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

[peter]

What is the physical and virtual gear you couldn’t live without?

This is my list:

GO-TO PHYSICAL GEAR: My Nektar controller is super dependable, but I’d replace it in a heartbeat with something with more features if I had the budget. I’ve had my Roland V-Drums for a very long time and they’re absolutely the best option with my tendinitis because they’re less stress on my wrist than harder pads or regular drum heads.

GO-TO VIRTUAL  GEAR:

INSTRUMENT PLUGINS: Beyond the shadow of a doubt, Kontakt is my number one most used plugin with Superior Drummer 3 coming in second. While I don’t use it nearly as much, I also love M-Tron Pro and use it a lot.

SAMPLE LIBRARIES: Evolution guitar and bass libraries, NI Noire (piano), NI Gentleman, Evolution Rosewood Grand (piano). IK B3X and UJAM Virtual Pianos (I don’t use the pre-written MIDI, I play them as instruments), and e-instruments W (Wurly — I love electric pianos overall, but my heart belongs to the Wurly). More and more I’ve been reaching for Musio. I bought and love the sound of Spitfire Abbey Road Two Iconic Strings — and I absolutely love the sound, but I don’t like the player, it’s clunky and inferior to Kontakt.

EFFECTS PLUGINS: I use Izotope Ozone for all the mastering I do, so that is my absolute go-to for mastering. I love a number of UAD, Sonible, Izotope, IK, and M-Audio effects plugins for mixing. When it comes to reverb, I absolutely love: Waves Abbey Road Chambers (and the other Waves Abbey Road plugins — there, I said it!), UAD’s Sound City, Capitol Studiios, and Hitsville, MAudio has an impulse reverb plugin I love (I think it’s the same as the free one, I just paid to get the promo off of it), and IK’s Sunset Sound Studio Reverb.

Now, there are a ton of instruments, effects plugins, and sample libraries that I left out — some that I also love. But the ones I mentioned are my go-tos, the tools I reach for on almost every project.

What are your go-tos?

LinkedMusicians Founder. Your friend who keeps the beat.

Check out my music. 

5

[MagicRuss]

For physical gear, it’s my Nighthawk and Boss GX-100.  Or my Jazz Bass.

For virtual gear,

Instruments:  Kontakt, Addictive Drums, MODO Bass, EZ Keys, Lounge Lizard.  IK B3 and Sampletron.  For Synth sounds, it can be all over the map.  Rapture has been a favorite over the years.  Absynth used to be a favorite but somehow being discontinued leaves me with a bad taste.  Pigments and Massive X both get play.

Sample Libraries:  Abbey Roads 60s drums for my retro/neo soul, Addictive Drums Fairfax 1&2, Hollow Sun MLM series (especially the optometron and Vermona organ), NI gentleman piano, NI Session Acoustic series (I can’t record my acoustic as well as that sounds).  Hideaway Studios libraries.

Effects:  For amp sims, Amplitube and Scuffham, although there are a few patches I made with Guitar Rig which just fit.  For Reverbs, ReMatrix or Breverb, but also the IK Sunset or Fame reverbs. For delays, Reflektor, Psychedelay, MTurboDelay, Echoes (especially the Oilcan model) and Objeq delay for weird rhythmic delays.  For modulation, mostly the NI stuff or Melda effects, but also the Valhalla flanger.  MRhythmizer.  XLN RC-20 and Izotope Vinyl for lo-fi effects.  All of my bass tracks get IK’s 1173, mostly because they are on the track templates.

3

[lastcall]

Physical: An Oxygen mini keyboard to input midi (great for composing). I have a bigger Yamaha 8 octaves keyboard too. To me these kind of things are a must to anyone. For real. Very inspirational. Pair with KONTAKT… never ending inspiration.

A guitar, I just got a new (new to me, lol) Ibanez 7 string. I used to have an Apex II which I just sold because it was when I was soooo poor I couldn’t keep it.

A bass, I have 2, one Yamaha JP Bass and a Squier (both 5 strings, I always have to have MORE strings).

