My Top 10 Plugins of 2023!

Featured plugins are linked below!
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Song during the mastering section: fanlink.tv/sonicboom-ifidieto...
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★ THE PLUGINS ★
This video was not sponsored by anyone but I do have affiliate links with Plugin Boutique, which is a shop that carries lots of plugins, including some of the ones I chose.
Tomofon www.pluginboutique.com/produc...
Iridescence dillonbastan.com/store/maxfor...
data.train dillonbastan.com/store/maxfor...
Transit babyaud.io/transit
Filtron polyversemusic.com/products/f...
Thump One www.toyboxaudio.com/pages/thu...
Silencer www.pluginboutique.com/produc...
Life www.pluginboutique.com/produc...
7DeadlySnares www.pluginboutique.com/produc...
Master Plan www.musikhack.com/
Objekt www.pluginboutique.com/manufa...
Current www.minimal.audio/products/cu...
Random www.pluginboutique.com/produc...
Synplant 2 soniccharge.com/synplant2
★ SPECIAL THANKS TO ALL MY TOP PATRONS ★
Jacob Grigg
elxnce
Nick Riggs
Kolé Beeson
Oriol Ribera
JAMIyin Y
James Dai
Russ Creech
Patrice Breton
Gnare
rd1994
Ada Lündhé
florencia la rica
Conjurer of the Magistus
Tim Koulaev
Daniel Coleman
Tobias Gurdan
-
Chapters
0:00 Intro
0:21 Honorable mention 1
1:37 Honorable mention 2
2:51 Honorable mention 3
4:28 10 - Excellent free filter
6:25 9 - Free envelope-focused synth
7:29 8 - Game changer for live drums
9:19 7 - Quantum leap for sampled beats
11:05 6 - Randomizable snare engines
13:03 5 - One-stop mastering chain
17:31 4 - The best physical modeling synth
19:26 3 & 2 tie - Big synth of the year
21:57 3 & 2 tie - Aggro/metallic focused synth
24:20 1 - Synth that recreates samples
If you're new here, my name is Andrew Huang and I'm a musician who works with many genres and many instruments - and I've also made music with many things that aren't instruments like balloons, pants, water, and dentist equipment. For more info visit my website: andrewhuang.com
You can also stream and download my 40+ albums and EPs at andrewhuang.bandcamp.com or check out my other videos at / andrewhuang
Thanks for watching today and a big hug to you if you share this video with someone!

[@andrewhuang]

Let me know if I missed any!! Also have you pre-ordered my book yet? 💖 andrewhuang.com/book

[@Imboredwithmylife]

I love your channel, andrew!!

[@iskandergonzalez5810]

The current link its leading to a kontak instrument with the same name

[@CatFish107]

Should have said you are sponsoring it yourself, with yah own plugin. *flex* thanks for all the cool insights, tips and tricks, and entertainment over the year.

[@werecomingforyou9041]

VPS Avenger 2 is absolutely nuts. Def check it out if you havent!

[@_DRMR_]

Have you played with Cardinal yet? ;) (and I mean the modular, not the EQ plugin)

[@KoreanWizard]

James Blake reaching out is so dope, you should get him on one of the producer vs sample videos, he's been in the beat making/producing scene for sooo long

[@QuentinLamerand]

It’s a huge honor to be a part of this list, being one of the Beatsurfing developers, and a big fan of your channel (I even bought your online course).

[@MFGH0ST]

Beatsurfing got heat 🔥 Can’t wait for your future plugs

[@andrewhuang]

fantastic work!!

[@Yosser70]

Great work man! Been playing with Beatfader and loving it 👍🏻 Picked up a controller with 4 midi sliders, so much fun 👌

[@iamYork_]

​@@Yosser70was actually looking for a specific controller for beatfader. Which one did you go with?

[@malegria9641]

@@TXWVeven if you don’t get it or they don’t update it, remember that limitations breed creativity!

