Seriously is there any difference between free plugins and paid ones?

[kratos]

I mean i can achieve the same results with any free compresser, limiter, equaliser VST than any expensive UNiversal Audio or Waves plugins.
SO is there any difference? Except that free plugins take a lot of cpu and dont look quite good (design wise) yes i know theyre the bad points.

 

[gcapel]

I would say the difference is going to be in the controls or parameters and quality. Same deal with the VST instuments.

 

[kratos]

I would say the difference is going to be in the controls or parameters and quality. Same deal with the VST instuments.

Yh but the free compressors have the exact same settings. It does the exact same thing mathematically as the paid ones.

 

[TripleM]

At your level of experience? No there's no substantial difference. My sense is your results with them won't be much different from one to the other. At a professional level? Different question.

 

[gcapel]

Yh but the free compressors have the exact same settings. It does the exact same thing mathematically as the paid ones.

Ok... then why did you ask the question? How do you know it does the same thing mathematically? Did you look over the shoulder of the people that developed both plug-ins? Can you not hear the difference between the two? Or is it that you need some justification for using free plug-ins?

 

[kratos]

At your level of experience? No there's no substantial difference. My sense is your results with them won't be much different from one to the other. At a professional level? Different question.

What about the plugins which come free with the DAW like in LOgic? IS there any difference between those and waves?

 

[Bristol Posse]

Many of the paid VST FX (Waves and UAD etc) are endorsed emulations of real analog Gear, Waves and UAD, for example, both have SSL Channel strip, EQ and compressor, or an 1176 or LA2A compressor, Fairchild and so on. These attempt to not just mathematically represent what a compressor, EQ etc does but also emulate the Euphinic distortion that these particular pieces of gear introduce to the signal that many find pleasing.
Given that the UAD and Waves emulations of the same SSL, 1176, LA2A etc models do not sound the same as each other (or exactly like the gear they are emulating either) it's unlikely they sound the same as other VSTs paid or free.

Since most plugins offer free trials (UAD needs a UAD DSP card, and waves and several others require an iLok, however) you can try them out and see which ones you like and if you like the difference between the free and paid VSTs. If you like what the paid ones offer then it's worth it if you don't then it's not. There are great paid and free VSTs and there are Lousy paaid and free VSTs too.

 

[Massive Master]

What about the plugins which come free with the DAW like in LOgic? IS there any difference between those and waves?

Put it this way -- If you can't get the job done with stock plugs, it's not the plugin's fault.

There are some bad sounding plugs out there -- Cheap, free, expensive and otherwise. There are some exceptional plugs out there also -- Same thing. Some are freeware, some are quite pricey.

 

[Moseph]

Yh but the free compressors have the exact same settings. It does the exact same thing mathematically as the paid ones.

One thing that maybe is getting overlooked is that "same settings" do not necessarily mean "same results." While it's true that the controls might cause similar behavior, there may be little differences in design that are important. This is not, by the way, an endorsement that any particular plugin will sound better/worse because of these design choices.

For instance, consider the detection algorithm of a compressor plugin. You probably have some amount of "knee" setting, and the input audio's amplitude is moving above/below your threshold many times per second. In other words, you might be spending a lot of time transitioning between compressed and uncompressed audio.

So what do you do in the "transition" ranges? Is it an immediate crossover to the compressed sound? Is there some sort of weighted average between the compressed and uncompressed sounds? Do you have a special compression algorithm during these transition periods? Do you have distinct algorithms for when you're passing the threshold on the way up/down?

Lots of little decisions like that can make a big difference in the way two different plugins sound/behave, even if they have the exact same settings on the knobs.

 

[kcearl]

there are some great free plug ins, Kjaerhus Audio springs to mind...and some great vsts that come with many daws...in fact i think its the quality of plugins that drive the price of certain DAWs, not their actual recording capabilities..

I own a few paid for ones...a liquid bundle from nomad and a de la mancha bundle..they are both excellent, but the ones with sonar and ableton that i own are just as good, if a bit different in character


Id be more worried about recording quality than having the most expensive/best plug ins...I hope one day to record a track than doesnt need any...quite a bit off yet

 

[IndustrialOkie]

Yh but the free compressors have the exact same settings. It does the exact same thing mathematically as the paid ones.

My personal rule of thumb;

I generally try not to ask a question, then jump on the first person who is kind enough to answer it.

 

[panithard]

Hey I've been going over this same thing. I have all the plugins that came with garageband but am thinking about getting a waves package. I can't afford their expensive stuff but saw this and am thinking about it - http://www.waves.com/content.aspx?id=9064

Is it worth it? Do you need to get one of the bigger packages or will this still be a big step up from garageband?

 

[moresound]

Not to long ago someone posted a long list of free plug ins.
I can't find it right off hand but if you use the search button up at the top of the page and devote a few minutes to the search you'll find more plug ins than you'll need.

 

[mshilarious]

The gap has shrunk quite a lot. In 2005, the answer to your question was pretty obvious, but freeware developers have definitely closed the gap to commercial plugs of that era. More recent commercial plugs are probably still ahead of freeware, but for example with UA, I don't have a UAD-2, so I can't use some of their most recent sexy stuff. Their older plugs they haven't updated, which they really need to because with some of them there are flaws that are quite obvious. Of the ones I have, I would consider the Fairchild, 1176LN, LA2A, LA3A, and Pultec (as well as all of their stock plugs) to have been surpassed by the best freeware stuff, but the EMT140, Precision Limiter, Maximizer, Multiband are still really good.