My Apollo X8 interface. BEST INTERFACE in the world. For real.
Not because it records great or anything, but because… wait for it… its headphone output is the only one I have come across to work properly with high impedance headphones! For real! Best part is… I FOUND MY GO TO HEADPHONES: The Sennheiser HD620S… closed back… yes, you hear that right… closed back. These are stellar and any other Sennheiser model sucks (including the HD800s, and the HD600 /latter not too bad).
Add to that an Audient interface (I think I should’ve gone with an Audient 8 channel pre, but I am using right now an iD44 as input for bass and guitar and send its output via optical (red laser!) to the Apollo.
A Mac Mini M2 Pro… nothing beats Apple… and … even if they were beaten, Apollos only work well with SILICON Macs.

Acoustic guitar: Taylor dreadnaught (mine is like a 500 series). With 80 20 strings (frack Phosphor Bronze… hehe).

Microphone: TLM 103… best mic in the world! I have a Bock 187 but for vocals to me at least is not good…

2

[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.

2

[fretman]

What a great thread! I love reading why people use what they do.

My context: I usually try to replicate real acoustic/folk music so I don’t really use off-the-wall FX and stuff, although I still seem to collect them just-in-case. I have a poor recording space so I almost always use VIs, although I try very hard to make my music sound like real acoustic instruments are being played by real people. I have better success with some pieces than others. Also, I choose sound quality over ease-of-use when choosing my VIs.

Physical:

• Taylor guitars (814ce, 816ce build-to-order, 455ce special edition 12-string, GS Mini-e special edition)
• Deering Calico banjo
• handmade Red Diamond mandolin
• Kamaka ukes
• Of course, there are several others that I consider non-primary.
• Computer: custom built Win11 PC – virtually silent, no moving parts fans except a big slow fan on the CPU.
• Interface: RME’s Fireface UFX (rock solid on Windows)

Virtual:

• DAW: Studio One Pro (graduate from Cakewalk)
• Notation: Dorico (graduate from Finale, couldn’t stomach Sibelius’ subscription) and MuseScore (free, a tremendous value)
• FX:
  • Waves IL-L Reverb (Ryman Auditorium IR)
  • Ozone for mastering
  • Insight 2 for metering
  • Neutron sometimes when I need to tame something a little or add some sparkle so bass can be heard on tiny speakers
  • others if a special effect is needed
• VI:
  • AmpleSound is my 1st choice for plucked instruments whenever possible since they generally sound the most realistic to my ears, although  sometimes they come off too crisp/clean – I might even say they have a “modern” sound. But their banjo can be VERY tedious to use, although it sounds better for bluegrass than the other offerings (and I’ve tried them ALL, I think). Also, I wish I could adjust string noise during slides.
  • Orange Tree for:
    • Evolution Mandolin (but tremolo is tempo-locked so is rarely useable). This sounds EXACTLY like my real mandolin so I can easily mix recorded and virtual sections as I did here.
    • Evolution Dry Relic (for that old poor rough country/folksy sound).
    • Evolution 12-String (edit: this is my goto 12-string now. Amplesound is too polite. Plus OT lets me control the up and down strokes which is important for octave-tuned strings). This one really digs in.
    • Evolution Modern Classical- 4th choice for classical guitar (certainly better than most but still too crisp/metallic). I still need to audition their new Evolution Honey Nylon.
    • Their banjo is good for Celtic or that old poor rough country Deliverance sound.
  • Indiginus for:
    • fiddle (great folk sound but their vibrato is baked-in so I want to audition a replacement to get more flexibility).
    • dobro (great sound but I still need to use Kontakt’s pitch shift to get some of the articulations I need).
    • classical guitar 2nd/3rd choice.
  • Ilya Efimov for classical guitar 2nd/3rd choice and other interesting folk instruments. I’m curious what their product refresh will sound like.
  • Eduardo Tarikonte’s Accordion 2 from Best Buy. Great selections.
  • All of these except AmpleSound need Kontakt, so I use that ecosystem for all sorts of things.
  • Addictive Drums when called for.
  • Hammers and Waves keyboards when called for.
  • Shimmer/Shake/Strike or Skaka or  Sharine (my favorite due to its pre-roll) when called for.