[@MusikHack]

Andrew, this is awesome! We appreciate you trying out Master Plan. Honored to have made the list!!

[@andrewhuang]

it's so great! thanks for everything you do

[@jingleball2427]

As a keyboard player/dj who wants to get into music production, mastering is the most intimidating part for me and this plugin gives me some confidence.

[@blacksaltaudio]

Thanks Andrew! The entire team was stoked to see that Silencer made the list. Keep up the great work.

[@steven.youngson]

Transition is my favourite plugin of the year. I have used it 99% on random mode only. I automate a transition where I want it, put it on loop and hit random until I like it. Genius level plugin

[@DerekHardwick]

I'm not really a musician, but what I love so much about all of these plugins is that it gives me serious late 90s computer vibes in that there is just SO MUCH experimentation with UI going on. I'm getting heavy Winamp feels whenever I watch someone use these tools.

[@lukehereart]

Im barely a muscian, but i am a designer for web and apps, and music hardware and daw plugin ui design is always so so fun for me to look at and draw inspiration from. The experimentation and willingness to try new things is so far removed from typical software design its the best thing ever.

[@WangleLine]

The blob/matter synth sounds so cool, holy shit

[@vekst]

Synplant 2 is absolutely insane, nice to see that it was your #1

[@Kjelteman]

Damn Transit really got robbed with that honorable mention 😂 Seriously though, Transit was exactly everything I needed to finish my improv EDM rig, thank you so much Andrew. Cant believe how i have 7 Transits running without my 10yo cpu shitting the bed

[@djvictornova9188]

What i love about this channel is that its not a Copy and Past type of channel .. Thx Andrew for theses great top 10...

[@slash196]

This video sold master plan to me, literally. I'd watched other reviews and gone back and forth but this made clear how badly i need it.

[@JJLYKES]

This guy is single handedly getting me back into music production after 12 years of disillusionment.

[@my_wife_is_alive]

glad ur going back to it❤

[@Caelo_music]

woah a lot of new plug-ins I missed this year, but great to see Objekt in the list. Really amazing physical modelling at work there. Love it.

[@linus.catch.the.sinus.1022]

I love Transit!! It’s really awesome how quick you can make interesting transitions ❤ thanks for that!!

[@TheWinstonConnor]

Thank you, this is the first good review I’ve seen of random, definitely gonna pick that up while it’s still on sale

[@klevgrand]

Thanks for featuring Tomofon!! Keep up the great work 🫶

[@hamacaboy]

Ive loved andrews content all year. Awesome!

[@carterricher]

Everytime a vid like this comes out my bank account hates me

[@danielparkermusic]

I know I shouldn't be watching this

[@tiffanyanthony]

Same!

[@xeridian]

Grats on the Colab. I found Transit last week and it reminded me of the Super knob on my Yamaha Montage 7, but in a plugin. Thought it was absolutely Genius, and I'm very picky about what Plugins I spend my time with. It's the best Modulation toolbox I've ever seen. Then today I stumble upon your channel, ("They're Listening") you get a sub and Transit will be the next Plugin I purchase. 🤟🤖🤟

[@regojozsa]

I think speldosa by klevgrand also deserves a lot of attention, definitely recommend it for that Wintergatan music box sound

[@Vacated204]

RANDOM gotta be in every neuro/dnb makers kit for sure. Cool basses outta that one

[@Vacated204]

im gonna buy it lol. if you buy rn on his link you get to choose another free plugin! im goin with Dawesome LOVE

[@Vacated204]

I bought it. Really good for cool intros where you want basses to be reverbed and low passed. Can't find a good way to implement it into a main bass at the moment, but great for evil atmosphere building

[@Vacated204]

ok, great for resampling into cooler basses for fills and stuff. Makes some real cool glitchy stuff if you swap through the presets or drag around the matrix fluid while you're recording it

[@r2beat2taylor35]

It’s crazy I knew synth plant was gonna be number 1 , it’s so amazing

[@PeteBarta]

