6 Most EXPENSIVE Plugins I Own 💰 | Are They Worth It?
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- Опубликовано: 31 май 2024
- There are a lot of great free plugins out there, but what about the most expensive plugins on the market?
Plugins Featured:
UVI Falcon ► www.uvi.net/falcon
Kilohearts PhasePlant ► bit.ly/2S7dZZP
Arturia V Collection ► bit.ly/3h9h7NI
Modartt Pianoteq ► www.modartt.com/pianoteq
iZotope Ozone ► bit.ly/3t1Xf4X
Cherry Audio Voltage Modular ► bit.ly/3vgF1zd
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▼▼▼TIMESTAMPZ:▼▼▼
0:00 Howdy
0:42 Unison Sucks
1:23 UVI Falcon
2:22 Falcon Sound Demos
7:26 Is Falcon Worth It?
8:52 Kilohearts PhasePlant
10:00 PhasePlant Sound Demos
13:03 Is PhasePlant Worth It?
14:14 Arturia V Collection
15:09 V Collection Sound Demos
22:58 Is V Collection Worth It?
24:48 Modartt Pianoteq 7
26:00 Pianoteq Sound Demos
30:32 Is Pianoteq Worth It?
32:06 iZotope Ozone 9 Advanced
33:04 Ozone 9 Demo
35:58 Is Ozone 9 Worth It?
38:00 Cherry Audio Voltage Modular
39:40 Voltage Modular Sound Demos
43:36 Is Voltage Modular Worth It?
44:55 Closing Thoughts
Stay classy!
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#musicproduction #plugins #vstplugins 
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What's your most expensive plugin? Was it worth it? 🤔
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Most expensive plug ins for me? The Arturia collection. I got v7 on sale for like $250. It's fine. I use it a lot. Second most expensive? GForce M-TRON. I paid about $150 for it years ago. It is THE BEST Mellotron emulator - blows Arturia's out of the water, not even close. I use lotsa Tron, and it's worth every dime.
Otherwise, I'm a big advocate for Free / low cost Stuff.
I'm surprised you put Voltage Modular there, when VCV Rack is free and IMHO just as good. Cheers!
Omnisphere. It wasn't worth it and I sold it. Biggest loss as well, paid $500 and only got $300 back in pocket after transfer fee.
Omnisphere was one of the most expensive plugins that I‘ve bought and it’s totally worth it. And it constantly gets better with new features and improvements of current features.
@@underwatersunlight3795 to each their own, as they say :)
@@BappinProductions Absolutely! I didn't even see your comment when I wrote mine. :D
Unison is an absolute abomination. Its so insane how they shut down any form of criticism. Thank you for adressing them!
Glad it's still sneaked in in the timestamps at least, lol
I'm a retired film re recording mixer and the Ozone plug ins are outstanding for " repairing " location dialog problems . Ironically , and you'll think I'm crazy , one of my favorite plug ins in the ancient Waves R compressor - for me it works very well on dialogue and is very transparent .
You're not crazy. R comp and R vox are both excellent
Yeah, totally agree. Use it all the time. Also just a very intuitive and straight forward interface
R comp, eq are still my go to on tracks
phase plant sounds so good it makes me want to cry.
I honestly never liked how it sounded, at all. I used it for about a month though and that was when it came out, maybe I need to go back..
@@PikeBishop1 Very metallic sounding, modern dubstep-y vibes to it, I prefer more vintage sounding synths.
@Chris R it's capable of a lot of great vintage sounds too! The new 'nonlinear filter' snapin makes for some great analog-y sounding patches. Combined with the 'random' modulators you can get loads of drift and movement as well.
It's a monster of a synth. Can't wait to see what the next updates add!
@@Chris-vr8cd @Venus Theory
It was very harsh to my ear, but not as clear sounding as something like Serum. I may need to give it another go though since that was a while ago.
I'd like to say for anyone who ends up reading: If you're patient and wait for sales you can get just about any plugin you want for a pretty damn steep discount (except maybe Omnisphere which I've honestly never seen go on sale once).
That's true, I basically got Arturia full collection of plugin for $397 (pigments + V Collection + FX collection). Once you have one Arturia products, you are getting extra discounts for crossgrade. For reference I just got the FX Collection 2 for $69, a damn steal !
@@jeremygorszczyk Yeah I have always appreciated those discounts. I often find myself in awe at how far music technology has come.
And Valhalla, I waited since April for a black Friday Valhalla plug. But nothing 😭😭😭😭😭
I don't recall ever seeing the Synapse Audio plugins on sale either. I really would like Dune 3 but not at full price.
True. I also love Splice's Rent-To-Own stuff, since it's about as lenient as it gets for how you want to pay.
I have V Collection, Pigments, and all the Augmented plugins. I used Arteria for a long time, but only had Storm 3.0 for ages. When my Power Mac HD finally died a few years back, I got another PATA drive off eBay and when I went to install and register Storm 3.0 they said they can no longer register it, and gave Analog Lab to me for my trouble. Keep in mind Storm 3.0 was a different beast, a plugin/modular style DAW that cost me about $349 way back when. So since then I gotten a KeyLab, V Collection, and FX. What I like about V Collection, is I can mess around with the classic synths and really get a feel of sound design on each one, It's great for learning. While I won't use it all in my new tracks, they are still fun to play with. I'm mostly a hobbiest, though, I do occasionally get some work. But not often enough to justify my studio. What does justify it, is it keeps me content.
Hey Cameron - Love this! I have Arturia's V Collection but, like you, I don't use them all, particulalry the pianos, organms and string things! Got into it a few years back and worked out the cost per synth (the ones I was interested in) and it worked out ok 👍 Not sure how cost-effective it would be now, but, as you said, I really do like the extras they've added (FX, polyphony) which go waaaay beyond the originals.
