This is a crosspost from /r/MakingHipHop. It came about as a response to a beginner's guide to plugins, that was just a review of five soft synths. None of the content is genre-specific.
Hi everyone. DPSnacks here. I am nobody important, but I know some stuff. Today I'm going to type some of that stuff out, so other people can know it too. I'm going to assume that you know what a DAW is, and some other very basic knowledge of music production. This will be catered to beginners and those slightly more advanced than that.
For each type of plugin, I'll also provide a link to a free plugin that does the job pretty well, and a mention of my favorite paid plugin. Don't spend a cent on a plugin unless you know that you need that specific plugin, and you know what it does. Something probably does it just as well for free.
If I missed something, or if something is unclear, yell at me about it so I can fix it for the next person that comes along.
Plugins let you change sounds. Some plugins are dynamic plugins. They change the volume and things like that. EQs, compressors, etc. Some plugins are time-based plugins. They change the sound over time. Reverb, delay, chorus, flanger, etc.
The plugins in your DAW are, generally speaking, fine. They will do what you ask them to do, but probably won't add any "character" to the sound you're affecting. If you don't feel that they're lacking anything, there's no real need to replace them unless you want variety.
An EQ is an equalizer. This allows you to change the volume of a specific portion of the sound. In your car, it probably says "Low / Mid / High", or "Bass / Mid / Treble". EQs in music are much more precise. Here is a brief write-up about the basics of EQing.
A great free EQ plugin is SlickEQ. It is less configurable than whatever came with your DAW, but has some "character" to it. It sounds like something when you use it on a sound, instead of just slightly changing the sound you've already got.
My favorite clean EQ is Fabfilter Pro-Q 2 (which comes with an analyzer built right in). My favorite EQ with character is either the Waves SSL/API EQs, or the Steven Slate EQs that come with Virtual Mix Rack.
A compressor reduces the range between the quietest sound and the loudest sound. It makes the loudest sounds (everything louder than a certain point) quieter, and it makes everything else louder (optionally). This two-minute video should explain nearly everything about how a compressor works, with visual and audio examples.
A great free compressor is Molot. Just make sure you switch it to display in English, and you may need to turn down the Upsampling if your machine is old. Again, your DAW has a compressor that works fine, but this will add some "character".
My favorite clean compressor is Fabfilter Pro-C 2; my favorite compressor with character is Molot, or the compressors in Virtual Mix Rack (Steven Slate), or the API compressor from Waves.
Saturation is sort of hard to explain, but this post does a great job. Basically, it's a form of subtle distortion that adds some high-end. Very important to add some saturation to 808s or sub-bass so people can hear it on sound systems that don't replicate that very very low booming bass.
CamelCrusher is a free saturator that sounds great and is widely used.
My favorite paid saturator is Fabfilter Saturn. I asked them how I would replicate a specific type of distortion and they sent me two fresh presets.
Chorus makes a sound thicker and richer. It duplicates the sound and changes the pitch very slightly each time to create a weird warbley effect. Here's Wikipedia's explanation.
Tal Chorus is a great free chorus effect based on the Juno 106's chorus effect, one of the best ever.
My favorite chorus sound is that one, unless I'm playing guitar, in which case I use a chorus pedal for guitar instead.
Delay is echo, basically, but with only one repetition instead of a whole bunch. If you have ever heard a song, you have heard some delay on the vocals - probably very low, in the background.
Valhalla makes a great free echo. Here's another delay that looks neat but I can't say much about this one.
My favorite delay is Izotope DDLY. It goes on sale for $30 frequently and has some cool features. Waves SuperTaps 6 is also cool as shit; each delay can be panned wherever, left right center, further back, etc.
Reverb puts your sound in a space. Maybe that space is an echoey bathroom. Maybe that space is a giant cathedral. There are different types of reverb, which you can read about here.
My favorite free reverb is Tal Reverb II.
My favorite paid reverb is Fabfilter Pro-R, but also, Waves IR-1. IR-1 (and other Impulse Response reverbs) let you load a sound file from a given space, and the reverb will recreate that space and put your sound in it.
Autotune is pitch correction. Here is a free autotune plugin from Melda. They make some other neat stuff but none of it is my favorite.
My favorite paid autotune is in Revoice Pro, which also makes doubled parts exactly perfectly synced with each other (Vocalign). It's wild shit but it's expensive. Some DAWs like Logic Pro X also have a built-in pitch correction function, which is, okay.
Virtual Instruments are, quite simply, instruments that exist virtually. Some of them are synthesizers. Some of them are samplers, which play already-saved sounds on command.
My favorite freeware synth is called Synth1. It looks like it's 20 years old, but it doesn't sound like it. Here's 25,000 presets for it.
Someone just told me about Helm earlier today. It looks fucking crazy, also free.
Kontakt Player is a free sampler. Here is a list of freely available sample libraries for Kontakt Player; the link to download the actual player is the first one.
Submitted October 05, 2017 at 04:50PM by DPSnacks https://www.reddit.com/r/edmproduction/comments/74igyu/a_beginners_guide_to_plugins_for_real_this_time/?utm_source=ifttt