TIPS & TRICKS for plug-ins

[NigelVonLlama]

Found some free plugins that were just fun as hell to mess around with. KingDubby Delay sounded pretty cool on backing vocals. Channel2 and Channel 3 both sounded cool as preamp emulators. W1 Limiter was pretty clean, made it easy to get a loud mix. For buss groups, I've tried using Channel2 into the W1, then eq. Made the mix more pleasing to my ears.

Anyone else have any free AU plugins that have yielded good results?

[Dags]

The one thing I can't believe with all the versions there have been of Logic is that there is not a correctly implemented downward expander (you know; threshold, ratio, range & (importantly) rate controls). The Logic Expander plugin seems to be an upward expander which doesn't help with creating fade-outs of sine waves under kicks - using a gate just chops the sound under the threshold to the determined attenuation value.
I reckon if E-Magic was still the development company it would have been included in V8.
Does anyone know of an AU format expander plugin that is not Protools-specific?
Cheers all
Dags

[Justsomeguy]

Anyone else have any free AU plugins that have yielded good results?

The Massey Tapehead is well worth a download. I love it on drum busses and sometimes on distorted guitars. I also use the Brainworx Cleansweep a fair amount (it's totally free but you have to register with the plugin alliance and register it). I went through a stage of trying all the free plugs that looked cool and when i moved over to my new MBP i ditched all the ones that i just didn't use to tidy things up a bit.

Although not free, the Stillwell plugs are awesome; free to try for an unlimited amount of time, and dirt cheap to buy if/when you're ready to do so.

And Dags, i wish i could suggest something but i've never seen a downward expander plugin for free for logic. tbf, i only found two free noise gates and they were both awful in comparison to logics built in one. The closest thing i've gotten to creating a kinda faded out sinewave under a kick was using the standard gate but setting the hysteresis to -20 and then playing with the release time. it's not ideal and it's not perfect but it did help fade it out rather than just chop it off.

[Dags]

And Dags, i wish i could suggest something but i've never seen a downward expander plugin for free for logic. tbf, i only found two free noise gates and they were both awful in comparison to logics built in one. The closest thing i've gotten to creating a kinda faded out sinewave under a kick was using the standard gate but setting the hysteresis to -20 and then playing with the release time. it's not ideal and it's not perfect but it did help fade it out rather than just chop it off.

Thanks mate. Looks like I keep doing the manual fade on one sample and copy-paste it to thousands of others!

[JG96]

Here is a tip for isolation on toms and kick without the sound of a gate. First duplicate the track that you want to work with.
One Track 1 put a LPF with a gentle slope starting at around 500 hz.
On track 2 put a HPF with the same slope starting at around 500 hz.
Now Gate track 1, I only do around 8db of gain reduction on the gate.
Gate track 2 with a sidechain on track 1, on this track you can have a much faster release time and more gain reduction as it is predominantly attack.
After you can bounce the tracks together or work with them independently.
Putting a little bit of envelope on the high frequency track can be cool.
Hope this helps you guys!

[Dags]

Interesting process, JG96.
I'll have to give this a try to find out how it will sound.

[JG96]

Thanks Dags! I discovered the technique on gearslutz, so you can read about more there Loud Toms without Cymbal Bleed Trick. - Gearslutz.com I discovered the envelope is a good addition. It is definitely more subtle than a gate.