• This reply was modified 6 months, 4 weeks ago by fretman.
• This reply was modified 6 months, 4 weeks ago by fretman.

Studio One, Windows, RME UFX, Yamaha MSP7

3

[Brian]

“Can’t live without” is a pretty strong statement.  I will tone that down to stuff I really like and use often 🙂

Hardware:

Recording/Mixing: JBL 5″ Pro monitors – amazing imaging and wide sweet spot; Interface, cans, mics, all “fine” but nothing special.

Computer-  I always build from scratch.  Still loving AMD but I would be open to Intel if they ever got their groove back.  Mechanical clicky! keyboard (typing) a must.

Instruments:  MIDI stuff is great but the only thing that is unique is my Linnstrument, so I guess that is on the list.  I really like my NI S61 MK3 but I would get along with any decent keyboard that has Poly Aftertouch.

Guitars:  I pretty much gave up guitar over 20 years ago due to severe osteoarthritis.  A while ago I started getting back into it.  Cautiously building up some mobility- so far so good.  I decided to buy a couple Indonesian made guitars (Hills headless and Fender Acoustasonic Tele Standard) and was blown away by how well they are built and play.  I think everything I own is “replaceable” but I would not part with (or replace) my Gibson Chet Atkins Tennessean guitar or Mesa DC-5 amp. I also discovered the joy of wireless guitar <-> amp “cables”.  Cheap Amazon Joyo brand is fine.  Freedom!

Amp note:  I also recently bought a Spark 2 amp by Positive Grid.  I really like it.  Portable and I got the Li battery pack.  Fantastic software support and programming via bluetooth.  Probably other fine competitors, but I can’t live without a small portable amp anymore.

Software:

OS- Windows forever.  I can’t do Mac.  If I had to switch I would go Linux.

DAW-  I jump around.  I use primarily Studio One and Ableton Live but I can adjust to anything.

FX-  My go-to are Hornet VU Meter MK4 in top slot for gain staging, Fab Filter EQ and compressor, I use an IK master compressor limiter called (I think) The ONE, and Melda Turbo Reverb.  Like most here, I have dozens of alternatives, but I usually start with these.

VI- I tend to start with Arturia Analog Lab because I own the Collection, just about every type of sound is in there and easy to get to, and it is high in the DAW lists by instrument or company name.  I often start with for UJAM sketching but switch to EZ Drummer 3 Or UVI Falcon libraries for drum/percussion and Kontakt libraries for other sampled acoustic instruments.

2

[superabbit]

I wrote up a nice long reply to this listing my favorite stuff and now I see that it isn’t here. Either it didn’t get posted or somehow got deleted.

I don’t know what’s going wrong, but this isn’t the first (or even the second) time I’ve written up a long post on this forum and had it vanish into the aether.

My guess is that others are not having this issue, but I am and it’s really not fun at all. It’s kind of a disincentive for me to keep participating. In the absence of someone looking over my shoulder while I post, I’m not sure what can be done to ensure that I’m doing it right. I have decades of experience on more platforms than I can even remember and this has never happened to such an extent before.

-Erik
___________
superabbit.bandcamp.com

1

[Brian]

I feel your pain @superabbit – It IS happening to others. Just happened to me a couple days ago.  There must be a bug in the parser whereby it is not properly sanitizing the input.  The “faulty” post doesn’t go to moderation, it just disappears.  After it happens to me I will copy my future posts into the clipboard as a precaution a few times, then after I relax my precautions, it will eventually bite me again.

1

[peter]

On Brian said

I feel your pain @superabbit – It IS happening to others. Just happened to me a couple days ago.  There must be a bug in the parser whereby it is not properly sanitizing the input.  The “faulty” post doesn’t go to moderation, it just disappears.  After it happens to me I will copy my future posts into the clipboard as a precaution a few times, then after I relax my precautions, it will eventually bite me again.

