vst plug-ins

what in your opinion are the best plugins for


1.reverb
2.delay
3.distortion
4.compression


guys your opinion would be great as i,m just about to buy some and am new to the world of techno production

cheers glenn

Not heard a plugin reverb that I actually didn't think sucked. Before we got some DSP inside the computer we used to use an outboard MPX 100 for any long reverbs. The TC Works one was quite good for shorter verbs on things though.

Delay - Not really experimented a great deal here, but the Waves Stereo Multi-Tap thingi works a treat for most material. The NI Spectral Delay I heard once and it's good if you really want to mess things up, or you can always use a vanilla one with no feedback and run the feedback yourself through another couple of plugins which gives you a lot of flexibility and amusement.

Distortion - you tell me when you find a good one...

Compression, waves RenComp and C1. C1 for using less CPU, RenComp for posh sounding stuff.

cheers baz

so your sayin for distortion the best route to go is hardware if so what
should i be amiming at and also what type of mixing desk would you go for i have a mackie d,ont no what make it is but it has built effects

sorry for my spelling i,m a bit wasted

*laughs* bit wasted here too, just working up to uploading a new sound set into the XTk ...

Nah, I mean we've been using the Digidesign distortion for a while and the stuff built into the virus, but I've not found a very flexible distortion module - lacking in crunch. Just been looking at Nuendo tho and that's got a few more options.

Just the ones I've got here seem to add too much fuzz and not enough bite.

Wouldn't say you'd need a mixing desk. We are about to offload the tiny Soundcraft thing we've got in favour of a simple volume control thing. Unless you are running lots of outboard kit I've found having a mixer a pretty pointless waste of space recently. We use mic's through a TLA pre amp and do all the mixing in the computer.

sorry for all the questions mate
but what do you think of software studios like reason are they useful not on there own but say used with acid and cubase with vst plung-ins and instruments

Dunno never used them. Used Cubase on an Atari before PCs were common, the Logic Audio from version 2 till version 4 and now we're on a Mac, so never really played with those things. On the other hand I have a mate who gets some fantastic results out of Reason.

Dunno - I reckon you'd probably do fine with any of them - they all seem to take VST plugins and things, but if I was going to start again I'd probably still learn a audio/sequencer package Cubase/Logic/Nuendo/Protools or something, although occasionally the completely blank sheet of paper they give you is a bit daunting ... like now when I should be getting on with some work!

I'm sure someone else on the forum will have an opinion that differs tho :)

i use steinberg WARP vst or AMPLITUBE for distortion an awful lot
very very cpu hungry though.....

i've always found Waves plugins to be of the highest quality:

Trueverb/ RVerb - nice reverb algorithms, and some wierd ones in Rverb
C1 - quality compressor
L1 Ultramaximiser - ideal final mastering plugin, there are hardware alternatives if you got the cash, but this plugin is very highly rated.

plus they do all kinds of EQ's n shit, check em out......

I love using reason for phrases and stuff, I usually puit together something in reason and then solo each track and export it as a wav file. This way you can pop the lot into cubase or whatever, and then mix and plugin each channel, and add extra VSTIs etc. there. Rewire just kills my computer!

for nice meaty distortion just run the sound through an old guitar pedal or amp with overdrive...works a treat on rebirth lines and adds a hefty slab of grunge and general dirt to the soubd....lovely stuff