So with some recording plans for a few of my songs in the very near future in mind, I wanna spend a little bit during black friday, but I got only ±100€ to spend. I’ll give a little situational scetch first
Plan:
Recording wise, I want to get more of a modern sound. Like my guitar is probably gonna be with an EVH3 or a messa rect, if I’m lucky also with my Rivera KR7, but it needs fixing
Then Mixing wise, I want to go for a little bit more of a vintage production. Let me give an example with what I mean.
MODERN MIX
VINTAGE (in my opinion more vintage then the first, and thats where I’m going for)
I know the greatest difference between those two bands is the sound it self, but I wanna go for something in between. So modern sounds vintaged up a bit if that makes sense
So question, what plugs should I go for considering the budget ±100€ (almost the same as $. A littile bit more.)
I’m sure I’m getting that VPRE-73 - Black Rooster plug. I mean, 9$? o.O
But then I see the Kramer tape - waves vs tape magnetite - Black Rooster, for the same price, and I wonder: “what is best for my genre”
And now I’m also looking at the VEQ-5 and VEQ-1p. I don’t have any decent color eq yet, so maybe this? Or other suggestions for the same price ?
Which DAW do you use? I ask because Softube’s tape is on sale for $30, and it integrates with Studio One as a MixFX, which means it can do Crosstalk between channels and similar like a multitrack tape. I don’t own it yet, but it’s been on my list for awhile. http://everyplugin.com/tape.html
Ugh. On a budget that tight I would skip the Black Rooster V pre. If I only had $100 and had to choose only one saturation plugin that I would be committed to for the rest of my life, I would beg my friends for an extra $15 and get the FabFilter Saturn. That thing gives you the functionality, versatility, and quality level of about 8 different Waves plugins. If you only have $100 I would highly recommend it over anything by Waves, SoundToys, or PSP. The only better alternatives I would choose over the Saturn are UAD and CraneSong, and both of those are way out of most peoples price range. Izotope makes one that is very close in sound and function, but you have to buy the entire Ozone Suite to get it.
There’s TONS of saturation/distortion plugins out there. Some good free ones too!
Besides the Black Rooster, my other favorite of the moment is Kush. The Kush plugins are ALL about 70’s vibe. The Omega series and the Reddi are all pretty reasonable, good quality and no iLok dongle required. The only one I have though is the OmegaN Transformer. Not as versatile as the Black Rooster, but another “flavor” and also a really good one IMHO. (Note: The Omega series plugins and the Reddi do NOT require an iLok dongle.)
I don’t know how much you like to tweak things, but Melda Production has MDistortionMB and MSaturationMB. The “MB” stands for Multi-band. If you can get your head around them, the Melda plugins are infinitely tweakable, and the multi-band feature on these makes them even more so. All Melda plugs are on sale for BF for 50% off. You can get another 20% off that if you use my referral code " MELDA2490257" or use a friend’s code and give him the 10% credit.
Here’s a whole section of Melda Distortion plugins: https://www.meldaproduction.com/guides/distortions
If you run out of $$, you can spend time instead and hunt down some of the good FREE ones. Definitely usable! And don’t forget you can also run stuff through your amp sims AND using “vintage modeled” plugins add character as well. (ala AAron’s mix.)
Sorry to be so long-winded, this saturation/distortion thing has been my most recent obsession, so it’s all right there.
Oh, you may want to check into the AirWindows stuff too. Free/Patron supported and people seem to really like them.
@DeRebel… the stuff Mike is mentioning is really good. All of them are great tools. If I only had $100 though, I’d pick the most versatile one I could find, not necessarily the best sounding specialized one
Same here… I think outstanding saturation plugs and top notch compressors are heart and soul of most mixes. They’re incredibly important tools. The new stuff I’m getting in this Black Friday batch is all saturation stuff.
I can deal with a generic digital EQ and a lackluster reverb a lot easier than I can deal with a lame compressor library and a lack of saturation options!
Oh jeeze! Don’t forget about theKlanghelm plugins - super affordable and excellent options.
And SoundToys too! I have “Devil-loc” and “Little Radiator”, both are great. Sie-Q is an excellent EQ that can add some drive as well, you can even run EchoBoy without any of the delay effect and just use it for Saturation. People seem to love Decapitator as well. OK, anything by SoundToys.
Oh nice I just checked my account there, and since I have the EQ, Comp And Reverb already, I have a discount of 25% and an extra 5% cause of black friday. This is more then I need to know then I’m super happy with the 3 plugs I have from them already so.
hihi, yeah wel I got some margin, but it was something I was imposing on myself cause I’m sort of broke. Now that I’m checking my account there, and because I was already planning on getting the twin2 for atmospheric background sounds and “keys” (think black metal) I made a selection which looks pretty good to me. I was also staring myself blind on the limiter. I would say the MB as well, but I can’t financially justify that at all. This selection is pretyy much pushing it already. But I have nothing realy decent yet to do at least some minimal mastering (or an attempt at least ) And this seems like an awesome plug to learn a sertain aspect of it. And I guess more important for me now then an MB. Which I have the waves4c or something if I realy need one.
Damn It sure looks like it. Its kinda new to me. And I’m only just starting to get the basics of using compressors, but I noticed that this saturation stuff could be equaly important at times. Depends I guess. At least it looks pretty usefull. For now I guess I’m gonna go for the Fab-Saturn. Cause I always find there plugins to be very open for learning Thanks though !
Even though I’m just starting to get the hang of compressors a littlebit, I can totaly dig what you are saying here .
@Jonathan, Damn, I just watched the video of the Saturn again. I sure looks like a beast ! You can even use it sort of as a MB compressor but then with different types of distortion o.O. Very currious to use this on a bass for a metal track.
Hey man, since we’re all hyped up for black friday, a couple others you may want to keep your eye out for is a real good transient designer (hint hint Waves Smack Attack $29) and possibly the FF Timeless. If you get a sec, its worth watching the demo on Timeless 2.
I just checked my account there, and since I have the EQ, Comp And Reverb already, I have a discount of 25% and an extra 5% cause of black friday. This is more then I need to know then 
I’m super happy with the 3 plugs I have from them already so.