Please list plugins you recommend to not buy

[El Diablo Songwriter]

I'll start!

 

iZotope Stutter Edit (I bought for $10, and it should be priced as free) - it's so complicated, I've ended up not using it.  At least it was $10 for me... I'm imagining the poor souls whom bought it for $199!!!

 

Sonible Smart Reverb crashes everytime I move around the dials while sounds play thru it.  Waste of $65.

 

Edited November 15, 2023 by El Diablo Songwriter

[john]

7 minutes ago, El Diablo Songwriter said:

I'll start!

 

iZotope Stutter Edit (I bought for $10, and it should be priced as free) - it's so complicated, I've ended up not using it.  At least it was $10 for me... I'm imagining the poor souls whom bought it for $199!!!

 

Sonible Smart Reverb crashes everytime I move around the dials while sounds play thru it.  Waste of $65.

 

 

 

Interesting. I agree on the Stutter Editor. I haven’t spent any real time with the Sonible Smart Reverb. Their other plugins have been pretty good. I don’t remember it crashing much… I now need to give it a shot! What DAW & platform are you using it with?

[El Diablo Songwriter]

2 minutes ago, john said:

 

 

Interesting. I agree on the Stutter Editor. I haven’t spent any real time with the Sonible Smart Reverb. Their other plugins have been pretty good. I don’t remember it crashing much… I now need to give it a shot! What DAW & platform are you using it with?

 

Windows 3.1 & Reaper DAW

[El Diablo Songwriter]

I'm joking about windows 3.1...🤣

 

Actually Windows 10 64-bit 32gig of RAM running on 2 TB M.2

 

[El Diablo Songwriter]

8 minutes ago, john said:

 

 

Interesting. I agree on the Stutter Editor. I haven’t spent any real time with the Sonible Smart Reverb. Their other plugins have been pretty good. I don’t remember it crashing much… I now need to give it a shot! What DAW & platform are you using it with?

Sonible Smart EQ3 and Sonible Smart Limiter are their best plugins!

[MisterB]

On 11/15/2023 at 3:52 PM, El Diablo Songwriter said:

I'll start!

 

iZotope Stutter Edit (I bought for $10, and it should be priced as free) - it's so complicated, I've ended up not using it.  At least it was $10 for me... I'm imagining the poor souls whom bought it for $199!!!

 

 

I disagree with Stutter Edit. I can't say I use it much because I don't write much in the electronic/rap/hiphop kind of range, but its good at what its designed to do. While the UI might not be the best out there (version 1 looked a lot better than version 2, even if it wasn't half as functional), it does what it does, and has a logical flow to it. It's quite a complex plugin, but if you figure out its flow, it does work. I agree, not worth $200 (never seen it for this tbh).  I picked up v.2 for $10 too, can't remember what I paid for v1 all those years ago.

[MisterB]

Korg Synth Collection - unless you have/had the hardware originals and are dying for the nostalgia of the presets that came with them, there is nothing special about the architecture or operability of the synths in this collection. There are a couple of gems (I picked up the collection because I wanted the Electribe drum machine and the Prophecy mono-synth (I always wanted one since the day they were released), and it was as cheap to do this as it would be to buy the two plugins individually), but the variability in quality is surprising from a giant like Korg. Some of the plugins come with no documentation at all, some you have to do a real deep dive on their web site to get hold of. The UI of the M1 is dreadful, as is the preset search functionality.  Other than that, they just don't sound special at all. Half of them were digital synths originally anyway, so you're not going to get any "analog warmth" or quirks from them. Unless you're a keyboard player of the 1990's/early 2000's, skip it and learn to use a modern synth like Arturia's Pigments, or if you want more flexibility, Kiloheart's Phase Plant. I could say the same for Arturia's synth collection, but at least the variety is better, they are made with more love, all come with excellent documentation, addtional functionality, and have a good sound, at least in the analog recreations.

 

AudioModeling SWAM Strings - SWAM instruments are wonderfully playable/expressive when using a set up with lots of live controllers (keyboard with pedals as well as mod wheel/aftertouch, or EWI).  The problem with the strings, is they always sound dreadful. I don't feel this way about their brass or saxes, which are exceptionally good. They just brought out section strings too, and I think their implementation is dreadful too. It doesn't sound like groups of individual players like a sample library would - its more like a synth patch. In 2024, this isn't really good enough.

 

Waves Harmony - this was a great idea, and executed pretty well in every way except the most important one - audio quality.  The result is just dreadful.  Got this cheap, and it might have its uses in working out harmony vocals, but its unusable in a final product. 

 

 

Edited January 7 by MisterB