Songwriter Forum > Recording

Is it necessary to have a few Plugins that do the same thing?

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Boydie:
For me the analogy is “you gotta kiss a lot of frogs until you find a Prince”

I have a gazillion plugins from most of the key brands and I seem to split my workflow in to 2 distinct approaches

1 - My “Go To” Plug-ins
These are the ones that I tend to use on most mixes - I know them inside out and how to get exactly the sound I want really quickly. This covered most bases: Fabfilter Pro-Q, Waves SSL channel strip, a range of around 3 different compressors, the Waves SSL bus compressor, and then around different 6 EQs and 2 different delays all set up and ready to go in my project template. This covers almost every scenario for mixing

I then have my preferred mastering plugins (Ozone EQ, exciter, multiband compression, stereo widening, Tape simulation, final mastering EQ and limiter)

I don’t use all of the above all of the time as every mix is different - but if I had a setup with just these plugins (around 15) I would be very happy and could produce consistent  professional results

If I try another plugin that I think could become one of my “base” plugins it will usually be included as a trial and then “natural selection” will determine whether it replaces one of my usual ones and becomes a new “go to”

2 - Experiment
Mixing an producing still has to be FUN and inspiring - so on most mixes I will search for one or two “out there” effects to add a little spice to a mix. They will usually either be really subtle or used as a key feature of the track - eg quirky modulation or extreme filtering

I find this approach allows me to work efficiently and get predictable/consistently good results but I still leave lots of room for experimentation and inspiration

cowparsleyman:
@Boydie - Again, very interesting, I totally agree with your Frog analogy.

Yeah I do have my goto plugs, that as you imply, earn their keep, I've only heard good things about Fab Filters products. One thing I didn't mention that LVox are made a shed load easier since I bought a real valve pre last year...it wasn't megabucks but it does sprinkle some fairy dust over it, that the regular pre doesn't seem to have. (being a valve, it just started to hum like hell last week!)

AS to your point 2 - Again Spot on man...I've recently bought some more experimental plugs that perhaps I didn't need, but each month Plugin Alliance sends me a money off voucher, so I feel obliged to try out something, at first listen, some are on the brink on unusable, but that's just what I need sometimes, to fire me up with ideas...products such as unfiltered audio Dent, Fault etc. really weird, but will bring something mostly to EDM songs and the more radical end of the spectrum potentially Glitch, Trap, Speedcore etc...and it might suit for the more lateral thinking members here such as Crystal Suzy and Rightly

What tape emulation do you use?

Cawproductions:
HI guys.

I suppose if you careat your own type of music and the style is very similar, a bit like ours then you can go for a template setup but if you mix a lot of other peeps music then you will run into lots of genres. I can see that you would need to approach them a little differently with different plug in choices.

Most of ours is guitar style indie Rock so I kind of know where the path so to speak.
Recently I mixed some live sets taken from the back of my mates bands mixer from a gig. Loads of bleed, room tone etc...totally different approach need for that, they sounded live but a lot better when done.

Anyway I need to get out more.

Cheers

cowparsleyman:
@Cawproductions - Yeah your'e right it would be a shed load easier if I dug a narrower furrow, templates would be cool (I do have a few setup for the more tedious tasks like routing individual outs from the kit, and some VST's that have bonkers amounts of outs, like Independence)

Must have been interesting mixing a live set, never did that, only been on the other end often not being able to hear myself, then that merry dance begins where the drummer plays louder, the bassist turns up his amp, then the sound engineer keeps gesturing to the band to turn down, then nobody can hear anything...aaaaargh...vocalists start singing off beam, to be fair most engineers I've worked with were pretty good.

Respect to you man, for taking on that slippery eel.

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