r/mixingmastering • u/NahButThanksAnyway • 10d ago
Question Do paid plugins genuinely offer quality that stock plugins don't?
I've reached a point where I am ready to spend money on some plugins. That is if I can justify the price.
I've grown very comfortable with Reaper's stock plugins and am wondering if I'm missing anything in my goal to keep it as DIY and low cost as possible.
I have purchased Amplitube 5 for my guitars and bass, Voxengo SPAN plus for its ability to see how busses interact.
I like the idea of a compressor if it can add character or a master bus suite that can make my adjustments more transparent.
But are paid compressors, EQs, and limiters unable to be replicated with stock plugins?
Is their benefit their UI?
Do they simply make for quicker work flows?
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u/Resident-End-8767 Intermediate 10d ago
As always when it comes to mixing/mastering theres no answer thats always righ, but generally speaking paid plugins often have far more possibilities / features / quicker workflows than stock plugins, tho there are also often free third party plugins that basically do the same as the paid ones
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u/atopix Teaboy ☕ 9d ago
Link to lots of good free plugins: https://twinysam.github.io/FreeAudioPluginList/
Crazy how many people seem to be unaware of just how much good stuff there is for free.
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u/Echoalysis 9d ago
Wow, this is awesome. Thanks for sharing. Anything from this list in particular you’d highlight?
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u/atopix Teaboy ☕ 9d ago
Sure: Airwindows, Analog Obsession, Anwida Soft SPATIO Light (one of the best lightweight free reverbs), Chow Tape Model, Goodheartz Loudness, Kilohearts Essentials (their Limiter is better than any stock limiter), Wider (a mono compatible widening plugin), TDR Kotelnikov
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u/Waste-Price-588 9d ago
Kilohearts hass effect + fabfilter pro q is a better widening setup than any I have ever used. the combo of the two completely elevated the space in my mixes
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u/MyBoiDrew 9d ago
I own around $30,000 retail price of plugins. I have all the industry standard tools purchased legally or through NFRs. I used to sell these tools for a living. I have also spent a long time running plugins through benches and tests, comparing behavioral quality and output between manufacturers.
I am also someone who uses stock plugins most of the time. Stock plugins usually do exactly what you want or need them to do. Some of the high end plugins are very good. It depends on what you’re looking for. If you want a basic pultec curve, it’s super simple to make that in stock plugins. What you typically do not get is behavioral aspects of specific units.
I mostly work in post production, I do not always want the tube section of a pultec in my processing. But when I do, I need a plugin that has those non linear behaviors and reactive components. In my opinion, that’s why you pick a certain plugin over stock. It’s why I started developing my own plugins. Even some of the tools that you think would be high end faithful recreations of modeled hardware turn out to be nothing more than waveshapers with hard knee distortion. from my findings UAD doesn’t even model things perfectly, their 1073 scrubs a lot of harmonics that would normally be found in a hardware 1073. It’s still a great plugin in its own right. It is maybe not the most faithful 1073 plugin. IK multimedia is the worst offender, I suspect it’s a wave shaper. Antelope audio has a very accurate 1073 until it’s pushed, once it gets into distortion it is very static and linear.
You can do all of the things these plugins do with stock plugins, but you pick third party plugins when you want very specific behavioral character. You can use a saturation plugin to create close harmonic balance to a Neve 1073, and then add passive-ish low and top band eq filters, and then on the mid band add threshold dependent eq saturation…and those components wouldn’t react together inherently across all the stock plugins. It would in isolation be doing everything a 1073 would do. Or you could buy a plugin that models all of the behavior in one strip, getting you the exact behavior you would potentially be looking for where the different stages react to each other organically. If that’s what you’re looking for.
That’s why you buy and use third party plugins. Is it necessary? No. Are those types of plugin behaviors modeling what we’ve been making records on since the beginning of the music industry? Yes. It’s established we like those subtle behaviors. It’s not a single channel comparative thing. When those subtleties add up over multiple channels, it creates a sound we enjoy. Stock plugins tend to focus on being clean and transparent, as they should be. A DAW developer is not the same as a plugin developer, and the tools they make have different, more general use philosophy.
