Must have DAW plugins

Chewie5150

Fractal Fanatic
I'm finally getting back into recording and relearning a lot. I'm using Cubase Artist 8 and wondering what your top 3 or 5 plugins would be?... I'm not making music to distribute just for personal enjoyment.
 
For mastering, synth sounds, drums, dynamics and modulation or what exactly ?
I don't plan on any mastering beyond the basic functions of Cubase. I just want plugins to enhance a good mix mainly. To help some parts stand out really well such as guitars, bass and drums primarily. I mostly compose instrumentals without vocals.
 
I'm finally getting back into recording and relearning a lot. I'm using Cubase Artist 8 and wondering what your top 3 or 5 plugins would be?... I'm not making music to distribute just for personal enjoyment.
There are tons of plugins out there but honestly first get to know the stock ones. You should have all the bases covered with EQ and compression etc.
 
To answer the OP, I love waves CLA-2A compressor, it's become my go-to plugin on pretty much any instrument or voice I record, except drums.
 
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It may be more than you're asking for, UAD has some of the best. I use their Fairchild always. For reverb the FAS is great, but I also use Altiverb and Relab 480L. Mainly I use Metric Halo plugins - their production bundle is amazing. I use those for EQ, compression, gating almost exclusively.
 
My favorite mixing plugins (also great for mastering are):
Compression/deessing: Softube Weiss DS1 MK3 (I have never heard a compressor sound this good).
EQ: DMG Equilibrium
Airwindows (various, free). Dithering is particularly good and lots of excellent utilities.
A good analysis plug - it doesn't matter what you use - DMG Trackmeter is good bang for buck.

EDIT: I'm going to add DMG Multiplicity to my list. It's IMO equal in quality to the DS1 MK3 but includes multi band and dynamic EQ. It's only new but it's the only thing I've tried that can rival the DS1. It's also half the price and has more features. There's a learning curve, though.

I have iZotope's music production suite, but from it only really ever find myself reaching for RX.

I'd also highly recommend Tokyo Dawn for high quality plugs - that are extremely well priced, too.
 
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Universal Audio plugins are fantastic but requires an UAD dsp of some sorts

My favorite "normal" vst plugin collections/bundles are:
iZotope Music Production Suite
Soundtoys 5
Softube Volume 2
They are a bit expensive, but you can be patient and pick them up when they are on sale.
Per
 
iZotope music production suite
Slate Everything Bundle

Done.

Izotope is useful to improve main LR mixes done by a novice.
When I discovered it years ago , I had just spent 3 days mixing a song. Then , I took the rough mix version ( panned and leveled ) - and izotope made it sound as good - or better than my version.
Time and EQ manipulation of different frequencies allows the software to remix the main bus. Pretty cool actually. I felt like I was “cheating” when I used it. Lol.
 
Most DAW plugins are really, really good these days. That being said, I would seriously miss the Soundtoys suite and Valhalla VintageVerb. Oh...and maybe Sonnox Limiter.
 
I miss Steinberg Magneto - an old tape saturation plug in that sounded really nice that they discontinued.

I really dig the Izotope Mastering Suite. It replaced the Waves plugins as my go to set of plug-ins.

Sony/Magix Multiband compressor is really good too, as is their Wave Hammer.
 
I'll second the suggestion to get to know the included plug-in in your DAW before spending money on plug-ins.
Most of us would be able to get close to or as good results just using the included plug-in, plus it might teach you which 3rd party plug-in(s) you'll need to look for and get the most milage and enjoyment out of .

But since you asked and since I don't practice what I preach in this instance :
Slate Everything Bundle
Metric Halo Production bundle
Flux EQ for the surgical cut stuff
 
Neutron 2 or Fabfilter pack (for mixing)
Somekind of reverb (Maybe from the fabfilter pack)
Lowender by reFuse (Adds low sub-harmonics. Very useful on a kick drum, for example)

And Ozone 8 for mastering.
 
Lots of great suggestions here. I'm not ready to drop $500-$1000 at the time. Just something to get me started with helping the mixes stand out and introduce me a bit to the mastering process. I saw Izotope elements suite on sale right now for $79. Includes Ozone elements, Neutron elements, Nectar elements and Rx elements.

Worth it? For what I'm after?
 
Lots of great suggestions here. I'm not ready to drop $500-$1000 at the time. Just something to get me started with helping the mixes stand out and introduce me a bit to the mastering process. I saw Izotope elements suite on sale right now for $79. Includes Ozone elements, Neutron elements, Nectar elements and Rx elements.

Worth it? For what I'm after?
The iZotope plugins are very good and have a lot of assistance if you are new to the process. Rx has some useful cleaning tools (pops, clicks) that come in handy if you have files with problems.

There aren't any plugins other than Rx that you don't have already with Cubase, but they are organized in a task-oriented way in iZotope.

Note, I'm not anti-plugin (I have gazillions of them) but the built-in ones are perfectly fine if you are just starting out (will you really be able to tell the difference between the Cubase "vintage compressor" and the iZotope one?).

You may like the hand-holding in the iZotope plugins, so I'd say get it for a different take on the process.
 
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