I just got into Falcon and your videos were really a major influence on the decision. Most Falcon demos out there sound kinda sterile tbh which worried me, but your stuff sounds excellent and gave me the confidence to buy it.
The most interesting thing I have found so far with Ozone 9 is that it has identified several problems I have in my studio listening environment. The Automated assistant makes common EQ adjustments in the same frequency bands on all the different tunes I've run through it, regardless of genre! So time to invest in some more sound treatment!
Mate your content is sick. You have a very high quality channel! Subbed x
I have Ozone 9 Elements and it is absolutely phenomenal, I would love to upgrade some day. I have Voltage Modular 2 and it is one of the best purchases I've made. I also own the full versions of Kontakt 6 and Reaktor 6 and they are absolutely worth it.
As for Synths, I am very much happy with Arturia Pigments 3 myself, it's very much worth the money.
Good video! Keep your eyes on the lookout for VCV Rack 2 which is supposed to be released this month. A free standalone version called "Community Edition" and a version which includes a vst plugin for $99 (intro price, then $149) called "Studio Edition". Over 2,000 modules available (many are free).
good vid, I like how in depth you go with each plugin.
Komplete 12 was my most expensive, super large files and I like that some/most/at least one is something that doesn't exist in hardware form. That's the thing for me. The purchase I have found the most use out of? Pigments full stop. It's like Komplete is this crazy time-eating carnival in my bedroom, but Pigments is the vorpal blade I always reach for when the religious knock on the door. lol
Thanks for this video! I have signed up for the Kilohearts subscription. So far I love Phaseplant! Very easy to get started and easy to use. I'm a beginner so ease of use for me is a big plus! Thanks again!
I LOVE my Voltage Modular, as Cherry audio has provided a spectacular range of modules, and more keep getting added. Your point about blowing through $300 or more on modules and module collections is, well, spot on, but that's during several months of poking around with it (and mystifying the neighbors in the pre-dawn hours). As an actual modular synth, it's the best virtual replication of such I've used so far. I'm sure someone will come up with [fill in the blank] virtual modular that's their favorite, but at least for me, it was worth the occasional $ I've fed into it.
As long as you enjoy it, it´s totally worth it. I own most of them, and a few extra, as well as some HW synths. Honestly, there is some redundancy, soundwise. Let´s not even talk about the fact that buying a cheap rack plugin, a few free VST synths and effects propbably covers it all. But it´s the hours of fiddling, modulation etecetera, it´s such a beautiful hobby. The most dangerous one I own is Voltage Modular, but hands down, this one made me learn synthesis! Dangerous, yes, all these modules ;) A special thx to you, lately I added UVI Falcon to the arsenal! Thx, channels like yours should have a warning label, highly dangerous for addicts! Love your work on youtube!
I have purchased the V Collection twice now. Initially when it was version 5, and again to version 8 when they dropped the bottom out of the price. I agree with your assessment that it's not always best to install every instrument if you're only looking for a certain sound. That being said, I do have some non-synth keyboards installed. Until I can get a Reface YC, I'll keep using the organs from here. Also, to your point, there is Analog Lab, a freebie with most Arturia controllers, and it can be handy in a pinch, especially for those non-synths.
I'm also with you on Cherry Audio. I have a couple of their products. My first real synth as a youth was the Realistic MG-1, which has gone to Analog Synth heaven. So the free Surrealistic is a trip down memory lane for me. Also, the DCO-106 has lightened the load of my rapidly aging Juno. And of course, I had to try the Voltage modular, to see if it was for me... The jury's still out on that one.
Keep up the great content. I've started down the road of FM synthesis, using your videos and advice. Thanks for all you do.
For the price constrained, Analog Lab for presets and Cherry Audio for the ones you want to tweak. I've been getting my favorite CA for 29 each on sale and don't use them enough to justify even the discounted Arturia price
I love Phaseplant. I use the sampler capabilities and use this to send data, clock, and audio to the Jupiters Xm’s internal audio via its multitracking. Its all true. It surprises me each time I use it. I forget to use it all the time, and then use it and I miss it. Lol.
Your Presets (included in my Monthly GET IT ALL rental) are really Lovely!!
Damn! I really like the bit you played when demonstrating Ozone! Keep at it! :)
Very helpful and inspiring video, thank you so much!
Update. I now do own both Phase Plant and the Arturia V Collection. Phase Plant was reduced to $99 (and they also gave me a money off coupon on my next purchase so I also bought the convolver plugin for just $9) and I got a 100 Euro crossgrade coupon for The V Collection which, coupled with the 100 Euro money off sale, meant I could get the collection for 399 instead of 599 (spread out over 4 payments). That is a no brainer - even for a hobbyist musician. 😁
I am actually planning 2 more future purchases from Arturia as I really want to upgrade my MIDI controller to something much better - like their Keylab 61 MkII - and I've really been wanting another hardware synth and I really like the Microfreak as it looks fun and affordable.
You are so right about Phase Plant. It is a total beast of a synth. 👍
Izotope has good sales. Can be had for 250, i think.
The one behemoth missing from this list is Spectrasonics.
PhasePlant is mind-blowing! Really good sound design, i used to make neuro hop and filthy sound design and now i more into synthwave and lofi hip hop.
I also have an older version of the V Collection from Arturia, but I hardly ever work with it. Falcon is really deep and offers the widest range of possible sound design of all my instruments. But if you don't work with it all the time, you quickly realize how complex it is to build patches, because you forget a lot. I had Phase Plant only once as a demo and was fascinated by the structure and the easy accessibility of the instrument. But only the big collection with all effects makes sense - that was too expensive for me so far. And subscriptions I avoid on principle, you can also only apply the vouchers to effects at full price, so it takes many years on this way until you have all the effects.On Black Friday it will probably be $350 again, but I still have other programs I want to buy before that. Because there is mainly Voltage Modular and there are a lot of interesting modules for that.... You have to be interested in the modular principle, that's for sure, but it opens up so many possibilities! Basically you only need two programs, Falcon and Voltage Modular, so with Falcon you cover the sampler/synthesizer/sound design area and with Voltage Modular you cover everything that has to do with classic synthesis, vintage sounds and the very wide experimental area.
