I’ve been having a great time simplifying things and using just FabFilter plugins (Q,C,MB) and using them only when I really need to as minor fixes here and there. Definitely something to be said about taking the time to get things right on the way in, rather than recording something mediocre-sounding and trying to fix it with a ton of plugins.

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I just read a grouper interview where she said something along those lines. I cant agree more. Getting the sound you want right on the way in :blush:

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'every mix is a performance :slight_smile:

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ah good tip i’ve been intending to grip a good spring plugin

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feeling this strongly over the last year or so and fabfilter is great for this. clean and robust tools. i really like their saturated too.

i’ve never been one to pile on the plugins to create my material and as i’ve gotten more comfortable with eurorack i’m reaching for novel effects and processing tools less and less

Skipping over some favorites that got mentioned already:

Arturia Buchla Easel V – I don’t have a real one for comparison, but this sounds and behaves exactly like I’d expect one to. I don’t use it as much as Aalto, but patching it informed my “real” modular patches.

Plogue Chipsynth PortaFM – lovely, painstakingly recreated Yamaha OPLL. If I learned anything from modular, it’s that 2-op FM is better than 4-op or 6-op :grin:

Audio Damage Ratshack Reverb – I love its retro psychedelic twanginess. I like layering it with more realistic (heheh) reverb.

AudioThing Fog Convolver – the first IR reverb I’ve used that’s stable, has a decent GUI, doesn’t impose lots of latency and isn’t too expensive.

Toneboosters Barricade 4 and EQ 4 – my go-to master bus plugins that sometimes get thrown into group busses too.

U-He Presswerk – my “this needs a little more love during mastering” compressor.

Sonic Charge Echobode and Permut8 – for somewhat weird and really weird delays, respectively

Voxengo MSED – I’d kind of like something better, but this one is free and I use it all the time for mid/side processing with modular.

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I need to take some time to test TAL-Sampler. It wasn’t really on my radar until I learned that it supports microtuning with .TUN files (as do TAL-UNO-LX, TAL-Bassline-101, and TAL-Mod).

I’ve used Plogue Sforzando as a microtunable sampler, but it uses the less flexible .SCL format without .KBM keyboard mapping support and it only supports scales with 12 notes that repeat on the octave. I’m hoping that TAL-Sampler is more flexible.

I’m rather a fan of WIDI Audio to MIDI VST from Widisoft. (For some reason, the Mac VST and AU are separate purchases. And the AudioUnit, which I don’t believe comes in a AU MIDI FX version so must be routed through a MIDI port, costs twenty dollars more.)

With all its latency, I don’t use it real time. I’m not sure how accurate it is, either, but I kinda like the clumsy high-polyphony MIDI it spits out when you feed it dense audio. I’m not looking for verisimilitude anyway – next step is slicing and dicing, changing the scale, changing the timings… My main dislike is that its output has a fixed velocity.

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I tried a demo of NI’s Trk-01 and ended up buying it within like 5 minutes.

The swing/groove engine and the options for custom scales and samples are ultimately what pushed me over the edge, but I really dig the parameter locking and just the speed with which you can whip up something original that sounds really good.

Also, big ups to Cuckoo scoring that NI gig!

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just a heads up that borderlands granular is half off today for their birthday

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For those of us working ITB this doesn’t necessarily mean that much. I don’t really “record”.

But I certainly am wary of both crap recording and glossy production of boring compositions.

i own lots of outboard filters (Ebb und Flut, Mutator, MAMx3, UREI little dipper, Orban 674A + 622B, MF101 etc) and the only filter plug I have used ITB that ‘feels’ ie sounds & behaves like analog is THE DROP by Cytomic
Highly reccomended!

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I like everything I’ve gotten by Klevgrand. Gaffel is a go to, very precise EQ. Svep is a quirky chorus/tape emulation thing. Grand Finale is an absolutely great final step for mixing.

(and they have a CyberMonday sale today, 11/19/18)

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So often with the Klevgrand stuff, I demo and like it, buy it… and then find it doesn’t fit when I try to use in practice. Just something about how I work, I guess.

The exceptions to that have been Brusfri (which I occasionally prefer over a noise gate) and DAW LP.

http://www.pspaudioware.net/NewYearPromo/ :slight_smile:
//springbox is ace
probably all good
my eyes are on avedis e27 eq…
I met avedis, he’s ace
https://avedisaudio.com
got friends that swear by the hardware version, if avedis thinks a plug in can sound…

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I grabbed springbox earlier this year and it’s been a delight. highly recommended

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uhmmm, so…
the E27 is amazing!
and., this PSP EMT 2445 is simply incredible :slightly_smiling_face:
I never thought I’d be into an early digital reverb, and this one is incredible
I’ll try to put some samples up to the kaffeeklatsch thread

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btw - GRM tools are now -50% until the end of the month. I was looking into it and bought some actually, but I think I need to return the stuff because the iLok licenses manager just won’t work on my macbook (can’t connect to internet no matter what I do with firewall and proxy settings). Too bad I was really looking forward of using these tools and they seem so unique.

Any other out there that could compare to GRM tools - without iLok bs thank you!!!

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Worth buying but free all the same:

Puremagnetik Driftmaker and Expanse

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Recently, I was pretty surprised to find myself rather impressed with Arturia Pigments. They were having a sale and I bought it on a whim, definitely worth it so far. A lot (most) of the presets are naturally pretty slick and cheesy, but building off of the default patches has been satisfying.