The Essential Free Plug-In Toolbox.

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Somelsewhere

New member
well, for starters, I'm hoping such a thing exists.

I know that the cumulative time of this forum that has been devoted to finding awesome plug-ins would probably outstrip my own potential lifetime, so I guess I'm here hoping to reap the benefits.
After seeing Harvey post this amazing beaut' http://www.izotope.com/products/audio/vinyl/ ,
I'm holding out that the veteran sound engineers here have their own collection of free-ware that they can't imagine looking back from,
please share.... I'm willing to beg.

Most specifically, a rival reverb plug-in to the Lexicon one that came with my Lambda (as it is restricted to the cubaseLE), would be most appreciated.
 
Somelsewhere said:
thanks man, great resource. do you know of a particular, recommended reverb plug?
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While it can be argued that the phrase "recommended reverb plug" is almost as oxymoronic as the phrase "essential free plug-in" (;):D), if you have to go the free plug-in reverb route, you could do a lot worse than the following:

"Ambience" by Magnus is a fairly good self-contained reverb plug with a lot of dial-in flexibility.

"SIR" by Christian K. is an impulse response modeling reverb that uses impulse models from real hardware reverbs and spaces. The impulses are available separately (check out www.noisevault.com for these); there are some very good impulse libraries out there, among which many of them modeling the Eventide 3000 & 4000, Lexicon 960, and TC Electronics 5000 & 6000 reverbs sound quite good. Also some good Kurzweil impluses out there.

G.
 
Somelsewhere said:
Is the Lexicon plug-in really worth its self-hype?
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The real life Lexicon hardware are worth the hype. They're favorites among the Big Boy studios all over.

When it comes to these plug-ins mentioned, the plugs themselves are not actually made by Lexicon. The way they work is that independent studios/engineers take a Lexicon reverb, run a transient impulse through them and record the wet reverb result. This impulse recording is then used as a "template" for third-party impulse modelers such as SIR to model.

The methods and gear used to record these impulse results vary, and so the modelers themselves, and so does the quality, but in general the good ones can return pretty impressive-sounding results. Not quite the same as the real Lexicon (or other brand), and usually not quite as good, but usually worthwhile nonetheless.

As is always the case with any reverb - modeled or not - the real make-or-break is choosing the right reverb sound for each mix, regardless of which actual plug you use. Even a real Lexicon is not going to serve your mix well if you choose a soaking wet large hall effect when what your mix really needs is just a little mid-sized warm ambiance (for example).

G.
 
Hmmm, I see.
Is this feeling of warming knowledge, even as quaint as it is as of now, what I get to look forward to in the realm of sound engineering? It really is arcane in its own right, hah.
Thanks again Glen.
 
Somelsewhere said:
Hmmm, I see.
Is this feeling of warming knowledge, even as quaint as it is as of now, what I get to look forward to in the realm of sound engineering? It really is arcane in its own right, hah.
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LOL, more likely what you have to look forward to is hours upon hours of oscillating between tears and adrenaline, frustration and excitement, disappointment and joy. The real trick is getting enough of the positive benefits to make the negative costs worthwhile, and to have enough of a love for the music to cause you to persevere but not so much as to cause you to try to take things too far too fast.

In other words it's like being with a woman...except without the sex.

Which I guess makes it just like marriage...

:D

G.
 
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