In practice I work most of the time because it is faster with Pigments 3 and sometimes Rapid. But for the special sounds and projects, I tend to go for Falcon and VM.
Arturia are doing black friday discounts on upgrades. I just crossgraded from Analog Lab to Collection 8. Cameron did a video on the V8 update and they reworked some of the synth engines. He was surprised at the improvement. Might want to log in, see how much they want for the upgrade and then look at Cam's video on the V8 collection.
depending on how many of the single plugins that are included in their collection you will get personal upgrade deals from time to time and if the product is on sale at the same time this will make those super affordable - so .. make sure to pick up any free ones that you hear of asap
Thx.. came across your channel from a search.. recognized you and realized I hadn't subscribed... love the content... subscribed now!
Falcon is so good. I hardly ever use Omnisphere and Kontakt anymore because of it. Make your own multisamples with IL's Directwave, MPE, multitimbral, microtuning. The only problem is, for preset junkies, the 3rd party library support is kinda weak so Kontakt might edge it out.
If you prefer making everything from scratch, the only comparable is, maybe, Reaktor.
What about Serum?
@@culkingsed Serum is a fantastic synth no doubt, but I'd definitely say it's in a different category compared to Omni and Falcon, there's just so much more going on in those two.
Omnisphere has it's own sampler you can use. You can't record them live, but you can importa samples into each layer (max 4). I've done this a number of times and it works pretty well, and is simple. Combine that with the granular synthesis and it's an absolute joy.
My most expensive plugin is UVI Falcon which kind of replaced anything I bought before or was hoping to buy later.
I might buy PhasePlant one day because of the faster workflow though.
Good video mate, SPL Vitalizer is a cool plug-in, exciter. Has that EDM sizzle of the highs that's tough to get and clarifies mids, and bass
Very good video as always, being on a budget I have loads of free VST's, Arturia Analog Lab with the keyboard, and a few payed for, like Cherry.
I just bought Ozone 9 advanced. I am reentering sound engineering after being absent for more then 20 years. I always worked with audio tracks (metal and rock). The step from 90's hardware mastering to this plugin is huge! Good plugins just didnt exist at the time. The main differences to me are a way more reliable and constant result, ease of use, more possibilities... The implemented analysing tools are pretty awesome too. In the 90's you mostly had your ears as the most reliable analyser unless you invested in effing expensive hardware. This meant stepping away from mixing, recalibrating your ears one way or another and listen again. And after that you needed to do the same when mastering. So it was time consuming. Really glad with the current trend of streaming loudness and what it means to mastered exports btw. I just love Ozone for how it works as a whole. I bought the advanced version just for the Low End Focus alone actually. Really good feature if you get your mixed instruments in that area right first of course.. I had some sort of hardware tube filter available back in the day that did just that, It did more but i really enjoyed it for making recordings more punchy or warm.Forgot what the brand was. I still think hardware mastering sounds better, as does recording through through decent hardware, but it's a pretty damn good alternative (and way cheaper) if you're in a home studio situation. So yeah... Ozone 9.... Big plus.
What made you step away from sound engineering for 20 years, if you don't mind me asking?
@@kozhikkaalan raising kids and a career. I've been doing some stuff, but not for myself at least.
@@countk1Welcome back. I'm really just starting my journey since the past few months. It's tough with kids but I'm going to make it work.
I have Biotek v1 from Traktion. V2 now costs 200$, but man its powerful. The most exciting feature is that it can do FM using samples as operators. Didn't see this feature anywhere else. Also, it does layering, sophisticated modulation matrix, etc. Not quite user friendly, but its interesting to sit and design sounds with it.
omnisphere does this but its $500 lol a very good all-in-one plugin
I Have UVI World Suit 2 / Aurora / Falcon 3 / Xtreme FX 2 And All These Are Beast 🔥
Excellent demonstration. I am not a keyboard player but even so I have Arturia V Collection and UVI Falcon. Inconspicuous by their absence: Spectrasonics and Reason?
Random comment: You have a great voice for narration! Soothing, deep, and clear. You would do well as a voice-over artist.
Thank you for mentioning the rent-to-own style model of Kilohearts. Steven Slate Drums is doing something similar and I want to support this business model.
More decent option than subscriptions, much better than purchasing when you're still testing, it's the best of both worlds and it doesn't make subscriptions models invalid either, but overall I would choose rent-to-own option over any other option for sure, even more if you're a hobbyist.
I wish comparos like this would including information about the difficulty of complying with licensing, the number of concurrent installs, and how hard they hit you at upgrade time. For example, I had a free sample piano VST from UVI (came with a controller or something) that was just so hard to download and activate that I finally just gave up, which really puts me off the idea of buying Falcon. Arturia allows five concurrent installs, and moving from machine to machine isn't difficult; upgrades are reasonably priced (like
I started looking at Falcon last year after watching one of your videos doing some sound design on it. Black Friday is here but even then its out of my price range. Im ok with buying a bunch of solid cheaper plugins for the price of Falcon. Maybe one day. I own phaseplant which i bought on sale and I have a handful of the snapins which i buy on sale and as needed. Im slowly building up my library and maybe should consider a sub. I love the idea but i currently don’t use it as often as i should. Programming is deep but i don’t do much of that. I prefer to take preset patches and adjust since my sound design skills have never been great and its a deep time suck for me. I have the Arturia V collection which i JUST upgraded but while i love the synths they’re cpu hogs on my current computer. I tend to grab Rob Papen synths (I think his stuff is often overlooked) and SynthMaster plugins as my first choices. As a very affordable choice i use a lot of cherry audio synths. No brainer prices for some awesome emulations.
