10 Plugins I *Actually* Always Use

[@davidkey6623]

I’m really glad you mentioned the “townhouse” bus compressor. I love that thing and no one talks about it

[@ManchesterMusic]

Right?!

[@rome8180]

It's so good! But I love all the Brainworx stuff, tbh.

[@rome8180]

The Townhouse Buss Compressor is definitely on my "every mix" list. Melodyne is also on there. 10 other plugins I use constantly: Brainworx SSL 4000G Lindell Audio 50 Series Lindell Audio 80 Series Waves R-Bass Waves MV2 Fab Filter Pro-L2 Fab Filter Pro-Q3 Waves Kramer Master Tape Oeksound Soothe Soundtoys Echo Boy There are many a dozen more I use regularly, but I was trying to keep my list to just 10 of my favorites. I could easily do a mix with just these and not feel I was losing anything. Maybe I'd add in a reverb plugin, but I could easily just use stock reverbs if I had to.

[@jorgefrias7889]

Try ADPTR SCULPT. It literally replaced the need for most of my digital compressors, it just has tons of latency but the sound is immaculate.

[@SylvainDuford]

I agree that RX is a very comprehensive set of tools and is extremely useful. But when it comes to noise reduction, Clarity VX just destroys RX De-Noise, so it's worth having both.

[@ManchesterMusic]

Clarity is very good at doing one thing: de-noising the human voice, but I seldom just de-noise a vocal. There’s clicks, plosives, bleed, breaths, sibilance, you name it; RX is a 1 stop shop for all that stuff, not to mention selective, targeted intermittent noise removal with spectral repair. No question that Clarity has really stepped up tho.

[@mrnelsonius5631]

@@ManchesterMusicthis is how I feel about RX. I run into problems of clicks, pops, plosives way more than background noise. A prime example of RX saving the day: I was mixing a song with prominent acoustic guitar. It sounded great BUT the player was wearing a ring when he tracked, so lots of random clicks when it hit the wood. RX fixed it non destructively

[@matthewchavezm.b.s5503]

@@mrnelsonius5631 Could also be the pick tapping the pick guard while strumming. Thats very common. These can be minimized by the player paying attention just like slightly lifting the fingers when changing chords to minimize string squeaks. But Rx is great to remove or lessen these not so favorable occurrences. But its best to have the player work on these because it just gets transferred to live performances.

[@reekologybeatz]

Trackspacer from Wavesfactory

[@Hayal1337]

I'd have personally included Gullfoss by Soundtheory but great list otherwise! Very clean plugins, they're indispensable for mastering

[@Studioinsession]

Just bought it Black Friday sale. Still to install. Busy rearranging things first. Hype 🤙

[@matthewchavezm.b.s5503]

Yah gullfoss is amazing too

[@beatsbybeto]

Nice Plugins, Spectre is also one of my favorite Plugins.

[@dnabeatz]

Kirchhoff-EQ , love the Townhouse Good video Cheers

[@matt_nyc_audioengineer]

Great video man! Just a heads up tho, you can't cut with Spectre. Just boost!

[@Ultimate_Wasabi]

You should look at more Plugin Alliance offerings. You're missing out on some excellent plugins from Neold and other brands.

[@ManchesterMusic]

I definitely will, there's so much to dig into!

[@sleonse]

Wonderful vid! Thanks!

[@mrnelsonius5631]

I still use RX 8 daily, and I haven’t upgraded because my primary drive is getting dicey on space on my laptop. But it’s indispensable for me- and I produce pop and indie rock. Lots of LA producers doing bedroom recordings I get sent so cleaning up tracks helps me soooo much

[@j-station]

Some of these are my must haves also. I also always have to have ADPTR AUDIO Metric AB I’m sure there are similar plugins but that’s the one I use. Even to reference the rough mix or pre-master not necessarily always commercial products. Anyone like any other reference plugin better and why?

[@von_Apa]

Thanks for another good video! I think "Cableguys" have made some really fun to-use plugins, especially if you are a songwriter. 😇

[@TheBroadcastStudio365]

I like you and your integrity

[@mikebooth9619]

If Manchester recommends a plugin, I'm taking it seriously. Thanks!

[@ManchesterMusic]

Very kind of you to say (use the affiliate link to support btw!)

[@seok84]

Nice! Discovered new stuff i didnt know about. Thanks!

[@ELLIOT8209]

South Africa here. I can't afford to buy any plugin at the moment. Praying for a job whilst searching for it. Music makes it bearable though 😁🙏🎶

[@billpodolak7754]

Great video!

[@ManchesterMusic]

.....do I know you? :)

[@BMugzMusic]

I use all those except didn't know about rip x... Speaking on brainworx 3 I use on every session on the mix bus are SA2RAT2 its new. Knif Soma best mastering eq i have tried and pan eq great on anything. Oven great for saturation. UAD and Softube I agree can't go wrong.

[@BMugzMusic]

RC 20 is fantastic there a unfiltered audio plugin called needlepoint that pretty dope get that vinyl lo fi sound

[@larstillberg412]

Thank you very much. Nice list for sure. I'm especially intrigued by Dopamine. Which OS do you run on your 2013 MBP?