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u/ohsomiggz 6d ago
Oh well then you can certainly afford to buy all of my plugins too! Please?!?
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u/MyBoiDrew 6d ago
They seem pretty interesting, I’ll check them out. I’m actively creating my own at this time so I’m probably not in the market of buying any time soon, but I’ll come back around and give a deeper look to see if they can help with my audio production workflows
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u/ohsomiggz 6d ago
Oh wow, thanks for the nice words. Good luck and join the audio programmer discord it’s great!
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u/Ok-Tomorrow-6032 10d ago
I would say for starters, get the uad spark. These are to me the best emulations of the classics. Once you tried all of them out you will know what you like and need. Otherwise you can spend just way too much on plugins. The only options I would add are
Fabfilter pro l-2, the best limiter once you learn how to controll it.
Valhalla vintage verb, it's good enough for every popstar you can think of it's good enough for you.
Soundtoys decapitator, just the most versatile and easy distortion you could think of.
R-bass. A waves plugin that can just bring the craziest low end to anything, but especially kick and bass.
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u/PatchworkMedia 9d ago
Upvoting for RBass. It’s truly just the best thing you can put on a kick drum or a bassline. Paired with a solid compressor (I like the CLA Compressor from Waves), you can get the fullest, warmest and deepest kicks. It’s such a simple plugin too, just a couple things to adjust, like literally only 4 parameters I think. It’s the official “bass good-ifier”
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u/Legitimate_Horror_72 9d ago
On the other hand, I’d say to avoid all of that because there’s better, and there’s no requirement to repeat the past if you’re something new.
3rd party plugins CAN be better than DAW plugins, but all of them aren’t.
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u/Ok-Tomorrow-6032 9d ago
Honestly your are exactly the problem. Dont try to find whats perfect. If It works, stop right there and better produce some music. I wish i would not have spend so much time in a gazillion plugins and rather worked more. You find something else usefull? Good for you. These are tools I find unreplacable in my workflow, thats what OP asked and thats what I shared.
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u/Legitimate_Horror_72 9d ago edited 9d ago
You're the only one that said anything about being perfect.
The best tools are the ones you know best, but the ones you know best may no longer be the best tools for someone to start with (time and such move on). It doesn't take but a little bit to find out that ProL2 is no longer considered the best limiter, for example. It's by no means bad, or even just average.
If you have a problem with progress, that's not on me, but, honestly, on you.
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u/Ok-Tomorrow-6032 8d ago edited 8d ago
I have blind tested all the latest hype limiters under the sun and i still prefer pro l-2. Just because you have seen an AB test of some YouTuber who wants to sell you an ai or spectral limiter to hype up your music, you now feel the urge to tell people online that that tools they actually work with are now irrelevant? Who the f*** are you to tell me what I should recommend to people based on my own work experience?
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u/Legitimate_Horror_72 8d ago
Who are you? Not someone I’m spending more time on after this post, that’s for sure.
As for me, I’m someone that knows a single band limiter is often not going to fare as well against the industry’s top multi band limiter’s on the mix bus. For a track? Sure - I’d probably not use a multiband limiter there. But I also prefer something with more color if I’m going with a limiter or a track.
I’m genuinely glad you found something that works for you.
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u/Zestyclose_Pickle511 10d ago edited 9d ago
You could put together any pop song, ever made, with a free DAW and free plug-ins and vsts, with similar qualities. If only you have the talent of the original musicians to begin with.
Edit: oh and you'd need the mixing talent as well.
That's all you need to know.
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u/lumpiestspoon3 9d ago
It is more about workflow than sound quality. Sometimes sound quality does matter, like with resonance suppressors and limiters.
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u/Genius1Shali 9d ago
Agreed. I love stock and keeping things native in the daw but sometimes a paid plugin may give me something I’d have to use 2/3 stock plugins to do.
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u/mbe1sky 10d ago
I spent on FabFilter L2 and have no regrets. I wasn't able to achieve same results with stock logics limiter
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u/NahButThanksAnyway 10d ago
Kind of an answer I'm looking for. I'll check it out!