Beautifully explained... Thanks!
Great run through of some high end goodies!
Thank you👍
Expensive but worth it plugins for me, so far?
Melodyne Studio, Izotope RX, Izotope Ozone, Exponential Audio reverbs and effects, Sonnox Full Suite, Altiverb7, UAD Octo and lots of plugs, Soundtoys Full Suite…
I'm new to the Plugin world, coming from a background of hardware synths. When people say plugins are expensive .... dude, I have four hardware synths that cost about 12k combined. Considering what all these plugins can do, I feel like I'm getting over.
I love the kilohearts stuff but I’ve found I reach for vital for a lot of what I used to use phase plant for. I still use their effects all the time: snap heap a ton, and multi pass sometimes too.
Yeah, the vital UI is better than phaseplant.
I miss vital. My computer died (forever) so I'm stuck with caustic 3
This is an excellent video that I got a lot of information from. I’m no newbie to playing with electronic music and virtual synths, and some of these synths I’ve not even heard of before! While my focus shifts between iPad and PC VSTs, I’m always looking for the latest and greatest apps. Do you know of a source that lists new VSTs on the rise? AUs and AUV3s?
Great stuff! I was taken aback by how good Ozone 9 did with your tune, BOOM! Thanks! I've smashed all the smashers! Salutations from astonishingly sunny, cold & weirdly not back to normal Ireland! ☘️☮️🤘🏽🤠👍🏽☮️☘️
I love messing around in soft modulars like VCV or Voltage, but I think Softube Modular doesn't get enough love. I think it sounds better than any of them, though it's also very CPU intensive. It's no where near as jam packed with modules as VCV or Voltage though, but that can be a blessing if you're a newbie and prone to option paralysis.
Got Izotope total balance bundle for 200 cause I had a paid product (vocalsynth). That was a useful buy. Thankful for black friday sales.
I have the falcon already with a lot of expansion packs……but I swear you just sold me on phase plant……I’m definitely buying‼️
Serum and all the u-he plugins are worth it so is synthmaster as well as NI Komplete ultimate
Rob papen xplorer bundle is about 700 or 800 I guess if not more, but have all the synths and plugins. If you manage to work with those synths is simply priceless.
Also ozone is worth the price.
Voltage is Rad! Thanks for turning me on to it!
you can get Ozone Advanced paired with Nectar + Neutron for $199 many times throughout the year as an upgrade price for the Tonal Balance Bundle. That sale comes around pretty often.
VCV Rack 2 is a good alternative to Voltage modular, if you want to use it directly as a VST you have to pay for it, and it also has paid for modules, but midi in and out are available in the standalone version, and there is a huge library of free and/or opensource modules for it.
In case anyone ends up reading this, there's Cardinal by DISTRHO which is an open source VST implementation of the open source VCV Rack code
Let me throw in Newfangled Audio here. They only have two big products as of now, one mastering suite ("Elevate") and one synth ("Generate"), both of which are absolutely worth their money. I'd use Elevate over Ozone anytime (esp. when using the processing blocks individually), it basically does the same things but even quicker. It lacks some features compared to Ozone, but is a whole lot faster and can even sound better (imo). Also, Generate is the only softsynth that I wish a hardware-version of. Apart from being quite unique it just sounds good. It's not very versatile though, I'd rather compare it to a Wurly or a Rhodes: It sounds magical but within a rather confined sonic space. I find it extremely usable in tracks which contain real instruments as well as electronic sounds, it just blends very naturally and nicely.
Elevate is stupid good. I've been trying to figure out a good way to make a video about it on the channel but it's a sort of hard plugin to explain in a reasonable amount of time haha. One of these days I'll maybe make it happen though.
Generate is amazing, easily one of my favorite software synths! Love it for gritty/warm cinematic stuff.
Saturate is literally my favourite plug-in. I put it on everything to make it louder, and, yeah, works great, honestly one of the best plug-ins ever for producers who suck at mixing but still wanna be "soundcloud-loud"
Agree about Generate. It's a little more limited in it's scope than I expected as you say, but much deeper in that area. Really useable and also just a fantastic overall sound. Really dirty and fuzzy.
Elevate is my "ozone" go to mastering FX... It just add something more. It can be brighter, louder, wider, anything a notch over ozone EACH TIME and Ozone was my favorite plugin before that so i'm comparing plugins i really enjoy... I don't know how they manage to do so but still...
One of my most expensive single plugins is INTENSITY by zynaptik. I bought it in a sale after tried the demo but it was still expensive for me. The tool makes most of the sounds better, but often my basic-sounds are good enough so I don't use it often, but it is a great plugin.
exactly the same experience here
Yes, I bought Zynaptiq "Wormhole" (was roughly $300) and have the same opinion. It's an interesting sound, but I don't use it often, and I have plugins that were $30 or free that have more possible options and great sound quality. Ultimately I didn't need to buy it.
I always wanted Falcon, but always considered it a bit expensive (as I'm a hobbyist), so instead I bought MSoundFactory in a sale, which is as close as I can get to Falcon. The interface is not as nice (typical for Melda), although it is functional. It's a good substitute for a "do-it-all" sound design, and sounds pretty good in my opinion.
It’s a monster and sounds fantastic imo…one of the best sounding in my pretty huge collection
Msoundfactory, that is
Totally agree, it sounds awesome. The only downfalls, in my opinion, is that there are limited LFOs and envelopes (considering how much stuff you can fit into it), and that you have to open multiple windows to edit them instead of having readily available in the interface. Oh, and I wish it had a proper granular engine, instead of a granular effect.
But I did create some great stuff with it.
