1405

Just picked up Felt Instruments two filter plugins - Rysy and Smugi. Love them. They’re not cheap but I love the sound. I know that’s entirely subjective and everyone has their beloved filters, but these are fantastic to my ears. On a similar note of pricey dedicated plugins, Rare Signals’ Transatlantic Plate Reverb is also gorgeous.

3 Likes
1406

from new updates/releases:

Crusher-X (10)

I love it because it encourages playful experiments, sound abuse and unheard (non-rational) happy accidents. Yep- it could be surgical too but I don’t use it that way:)

and
KULT
https://www.tracktion.com/products/kult
It sounds fantastic - really wooly sound:)

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1407

I have had my eye on crusher-X, but it always seems so expensive :open_mouth:. I don’t recall seeing any sales on it, either.

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1408

Smugi is amazing! I spent hours with the demo running in a feedback loop with a return track in Ableton with some effects. I still need to save up to purchase it but the sudden drop outs ended up being kinda nice ha

2 Likes
1409

Great news that Crusher X 10 supports ProTools AAX plugins now too!

2 Likes
1410

Hey everyone been having trouble running PSP Xenon on my m2 MacBook Air. Thinking about grabbing a new limiter. Any recommendations? Would prefer a brick wall limiter with character over precision. Love Goodhertz stuff but I don’t really work well with their limiter. I used to really like the Waves L1. Using the Ableton built in limiter right now and honestly like it just fine, but feels weird using a stock plug as the last part of my signal chain.

3 Likes
1411

Fabfilter’s limiter is quite good. And I’ve heard good things about the one from… darn, what’s the name of the company? Tokyo Dawn?

I use Izotope Ozone for limiting and have mixed feelings about it… mainly because with the music I make it is always difficult to tell if I’m improving things or messing them up.

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1412

Yeah, TDR Limiter 6 GE | Tokyo Dawn Records is great. I use that and Pro-L

2 Likes
1413

I’m a huge fan of Sonible Smart:limit. It can do character (with the saturation and gentle/hard knobs) but can also be very transparent. My mastering chops are limited to take this with a grain of salt.

I also use it extensively in mixing for creative purposes. (It adds latency but on my machine I can run up to 133 instances in a project without hiccup, so it feels well optimized and relatively cpu light.)

TDR limiter is nice too if you want tons of fine tuning options. I feel like getting the most out of it takes skills that I don’t currently have. It was my go to limiter before smart limit. Nowadays I mostly use it as a clipper and for the HF limiter module.

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1414

would love to know how you’re using limiters creatively! i’m a compressor fiend but can’t say i’ve turned my mind to limiters - what kind of textures are you getting from them in the mixing chain?

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1415

My main use is to tame material with extreme transients, and bring the transients down closer to the body of the sound, like some of my fx and modular patches. You could also use a clipper for that but I really like the cleaner sound of a limiter on a lot of sources. If I’m working on a mix slowly and carefully l would pair both clippers and limiters. But in a hurry I just default to smart limit.

4 Likes
1416

I’ve used DMG Limitless as my main limiter since it came out and haven’t found the need to change it since then, however it is very much a clean limiter. Before that I was using Voxengo Elephant. I have Xenon too but only use it very occasionally. I use Voxengo OVC-128 for clipping, before the final limiter. The clipper usually does most of the loudness, with the limiter only doing 1-2dB after. The clipper is usually way more transparent than the limiter when set up right, at least on percussive/transient rich material.

4 Likes
1417

did your download the latest version? it runs fine on my m1. i also like the izotope ozone limiter so that might be another option

1 Like
1418

been using waves L2 for at least a decade, personal things and professional. it always just sounds right to me. i dig fabfilters, but it’s a little too transparent… somehow too perfect… i agree about the goodhertz limiter… sounds great, just really hard to dial in right…. abletons works but is missing something.

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1419

my only limiter from the start is/was
Voxengo Elephant:)

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1420

It’s a great limiter, and the new EL-5 algo in the latest version is the cleanest its ever been at a given GR, IMO. I go back to it occasionally if for some reason Limitless doesn’t work.

The last resort is Xenon, but it has saved my arse a few times when the other two weren’t working for a particular track. It seems to have a smoother/more “pillowy” sound.

TDR Limiter6 I beta tested and it’s also great, but I like working fast and found it pretty long winded to set up, although I should probably spend some more time with it.

All in the use case of mastering though, not mixing/tracking.

2 Likes
1421

I pretty much always have an EQ, Compressor, and Limiter on my output bus. This combo pretty much allows me to make a track sit where I want it.

They are generally FabFilter plugins, but I also use PSP VintageWarmer, or the Newfangled Audio stuff for some things.

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1422

Wow thanks for all the great replies! Haven’t heard of most of these suggestions so I’ve got some research to do!

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1423

Uaudio have just released released a bunch of their plugins for purchase without a subscription! I’m considering picking up a bundle, but I already own other emulations of the same gear, so I’m wondering how theirs compare to other companies’ offerings? I’ve always had the impression they were highly rated but I don’t know if that’s still true…

1424

I’d say that’s mostly not true anymore really. Unless you have an UAD interface and want to have fun with Unison plugins taking advantage of their preamps, I personally wouldn’t buy UAD plugins at the hefty price they’re at (and I own a few of them). I feel like we’ve reached such a peak in vintage gear emulations, be it with the offering from Plugin alliance, Slate, Arturia etc. It’s really hard to justify UAD. I could see a need if you bought into the ecosystem to release CPU stress on your computer using their DSP stuff, but they’re getting old as well and frankly, it’s not the FX plugins that are the hardest to deal with and make room for, it’s really the synths.

Having said all that, they’re good plugins, so if there’s a promo for cheap, it might be worth it. But yeah, I find I get everything I want / need now from elsewhere that I rarely if ever use my UAD plugins.

Edit: to me this conversation echoes what we said about Soundtoys earlier btw, much of the same dynamic at play I feel, with the added fact that UAD’s DSP used to be a huge + and now it doesn’t quite matter as muge than it used to.

3 Likes