my all time favourite go to plug-ins for music production
Of course every musician, producer or composer has their favourite secret weapons to get a little more so called sauce. Above all our main goal is to polish and expand our existing ideas. This is why I want to share my all time favourite software plug-ins with you in this list.
Saturation Knob by Softube
Even though this plug-in is mentioned in lots of other lists, it just has to be a feature here.
The Saturation Knob is a saturation plug-in and includes three modes; high, neutral and low. All are pretty much self explanatory and are meant for squashing the signal primarily in said specific range.
Aside from being a one-knob plug-in and therefore easy to use, it is simply a keeper. Softube describes the Saturation Knob as follows: “The free plug-in Saturation Knob is a modeled output distortion that can be used anywhere you need some grit.” Grit is the perfect word to describe it because it just gives everything a litte more “hmpf” – if you know what I mean.
Personally I enjoy using it most on busses, but obviously you can use it on pretty much whatever. Whether this is drums, single instruments or even your master. There’s not that much that can go wrong – you maybe can overdue it, but this might be even the exact sound you are after.
Besides, like mentioned earlier, Softube’s Saturation Knob being completely free, it is moreover an outstanding piece of software. All in all you can’t loose anything with this one, download it on their official website here.
Soothe by oeksound
Although it comes with a hefty price tag (199€), it surely is one of my favourites. If somebody would ask me if I just could use three VSTs for the the rest of my life, this plug-in might be one of them. Soothe is a dynamic resonance suppressor. What does this mean?
oeksound explains soothe as follows: “It identifies problematic resonances on the fly and applies matching reduction automatically. This results in a smoother, more balanced sound and saves you from having to notch out the frequencies by hand.” The best part is that the reduction only applies when needed, of course without affecting nearby frequencies.
Don’t get me wrong, reduction might not even the best way to describe it because soothe does a phenomenal job ant preserving the original timbre and is quite transparent. Granted, it might be a CPU heavy plug-in, but that’s probably why oeksound introduced several quality modes in their second version. These range from normal to ultra (even an ECO one is included) and can used both real-time and offline. Besides that you it is both available in 32 and 64 bit.
In sum soothe helps you to remove harshness, managing sibilance, clearing up muddiness or boominess or softening up sounds. In my opinion it is a perfect weapon for your master chain, sound design and general post-production. Because it is quite simple to use as well, I can definitely recommend this one. You can download it here.
RC-20 by XLN Audio
RC-20 Retro Color by XLN Audio might be one of the most well-known VSTs in the lo-fi community. In fact it is so well-known that it became a meme already.
It is a multi-effect plug-in that emulates vintage recording equipment. RC-20 features a noise generator, wobble/flutter, saturation/distortion, degrader/bitcrusher, reverb and “volume drops”. The latter is simulating wear and tear (and of course volume drops) from old tape recorders.
Personally I enjoy RC-20‘s wobble/flutter and saturation/distortion the most. Being able to switch a sound with the wobble in stereo often comes in quite handy. Also there is several saturation modes that range from tubepair to iron and is very versatile. Primarily I find myself using this one on guitar sounds. I simply just love how you can change up a normal sound with this VST. Another cool trick is to use noise on for example kicks in combination with the follow setting.
In the end RC-20‘s price is quite moderate for what it is capable of (99.95€). You can find the download here.
Vulf Compressor by Goodhertz
Coming up next is Vulf Compressor by Goodhertz. Right off I would like to point out that Goodhertz definitely has a special place in my producer-heart and is one of my favourite software developers. Their products are really well-made, intuitive to use and they also can shine with modern interfaces.
However, of course their sound is our main focus here. Vulf Compressor is not what you would expect from an everyday compressor. Being able to achieve drastic sound changes or just subtle effects, it can be a great addition to your digital set up. Goodhertz is completely right when they describe this compressor as weird or beastly, because it really is just that.
Originally it was inspired by an algorithm for the Boss SP-303 Dr. Sample Sampler and Goodhertz brought it to life in a digital form. Yet they didn’t stop there, they expanded, fine-tuned and perfected its oddity.
In conclusion you can achieve compression effects that remind you of classic and legendary beat makers like Madlib or J Dilla. Also it is capable of working well in very modern sounding productions. To give an example, it was supposedly used on Dua Lipa‘s lead vocal on “Don’t Start Now“. Just one of many reasons why this can be a great weapon in your repertoire.
Despite of coming with a price tag of 149$, I think it is ultimately a great purchase. You can buy Goodhertz‘ Vulf Compressor here.
Little AlterBoy by Soundtoys
Soundtoys is an acclaimed company and a top-notch software developer. They never fail to deliver, at least speaking from the perspective of my personal purchases.
Little AlterBoy is a monophonic voice manipulator. It is able to change the pitch and formant of your input. Featuring also a robot and vocoder mode, as well as a tube drive. Additionally you can even control the vocal’s melody using MIDI for creative vocoder-like effects.
It is a powerful tool for voice alteration indeed – but you don’t have to stop there, you can also try using it on instrument lanes. Rarely have I experienced something similar that is so natural sounding, especially if you use it on vocals.
That being said it sadly introduces some artifacts from time to time, but nothing close to a deal breaker. Being able to alter vocals that much just comes with a trade off.
I would highly recommend to check out Jamie Lidell’s secret vocal harmony trick because it does a great job at illustrating how you can use Little AlterBoy. You can watch that video here.
With a price of 99$, I’d say Little AlterBoy is in the middle range in regards to costs. If you’re lucky you can cop it for a bit cheaper on sale but it will be ultimately worth your investment. You can purchase it here.
I truly hope you enjoyed my selection and the additional information! Feel free to shoot me a message on my socials if you decided to download/buy any of them or you think I missed one gem. Also I’d like to add that this is not a sponsored blog post, this really is a list of my favourite plug-ins. Besides all of the above I recently dropped a free sample pack with lofinites and I encourage you to give it a try, maybe even in combination with any software I mentioned earlier. If you are interested in how these VSTs sound in action, please be my guest and take a listen to some of my tracks on Spotify.
Thank you for the long read!
