I tried Ozone 5, Fab Filter and T-racks. I got a good deal on T-racks deluxe which is now 64 bit and couldn't be happier.

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.

Bub


I still say that the old Cakewalk Amp Sim is the best amp sim I've ever heard.

You're not afraid of going your own ways, I'll give you that!

"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

Beepster

Cheers, dude. I'm glad you joined. You've been a good poster thus far and I hope you get what you want out of the program. 

Thanks, I try to mind my manors.  Key word, "try" 

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

I get totally excited about plug-ins, and I feel I have a nice collection. My way of working has been like this:

Go through a project and just see how you can manage on just the DAW alone. Try to get the recording as good as possible, obviously, but within your budget, figure out where you've exhausted all efforts with what you have. Then start shopping around TRYING everything you can get your hands on, FREE or Super-Expensive. Once you find one that does what you need, buy it.

Where 3rd-Party comes in would be for examples like Waves, where lots of work has been done, not only to model specific types of gear, but specific gear owned and used successfully by specific engineers. I wait for deals, though, because they're pretty darn expensive. Plus, you can use 3rd-party with other DAW's in most cases. 

Then, there's my experience with two EQ's, that surprised me as well: I have the Algorithmix PEQ Red Linear-Phase EQ, by recommendation of Bob Katz, and others who have claimed this is the best EQ Plug-In on the market. It's REALLY good, btw! Unfortunately, Algorithmix is stuck in 32-bit, and I despise bit-bridging, so, I shopped for an alternative. I found DMG Audio's EQuality and EQuick, both in 64-bit, and can do Linear-Phase (among others). After using this $120 EQ for a year, I'm no longer begging and pleading Algorithmix to get their PEQ Red to 64-Bit.  

Use what you can, but when you're shopping, try everything you can, and read up on reviews good and bad. Learn the features of each (Sonalksys has a very interesting Dynamic EQ, for example). It's up to you what you like, and Sonar has some great plug-ins, so don't sell them short, but don't feel you have to stick to included or third/party. That's the thing that excites me the most!

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.

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'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?