Why 3rd-party FX at all?

[superabbit]

It’s been said many times by many people: the FX that come bundled with your DAW are sufficient for any mixing task. You can get great-sounding results without needing to spend any more money or time downloading anything.

To a degree, I wouldn’t argue with this. I know of no DAW that doesn’t come with perfectly usable, great-sounding processors. Compressor, limiter, gate, EQ, delay, reverb, modulation, pitch shifting, time stretching, saturation. Sometimes more. Often many more. There have been hit records that were mixed with nothing more than what came with the DAW.

So why would anyone spend hundreds, even thousands of dollars on adding to this? I consider myself a frugal musician, a frugal person in general. Yet I own licenses for iZotope Music Production Suite, which includes over 100 plug-ins in half a dozen suites and lists for $600, and the MeldaProduction MComplete Bundle, which includes 112 plug-ins and lists for $2300. Both regularly go on sale for 50% off, but still, isn’t that over $1000 worth of effects that I just said I didn’t need? What’s the difference? How can these companies make money selling software that duplicates what everyone gets for free with their DAW?

Different people might answer differently, but for me, it’s a matter of workflow, aesthetics, and subtleties, as well as a very important consideration: portability. There are plug-ins in both of those suites that allow me to perform certain mixing tasks much more quickly than I am able to using stock effects. There are other plug-ins whose UI’s are just more pleasant to look at than the utilitarian graphics that stock plug-ins usually feature. Also, in many cases, the plug-ins that come with a particular DAW or NLE can only be used with that program.

With each plug-in we use regularly, we learn about its specific capabilities and quirks. If we adjust a certain control, it will affect the sound in a certain way. If we want the knowledge and muscle memory we learn to be able to be applied to more than just one DAW or one NLE, and that DAW or NLE’s stock plug-ins can only be used with that program, then we are going to need 3rd party plug-ins that can be used in all of the programs we use to sculpt audio.

Examples of the first: workflow. When mixing drums, I could use an EQ, compressor, and gate on my snare mic and the same chain on my kick mic in order to isolate and control the dynamics. I could zoom in tight on the waveforms of my overhead mics in order to make sure they were in phase with each other.

Instead, what I use is MDrumLeveler on the kick and snare mics, and MAutoAlign on the overheads. These specialized tools allow me to perform these tasks within minutes, get excellent results very quickly.

The iZotope collection includes their famous Ozone mastering suite. Again, I could use the compressor, EQ, limiter, delay, and saturation that come with my DAW to arrive at similar results, but Ozone includes tools specific to mastering. Moreover, it has presets and even a wizard that can analyze a track and come up with suggestions based on a variety of criteria such as genre. It drastically cuts the amount of time I must invest in that process.

Trackspacer and RC-20 are a couple of other plug-ins that get me there so quickly that they paid for themselves when mixing only the first song I did with each of them. For me, there’s nothing else for their specific tasks.

With the second criterion, more attractive UI’s, that’s a bit more subjective. However, there are some lines of virtual FX that have reputations in either direction. My own favorite plug-in manufacturer, MeldaProduction, is known for their relentlessly utilitarian jet cockpit UI’s. As is a hallmark of MeldaProduction, they allow a lot of customization of colors, so you are able to create color schemes more pleasing to your own eyes.

I’d put IK Multimedia’s T RackS collection of processors solidly in the opposite camp: they strive to give their UI’s the appearance of treasured hardware, with skeuomorphic surfaces, 3-D shadowed knobs and the like. They look like photos of rack mount gear come to life. They promote a virtual experience of mixing in a studio well-equipped with expensive equipment. Sometimes I want that. Plugin Allaince/brainworx processors mostly have that appearance, with beautiful knobs and gleaming LED’s.

Different looks and layouts of controls potentially lead the user to make different choices, so look and feel is not trivial.

When trying out individual plug-ins or suites, pay attention to these criteria: will it provide a faster, easier, or more enjoyable workflow? Does the look seem inspiring?

• This topic was modified 1 year, 2 months ago by peter.
• This topic was modified 1 year, 1 month ago by superabbit.

-Erik
___________
superabbit.bandcamp.com

5

[antler]

I’d also add portability/transferability. Many built-in DAW plugins are tied to that DAW. If you ever want to use another one, you’d have to learn that DAW’s plugins, which may or may not have the same functionality/workflow.

Another reason might be if you’re looking for a particular type of sound. Theoretically, it might be possible to replicate the sound of certain a hardware unit using a parametric EQ with the right curves, but it’s much quicker to add the plugin with the sound you need and turn one dial.

3

[superabbit]

antler wrote:

Many built-in DAW plugins are tied to that DAW. If you ever want to use another one, you’d have to learn that DAW’s plugins, which may or may not have the same functionality/workflow.[/quote

Thank you! I don’t know how I left that one out, it’s actually as important if not more so than the 2 reasons I did mention. I think I will edit the article.

[quote=1000012672]Theoretically, it might be possible to replicate the sound of certain a hardware unit using a parametric EQ with the right curves, but it’s much quicker to add the plugin with the sound you need and turn one dial.

Yes, that fits my first reason, workflow. Why spend 5 minutes tweaking my favorite high precision parametric EQ to sound like a Pultec curve when I can just throw on a Pultec clone and have the famous sound in seconds? Even more so, a well-made Pultec emulation is going to throw in some emulation of the overall circuit’s response, adding some even harmonics, etc. All of that can be done with individual plug-ins, but why?

• This reply was modified 1 year, 2 months ago by superabbit.
• This reply was modified 1 year, 2 months ago by superabbit.

-Erik
___________
superabbit.bandcamp.com

1

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