I actually bought a used copy of Falcon (totally legit with $25 iLock transfer fee) and I will never regret it. It has everything. What many people do not know is that many UVI libraries will run in the completely free UVI Workstation. I also own the Arturia V Collection, along with Pigments. Both are excellent. At $300 (or even the $200 sale price), I don't see MSoundFactory to be a great alternative. I paid less than that for Falcon.
@@williamanderson2447 If you don't mind me asking, how much did you pay for your used license? I like MSoundFactory because it contains all the Melda plugins, which are a crazy combination for more complex sound design. I also have the V Collection and use them a lot when looking for more "traditional" synth sounds, even tho Pigments by itself is plenty capable of doing that.
I have falcon and voltage modular and analog lab. I feel I have all my synth needs covered, especially with vintage vault 3 for falcon, that includes the excellent beat box anthology. And yes, I have a penchant for picking tedious difficult things! Oh, I have a Behringer neutron too, also tedious but worth it!
Definitely a formidable duo there!
the V collection is really cool, got the v7 in a sale. BUT Pigments is my favourite plugin from Arturia and my goto softsynth when I'm in the mood to fiddle with software sounds ;-)
Pigments 3.5 is so awesome... I still haven't gone too deep into the new stuff though.
I bought a few of Cherry Audios high powered synthetic. They seem to give a lot of bang for the buck.
Great overview of interesting software!
One personal observation, I tried Voltage Modular, and... it just does not sound good to my ears. I think this also comes across in this video. Everything I try with it has this dark gritty sound to it, that is not optional.
I tried similar experiments in VCV, and there the grit goes away when you turn up the sample rate. I suspect the fixed low 44.1khz internal samplerate of VM is hurting it. Normally this is fine, but in modular synths, the errors seem to add up, and I hear a lot of aliasing.
I do love the EXPERIENCE of using VM over all other such software, the interface is just so nice, as are the polyphony options, so I really hope Cherry Audio will allow higher internal sample rates!
VM can definitely get a bit alias-y when diving into some more extreme FM or syncing stuff. I think CA is still working on some oversampling tweaks, but obviously doing everything at true audio rate at like 96k+ would be unreasonably CPU intensive.
VM is capable of much more convincing analog/warm tones with the right modules though - check out some of the filters from MRB. They do a great job at fixing the sort of 'clinical' sound of the stock library!
@@VenusTheory Thanks, I saw MRB's modules but have not tried them, I will :-)
One of the most expensive VST bundles and at the same time the biggest positive surprise to me so far was KORG Collection 3. I got it mainly for the Triton after having seen Woody's comparison video and held back on the demo version until the collection finally went "on sale" (v3 for the old v2 price) just not to get tempted too much. I learned to love especially the M1, MiniKORG and (as expected) Triton and can spend hours just playing with the presets/patches of those synths (the M1 comes with a gigantic patch library and I really like its old-fashioned ROMpler sound). Best value for money, I feel like it was worth every Dollar I spent. It's a bit weird that there aren't that many videos about it on RUclips, seems to fly a bit under the radar?
totally agree on the KORG bundle - sounds great and was an unexpected surprise
Agree 100%
The KORG Collection is definitely worth it, just for those classic 80s/90s synths that near-dominated the pop music landscape during the time (and still sounds hella beautiful today).
The one thing about KORG though is that its marketing/user base communication sucks. For a hardware/software company that has such a storied tradition of amazing products, it is near-silent for people who don't check on the music production landscape all the time. I mean, I'm a registered user of KORG, have both MIDI controllers and software from them, and bought the KORG Collection 2. How did I learn that KORG Collection 3 was released? By going to their website to see if they had any version updates for KORG Collection 2. Not one marketing email nor user notification email saying the software package I bought and paid for was able to be upgraded to a version 3. The same for KORG Gadget on the iOS.
So, yeah, great synthesizers, but reeeally bad communication.
@@daeryxaqueryx 100% agree. 👍
The reason for not many videos is because - Like this video - They push other plugins that they can get a commission on for a re-direct sale. There is a biblical flood of people showing and demo'ing plugs for a sales commission. Problem is they'll tell you anything they want about a plugin wether it's true or not to make a sale. Whenever I see the bit lies in the "SEE MORE" comment section I move on.
Ozone is a great way to delve into mastering especially if you don't really understand it all. I use Ozone 9 standard and it does everything I need (and have learned loads doing so). It is also on sale right now thanks to Black Friday - no brainer really. Very cheap. Phase Plant...might just head into that subscription; it sounded awesome (totally passed me by until now, that one...where have I beeen...?). A great plugin rundown once again, super interesting and no bullshit.
79 bucks! That takes is from "no way" to "hmmm...". :)
V Collection is definately worth your money if you are looking for the vibe of any musical era!
Pianoteq is the one on this list that I would really like to have. I have the V Collection and various other plug-ins, plus the Slate monthly subscription bundle. However, I still think that a decent piano sound is better than any synth, although I recognize that is a personal thing.
For sure - Pianoteq is just a really inspiring plugin. Almost every time I sit down to write a new track or just jam around, it's one of the first things I call up.
Pianoteq is on my drool list, the physical modelling and potential of it really tickles a synth head like me. The conversion mods that they have that make the engine modify toward focusing on concert harps/harpsichords/other types of orchestral & misc. instruments with amazing sonic control is very impressive. Maybe next blackfriday i'll snag it, this BF was a lil too juicy, my..... self control..... has failed.... too much... want..... XD
Same, I'm really tempted as piano is my 'thing'. I have too many already though, including a real life actual upright and a nice Roland FP-7F. For just a really good sounding virtual instrument, I'd recommend the Embertone 1955 Walker D piano - Embertone are fantastic and that piano is goshdarned beautiful.