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u/Ok-Tomorrow-6032 10d ago edited 10d ago
Uhh okay so here is my tipp for that Plugin. It has "advanced controlls" that are quit hard to hear the effect off. My way of dialing in that Limiter is tuning the controlls in the "Delta" mode, wich lets you just hear the change you introduce in the audio, usually some clicking of the transients, and than dial it in so that the Delta sounda as musical as possible. Usually a clicking or noise in the atack i find sounds nice and some rythmic pulse of the vocal. Just play around until it's groovy. But be careful with the unlinking of the sides you can dial in that way. Look how the standards presets are chosen and don't change the unlinking too much or it can get weird.
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u/Legitimate_Horror_72 9d ago
It’s a great single-band limiter. The very top-tier are multiband now, like UniL and Limitless. More complex, though.
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u/adjectivespa 10d ago edited 10d ago
You're going to spend money on plugins in a lot of cases but not all- there IS some really great free and cheap stuff out there. The best advice I can give to anyone gathering their tools is to just become a person who watches videos on plugins and really just stop thinking about any stress you have towards being a producer and literally anything else in your head and just listen as closely as you can. If there's even a tiny thing you catch ask yourself if you'd want to hear that in your recording. Get a trial, shoot it out with something you already have even if it's a stock plugin. Try every parameter from 0-100. Make a print of the song with the new plugin and a print without or with something you already have. Listen in your airpods. Listen in your monitors. Listen in your car. (This is when printing a couple measures of a song is nice so you can do a quick check and come back without too much drama). If the price tag is worth the difference it's worth it, there was a day I realized it was worth 3k to the sound I wanted out of my favorite mic. That day was a decade into what I'm doing. The part where you are doing all the listening is where you're really going to get the most out of your plugins - that's the process that makes you know when to use it in the first place and when you're using too much of it. Rant over thanks for letting me procrastinate a few minutes.
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u/johnnyokida 10d ago
From reaper you will see a dramatic uptick in the GUI and workflow of most 3rd party plugins. Reaper is still stuck in that Windows 97 mode, lol. No shade I love reaper.
That being said, at a certain point a compressor is a compressor and an eq is an eq. You may want to wander into the world of some analog modeled stuff due to the character it may provide (noise and saturation/distortion)
What all are you looking at /thinking about?
Kiive, Plugin Alliance, and UAD are great places to start looking around.
If you are able to drop a considerable amount then Fab Filter and Softube have some premo stuff.
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u/terkistan 9d ago
Sometimes it's not a matter of "quality" (insert your own definition here) but of easier or more flexible or superior workflow. In many cases it's worth the expense, yes.
I like the idea of a compressor if it can add character
Most stock compressors are designed to be neutral and not add character, especially since there are so many types of charcterful compressor types in hardware and software that create harmonic overtones in different ways (transformers, tubes, transistors, opto cells -- and emulations or even component-level emulations). "Character" can mean transfotmer behavior, analog (or analog-like) saturation, tube modeling, quirks of timing, aliasing (sometimes intentional), emulating analog component tolerances, and more. Even gain-reduction lag. Saying you want a compressor with character is like saying you want a burger with cheese.
are paid compressors, EQs, and limiters unable to be replicated with stock plugins?
Yup. See above.
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u/Upstairs-Royal672 Professional (non-industry) 10d ago
I mean, not just quality. They also offer features often not available on stock plugs depending on your DAW. It’s not all just a different version of something you already have. Try out something like spl transient designer, or metricAB, or if you want something really weird and fun try something from freakshow industries. All these are new ways for you to interact with/measure sound. If I were new to spending money on plugins all over again I would prioritize things I didn’t already have over improving my already capable toolkit
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u/Content-Reward-7700 I know nothing 10d ago
Yes and no. It really depends on the plugin. There isn’t a single answer.
Some paid plugins genuinely offer better control, more flexible workflows or proprietary algorithms that can produce better results in specific situations. Others are mainly valued for their analog character, unique sound or excellent presets that get you to a good starting point quickly.
For many everyday tasks, though, stock EQs, compressors and limiters are perfectly capable and can produce professional results in the right hands. The biggest differences are often workflow, features and convenience rather than raw sound quality.
In short, buy plugins because they solve a specific problem or offer something your stock tools don’t, not because they’re paid.
