Plug Ins

For those of you who do not know what plug ins are: they are an external software you link to your DAW (Ableton, Cubase, Fl studio, Logic etc.) They could be synths, Effects, Analog synths, Compressors, Reverbs and so on. So basically they are any software you add to your program that is not standard to your DAW. 

"What do i like then?" you might think, and i am gonna tell you that i don't actually have a lot of plug ins, i have a fair bit but nothing extreme, but recently i stumpled upon some of the best plug ins i have ever seen or heard(the first and the last). 

So let me tell you about it: First off we have Valhalla Vintageverb, It's a reverb with a lot of settings and it sounds so good. There are 8 different modes which massively impacts the reverb, Some have low attack times and low initial echo density while others are complete opposit, and some are a bit too random to use as reverb at least to me. Also a lot of knobs for fine tuning your reverb but the standard settings are very good. But this plug in is just absolutely astonishing. I was talking with my buddy Hive account@made-u-look and he was stoked when he listened to this and he got his hands on it immediately. 

Massive: Some of you probably got the hint earlier, but massive is a good choice for just about anything i'm just very bad at using it properly. This plug in has so many settings it will get a bit confusing. I primarily use it for my bass line because of the easy to apply filter automations and the 3 layers of synths. I should get more into massive because i know it's a great plug in and it can do many things i just haven't had the time to learn it properly.

Serum: So this little beauty is Serum, also a well known plug in like Massive and i see why, It's nice to look at, it's quite simple to get into if you have a common understanding of synths like these, and the effects's are super nice. The matrix is something i haven't seen in any of the synths i use in this kind of format, it's a tab of different options you can use to make automations based on inputs from your Lfo's or your Envelope's, and route them to pitch just to give an example. I mainly use it for melodic ish leads because of it's rich sound and somewhat because i'm better at using it

 

Nicky Romero Kick Synth: It makes kicks. 

Jokes aside this is the only thing i use for kicks, don't like using samples and Ableton's kicks are not my kind of thing so this suits my needs for deep subby kicks with a lot of punch. It's pretty simple but i simply love the plug in for it, it has some presets but the standard preset is nice. I usually tweak it to the note i want it to be in and adjust it to the bass, add a different click, adjust the length of the kick and play a little with the distortion to see whether i want it this time or not. This you should get this if you like tweaking kicks while it at the same time is super easy.

Stereo Tool: This is a free plug in that tells you how your sound is acting in the spectrum, honestly i just use it to check if my kick and bass is mono. Don't have much to say about it, it's just a quality of life thing

S(M)exoscope: This is a wave analyser, it simply shows you the waveform of whatever you put it on. It's also a quality of life thing but it's super important to use to make sure your bassline is not interfering with your kick and getting a drop in your bass output, sounds kinda complicated right? Well i wouldn't know but what i do know is that you just have to get the two waves to merge into one as much as possible to avoid phase issues. This plug in is also free 

Dronar Hybrid module/Live strings/Guitarscapes:

This is a speciel one. It's simply in the way of layout even through the menus at the bottom(expert, lfo and fx, arp and master fx. i've only had it for a couple of days but i am sincerely impressed with this. It's a platform called kontakt which you then get modules(just folders) for, so you can open inside the program and it looks something like that. This is the richest ambience/piano/guitar layering software i've ever seen, amazing because this is the first. So what it does is that you have four layers of sound, The fx, high, mid and low which it plays simultaneously, on top of that you can press a button named thick in the expert tab which adds even more notes to your layer of choice. It creates a really deep and rich sound with sometimes over 200 voices, it just sounds so damn good. This is the best plug in i have and i am looking forward to learning it even better 

Hope you had a nice time reading this, my newest project is almost done and if you do have any questions please post in the comments. 

Your friendly rambling Danish dude, Have a nice day or evening :)