I picked up the Stage version because it fit my budget. It is EXCELLENT! I thought it would be restrictive because it was the cheap version. Nope. Despite not having microphone choices, you can change the sound in many different ways. There are multiple effects and eq that can be layered, among these a great sounding convolution reverb. There is also the "age" slider which goes from pristine to mangled beyond belief and all possibilities in between. Another thing that is awesome is that it boots instantly and it takes up a tiny amount of hard-drive space as there are no samples. The only hassle with Moddart is the license restrictions. It can install on 3 PCs... However, if you "...deactivate a certain computer, you will no longer be able to activate it again, even if you reformat or change operating system."
iZotope Ozone 9 Advanced Mastering Software Suite has a major sale at Sweetwater through end of year for $199. That's a no brainer. Thank you sir.
I agree about Falcon, it's great, and deep, and the included effects and many other parts of it is worth the money, although presets themselves are so complex that you can build an entire arrangement with just one patch. About Arturia, sincerely, I wouldn't ever use their products, never, ever, after the bad quality I experienced myself, using both the bundled software with KeyLAB, Collection, Piano, and many more, and the firmware of the keyboard itself, buggy to the bone even today. On the other hand I paid Modartt as much as they asked for PianoTeq Standard, for just a bunch of patches, but OMG, I am so satisfied about the quality of the software and the quality of the sounds, for whatever instrument that not cheap I had to purchase apart, and now I can even use it with full functionality even on my mobile phone or tablet (iOS though), but it's just amazing, and I didn't have to pay more for this. Besides acoustic pianos, Electric Piano sounds are wonderful and very rich, the resonances are so deep, wide and thick that I keep hallucinating everyday, and I can even tweak an acoustic piano to turn it into very different instruments in case I only paid for one instrument, which is also amazing. Now you can even get Classical Guitar as one of the free/bundled instruments (PianoTeq 8), which you can even distort, although being nylon lol. iZotope Ozone standard works great, it's amazing how well done is it and how quick you get exactly what you expect from it but without sacrificing sound quality, much deeper than what you showed in this short video for obvious reasons.
For me I only buy plugins on sale, but I do have Ozone 9 Advanced I got it in the Tonal Balance Bundle in 2020 for $150 (because I had their elements plugins - which I got as freebies) but I definitely use Ozone the most out of the Bundle, since its on every track whether beat or full song.
I also use Nectar a lot since it's on every demo or finished song I make.
I don't use Neutron that often though because it's too resource expensive for what I generally do; I use KiloHearts for that.
Whether it's EQ (Slice EQ), Compression, Distortion, Bitcrushing, Flanging, Phasers, Filtering; etc.
I'm currently waiting on the next KiloHearts PhasePlant sale so I can snatch it up, been eyeing it since 2020 but just wasn't able at the times when it was on sale, but I definitely plan to get PhasePlant as my next major plugin.
I want to get the V Collection as well but not atm, would need to upgrade my computer before since it's quite slow and even running Analog Lab takes a while (again bought on sale for $40).
A couple other plugins on my wishlist are Spectrasonics (Omnisphere, Keyscape & Trilian), Native Instruments Komplete and iZotope Music Production Suite (whenever they update Nectar, Neutron and Ozone since I already have the latest versions of these; but I'm looking to get Vocal Synth, RX & Insight).
Thanks for a great video. Ozone can be used in the mix - and also by the different elements by itself - make if a very versatile plugin. I.g. use the dynamic EQ. You dont have the fabfilter bundle? - pretty expensive as well
Not sure if it qualifies, but I thought the Gullfoss plugin was expensive. They had a 30% off sale so I grabbed it. Glad i did, I use it on at least 50% of my mixes.
Funny that the DX7 would feature so prominently in the V collection demonstration, when very good free dx7 emulation exists. No mention of the music easel in that collection though, which I've not been able to find even an attempt at emulating for free.
Your "radio voice" is incredible. Instant sub.
DX7; Might as well go with Absynth [part of the Komplete purchase] does all that and more. Arturia synths are also NKS ready, so you can purchase them later and run them through Komplete Kontrol.
Only problem with Absynth is that it's a bit of a UX nightmare. Really hope they update it someday with some kind of Absynth 2 release though, Absynth was one of my favorites back in the day!
@@VenusTheory I agree with you on that. The concepts in the synth are great and useful, but it is time for an overhaul of the interface.
Just missed the easy synth for quick patches. My go to for simple sounds is UHe Hive 2. It makes sound quick is very flexible and modulation is dead easy.
I am loving Hyperion and Abyss for their new interface. Hyperion with its node work flow is awesome but easily dismissed due to the graphics.
I wish I would have known about needing the phase plant bundle to unlock stuff like filters and even reverb. Now I'm stuck with it until I have enough to upgrade. Gonna wait till the holiday discount.
Cameron busting out the synths! Cant wait to hear a tune with all of them at once LOL
I would advice to buy Ozone only when on sale. I was getting it for 239$ in the Mix and Master Bundle. That was Ozone9 + Neutron3 + Nectar 3 + Neoverb... all in the Advanced Version. Beeing patience can save you a lot of money.
As a hobbyist musician on a very tight budget, I only own Voltage Modular (and a shedload of extra modules) out of this list as I feel it is worth every single penny I have spent on it. The great thing with Cherry Audio is they frequently have sales so you can pick up some modules that way. I've also purchased some of their standalone synths too as they are excellent value for money. Plugins need not cost a fortune if you are patient and wait for the sales. I don't think I own a single plugin that I have paid full price for and even my DAW was purchased in a sale. (Upgraded from a free version I got with my audio interface.)
Definitely a good point! Partially why I made this video live before Black Friday rolls around haha.
Sales are definitely the way to go - if you can wait even a few months after a plugin releases there's usually a pretty steep discount to be had!
@@VenusTheory I got AAS Ultra Analog VA-3 for less than a third of its full price. A total bargain and an excellent synth. And just yesterday I got a free set of extra patches for it courtesy of Plugin Boutique. 😁
Part of the Falcon sounds are very similar to those of 32 bit VSTs from the noughties.
