Need some inspiration.. What plugins can you not live without?

[DARK Sounds]

I really don't need any more plugins, BUT, I always need more plugins... So..

Let me know, what are the killer plugins you can't live without?

Two categories..

1. Instruments..
2. FX..

 

[Mindspawn]

1. My biggest "go to's" for dark sounds and exploration would probably be Dark Matter and Monolith instruments for Kontakt, both from String Audio. I really enjoy their engines, the ability to easily add your own samples, and just hitting random and finding cool sounds...
2. FabFilter L2, MB, and Q3, A.O.M. Invisible Limiter G2, TDR's Limiter 6 GE, PSP Xenon, Newfangled Audio Elevate, Kush Audio SILIKA, Tone Projects Unisum, SIR Audio Standard Clip Pro, pretty much all the Valhalla line-up, Audio Ease Altiverb, Klanghelm VUMTdeluxe, quite a few from Acustica Audio, top faves being Ivory, Taupe, Coral, Scarlet, Diamond, and Cream, Softube DS-1 MK3 (and I just got the soft version of the Chandler Curve Bender, really remarkable, and way more portable than my hardware one ), oeksound Soothe 2, and u-he's Satin all get time in my mix and mastering chains... there's more (there's always more, right?!) but those are the major players in my world at present.

 

[DARK Sounds]

Good shout on Dark Matter & Monolith, just grabbed these tonight.

Some other great ones there also.. Love using Altiverb and Valhalla also, Fabfilter is a total given as is Soundtoys. We use a great deal of the UAD stuff, but they blow out when the laptop MacBook is away from the Apollo setup, caught out loads of times trying to edit mix's when away from home, but I do love the DSP offload.

Omnisphere has to be the main goto for us, especially with Tom Wolf, Luftrum and The Unfinished bundles.

Soothe is a great bit of kit though like you say!

Having loads of fun with Blue Cat late Replies atm.. Clever delay system, endless fun.

 

[Modern Music for Funerals]

Yeah, Dark Matter is crazy..

I go through plugins like crazy.. terrible really as I am a total master of none.. For me:

* some kind fo scale in usage.

Instruments​

1. Spitfire Audio Collection, I love running through this catalogue, too many overlaps in the complete collection but really nice to play with, especially for some of the neo-classical stuff I play with:
   1. *Albion Collection
   2. *Earth
   3. *Orbis
   4. BBCSOP
   5. BT Phobos
   6. Abbey Road
   7. *Aperture Orch
   8. B*ritish Drama Kit
   9. *Olafur Arnalds
   10. Any of the LABS Collection
2. **Absynth
3. ACE
4. *ANA2 -> Love this synth..
5. ***Aparillo -> For the dark stuff, this is incredible.. Add a CC to the XY axis on the Orb (MENTAL)
6. *Diva
7. **Hive
8. *iZotope Iris2
9. **Jupiter 8
10. *JV1080
11. *Keyscape
12. Kontakt:
    1. **Dark Matter
    2. ***Dronar Master Edition
    3. ***Haunted Spaces
    4. *Geosonics
    5. *Analogue Strings
    6. **Analogue Brass & Winds
    7. *Exhale
    8. X-Loops
    9. Rev
    10. *Signal
    11. **Substance
    12. Arcane
    13. *Soundscapes
    14. Origin X
    15. Ibrido
    16. Arkhis
    17. **Natural Forces
    18. I*ntimate Textures
    19. *Synthetic Strings
    20. **Vocalise 1 & 2
    21. **Gravity
    22. Scoring Guitars
    23. Scoring Bass
    24. Novo
    25. *Atom
    26. *Ambient White
    27. *Ambient Black
    28. *Ambient Minimalism 1 & 2
    29. *Atom Hub
    30. *Imogen Heap Box of Tricks
    31. *Opacity 1 & 2
    32. **Holy Ambiences
    33. ***Xosphere 1 & 2
    34. *Liftor
    35. Maximo
    36. Aura
    37. ***Pandora Projects - Project Sam
    38. **Bioscape
    39. *Noire
    40. Una Corda
    41. ***Straylight
    42. Stradivari Violin
    43. **Pharlight
    44. **Mysteria
    45. **Thrill
    46. ***Collision FX
    47. **Ambition
    48. Cinematic Guitars
    49. *Lunaris
    50. *Eclipse
    51. *Orbit
    52. *Elysium
13. **Massive + MassiveX
14. *Nexus
15. ****Omnisphere
16. ****Pigments
17. *Predator2
18. **Prophet2
19. Serum -> Not so much anymore, kind of bored of it.
20. Sylenth
21. Synthmaster
22. TB303
23. **Trillion
24. *Union
25. VPS Avenger
26. ***Zebra2 and HZ
27. Zone

As for FX.... So many that I use, love these though:

Reverbs​

1. ***Any of the Abbey Road Collection.. Chambers etc.
2. ***Blackhole
3. BX_rooMS
4. ***Fabfilter Pro-R
5. ****Altiverb7
6. **Neoverb
7. ****All of the Valhalla Collection
8. ****VSS3
9. *TrueVerb
10. 2C Collection -> AMAZING PLUGINS
    1. **Aether
    2. **B2
    3. **Breeze2

Delay​

1. ****Blue Cat Late Replies (GOD LIKE)
2. ***Timeless2
3. ***Replika
4. MDelay MB
5. BX_delay2500

Compression​

1. ****Pro-C2
2. **Pro-DS
3. *Pro-G
4. **Pro-L2
5. ****Pro-MB
6. ****Shadow Hills
7. **C1 Series
8. ****CLA2 Series
9. **L3 and C4 Series
10. ****Elysia Alpha, Mpressor

EQ​

1. ****Elysia Museq
2. **AirEQ
3. ***Pro-Q3
4. **Inf EQ
5. **SPL Free Ranger
6. ***BX_Digital V3

I'll add my others when my fingers stop hurting

 

[Mindspawn]

"I'll add my others when my fingers stop hurting"

 

[DARK Sounds]

Show off... @Atsuhiko

 

[ArtificialDisco]

The KeyZone piano VST has gotten quite a bit of use from me. It's kind of surprising how good it is, considering it's free. It's got piano, rhodes and an electric piano which I used for this cute little Aphex Twin cover:

I also got PianoTeq, which is an upgrade, but costs a bit (they've got a killer clavinet too). On the synth front I got FM8, and Dexed, which both get used regularly. I also have U-He Tyrell, but it's getting less use after I got a hardware analog synth.

FM8 in particular is really deep, you can dive into that one and get completely lost. I've only scratched the surface - in fact it scares me a little. Dexed is also an FM synth, but more basic (also free). It's also useful in that it can interface with my Volca FM.

 

[DARK Sounds]

That's a good vst actually.. Thanks buddy. I do like FM8 though, you're right it has a great deal of hidden layers.. Absynth has always been my nemesis, never sat down and got to play with it properly, but the sounds that come out of it are amazing..

My goto, is normally Omnisphere to be honest, other than that - I collect Kontakt libraries, but hate it if their not Free Player compatible, as I like the shiny panels on the left