Reply To: What Is Your Absolute Go-To Physical and Virtual Gear?

[lastcall]

Virtual: Kontakt is a must… maybe…

Superior Drummer 3… I found out why I was never fond of it: THE MAIN KICK AND SNARE ARE NOT MONO… ( I mean in their main channels, not in the OH or Room or whatever other channels).
Again, THE MAIN KICK AND SNARE ARE NOT MONO! Omg, it throws me off so bad is unbelievable, as I am hearing stuff on both sides but then never sum somehow properly at least on headphones.

Also if you pan the hihats they don’t pan in the Overheads/room whatever channels.
When you load stuff from other libraries, into the Core library, it loads them either lower or higher in volume… A LOT… making you waste time to fix the mix with the new loaded stuff…

Ezkeys 2 is a must: MIDI EDITOR IS AWESOME AND YOU CAN USE IT TO CONTROL OTHER INSTRUMENTS NOT JUST EZKEYS!!!
This way you can say frack off! to REaper’s midi editor… Pro Tools’ one too…

DAW: Pro Tools is the only one worth it for me… because of its sound… I have a Superior Drummer 3 preset and it sounds so different in Reaper than in Pro Tools… Pro Tools handles audio better (playing the SAME groove). BUT if you are happy with your DAW, then GREAT! (I have Cubase too and it doesn’t cut it either).

Other libraries, yeah the Gentleman is awesome, I like more the Grandeur, but the main 3 are pretty good (the Maverick to me is good too).
Alicia Key’s one even if defective I like it a lot.

Virtual FX:

Reverb:

Relab LX480 Essentials (got it for free because of my Audient interface… I think). To me it’s the best REverb ever.
Better than UAD’s (I think I have most of them).

Compressor:

Manley Vari MU for Drums to me is awesome. Although a little tight (I feel it doesn’t respect too much the original audio, it makes it its own).
FET UAD compressor (all black plate). Great on Vocals (for me).
Believe it or not I am not fan of UAD fx or any other brand’s that much.

NEVE 33609 and NEVE 2254 E on drums… or vocals… damn!

Equalizer:

UAD API Vision is the best plugin ever. For me at least… its eq (has 2 modes) are just unbelievable amazing (colors the sound in an amazing way).
I use it over API normal ones (UAD) because the normal ones are Apollo DSP only and I don’t want to use much of its power so it lasts forever (or so I think).

Equalizers (Softube) to me for vocals is the most amazing one because the MODERN one is so clean… although it needs revisions for better workflow (the Dynamic part of the EQ is a hassle to use).

Delay: Cooper Time Cube (UAD).

GUITAR:

Whatever makes my guitar sound amazing.
Although I feel most of them fall short,
the Softube Marshall ones but with the Marshall cabs expansion using Amp Room are some of the best. The ENGL kind one too.
I have an AMPKnob one, MLC S_Zero 100 sounds pretty good too (Bogren Digital). Almost top notch probably.

Amplitube (when it doesn’t crash Reaper or Cubase or Pro Tools).
TONEX I haven’t found something I really really like. I rather use Amplitube for crunch tones.
High gain it’s all over the place… To me they all sound boxy, idk, maybe it’s my guitar (I even have a Les Paul Studio Gibson but … never loved it).
I am trying NAM, Guitar Rig (to me it used to be soooo good).
TH-U so far is a no no…

Got Eleven MKII (the plugin) for free when I bought a Scarlett solo new, it’s pretty decent at least (I always try to use my Marshall cabs on Amp Room and pair them with any amp I can).

Lion from UAD sounds amazing. I think they managed to capture the Brown sound amazingly. For me it’s top notch.

THE MOST IMPORTANT THING though is your health and your mind (the one you need to create stuff).
Anything else will suffice. Maybe… hehe.

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