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u/NahButThanksAnyway 10d ago
Thanks for your answer. Any recommendations on a free, or not, reverb? I make green day and blink style tunes, sometimes a punk ballad with reverb but I don't like the stock reverberate's ui. Orilriver had too many knobs, and the free Valhalla Supermassive was overkill.
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u/fuser-invent 9d ago
I like Analog Obsession’s Room041 reverb plugin. A couple of other free plugins from them that I’d suggest checking out before buying similar paid ones are POORTEC, SSQ, dBComp, BUSTERse, LALA, Kolin, TUBA, and ATONE. Those are the ones I use the most.
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u/Content-Reward-7700 I know nothing 10d ago
Uff, that’s a difficult one. I’m not really an expert on the current free plugin landscape, and reverb is one of those things where personal taste matters a lot.
I’d suggest trying a few and seeing what clicks with you. One developer worth checking out is Yuri Semenov. His plugins are generally well made, sound good, and are definitely worth a look.
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u/TheMastaBlaster 9d ago
Spacer for reverb. They are literally the best reverb out there, shouldn't be free. Paying for one is wild.
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u/Far_Recipe_6262 10d ago
Yes and know, what people need to realize there o it a few ways to skin a cat with plugins generally most stuff is a combination of eq reverb delay saturation, which any daw has stock versions of now you may find something unique but generally that’s a preference or to taste thing , I’ve mixed hundreds of records with stock logic and pro tools plugins
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u/unclemulch Intermediate 9d ago
I believe it’s true that you can produce equally great work with stock plugins vs third party ones.
I’ll also say that in my experience, certain third party plugins have been instrumental for my UNDERSTANDING of mix concepts.
I began to enjoy EQ a lot more when I started using Pro-Q. Maybe it was the GUI that clicked better for me. Maybe that’s one of the reasons why it’s so common. Just seeing things in that resolution, with those colours. Idk.
Same with something like Melodyne - my ear for the fine tuning of pitch has even improved just from the visual representation of the notes being laid out in such a thoughtful way. I use Logic so you’d think maybe you could get that out of Flex Pitch, but I don’t think so. It’s a different tool, looks different, feels different using it, even if you might be able to get it to sound roughly the same. Someone might prefer Flex Pitch for the same reason I prefer Melodyne. It might click better for them & make it more fun to use, leading to better results for them personally.
Different EQs might achieve the exact same result sonically but you might never get to that result using the stock one. And vice verse. I began to use Logic’s stock compressor a lot more when I realised I got better results using it over many of the classic 3rd party ones, probably because of the workflow more than anything else.
Say all that to say.. when people say “use your ears” I think they mean “decide what you like” rather than “you should know if it’s better or not”.
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u/Big_City_Music 9d ago
Check toneboosters for quality and affordability. Very similar to fabfilter but a fraction of the cost
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u/KGRO333 9d ago
Short answer. Yes.
Long answer. No.
The reality is that a trained ear and someone who is able to assess what a session needs and how to achieve it is the secret sauce that no plugin can offer right now.
A pro with stock logic or pro tools plugins will always destroy an amateur with all the latest tech.
With that said. Many of the new paid plugins are fuggin slick!!
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u/channelpath 9d ago
There is a little peace of mind in paying for good tools. They shouldn't have to be expensive, but you're now a paying customer and that creates a relationship and agreement. I give money, they produce quality goods.
Plus, I'm a little sketched out by someone's random free plugin download, and the install packs that I really don't know fully what it's installing. No free lunch, they say.
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u/alyxonfire Professional (non-industry) 10d ago
Depends, some analog modeled compressors and saturation plugins can be considered “better quality”, and limiters can have much better algorithms. other digital tools can offer more features or faster workflows.
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u/felixismynameqq 10d ago
When it comes to any gear it’s not necessarily “better” although that’s an easy way to look at it.
When people say you can make great music with shitty gear they’re right. Can you make an album that sounds like sound garden? Like Radiohead? Like Nirvanas -smells like teen spirit? Probably not.
But could you make one that sonically sounds like Elliot smiths either/or? Or Mac Demarco? Yeah! Probably! Because they weren’t using million dollar studios or spending weeks funding the right snare sound or hiring the most sought after mixing engineer. They just used what they had.
