Your Pick Of 5 VST + 5 VSTi

[john]

Hey

 

If you could only pick 5 VST (effects and processors) and 5 VSTi (instruments), what would they be and why?

 

Cheers

 

John

[john]

On 7/16/2021 at 10:16 PM, VoiceEx said:

Only 5??!?!

What can I say, I’m cruel!

[john]

On 7/16/2021 at 10:16 PM, VoiceEx said:

Kontakt (I literally can`t work without it).

2. Omnisphere II (the VST, to rule all VST`s!).

3. Vienna Symphonic Library (your making this difficult John! lol).

5. East West Stormdrum III (I am NOT liking this lol).

um…. 123…. 5? Lol

 

Kontakt is one of my favourites and many libraries (Native Instruments and 3rd party) would have my top 5 dominated by Kontakt.

 

Omnisphere II is awesome. ‘Nuff said.

 

I haven’t used Vienna since about 2007, even though I had build a pretty good library collection by then.

 

I haven’t tried Stormdrum. I’ll need to check it out. What do you like or dislike about it?

 

I have a pretty large Wave collection. I have the Izotope starter bundle which is great, I just haven’t had money available when forking out for new controllers. I loved Wavelab but once I dropped out of the cheaper upgrade cycle due to a lack of funds, getting back on meant an expensive purchase… it’s on my to do list!

[Mohamed Aleya]

As a guitar player, I pick Bias FX 2 and T-Racks. This is literally all I need to record and master songs with great tones!

[john]

On 7/24/2021 at 12:39 PM, VoiceEx said:

To be honest these days I use actual synthesizers (mostly Korg`s)  more than anything else.

 

I still use my old 01/W fd. I need to get a new LCD backlight fitted. I could do it myself but it's a lot of time to find!

[Steve Mueske]

Okay, I'll play. I'm going to add processing environments after this, which are essential to me.

 

VSTis

 

Kontakt 6

Falcon 2

Pigments 3

Geist 2

Amplitube 5

 

VSTs

 

Reverb: 2C Audio Aether and B2

Delay: hands down Valhalla Delay, with Nomad Factory Echoes for more boutique retro tape style effects.

Compressors: MJUC and Sonalksis Ubercompressor (both are cheap and very very good). For mastering, hands down Shadow Hills. There's nothing even close.

EQs: Fabfilter Pro Q3 and Sonalksis DQ1 (dynamic EQ is essential) as the starting effect on my 2bus

Best Secret Weapon? Kombinat

 

Okay, for the programs

 

Wavelab 10 (will soon upgrade to 11)

Reaper 6 (for prototyping and initial project creation)

Bitwig 4 (for sound design and deep experimentation)

Reason 12 (a beast, a beast I tell you)

Renoise 3 (arguably the best tracker ever created)

 

Yeah, I agree with @VoiceEx, a tough call to pick so few. 

 

 

 

 

 

[powerchord]

That's too hard. There would be some FabFilter plugins. That's for sure.

[john]

On 11/16/2021 at 11:25 AM, powerchord said:

That's too hard. There would be some FabFilter plugins. That's for sure.

Worth having a stab at? It’s a useful exercise in working out what you really value from your toolkit.

[hariossa]

VST Fx:

 

1. NoiseAsh Rule Tec: I also use Acustica Audio's Purple but NoiseAsh's Rule Tec is an excellent Pultec emulation and doesn't eat a lot of resources.

2. Fab Filter Pro Q4: Surgical Eq.

3. Sonible Smart EQ2: I also own the latest version EQ3 but I keep using EQ2 still. Just fast results, what's not to like?

4. Sonible Smart:Comp: I don't use it as a regular compressor though, I use it because of the sidechain ducking, far more accurate than Waves Factory's Track Spacer.

5. Overloud Modula: My go to modulation fx, makes everything sound better.

 

VSTi:

 

1. UVI Falcon: You can find it everywhere in my projects, for synths, as a sampler, drum machine... I simply love it. I find it way, way, way better than Kontakt (which I also own but mostly because some libraries only exist for Kontakt).

2. Spectrasonics Trilian: I know, you can simply play bass yourself but Trilian is so convenient and sounds so good, with Trilian you can make changes anytime, it's a MIDI file! and playing it with Roger Linn's LinnStrument makes it sound much more alive and realistic.

 

- I use Falcon so much that the following are synths that I like but doesn't use the whole time.

 

3. Arturia V-Collection: Not all of the emulations sound like the originals but all of them are useful.

4. u-he Repro: Yes, it eats a lot of resources but it sounds fat and real.

5. Synapse Audio Legend: I think it's the best Minimoog emulation on the market.

 

Programs:

 

1. Bitwig: I use it 95% of the time, there's nothing like it, "the grid" is my playground.

2. iZotope Ozone: I used to do mastering in Ozone without third party plugins and it is good but now I'm using some stuff from Acustica Audio, Plugin Alliance, and others that allows me to achieve even better results.