Hi,
I'm still getting a lot of enjoyment and fun from the Arturia collection I bought after your recommendation. Great call.
Glad to hear it! V Collection has some great stuff inside of it. Might have to resurrect my video about the CMI V at some point
Do you have a tutorial on how you do your micing for your videos and what microphone you use? Your narration is crystal clear, one of the best on RUclips. Please, tell us the secrets.
Yo! Glad to hear it's solid haha. I actually covered this in my 'making of a youtube video' video a little while back.
Nothing really too fancy - Deity S Mic 2 direct into the AudioFuse Studio, then a basic dialog preset I made for VO work in Kilohearts Snap Heap just doing the basics.
Best advice I can give I guess is just to speak from your chest and not your face haha.
Nice wrap up. +1 for the Voltage Modular nod .. and for reminding me that I never did buy the Core bundle .. rectified :)
Oh and of course there is the module designer for free which allows user creation of modules for VM.
Haha well I'm sure you'll enjoy it. Core opens up a whole lot of new options and it's a ton of fun to explore.
@@VenusTheory 4:35am finish says yes
@@VenusTheory Cameron. I was in a gear space thread discussing how far behind the curve Cubase is these days when it comes to native modulation flexibility & someone recommended voltage modular.
Does it allow you to modulate 3rd party VSTs or just their own modules?
I’m on the cusp of giving up on steinberg ever adding the kind of features I want to see in cubase (multi assignable macros, Bitwig style modulation system & native solution for multiband channel crossovers), and if Bitwig do a holiday sale this year, I’m all over it.
I love a lot about cubase but it’s over a decade behind on a lot of features most useful to sound designers & electronic producers compared to Bitwig & Ableton. Still no native multi timbral sampler. No FM synth anywhere in the steinberg lineup (not even in Halion 6), no native flexible modulation system, no multi assignable macros, no channel splits, and instead of future proofing the DAW, steinberg insist on just adding more native FX & libraries I don’t need, in place of features widely requested from the electronic producers in their user base.
I hate to give up on it after so much time & money invested into steinberg apps over the years, but they are kind of forcing my hand at this point. It’s not like most of these features haven’t been requested a ton over the past 5-10 years :(
If you are serious about playing the piano, Pianoteq is an absolute must-have. The combination of Pianoteq and my Yamaha N1X replaces physical high-quality grand pianos and is by far more flexible.
The sympathetic resonance, and the sustain part phasing and pitch variation, is something that sampled libraries don't do, so they don't sound right. Sample libraries gives you pianoish sound, sure, many times closer than FM pianos and early sampled pianos, but still not the sound of a piano. Some people, and a certain vst maker, makes claims that a sampled piano is the actual sound of a piano, that would only be true if only a single note was played and the sample captured the full ringing, and that is not how sample libraries work, so it is misleading. A sample playback instrument is very different from a captured performance recorded with the same mics and recording device.
@@TheJonHolstein Yeah, and that's why a physically simulated piano like Pianoteq might not sound impressive in the first moment, or maybe a little worse than a sampled piano, but for actual performance, it is much better suited. Even for music with extreme resonances like the usage of hand and forearm clusters, it works quite well.
@@glueckssilben I have no real issue with the attack part of the sound of pianoteq, and for chords, is sounds more natural, as sampled piano instruments uses separate note samples for chords, and then the interaction of the notes are lost, and that is something pianoteq has worked on.
If y'all are after a really nice bus compressor, get the TAN compressor. It's fee and made by Acustica so high quality. I use it more than most of the paid plugs I have. Falcon is great by the way. Hella expensive but has probably one of the most useable factory bank I've ever heard. Everything in there is legit.
Instantly loved the sound from PhasePlant - Imagine my surprise when I went to their page and found VT with the Official Video series ❤ Does your soundpack come with the Toolbox version?
Haha well hey, surprise! 🎉 I do have a few presets in the factory library and shared a few for their free birthday pack. There is something new in the works though involving a certain YaBoi and PhasePlant but 🤐
@@VenusTheory Oooooooh. Me likey 😜
Well done, VT! Was personally looking for more perspective, regarding this very topic.
Mine's Rift - $129... Just saw while checking and there's a code rn for -35%! Pretty nice :)
Rift is definitely worth it! Super fun plugin that's great for sound design. Been using it a TON this year since I got a hold of it!
@@VenusTheory well said! 'been enjoying the overall production ever since following, Cameron. Very decent stuff! Cheers.
Really nice vid!! As an Arturia user since almost a decade, I now feel more and more limited when it comes to real modern sounds, especially wavetables and stuff like that. I am considering omnisphere, or phaseplant, but I am such a fan of the Analog Lab workflow (layer possibilities, quick controls on tones and effects, the Lab is a paradise for me). Anyone here using Pigments? In parallel with the retro stuff inside the V collection, Pigments have all the modern twists (WT, granular engine), and I still would have a full integration in the Lab with all the iconic synths. Anyone in the same situation as me??
PS: this unizon intro made me laugh so hard!! :-)
I got Pigments 2 for like 50 bucks thanks to owning the V collection 7, got the upgrade to 3 for free, and honestly it's quite good - it does feel like a "Jack of all trades, master of none" piece of kit at times - it can cover a lot of ground for you thanks to having a whole lot of oscillator/synthesis style options, but I always feel like there's that last layer of excellence missing (I have friends who almost exclusively use it as their primary synth and disagree with me strongly). It's not that big a deal for me though, adding some processing after it makes it actually shine.
If you can get a decent deal via crossgrade or on a decent sale, to add wavetable / granular to your arsenal? Yeah I'd say it's worth it, the value you get from it can be insane and it offers a very wide coverage of the type of sounds it's capable of making - especially for granular and being able to import your own samples/wavetables. Just demo it first and get a feel for the characteristic of its sound and if it works for you.
