Brief Summary
Most of us have more plugins that we use, that’s not news. So which plugins actually get used on every mix? In Julian’s case the choices are down to familiarity, ubiquity and the availability of AAX DSP.
Going Deeper
The word ‘go-to’ is bandied around a lot when discussing tools. If you spend a lot of time in a DAW you are positively overwhelmed with choices, many of them not as consequential as we might like to think. Any DAW provides us with all the plugins we need to do pretty much all of the job. A few specialist tools from brands like iZotope, Sound Radix or Synchro Arts supplement these but most of the time it’s less a question of ‘what do I need’ as much as music as ‘what do I like’. And if we’re busy I’d say our choices usually come down to ‘what do I know best’.
Most of us are creatures of habit and stay with the thing which worked last time. If you use a template for your work then your plugin choices are even less likely to change. And after all, if it ain’t broke…
I recently shared my thoughts on why it is that, with one exception, I don’t use templates. One of the reasons I set up my sessions from scratch, which is peculiar to me as someone who has a professional motivation to maintain a broad knowledge of alternatives when it comes to plugins, is that it encourages me to experiment with alternative choices. But I still tend to circle back to the same familiar candidates. They change over time, sometimes they revert, sometimes they don’t, but looking at some recent sessions here is a selection of the plugins which seem to be across everything.
Liquidsonics Seventh Heaven Professional
Stock plugins are fine. You probably don’t need anything else, but if you are looking to buy a third party plugin which will make a difference a listener might actually notice, get a good reverb. Liquidsonics have been my choice for a few years and the one I keep coming back to is Seventh Heaven Professional. I really like Cinematic Rooms but for a great reverb sound with no journey down the parameter-tweak rabbit hole Seventh Heaven has it nailed. Back in the 90s when I was last using hardware reverbs exclusively, I didn’t tweak presets, I adjusted decay time, maybe predelay. That was about it. If I didn’t like the sound, I moved on to another preset. I like that way of working and it’s how I tend to use Seventh Heaven. I might go a little deeper than just decay time, but not much. It all sounds great. How much, how long, move on - Perfect!
Avid EQ III
I’ve had FabFilter Pro Q3 since it came out. It’s amazing. It does everything you could want in a slick and polished way. I tried the Kirchoff EQ, which does everything FabFilter does but adds flavours of EQ. I like both of these products but when I need an HPF, a dip in the midrange, or a high shelf, I open the stock 7 band EQIII. It’s utility EQ after all. Frequency, Q and Gain. No other options, but I don’t want other options. Just a familiar tool which does the job. I’m probably in a minority here but for me the fact that EQIII doesn’t have a spectrum analyser is a benefit rather than an omission.
Habit keeps me using EQIII. It’s always available on every system. That is the ‘killer feature’ of a stock plugin. There are EQs I’d like to use more but old habits die hard. My head says FabFilter, my heart says Sonnox but my hands usually fire up EQ III.
Avid Lo Fi
Saturation is a taste thing. Some saturation and distortion plugins seem to sit on top of the sound rather than integrate with it. One of my favourite tricks when I bought my BAE 1073mpf was to use it as a saturation box. Because you can trim the output all the way back you can really hit it hard and the squash and breakup you can get on drums and basses is wonderful. Most plugins don’t respond like that.
There are some excellent choices out there. I’ve used, but never had a copy of Soundtoys Decapitator, which for many is the premier choice in this area. Soundtoys are extremely good at saturation. There are a lot of choices in this area, FabFilter Saturn is amazing and there are some excellent free tools. However the saturation I keep coming back to is the worst kept secret in Pro Tools - The stock Lo Fi plugin sounds brilliant. But you have to use it right.
The trick with Lo Fi is to leave everything alone apart from the Distortion control. Dial this in to a value under 1. This control goes up to 11 so you’re at the very bottom of the range. You’ll probably find you just need a tiny bit but this sound perfect on Drums, basses, vocals, try it. Counter-intuitively you’re using the distortion control to get saturation. Try the other stuff in there if you like. I never touch it!
