same batches of plugs for the same kind of things.  But the CA comp and 1176 are great and get used on just about every track, sometimes together.  Same for the ssl on the bus.  Perfect space.  The PC EQ is darn fine.  That is all in Pro.

Added stuff - time shifting stuff from Nomad Audio's Blue Tubes.  it is old but good.  Their BT channel strip is pretty good and contains most common track units.  It sounds a bit cloudier than the PC, and is kinda of a steady state effect, but can work.  Some of their more modern effects are well respected.  The Stienberg RND effects are great - I just couldn't justify the cost since the PC covers most of the eq already, tho the RND comp is very tasty.

If Cake has a sale of the Softube package, that is worthwhile.  Breeverb has kinda taken the sting out of reverbs in Cake (and, by the by, do try their free 3rd FX package for some reverb), but the focusing EQ is unique and the FET comp (1176 comp) is a bit more flexible than the PC 1176.

@

scook


I believe Beep's list is a little incomplete. Trying to keep within the limits of the thread, I did not want to expand on the list of vendors.

Definitely and it should be noted that I don't really buy a ton of stuff but the stuff that I do I make sure I scour/ask the forum about before taking the plunge. I've had very good luck so far going about things this way and really only need to make a few more purchases before my set up will be rounded out the way I'd like.

Specifically I want to pickup the Concrete Limiter, Ozone, ARC, the Focusrite VRM stuff, maybe some Kontakt stuff and upgrade my BFD Eco to BFD 2. With that and everything I've already got I don't think I'll need much else to do what I want.

and no mention of fab filter's plugs yet?!?!. I dunno :).. far from cheap, but if you save up till xmas you get a good deal on em :)

I bought alloy2 recently due to the de-sser being the only FF thing I didn't have.

Hi redbarchetta,

For years all I used were the plug-in's that come with Sonar. They are still all I use, only I have added Melda's suite of free VST's, and when I got the demo of Guitar Rig 4 with SPE8.0 (I think it was 8.0), I upgraded that to the full version. The only soft synths I use are the ones that come with Sonar and a free one that Kontakt put out. So basically, I'm one of those users that uses Sonar PE to it's full extent so to speak.

I still say that the old Cakewalk Amp Sim is the best amp sim I've ever heard. It's old, ugly by today's standards, but man it sounds good. Throw Z3ta in the FX Bin with it, and you can have some incredible guitar sounds. The reverb in Z3ta is excellent, I really think it's one of those little forgotten gems.

I know Beepster is leery of 3rd party VST's, and rightfully so, but Melda is a professional company that offers professional VST's. Their free suite of VST's can be 'unlocked' to give you more features for a fee. They are 32 & 64 bit, VST2 & VST3, and use very little system resources.

The only EQ I use now is Melda's free one because it has a built in Analyzer and has a lot more features than Sonitus. It has a built in Sonogram as well, but you have to purchase a license. It's on sale this month for $27 bucks. Normally it's $36. Well worth every penny.

I use them extensively and have never had a lockup or crash because of them.

DO NOT DOWNLOAD THE DEMO OF THEIR 'TOTAL BUNDLE'! You'll sell your soul to get the $450 bucks to unlock it when the 14 day fully functional trial runs out. It is by far the best value there is though. You get free updates and upgrades for life. If you buy the 'Total Bundle' now, you get any and all new VST's the put out in the future at no charge, and version updates ... for ever. I've been using the Dynamic EQ and the AutoVolume VST ... I don't know how I'm going to live without them when the trial runs out. :(

I'm not putting down Ozone or any other mastering suite, but IMO, they are way over priced. There are other alternatives that are just a good, if not better.

"The only EQ I use now is Melda's free one because it has a built in Analyzer and has a lot more features than Sonitus." i bought their dynamic eq, thats a peach, bought one of their reverb's, multi analyser and a multi band distortion, paid to unlock their free suite as well, cant go wrong with melda

Chregg

i bought their dynamic eq, thats a peach

I've been using it as a De-Esser. Oh my it's awesome, and it doesn't have the nasty side effect of killing the high end like dedicated some De-Esser's do.

"I've been using it as a De-Esser. Oh my it's awesome, and it doesn't have the nasty side effect of killing the high end like dedicated some De-Esser's do" when i bought it and first used it i was like where have you been all my life, so much tone control, melda are quality plug-ins for a decent price, young innovative company, sometimes i feel they are a bit ott with the multibandism tho lol

When I got my first DAW in 2007, I ended up loading it with hundreds of free plugins - some were ok, some were rubbish.

So when I got my new one last year, I decided only to install the ones that I found really useful, along with all my paid plugins.

You can get a heck of a long way with the Sonitus suite alone, the EQ/Compressor/Delay are extremely simple to use and in my opinion, all of them are fairly transparent with their processing.

All I run now by way of 3rd party Fx plugs are:

T-RackS singles
Span
Bluecat DP Metering
Nomad Factory PulseTec EQ/British Bundle
A few of the Melda freebies

The stock plugins are very very good and you can make excellent music with them. However many of us, especially me, have a bad case of gear lust and are chasing the dragon of advertising sonic excellent. Do we reeeeaallly need them. No. Do we want them 100% yes. Do they help our mixes? I'd like to think so, at least me wallet likes to think I've made wothwhile purchases.
Just buy every plugin from Universal Audio and Waves and you will be hooked like the rest of us and will not be able to quit.
Seriously though...Yes the stock effects are very musical and quite usable. They will not stand in your way as far as creativity goes. Just make sure you really get in and learn them well before you go spending additional cash on something that may already be included just to get a pretty interface that may look like some vintage hardware.

I'm having problems differentiating between the PC76 and the PC4K compressors in the Pro Channel.

In what situations would one be better than the other and why? 

bandso


However many of us, especially me, have a bad case of gear lust and are chasing the dragon of advertising sonic excellent.

Oh yes, I know all about gear lust and gas. I play guitar and fully know about it.  I think what part of the issue is, is when you watch the videos up on Groove3. The presenter always brings out some 3rd party plugin.  As a newbie it makes you second guess the stock plugins without having any good background knowledge, thus leading you to think you need to go buy that plugin. It would be nice if the presenters stuck with stock FX.

I use Ozone a lot. I also use the cake stock plugs a lot. 

I prefer the cake StudioVerb2 over the Ozone reverbs. 

Compression and EQ.... I use the cake plugs in the tracks all the time. I even have presets in them that I start with for drums, bass, guitars, vocals...and have the same things in Ozone. 

Dave King

You didn't mention IK Multimedia... No go for their T Racks gear?

I like the T-Racks plugs a lot.  Their Brickwall Limiter is my go-to limiter.

i too feel the t racks is far better , i never use cake stuff besides the comps since i got that with white and black, and never looked back

I imagine that not having to go through a VST skin offers some advantage to the integrated PC plugins.

What I and my aging eyes would really like is to be able to pop out a PC plugin's interface into a much bigger window.
All Sonar plugins are small, but the PC ones are tiny.

DigitalBoston

redbarchetta


So no need to go invest in something like IKMultimedia's toys?

so il give the real deal the stock plugs with sonar x2 are basic if anyone is saying there great they must have droped 300-400 on the Prochannel stuff. i personaly hate the PC nonsence since i use many daw and software anything bound to your daw is useless. so consider if you want to pay more after x2, i have IK classic  and ozone those are steller.and its far more uselful and flexable.bricklimiter is all i would say is worth the money but remember they are xtra not included in producer so that my honest opinion, steller thats funny steller 500 bucks later maybe.
 

I am one who thinks the PC modules are great. They sound great and that is my only criteria.