It worked. I preordered your book. Also you're great - you make the world better. Thanks

[@mattzotti1579]

Look forward to this series every year❤

[@vrapitfire]

Bro you have no idea how mind blown I am… these are some amazing plugs. I’m definitely taking a deep dive into most of these. Thanks G

[@enricopersia4290]

The sounds made by the blob are just out of this world. If you make it play just by clicking I feel like years of pc gaming will pay off

[@Windiguana]

Honestly feel the same way when drawing in precise automation points lol

[@von_Apa]

Great that you have found Klevgrand! ❤ They have the most exciting tools with interfaces for musicians to grip. You don’t have to ber a super tech guy to have great use of them! They are just really clever!!

[@hedlund]

Best believe I'm trying quite a few. Excellent tips as usual, thanks!

[@AirborneAshes]

the loudspeaker model function on the master plan (and the whole plugin in general) looks so helpful

[@b0d0p33t3rs]

Yeah, sort of was waiting for Synthplant 2 do hit the #1 spot. Thanks for the run, things are cooking up!

[@Audiomuscle]

Definitely Reason's Objekt is great, but the plugin that really belongs on the list is the entire Reason Rack Plugin. So powerful and useful, it's a modular/FX/instrument/processing Swiss army knife beast.

[@lolilollolilol7773]

Bitwig also has an entire modular synth included in its full version, and it interacts with every part of the software. And it sounds amazing as well.

[@xdarkrobx]

​@@lolilollolilol7773Bitwig is not a plugin.

[@crnkmnky]

​@@xdarkrobx It still costs less than access to Reason Rack. 😸

[@emmeffell]

Thank you so much for making this video, I ended up buying Transit and Master Plan because of you, the rest are sooooooo cool though

[@Simrasil_]

wow there's some really cool stuff in here I hadn't heard of before, definitely gonna check some of them out

[@ShallieDragon]

Synplant has been a favorite of mine for years, and seeing it get an upgrade just makes me love it even more. It's 10x more versatile than it's ever been. It's SO DAMN COOL.

[@werecomingforyou9041]

I cant believe theres no love for Avenger 2 from Vengeance! I wasn't aware of a lot of these cool plugins, though. Awesome video!

[@paradoxic1888]

Exactly, here's a synth that can do just about anything yet so few are the wiser. I think it's a secret weapon for many top producers though.

[@jae-jeromestovell5072]

Couldn't agree more! Most use for EDM, but play around with it and it can happily sit in just about ANY genre! Love it!

[@5o5kY]

loved this video, thank you

[@TheStudioDrummer]

Love the track playing during the mastering demo.👊

[@andrewhuang]

Thanks! It's on streaming if you're interested :) fanlink.to/sonicboom-ifidietonight

[@wa2k360]

Appreciate you not shilling in this video and being honest in the intro.

[@luisnsueondo1291]

Thanx for doing what u do!

[@lincolnall89]

Andrew- if you see this you gotta check out the oxford drum gate for gating drums. Works similar to silencer but it has fine control over the decay and a leveler section- seems like it has a lot more control to it.

[@AndreasTsachidis]

Guys, just use sonible smart:gate 😉thank me later

[@Ashragi]

I've recently gotten back into making music after a *looong* time away, this list is a really cool place to start at seeing what's new. Life was definitely the standout here, that's one of the coolest things I've ever seen. Not even in terms of lazy producing but just like....I got song ideas off of the random loop it created there. That's an amazingly cool and powerful plugin

[@stereoDecor]

Thump one's sounds and envelopes immediately reminded me of a veeeery old soft drum synth called Stomper 😁 it was way before VST plugins became popular

[@woodybob01]

As a distortion, saturation, and anything like that in-general lover. Filtron looks awesome. Paused the video and downloaded that one immediately! Watching the rest now lol

[@pongtrometer]

SYNPLANT 2 is a beast, I even record the sound generation sounds, super organic. Thanks for Demonstrating RANDOM, I didn’t realise it was a synth, I thought it was a sound processor that mangled the input sound in that metallic industrial tone, gonna give that miss.