If you want to experience a "modern" wavetable synth with a low commitment, I can highly recommend Vital. It's free if you want it to be -- the paid versions give you nothing but more wavetables and presets, none of the functionality of the synth is impacted at all. I really love the workflow -- it's quite simple to hook up a really gnarly patch with lots of modulation -- and the sound is amazing. I find it far simpler than Phaseplant -- of course Phaseplant has a bit more functionality, but there's more to Vital than meets the eye at first glance. For instance, there are FM options available that are hidden a little bit in one of the oscillator settings menus. And like I said, it's free, which is insane when you consider Serum still sells for $199.
Surge also exists and is also free; it's focused on more traditional-type synthesis but includes wavetables and has tons of FM options as well. With Phaseplant, as VT said there's a $10/mo. subscription option, so you could try it for a whole month for only a tenner.
As far as Omnisphere, I probably wouldn't recommend that one. I've never owned it but did extensive research. The workflow just seems difficult; actually, Falcon reminded me a lot of the Omnisphere workflow. It's powerful but not really inspiring. And it turns out that the reason so many pros own it is due to the massive preset collection. They basically see Omnisphere as just a preset player. The number of in-depth tutorials for it seemed rather limited, because it seems like very few people actually know how to fully take advantage of it. If you are someone who's working professionally in the field and can expense it, then sure, I could see how it might be handy to have a massive collection of premade patches at hand. But as someone doing this mostly as a hobby and out of my own pocket, I just didn't see the value.
Pigments has quite a lot to offer; the only thing missing over something like phaseplant is audio rate modulation (I mean there are some FM/audio modulation options in the oscillator/filter section but it's not assignable to the whole synth). Other than that it offers enough types of oscillators (virtual analog; wavetable; granular; harmonic) to do a lot of things; and very deep modulation possibilites with LFO/envelopes/function/random/sequences. It can sound very good too (and it's not very "modern" but I really love the sound of the low pass gate).
Old but Pigments integrates to Analog Lab V in the same manner as V Collection, to the point where the preset banks often incl. V Collection & Pigments patches together. Together they're a major win. I'm a "gotta have em all" type of idiot but V Collection/Pigments are my go-to's for many reasons, the interface and integration w/ Arturia's MIDI controllers is just fantastic.
Kilohearts' collection is hands down one of the most complete production bundles you can own.
Phase plant, multipass, and snapheap, plus all the snapins are great.
I also can't wait for the 2.0 release. The promised upcoming features looked great.
I honestly think you could make a whole career by only using the Kilohearts plugins, they really can do...most if not everything. I feel like the saturation is a little "digital" and I like to add some warmth with other plug-ins, but aside from that...I love it so much, honestly.
Plus, sound design in Phase Plant is hella fun and a frequency shifter on top of any sound made so many of my drops more enjoyable.
@@aerrowqueing yep them and Devious Machines are my go to's
Really liked that "bowed cymbal pluck" that UVI Falcon has. Might be too expansive to buy for just one patch though. Edit: actually it has a lot of interesting sounds.
I would be very interested in a comparison Serum vs. PhasePlant and Falcon vs. Komplete vs. Omnisphere
i think falcon vs omnisphere would be great, i dont have falcon though but in hip hop omnisphere is considered the god synthesizer lol
I think buy a analog synthesizer like a moog sub37 or a Dave Smith Rev2 16 voice. The sound is far superior hands down. Then use the plugins for layering.
I’ve been in the process of evaluating my own collection of plug-ins in an attempt to both explore and simplify. I really appreciate how you approached this, but I have a feeling that it is going to (literally) cost me… (*cough* Phase Plant *cough*)
Another quite expensive plugin is Cycles by Slate+Ash. But worth the money imo, and i use it a lot.
2:59 - Reminds me of the Madonna "Lucky Star" song...... 😂 thanks for the memories.
Arturia V Collection - have everything installed and about the only things I don't use are the acoustic piano and Hammond. For those I use Acoustic Samples Hammond and pianos are the Vienna Grand and Model D from UVI. Falcon gets regular usage around here. Going back to Arturia I hate Analog Lab as it's a right pain trying to make multis and edit them later.
Got a ton of stuff for Falcon and don't regret it. BTW UVI is currently running a Black Friday sale at 30% off.
Ozone 9 - I picked up Standard a month ago at $69 US. The upgrade to Advanced is currently going for $124 which brings the total to a few bucks less than going for Advanced via the current Black Friday sale.
I don't get the joke at the beginning about Unizon. Is that a poke at UAD?
Phaseplant really caught my attention. Never heard of it before.
Phase Plant sounded amazing, synthesizers are a little foreign to me though, guess it’s time to learn.
Falcon is absolutely brilliant. It's almost too good. Just wish it wasn't so CPU intensive.
Would also be nice if it could load Kontakt libraries, but I guess this isn't possible due to licensing issues.
Definitely a shame there aren't as many third party Falcon libraries since Falcon goes so far beyond what you could do in Kontakt. Maybe one day though it'll get more widely adopted by the major sample companies!
@@VenusTheory Agreed. I just wish I could retire Kontakt and it's clunky interface, but I have too many great libraries.
Falcon has some beautiful sounds. 😯
That UrsaDSP limiter sound so sweet
Thanks for this! Anyone have any experience with VPS Avenger? Or is it better to just go with Phase plant? I'm looking to upgrade from just Vital and my Arturia stuff at some point.
I'm kind of surprised Avenger wasn't on the list here. Avenger is a piece of art to say the least. Only drawback is their Expansions are quite expensive.
Arturia offered me the V collection for $149, and I could break it down into 3 equal payments for 5$ more. Needless to say, I grabbed it. Especially since I was seriously considering buying through the rent to own plan with Splice.
Wow that was a steal!!!