[@ManchesterMusic]

Big Sur!

[@Breakbeat90s]

Really digging the stock music 👌

[@Bati_]

An incredible video as usual! Can I ask about your opinions on Arturia products? Do you think they are of the upper echelon as UAD stuff?

[@Bati_]

@M Castile I gave them a try as well and I certainly think that FX Collection 3 is underrated. Thank you for your comment!

[@riharrds]

thx

[@vincentvangraite4485]

good list brev

[@NikolausBrocke]

Melodyne definitely is one of the most innovative and useful audio manipulation software in the last ten years. It's complex, yes but the quality of the algorithms is second to none. Did you know that you can use it to eq dedicated harmonics in an audiofile? In a lot of uses it's much better than an EQ because an EQ is static. E. g. If you want to tame resonances of a bass the easiest way is just to lower the fundamental harmonic. Forget dynamic EQ.

[@jojonieves]

Thanks for sharing! In your opinion, what do you think the RC-20 does better than Izotope’s Vinyl? I see a lot of similarities in their features, but Vinyl is free.

[@russelledwards2405]

I have both and vinyl is like a subset of what RC-20 does.

[@ManchesterMusic]

RC20 is more feature rich than Vinyl, which makes sense cause Vinyl is a free product.

[@frankygmusic6179]

hey man what happened to your Focals? Is that Adams or Hedd?

[@ManchesterMusic]

I moved on from them, using HEDDS now.

[@frankygmusic6179]

@@ManchesterMusic sound better? In what way?

[@ManchesterMusic]

@@frankygmusic6179 I wanted to move to a 3-way speaker set now that I'm in a larger room. The Focals were 2-way. The Focals are still great, but I was really impressed with the HEDDs (you can check out a review I did on them here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/l6maZWqql8epb9E)

[@lozzauk372]

Have you used Hornet's EQ? It seems similar to Spectre in that when you boost you can saturation and colour to the specific frequency. I was looking at Spectre but wondered if it was essentially the same thing. Anyone used both?

[@NoQualmsTheArtist]

Hornet Total EQ isn't exactly like Spectre but it's a great workhorse digital EQ for a great price. The real beauty of it is when all the extras are turned off it is completely bit transparent like Acustica with the pre turned off. So I use it when I don't want to alter the sound at all except for the EQ move.

[@NickLAnderson]

🙏🏼

[@PJ-uv6ve]

I would have added Fabfilter Pro Q3 and C2, izotope Ozone 10, sounds toys decapitator

[@ManchesterMusic]

Nice but to be fair I don’t use FF stuff all the time so it would be disingenuous

[@BuenoLaidley]

Can you a comparison between Ozone 10 Stabilizer module vs Gullfoss?

[@j-station]

In the past Ozone has been set to industry based targets and Gulfoss kinda does its own thing. That may have changed with Ozone 10 though

[@russelledwards2405]

I think he literally made a video that compares soother, Gulfoss and Stabilizer

[@ManchesterMusic]

But I didn't compare Stabilizer as it hadn't been public yet. I used Sculptor which uses similar tech as Stabilizer. Maybe one day I'll update the video .

[@russelledwards2405]

@@ManchesterMusic thanks for clarification. That was the video I was referring to. Was the Baby audio Smooth included in that?

[@TokyoSpeirs]

I EQ into Sculptor constantly, maybe my most used izotope plugin!

[@lukasjusys]

The light on your right looks like coconut

[@ManchesterMusic]

You got me…

[@lukasjusys]

@Manchester Music 🙂 I mean in a good sense. Looks cozy. Reminds me a song: Coconut is a giant nut...

[@murraywebster1228]

Sonible plugins? They will really open your ears and eyes

[@samsilver7160]

Pls can you give me the old mac book pro 2013

[@samsilver7160]

Pls can you go e me the old mac book pro 2013 I don't have any mac to practice with

[@ManchesterMusic]

If you’re serious you can email me at [e-mail]

[@samsilver7160]

Thanks for replying me I just sent you an email

[@RommelCold]

Respect from Russia !!!

[@ManchesterMusic]

Hi Russia!

[@gh0stransist0r]

Try this free EQ plugin for high end : Voxengo TEQ-421

[@dnabeatz]

Gullfoss

[@allboyshatebras]

Is that a Bad Snacks backing track?

[@ManchesterMusic]

Most definitely

[@roadopener]

What about gulfoss tho

[@ManchesterMusic]

I've given Gulfoss a long, extensive test drive and I'm still not as enamoured with it as other options. That might change down the road though!

[@Stilhedmusic]

Sonnox dynamic EQ

[@DSWL_]

👋✨

[@SandNigah]

👍

[@NoQualmsTheArtist]

Soup to nuts 🤔

[@ManchesterMusic]

?

[@NoQualmsTheArtist]

@@ManchesterMusic I don't know either, you said it in the beginning of the video 🤣

[@ManchesterMusic]

@@NoQualmsTheArtist It's an expression in English. From beginning to end; From the first course of a meal to the last.

[@vipuldive6091]

💐🙏💐