Valhalla Delay
I love delay. The experience which probably first influenced me to get into audio was a blue Frontline analogue delay pedal I borrowed in my teens. Pro Tools’ Mod Delay is a good, workmanlike delay, the Tape and BBD delays are good for more flavour but Valhalla Delay has it all and sounds amazing. If I want to get a hint of that excitement I experienced all that time ago when hearing those repeats swirling around the speakers Valhalla Delay can do it. It’s deep but the UI is clear so I can dial in something which ‘sits’ in the way a good analogue style delay does, really fast and I don’t end up fussing with the send level like I sometimes do with cleaner delays. Unless I’m looking for the sound of an authentic Roland Space Delay, courtesy of UAD, this is the one for me.
UAD Spark Pultec EQ1PA/Avid EQ1PA
On the subject of UAD, I find I’m using Pultec EQs more than ever these days. Sometimes a little bit of Low End Trick, but that’s relatively unusual, and you have to really trust the very bottom end of your monitoring not to get into trouble with that one… The place where I use a Pultec is for that top end. There are other ways to get sweet top end, I’ve been a longtime fan of the Kush Audio Clariphonic for that too but a good Pultec plugin is so simple to drive and it delivers every time. Not many things can lift the lid off the sound in the way a high boost from a Pultec does.
There are two entries here as for projects which start live, being tracked by me via my Carbon I’ve rediscovered quite a few Avid plugins which I’m using because they are AAX DSP and so sometimes arrive very early in the production, often at the tracking stage. I’m sure that a plugin as old as the Avid Pultec isn’t as faithful a reproduction of the entire signal path through a hardware Pultec as a more modern alternative, I’m equally confident that there isn’t going to be anything closer to the real thing than the UAD version. So when I’m mixing I’ll use that one but for sessions which have inherited an Avid Pultec from my Carbon, it will often stay there. It does the same job and it still sounds good.
Softube FET Compressor/CL1B
On the subject of AAX DSP. Since getting a Carbon, AAX DSP plugins have become very relevant to me. For general compression duties I’m a Pro Compressor user, It does everything I need and I know it very, very well. However I like to have access to both a FET and an Optical compressor as well. The Avid BF76 and LA2A still perform well and I’ve used both with the Carbon, which lives in a flight case for remote sessions, I don’t use it in the studio that much.
However I tend to favour the Softube FET compressor and the CL1B as, while Softube don’t support AAX DSP in their new products, both of these legacy versions are AAX DSP. They are available as Universal binaries but frustratingly have both been superseded by newer versions, which although they look lovely, are AAX native only. These original versions are available but are listed as only available as part of bundles, the FET compressor as part of the Volume 5 ‘everything’ bundle and the original version of CL1B as part of the in Tube-Tech Compressor Collection and in the Tube-Tech Complete Collection.
No Bus Compressor?
You might be expecting to see a bus compressor on this list. I’m in something of a transition at the moment, largely due to my recent abandoning of UAD DSP. I’ve increasingly realised that I only still have my Apollo connected because I’m very comfortable with their SSL bus compressor and their Manley Vari Mu. Looking for an AAX DSP substitute I tried Avid’s Impact, but I wasn’t really feeling it. I have tried a few alternatives I’ve never really engaged with in the past. The Shadow Hills plugin is just bewildering to me, one of the things I like about the SSL is how simple it is. Likewise Fairchilds, just plain weird (I think it’s actually illegal to say negative things about Fairchilds on the internet but there you are…).
At the moment I’m trying the UAD Spark API 2500, which is a plugin I’ve always meant to spend some time with. However I really want something AAX DSP so I’m looking closely at a couple of plugins from Brainworx, who thankfully still fly the AAX DSP flag. I remember really liking the Vertigo VSC-2 when I tried it some years ago and the SPL Iron was a very impressive vari-mu design. I suspect there is a bit of Gear Acquisition Syndrome going on here but being a grown up is all about constructing elaborate justifications for doing things that you know you’re probably going to do anyway isn’t it?
What About You?
You might think that sound would be top of my list but it’s not. It’s more about familiarity and availability, certainly when it comes to choosing stock and AAX DSP plugins. What drives your choices when it comes to favourites?