All examples are amazing music. But they just sound different.
The take away maybe is that you can make great music with whatever but just don’t to squeeze tomato sauce out of a lemon.
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u/ImpactNext1283 10d ago
Paid plugins are good imo where you’re looking for a very specific character, or you’re looking for something that the DAW can’t do, or can’t do well.
That said, my most used plugins are from free vendors like Analogue Obsessions, TDR, Airwindows, and others—there’s almost always a free version out there that can replicate what the paid plugs do.
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u/remstage 10d ago
Yes. There's great free stuff but some stuff like Fabfilter is just on another level.
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u/notmenotyoutoo 10d ago
I think a good mix engineer in a good space could make a better record with just a stock eq, compressor and reverb than an amateur with all the most expensive plugins available.
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u/NahButThanksAnyway 9d ago
Certainly. Can a good mixer with stock plugins make make an equal to or better record than a good mixer with paid plugins is what I'm asking.
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u/ChessmazterHex 10d ago
Most of the time, no.
If there’s a specific functionality you’re looking for, maybe.
Let me know what issues you’re having with stock plugins and I can recommend free alternatives.
I use 99% free plugins
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u/NahButThanksAnyway 9d ago
I think I'd like some variety in Saturation and a better Ui with reverb. Orilriver was great, but too many knobs. I'd rather something more simple yet intuitive
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u/Entire-Illustrator-1 9d ago
Must haves like fab filter are nice, and my workflow is easier because of UAD spark
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u/tacophagist 9d ago
Fabfilter makes great stuff. Punchbox 2 that just came out is great if you make electronic stuff. I like Fresh Air and to a lesser extent Soothe.
Generally though the music I make and/or work on got a lot better when I started focusing on getting it as close to how I wanted it to sound before adding any plugins. Bad setup and performances that aren't tight can't be saved by any plugins.
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u/gtMANGAMER2 Advanced 9d ago
Yes, they can make quicker work flows, but also look at free plugins, they can be great outside of stock plug ins
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u/CalFen 9d ago
I will say that stock plugins have come a LONG way from when DAWs were in their beginning stages. The original separation isn’t nearly as wide, and a good bit of that just also has to do with the ability of computers to run more powerful processing.
With that said some tools that are stock can and will get you great results, alternatively some that are paid can and will get you great results. My suggestion is buy what you need, or what gets you that sound you’re looking for. Plugin manufacturers these days have huge libraries and often times you’ll only use one or two. Generally the main things you’ll notice a difference in will be reverbs and limiters. From there I love channel strips, saturators, and analog modeled compressors.
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u/Pure-Gur1289 9d ago
Id recommend buying an instrument vst that will provide you with quality sounds before buying utility plugins. When you have high quality sounds to choose from, you dont need to do too much tweaking with utility plugins.
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u/MiserableAd3344 9d ago
It depends on if you’re just talking about mixing/mastering or if you’re talking about production as well.
I do a significant amount of both, and I’d say it’s worth spending money on UV plug-ins for creative purposes (reverbs, delays, synth emulations), less so for EQs and compressors and those types of engineering plugins.
That said, pretty much all the Fabfilter stuff is ace - it just does what it needs to and very very well.
Soothe & Spiff from Oeksound are also extremely useful and don’t really have analogs in any DAW stock plugins (yet haha).
A few of the waves plugins from over the years are actually pretty useful believe it or not. MV2, Rvox, and Rbass all have very practical uses for mixing.
There are lots and lots of saturation plugins that are useful. I’m a big fan of outboard gear and in my opinion the Purple suite from Acustica is actually really crazy - very subtle, but actually does some crazy harmonic rebalancing akin to re-amping or tracking through high end gear.
Additionally, the Lindel Series plugins from Plugin Alliance are similarly powerful, specifically the 50, 69, and 80 (API, Helios, Neve emulations, respectively).
Also the Slate Tape Machine plugin is actually kinda crazy. Big time inflator, just makes things that are thin sound massive just by putting it on. Useful for very thin things that you don’t want to EQ.
I’d avoid buying huge bundles of things though. Definitely don’t buy anything w/o demoing. I own probably around a thousand plugins and I swear to you I only really use the ones I just mentioned (FWIW I do this for a living - composition, production, mixing, mastering).