[@bassjane1732]

Thanks for the Inspiration

[@tonedef71]

Andrew, "If I Die Tonight" is a fire track. I love the moments of "Def Leppard" vibes I hear in it.

[@VEsound]

Interesting plugins I didn't know on your selection Andrew, thanks

[@KordTaylor]

A great group of choices. 👏🏻

[@paddy8391]

Good on you Andrew, great videos.

[@Phlip45]

I've been having a ton of fun with Midinous. Not a plugin, but a virtual midi device that lets you "program" music.

[@macronencer]

Saw that one on Benn Jordan's channel and I loved the idea. In fact, I'd already written some software to do some of that kind of thing myself - but Midinous is a much more powerful and generalised tool than what I wrote. I must take a look at it properly some day soon. Thanks for reminding me!

[@shoop4040]

My goodness, in my early teens and into my 20's I messed around with punk bands here in the Bay Area northern California.- It was fun, eventually, I was lucky to watch Huey Lewis and the News record their sports album and was able to hang out with Carlos Santana for a weekend. Then you know you grow up have a family and earn a check for the man. Now in my mid 50's trying new things. Bought an arturia controller just messing around not knowing much- But Dam that transit plug-in sure looks cool- It will be a gift for me this Xmas- Long time subscriber.

[@jayroebuck]

Bought two of these! Awesome list.

[@dubiousgloom]

Transit is really amazing! Next week I'm releasing a first track where I've used it for risers/drops. But you can use it in so many ways just for stable fx and audio manipulation as well.

[@tapeexperiments]

yay! free stuff! Silencer sounds rad and the Life beat generator?! 🖤🖤🖤

[@JayVucci]

Not seen you for ages. Surprised you’ve gone with that hair. Happy holidays!

[@SeanofAllTrades]

My top 10 is everything from Analog Obsession. Free analog emulation plugins that are all fantastic.

[@scarcat2469]

I would’ve loved this video before Black Friday 😭😭

[@jacobvig0]

Would love to see more Osmose stuff and mpe software

[@gabeleneveu]

The color transfer bundle is incredible :)

[@DoYouDJ]

Thanks Master Plan sounds dope will have to check it out.

[@SpaceyBlurr]

Thanks for showing me the Filtron, trying it out now. Wow it's really CPU intensive

[@jamelzer0]

Transit is dope. It’s a staple in my productions now.

[@antoineschillemans]

love transit Andrew! greetz from Amsterdam!

[@myceliumbug]

nice to see that plug in at top1 is very crazy and fun!

[@wizzyforeverr]

You gotta drop these vids the week before black friday haha

[@rez9159]

Fully agree with the number one. Genopatch and the seed function is so fun to use. I instantly lost 20+ hours in a few days and generated tons of presets. Hadn't that much fun with a new synth for a while.

[@willowsparks4576]

My top (free) plugin of the year is Basslane - it reduces the stereo width of the frequencies under a variable number and it clears up mixes so well :)

[@DarkTrapStudio]

I use the Ableton multiband compressor on single band mode in downward expansion to debleed, work great

[@TerenceKearns]

Dude, that was an epic year in review for notable plugins. Now i want to acqire all of them lol 😂

[@DinoSvanhvit]

Good stuff!👍

[@puresoulg]

#4-5-6 is for drums sounds and processing is🔥🔥

[@QuantumKatmusic]

Synplant 2 is amazing , it's great for creating new sounds, also for making your own drums, and it's nice that there's multiple ways of doing it, you got the first screen that has this weird...organic looking vine thing that morphs the audio in a way that Is a bit confusing for me right now, then the sample re creating page of it that lets you turn samples into instruments, I'm always surprised with at least 1 or 2 of the outcomes , as for the morph tree, it's scary and I don't mess with it lol

[@dayzrustream]

Did find couple great plugins, thanks! Got absolutely lost in affiliate links after XD

[@safaripedals]

WE LOVE MASTERPLAN!