3. MOTU Digital Performer: I use it mostly for Film scoring, love it.

4. Melodyne: I think there are no voices in modern productions that aren't edited with Melodyne.

5. AudioGridder: It's free! and allows you to run heavy plugins through ethernet on another computer! it's awesome!

 

Edited April 8, 2022 by hariossa

[MisterB]

Five of each is definitely going to be pretty limiting and I'm not sure I would want to play in this circumstance, especially VSTi's.  I could probably do with just five VST processor effects, and I could just do with one single stand alone application.  But I do use a lot of VSTi's, and couldn't really do what I do without them.

 

VSTi

NI Kontakt 6... most of my sample libraries use it. It would be fairly useless on its own, and I don't even have the factory library installed. If I can't also have all of my sample libraries, I wouldn't choose to include this here... instead, I'd choose TT EZ Bass since that would help give me an almost complete rhythm section.  
TT EZ keys... really needs an update, but in spite of this, its incredibly useful for those of us that don't play keys well enough to do performance parts in a multitude of genres.
Arturia Pigments... my top choice for a very versatile synthesizer.  I could use others instead (SynthMaster would be my runner up), but this is the one I tend to go to most, and to my mind is the most complete, with a very easy to use UI.
Dreamtonics Synthesizer V - I think that Synthesizer-V is probably the most significant development in VI's in recent years. This is a vocal synthesizer. It creates incredible quality vocal parts for you from scratch. It's an amazing song writing tool for people who don't sing, and the output quality is good enough for release if you put a bit of time into the production.
TT Superior Drummer - amazing sounding drums in a great VI.

 

 

VST

NI Raum. It has equals among algorithmic reverbs, but this one came with Komplete, and it's an easier to use and more versatile reverb than any other I've used. Can create wonderful spaces.
CableGuys Shaperbox. Very useful rhythmic effects, especially for synth/EDM based music.
SampleLogic Animation Station - it comes up as a VSTi in Cubase, but its really a VST. It doesn't really do anything you can't do with most other arpeggiators, but the UI makes it very inspirational to use.

NI Guitar Rig 6. Comes with a lot of effects built in, so could technically be used for a lot of things. I don't use it a ton, but I do use the standalone plugin versions of many of the effects that come with it, so if I was down to 5 total VST's, this one would give a lot of bang for the buck.
iZotope Alloy 2. I dunno, I've been using this to process drums and bass particularly, for years. I guess this one is for the tweaked presets I use all the time.

 

 

Programs

Steinberg Cubase Pro.  I've tried many DAW's over the years as part of my job.  I always go to Cubase for my own work. It's just the most intuitive DAW for me personally.

 

Don't need any more.

 

Edited November 15, 2022 by Rich Blenkinsopp
updated the description of Synth-V now that I've been using it for a couple of months.

[El Diablo Songwriter]

VST

* Sonible Smart Limiter

* Ozone 10 Standard (I don't use it's maximizer, instead I use Sonible Smart Limiter)

* JMG Sound Hyperspace for Reverb (I used to use Sonible Smart Reverb, but it crashes so much, I stopped using it)

* JMG Sound Expanse for stereo width 

* iZotope DDLY Dynamic Delay (got it on sale for $10)

* Melodyne Studio 5 by Celemony (It's crazy the amount of things you can do with this standalone and plugin!) (Been a loyal customer before it split into different versions of itself)

* Waves Audio Vocal Rider has saved me several times when normalizers, compressors, mv2, and auto leveling plugins fail.

 * Waves Audio Vocal Bender (A one man band needs to sound life different people)

 

I used to use Clarity VX and RX 10 Standard, but since I've gotten Focusrite Scarlett 2i2, I don't need them anymore!  The vocals and audio is so clean!

 

VSTi

* Native Instruments Komplete 8 & 14 Standard

** Konkakt 5, and 7 (included in Komplete Standard)

*** Genesis children's choir ($300) worth it

** Battery 3 & 4 (included with Komplete 8 & 14) - I prefer Battery 3 over 4 because it has acoustic drums, while 4 doesn't.

** Massive (Synth Bass) (included with Komplete)

** Real Guitars, Real Basses included with Komplete 14

* Indiginus banjo (requires full Kontakt)

* Red Audio slaps, claps, stomps, yells (requires full Kontakt)

 

I could have just listed Native Instruments Komplete 8 and been done with it... As it comes with every instrument, effects, including a choir, that you can think of and then some!  You can literally begin as soon as you have the Komplete set.  It has all the bases covered.

 

Kontakt from Native Instruments allows you to expand your instrument collection like crazy.  So many people creating samples that they instrument becomes endless.

 

I branched off for my preferences... All that above is off the top of my head that I use frequently.  I have so many other plugins I use, but only for special occasions.  Since I work on a variety of genres, I will keep all my plugins.

 

That video of that guy getting rid of his plugins, is going to need one of those and will painstakingly reinstall them.  It's great to have a large library and Reaper DAW helps you by sorting them into categories.  You can use the search bar to help you find plugins.  You can put them in favorites and create your favorite FX chains, etc.

 

I have a ton of VST software... I don't update plugins that don't give me problems.  Why fix something that ain't broken?