I swore I would never create this sort of post.
There are a lot of plugins out there. And there are plenty of websites reminding us all the time about the expensive plugins we “should” use.
It used to be the Waves plugins everyone insisted we should own. These days you can’t go anywhere online without someone jocking the UAD stuff!
You can burn a hole in your pocket pretty quickly chasing that “secret weapon” for your Projects.
And it can be a shaming experience for us home studio owners. Everywhere you turn we’re reminded that we don’t have the right stuff for great music. That we have:
- The wrong preamps
- The wrong DAW
- The wrong microphones
- The wrong interface/converters
It takes a disciplined soul to not get swept up in the plugin arms race.
Which is why I promised myself that I would never create this sort of post.
WLPR is all about how Logic Pro has everything you need to crank out great music. Many forum lurkers will tell you otherwise, but LPX is amazing.
So I promised myself WLPR would only focus on LPX’s amazing set of features.
Funny thing is though, many readers ask me to share my recommendations for 3rd party plugins.
I put off the request for a while. But in a recent survey I emailed, readers asking for 3rd party recommendations was significant.
So I took the bait. In today’s post I share my top 4 desert island 3rd party plugins. These are the plugins I’ve been using for a while now, and I seriously couldn’t imagine living without them.
These 4 plugins have withstood the test of time. Whereas I’ve spent thousands on plugins I don’t use ever. These 4 are in every session for one single reason:
They make my mixing life significantly easier and faster.
Enjoy! Next week we’ll return to our regularly scheduled program all about why Logic Pro rules 🙂
Sonarworks is the greatest plugin investment I’ve ever made….glad that one made the list! “Reference” is also an extremely helpful plugin – another good mention!
On a more subtle level I’d be very sad (although by no means lost) to be without Slate VCC. I just find that it always gives my static mix a nice lift – I think it’s Slates most unique plugin
I do enjoy all my third party compressors but Logics compressor is very capable for a lot of jobs
Good video….good choices
So glad you dug my plugin choices Eric 🙂
Slate’s VCC is pretty freaking awesome. Like you said, by no means lost without it. But it does add a nice touch of vibe to the mix.
I do agree I am trying use Logic Pro X plugins
but For me in my 50’s I will never have the money for a treated room and I live in a very quite apartment so speakers are not a option
So headphones are the only way for me to mix
So I read and heard a lot about 3d mixing plug ins
And was not impressed
I am soon this week I am going to try land download the free trial
Of this
Nx – Virtual Mix Room over Headphones
https://www.waves.com/plugins/nx?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIr_fK05-T4QIV5B-tBh0HjwAGEAQYAiABEgLaofD_BwE
And if I like it I will wait for a sale on Black Friday
Has anyone herd or try this yet ?
This is what they claim
“Want to create great mixes but don’t have an acoustically perfect room? Need to mix on the road? This plugin recreates the acoustics of a high-end studio inside your headphones, so you can make great mixing decisions anytime, anywhere.”
“Best of all, Nx does all this without coloring your sound or introducing any artifacts. What you hear is your mix, exactly the way you want it to sound – only now you have a more accurate way to monitor it on headphones.
Finally, Nx includes a Headphone EQ calibration feature, allowing you to select a correction EQ curve for specific headphone models. Based on precision headphone measurement data provided by http://www.headphone.com, the Nx EQ curves are designed to balance out any extreme features in the frequency response, correcting them toward a common frequency balance and providing a more transparent starting point for monitoring and mixing.”
I agree with you Brian. I’ve NEVER had success mixing on headphones. Tried out the Waves Nx, but didn’t find it all it was cracked up to be.
Check out Sonarworks’ Reference. There’s a Headphone version you can demo. You can pick out the caliberation file from their library for your particular headphone model. This should remove any coloration your headphones have when you mix.