[@birdsiview6845]

SYNplant2 is freaking awesome. And it literally creates like 2 dozen new sounds every time it tries to emulate a sound.

[@JoseGRendons]

Excellent recommendations Andrew! thank you!, Your song "If I die Tonight" reminded me of a great band named Stabbing Westward, If you don't know them yet, please go and listen to them, they are great as your song, your song is amazing!

[@ChCarnix]

cheers Andrew. Really need to get Synplant. Every time I see it demo'd, I know I gotta have it

[@birdsiview6845]

Current is really super cool! I do like what they’ve done with the cloud option. You still have your own free will though, use it or don’t .

[@LSFprepper]

When's the next 4 producers 1 sample? I really love those colabs!

[@hamacaboy]

I bought life and its amazing. Thanks soooo much

[@Taylor370z]

That Beatsurfing synth is like a Noisia patch maker wtf lol

[@tibbarnogard8404]

The filtron recommedation is perfect! I've been looking for a software effect that does audio-rate modulation! It's my favorite thing to do on modular synths and I've been hankering for something that just *works* in software. (Theres VCV rack and Max, but VCV rack frankly requires a lot of work to sound good and Max is to big brain for me at the moment.) I hope phaseplant or something ends up integrating audio-rate modulation.

[@foodstampz]

So happy to be part of this ..🎉🎉😊😊

[@SoundAuthor]

I'm not an Ableton user, but Dillon Bastan's M4L creations make me wish I was. I really hope he develops his own plugins one day.

[@gscottanthony7483]

5:05 ✨✨✨ I will shake myself into your pocket Invisible Do what you want

[@reserviorsound]

super cool you put dillon on here - i was lucky enough to beta test divisions

[@mr.dikkens]

Woah! Those sounds from Random are crazy, but that blob interface kinda looks like a tumor😅🙈

[@_leivo]

I was using Master Plan for a bit but then I discovered Smart Limit and I have to say, they work similarly but Smart Limit sounds so much better!

[@bonsaibloom]

12:46 lmao u were exactly right with the garbage can lid analogy haha

[@Anurag_Hansda]

I loved 9-Thump One and 7-life by XLN auidio. Extra-universal audio fabfulter and gullfoss

[@Blutzen]

The entire time you were playing with #3/2 (Beatsurfing's Random) all I could think about was that viral TikTok that was like "the perfect audio if you have ADHD" and was just the sound of laser rust removal

[@thomasfokas]

I’m loving Current over the past few weeks, and I already have PP, Pigments, Serum, etc…

[@laurentc1129]

My 'I need this' weakness is out of control... Thank you Andrew 😅

[@macronencer]

Great list, and there are some very talented developers out there! I absolutely loved the idea of Tomofon and I bought it a few months ago. Unfortunately I haven't had time yet to really put it through its paces and use it to the full. I'm convinced it has amazing potential though. I did use one of the presets on a track, but I've yet to experiment with my own sounds. XLN Life is a brilliant idea too... but I believe the sequencer is still limited to 4/4? This is the reason I never bought XO. I wish manufacturers would allow for other time signatures. Synplant 2 is unique. I already have some ideas for what to do with it, and it is one of my three shopping list items for 2024. The other two are a bass guitar and a Korg 2600M :)

[@martinezdecap]

I want a bass guitar so badly as well

[@ns3429]

3:10 "Galen" in swedish means "Crazy". And yes, it´s a crazy plugin that has helped me so much!

[@PendelSteven]

Thanks a lot!

[@Shdnfncidjen]

Lovin the hair my dude

[@optimistic.cephalopod]

im loving the hair and fit in this video

[@GargoyleMODE]

These are all great plugins but the 2 I've made the best music with this year are definitely Transit and Current