Reply To: Hype Check: Your Picks for Most Overrated & Underrated Plugin / Sample Libraries

[MagicRuss]

I think Massive X manages to check both boxes for me.  A lot of people hate it but I have been able to generate a fair amount of decent sounds quickly.  On the other hand, they still need to fix the preset management.

Underperformers:

For plugins, iZotope Trash is one of the most disappointing for me.

Bias got a lot of hype in the early days, but got left behind when I moved to a new machine last fall.

The Attic by Soniccouture is probably the most disappointing library for me.  There are a few cool things but overall does not get a lot of use.

I remember how people hyped the Ultrafunk Sonitus plugins to the heavens before Cakewalk bought them.  When they were included in Sonar I was less than impressed with most of them.

A lot of people seem to like IK’s Tape simulations.  I think they use a lot of CPU for an effect which is hard to hear.

Then there was that Cakewalk plugin which was supposed to be the ultimate drum thing which turned out to just be a refill player.

For the most part OG Massive.  People raved about it but I just thought it sounded buzzy and required a lot of work to sound good.  However, Michael Adle (Leap into the Void) put out some unexpectedly good presets for it which surprisingly sounded almost more like Absynth.

Overperformers:

The library that has overperformed for me is the Wizoo Sound Platinum drums.  I got it 25 years ago and paid $25 for it in LM-4 format.  It’s not as well detailed as more modern libraries are but it sits well in places I might want relatively dry drums.

Arturia’s Pure Lo-Fi doesn’t seem to be particularly popular, but I have been having a bit of fun with it lately.

I don’t hear a lot of people talking about MTurboDelay, but it covers an awful lot of ground.

Likewise, I don’t hear a lot of love for Echoes, but I use the Oil Can mode a lot.

People don’t rave about NI’s Dirt.  For the most part it’s just another saturation plugin.  However, I managed to tweak one of the presets to get a pretty good Black Keys type fuzz.

Also in Guitar Rig, they added a new Fuzz called Red Fuzz.  Mode III has a certain raspiness that I like that doesn’t seem to be commonly found in guitar modelers.

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