At the risk of getting flamed, over on the Reaper forum someone has a very long thread going entitled "going all freeware" where they do extensive evals of free VST plugs. Worth a read since it's DAW agnostic and, well, he finds all these great freebies for every purpose.

It's HERE

The general concensus on the V-Vocal is not great. Again, I don't find it intuitive at all.

There is without a doubt some very good freeware out there. 
But my experience through many years in the DAW game is that the more freeware I add to my DAW, the more problems I end up having.  In fact, I've been pressing myself to live with the Sonar PE tools where ever I can - and that's been working wonderfully.  The most musically productive and least frustrated I've ever been. 
 
[Not trying to say all commercial code is a charm... but beware that most things marked "free" are NOT really free.]

nix means no.  As in don't use v-vocal or boost eleven;-)

Sijel

The general concensus on the V-Vocal is not great. Again, I don't find it intuitive at all.

There is without a doubt some very good freeware out there. 
But my experience through many years in the DAW game is that the more freeware I add to my DAW, the more problems I end up having.  In fact, I've been pressing myself to live with the Sonar PE tools where ever I can - and that's been working wonderfully.  The most musically productive and least frustrated I've ever been. 
 
[Not trying to say all commercial code is a charm... but beware that most things marked "free" are NOT really free.]

+1

The only free plug that I've ever stuck with is the analyzer from Vox. The free stuff can come back to bite a company also. I got some free amp plugs from the people who make some of the plugs in Sonar and they were crap. I wasn't too happy when I found out they had some software in SPE8.5.

yorolpal


nix means no.  As in don't use v-vocal or boost eleven;-)

yes, i got that. thanks, man!
 
and thanks for the freeware suggestion...i think i going to think with paid stuff for now.
i just can't deal with unpleasant surprises, especially when i have serious deadlines.
 
again, thanks guys!
 
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nix means no. As in don't use v-vocal or boost eleven

What is your reasoning behind this?
(I use both and they work fine.)

Sijel

nix means no. As in don't use v-vocal or boost eleven

What is your reasoning behind this?
(I use both and they work fine.)

Boost 11 imho isn't very musical sounding. It adds what I refer to as a 'glassy' sound. I've noticed that with all the tube emulator plugs in Sonar also. This could be because I haven't taken the time to tweak the living daylights out of the 64 Series plugs, but Boost 11 is pretty much idiot proof.

I love the limiter in Alloy for per track use. I used it on a bass track last night ... all I can say is WOW! I finally got the sound I've been looking for with my bass tracks. Now I have to go back over all my projects and redo them! LOL! :)

I kind of feel bad pushing a competitors product Cakewalks forum, but man I love Ozone and Alloy. Now that I'm using them, I don't know how I ever got by without them. Maybe Cake will look at those plugs and come up with comprehensive collection of mastering tools bundled in a single plug rather than have them kind of scattered like they are now.

Some folks like v-vocal.  But once you've used Melodyne, there's no going back.  V-Vocal seems primitive in comparison.  And, like Shane says above, Boost 11 sounds harsh and "shiny".  While I never use it in my music production I often find myself using it in our voiceover production.  Especially on super compressed over-loud concert promos, car and truck spots and such.  It WILL cut a voice through the mix.  But you definitely hear it working.  It's a cudgel, not a precision tool.

yorolpal


Some folks like v-vocal.  But once you've used Melodyne, there's no going back.  V-Vocal seems primitive in comparison.  And, like Shane says above, Boost 11 sounds harsh and "shiny".  While I never use it in my music production I often find myself using it in our voiceover production.  Especially on super compressed over-loud concert promos, car and truck spots and such.  It WILL cut a voice through the mix.  But you definitely hear it working.  It's a cudgel, not a precision tool.

Makes you wonder how they develop some of these plugs doesn't it? I mean, what are they listening to them on while making the decisions on what sounds good or not? I absolutely LOVE my Yamaha HS80m's. I've been listening to my favorite albums on them that I've been listening to for decades on other speakers and I've been hearing things that I never picked up on before.

You can get a good sound out of Boost 11, but you can't run it very hot, which kind of defeats the purpose of it. :)

I've used Melodyne and I still prefer V-Vocal, but it's been a long time, maybe they've improved it from when I used it. V-vocal still kind of has a DOS feel to it if you know what I mean, but it's still my personal favorite for pitch correction.

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Thanks, guys.

As far as Purchase Vs. Freeware, Sijel - it's not a 100% rule, I just like support, and more extensive compatibility and accountability.

Also, I'm not really a sw tweaker. I have a lot of work to do, and I have to get it done quickly!! I want to be creating MUSIC with reliable tools, not editing registry keys, splitting .dlls, writing scripts, etc. I need basic tools, and I just want to make sure they work, and don't create a lot of down time during my projects and deadlines. This is 100% professional for me. I can't aford ot have a project go down because of some buggy hacked freeware plugin with no support.

If you have any freeware plugs you love - from good reliable accountable companies with great support - in tuning, filter or brick wall limiters, I'm open to hearing about them.!

Also, thanks for your votes of confidence for Alloy, Ozone and Melodyne. I'l have to try V-Vocal again, but I really ws\asn't taking it very seriously. I didn't get the feeling CW was, either.

Cheers, blokes!

Setting my new DAW up now - PSYCHED!

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