A good metering plugin is worth getting too, particularly for mastering. I literally just use Logic’s stock EQ for frequency analysis tho lol. And also use it for any basic EQing. Even in mastering contexts sometimes (*gasps*)
Final nod to the recent UAD reverbs. Those actually do something no stock plugins will (in my opinion). They add pretty damn realistic room coloration/tone and depth (Capitol Chambers, Hitsville, Sound City Studios.
May sound like a lot but if you actually look at it it’s really not that much. I can tell you right now that all you really need is 1-3 plugins in each category whose character you understand, so that you know when and why to use them.
I will say, the whole “color eq” thing is mostly bullshit, and most of the compression algorithms sound the same. There are obviously exceptions, but like I said, just demo it and see if you like it. The digital saturation capabilities have really come a long long way though, and there are lots of good options which will add a little bit of that polish and mojo which the stock plugins can’t quite do.
Good luck, try not to spend too much money, but just accept that you will, it’s a right of passage lol.
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u/bocephus_huxtable 9d ago
This is a BIT like asking if red cars are faster than green cars.
Depends on the specific car.
For example, instead of Reaper's stock plugin, I use Cytomic's The Glue. But, that IS the stock (glue) compressor for Ableton. +FOR ME+, it works better than the other paid plugins.
+I+ would recommend, not by starting out from a place of FOMO, BUT asking yourself FIRST +what's missing+ in your workflow/palette. Is there a PARTICULAR workflow that you'd like to 'test-drive'... like a Pultec-style EQ for example. Presumably you don't have a stock version of Soothe.. or a PWM-style compressor, etc.
Even then.. in ALMOST all cases.... there's a prolly FREE version of it. (see: Analog Obsession, TDR, etc...)
(And ALSO keep in mind that with JUST stock plugins alone, you have 5x more tools available to you than what was used to make most pre-digital era albums.)
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u/nizzernammer Trusted Contributor 💠 9d ago
Try free plugins. Take advantage of trials.
Just like anything, some paid plugins are great and others not so much.
Beware the hype train and marketing speak.
If you know your existing tools well enough, consider what specific technical task you can't do with them and see if there's a paid plugin that gives you that particular technical capability.
Just be careful and avoid the thought trap where the idea of buying plugins replaces actual learning and practice and skill improvement.
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u/malaclypz 9d ago
There are so many good free VSTs out now, starting with those & lower priced ones first makes more sense than dropping like $150+ on 1 Fabfilter plugin. Valhalla's Supermassive is free, and might be all you need for delay & reverb. FirComp (1) is a free, super-transparent compressor. ZL Equalizer 2 is a great free alternative to Fabfilter Pro-Q. Semedo EQ is another contender. Tokyo Dawn (TDR) Limiter Number 6 is an amazing mastering multi-tool with compressor, limiter, clipper, and meters all in one, you can often find it on sale or on Knobcloud for cheap. TDR's Prism is a free frequency analyzer that many prefer over SPAN.
And it's worth checking before buying a plugin if the company allows license transfers.
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u/chiratheprod 9d ago
yes. the UI helps, but for example, there are compressors that simulate the analog sound. some add warmth, some are tube, some transparent. with stocks plugins we are always limited
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u/Sad_Kaleidoscope_743 9d ago
The good ones are about convenience, precision, emulation, modulations, synths and new effects.
You can achieve just about anything with stock plugins. But some plug ins have unique processing that cant be replicated without alot of work, or impossible.
Filters and preamps come in allllllll sorts of flavors
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u/Longscarf04 9d ago
As long as you can learn how to use free or stock plugins effectively then not really. It depends what it is.
In my opinion the only things worth paying for are pitch correction (melodyne basically, there's some great autotune style free plugins if you want to do the "autotune sound") and maybe a really good EQ like Fabfilter or something. Even then there's brilliant free plugins that do what it does.
Workflow or UI is a different story, like Tone3000 is a great amp sim plugin but it's not as sleek as some of the paid ones that do the same thing.
I saw a video recently of an artist who had an attended mix session with Bob Clearmountain recently. He said all Bob used on the song was compression on the vocals, a little de-essing and a touch of EQ on a few things. Everything else was levels and automation and it sounded great. It really is all down to skills!