Unfortunately, no one has reported those issues within the last several months on the forum to report site issues or in DMs to me, so I wasn’t aware. There was an issue last year, but I wasn’t aware of it happening recently. From the message superabbit just sent to me, it appeared that the issue is character length. When posts hit a certain character length, the system rejects them, but doesn’t explain that to the user, it simply rejects the post — it’s gone. And I think the limit is much too short. For example, the original post in the Best Free Effects Plugin list topic is so long that I have to use the backend to maintain it, not the regular post interface (it’s also the reason you don’t see stamps on when I update it, as the system doesn’t create those stamps when you use the backend).

Anyhow, I knew about the character length limit, and that’s what I thought the issue superabbit experienced, so I sent a DM to @lamia6 who is a developer. If she doesn’t know how to increase the character length or it’s too much work, I’m going to turn to the theme developer. But I’m on that. There’s also auto spam filtering when posts have a large number of links that could be the issue. I’m waiting on superabbit to respond to my DMs. In the absence of a response, I cannot determine what might have occurred. But I’m committed to investigating this and getting the issue resolved. I, of course, want superabbit and everyone — short of spammers, of course — to be able to post when they want to post.

Brian, was the post or posts that you had disappear lengthy or not and how long ago was the last time it occurred?

Also, let’s move this to the Forum to report site issues. I’ll start off a topic there and link to it here, to not derail this thread. If anyone else has had similar issues recently, please let me know either in that thread or DM me.

EDIT: Let’s continue this, so that I can look into the issues and get them resolved. If the problem is character length limitations, as I mentioned, it’s a known issue and I’m now looking into increasing character length. If it’s something else, it would be invaluable to know the exact time of the issue  — a screenshot of the issue is always helpful —  so that we can check the server logs to allow us to understand what occured.

The thread about the issue is here.

• This reply was modified 6 months, 2 weeks ago by peter.
• This reply was modified 6 months, 2 weeks ago by peter.

LinkedMusicians Founder. Your friend who keeps the beat.

Check out my music. 

[superabbit]

I think it’s hitting me harder because of my tendency to be long-winded. Not putting myself down, I just like to write, so I do. My replies can turn into articles/editorials. And I love talking about my favorite gear.

Whether anyone reads it (all) or not, hey, whatever, but I do put effort into it, from my end it’s not just “jibba jabba.”

Lists like this can get long, although I don’t think mine was even as long as those of @fretman or @lastcall.

I guess I could adopt the method that @bluescat mentioned, copying the posts somewhere else until I’m sure they make it, but, damn, that’s some rigmarole to go through just to shoot the poo with some online friends about my toys.

I’ll go over to the test topic and post some rando essays or something, I guess it’s like other software testing, we’ll have to force the mystery behavior to be able to fix it.

The whole thing is a pain in the backend (har har).

-Erik
___________
superabbit.bandcamp.com

[peter]

On superabbit said

I think it’s hitting me harder because of my tendency to be long-winded. Not putting myself down, I just like to write, so I do. My replies can turn into articles/editorials. And I love talking about my favorite gear.

Hmm, there’s another guy here like that. I can’t recall his name right now, but I’m certain that I’ve seen his posts. 😉

As far as the issues you’ve been having, you know, I love having you as part of this community and hate that you’re dealing with technical issues and will do everything I can to get them worked out. I want your every word of your  “long-winded” posts. I enjoy your posts and have learned a bunch from you.

The fact that the issue you’ve been having has happened multiple times and others are doing posts similar in length to your posts without problems makes me wonder what it is different, as we’ve had a problem like you’ve described last year that happened occasionally. It was determined to be server resource-related and was resolved. But the fact that one person (you) has had the same problem multiple times and hasn’t even posted here many times. leads me to believe that you’re likely experiencing a different problem that may be related to character length or our anti-spam software. In any event, (1) if you keep a copy of the text somewhere else so that you don’t lose anything if there’s a problem, and (2) record the time and date of the problem AND the error message, we’ll be able to have the server logs investigated and understand what occured so that we can fix the problem.  If you can do this one time, I promise, we’ll get this resolved.

LinkedMusicians Founder. Your friend who keeps the beat.

Check out my music. 

[Author]

Posts