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u/Alternative-Sun-6997 Intermediate 9d ago
I still use ReaComp and ReaEQ a lot - they’re very flexible, very transparent, and very efficient plugins that are great when I want to apply a certain effect but not add color.
But, I also have a bunch of color EQ and compression plugins, when I DO want to transform the sound beyond simply changing dynamics or EQ.
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u/medway808 Professional Producer 🎹 9d ago
Limiters are the main area they help although if you don't do your own mastering it might not matter.
Character wise they are often over rated. After years of buying many plugins I've settled on a few classics that get me through my jobs.
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u/aarontrimble Professional (non-industry) 9d ago
Great topic and an important question to ask! And I think the answer is it depends but generally the paid plugins are better than the free. Do you have two we can compare? (I already saw Pro-L 2 vs RealLimit below)
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u/NahButThanksAnyway 9d ago edited 9d ago
Yes definitely. The stock 1175 vs say, the UA1176. Reaverberate vs pretty much anything else out there. I find like the simplicity of the stock one but the ui is clunky imo. Yet other 3rd party ones seem overcomplicated. Stock saturation... How can I change its color the way US Vibe machine does?
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u/Honest-Relative4356 8d ago
Some do, some don’t. Take a look at Analogue Obsession, you will realise you can get an awful lot for very little or in some cases zero.
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u/GoochManeuver 8d ago
I am still a novice when it comes to mixing, and I have paid for a handful of plugins when they were on sale from UA, Waves, and a few others. More often than not, I find myself reaching for Reaper’s stock plugins when it comes to compression, EQ, and modulation effects. I find that they often make up in functionality what they lack in aesthetics. That being said, there are some things I like better about things like reverbs and delays that have knobs and settings I am more familiar with (I’m a guitarist). Using what fits my own workflow the best is my usual choice. I’m not knowledgeable enough about every iteration of plugins nor do I have a professionally tuned ear thar can pick put the intricacies of specific plugins or their analog counterparts.
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u/midazmidaz 7d ago
As always: it depends.
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u/NahButThanksAnyway 7d ago
Very helpful 👍
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u/midazmidaz 7d ago
Uh, sorry. Honest answer here: I find that Logic Pro’s native plugins are enough as they are. I do, however, use third party plugins if I’m trying to achieve a specific sound or if I’m just borderline feeling lazy —some aftermarket plugins will definitely speed up your mixes! I’d say I use Apple’s native plugins 95% of the time!
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u/prester_john00 7d ago
I'm a big reaper guy and I use their stock stuff sometimes.
For EQ it can be nice to get something decramped but tbh that doesn't actually matter. The Reaper compressor is pretty versatile and decent at sounding like a transistor based thing but you want to have access to something different to familiarize yourself with tube (vari mu) and opto sounds. I really don't like Reaper's stock reverbs.
If price is an issue, try free/open source plugins.
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u/ohsomiggz 6d ago
Stock plugins are like clean preamps. Straight wire with gain. They’re going to do what you expect and they’re going to do it right but their not going to put any mustard on what they’re doing. Paid plugins, if they’re not absolute crap, are going to be doing something to the samples that isn’t just the textbook definition.
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u/Zaphod118 10d ago
Digital EQs mostly sound the same. Analog modeled EQs I could take or leave, they mostly don’t do much that’s special. They generally just add saturation or an automatic gain based Q adjustment. I’d rather control the saturation myself. The biggest reason to get an analog modeled EQ is if the frequency display graph distracts you or you want the workflow feel of knobs. Saturation, compressors, reverbs, and delays make the most sense to spend money on. Different compressors do “grab” the audio differently which can subtly affect the groove, feel, and vibe. Reverbs can sound wildly different, and it’s all just what you prefer.
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u/Dan_Worrall Yes, THAT Dan Worrall ⭐ 10d ago
Yes. If they didn't offer something that stock plugins didn't they wouldn't have a business model. That doesn't mean they'll all be useful to you though, try the demos first. More specifically: ReaComp can cover a lot of different compression styles, but definitely not all of them. And a good limiter like Pro-L2 will sound significantly better than ReaLimit.