How good are Massey Plugins really?!
 

Hey Friends

I know this is an open ended question and that everyone have different opinions regarding what "good" means but overall compared to other developers out today, Where would you rate the Massey Plugins? I tried the L2007 on our Master Channel and I could hear a warmer limiting feeling aswell as just a Great Vibe hard to describe and wodered how that stacks up against waves, slate, mcdsp etc etc etc ..

And in general Which of the Massey plugins besides the L2007 do you guys think is worth buying (we have A LOT) of plugins but never bought anything from Massey due to the "look" and to me (my opinion only) felt a bit cheap-ish. After testing the limiter I am thinking I have this all wrong and have missed a great developer!?

Thanks for any and all info opinions and thoughts about this sensitive topic :-)

Best Regards
Christopher

Re: How good are Massey Plugins really?!
 

TOP 4 (to me...)

L2007 is really great as you now have heard. (I use all the time Vocals Bass... anythere where an old school 1176 limiter might sound good) it is a smooth limiter and sounds very nice even with a lot of reduction on a single instrument.

Tapehead is a bit of a secret weapon. not just a tape saturator sort of thing but adjusting the frequency response can really do NICE thing to the high end oin things like HATS, Snares (also easy add body) and BV's for sure... sometimes lead vox... Also really nice on softsynths.

adds Body and nice high end with a bit of that smoothing in the upper miss high end harsh range... kinda softens the 7-8K range and dull s the harsh while accentuating the smooth 14K -ish stuff...

De Esser - REALLY smooth sounding and some good controls to dial it in. Sonnox Supressor is Really nice, but sometimes its a bit quicker to drop the de esser on. Maybe not quite as Smooth as a DBX902 or even the Deresser from Emperical Labs

TD5 - Tape Delay Really dirty sounding. can get nasty. very cool... gotta watch the Noise as it has some analog realness that can add up in a silent Digital Mix.. but can be controlled. the VIBE is all theres with the Delay for sure. and when I really want something to ring out and get dirty it can do it and in a much more analog sort of way. (Echo Boy is AWESOME as well. . .and very versatile with ping ponfgs and stuff) but the vibe of the tape delay works.


Really Good 2

CT5 compressor is cool nice to have a MIX knob. I like it but its not neccesarily something I use a LOT with sonnox, vertigo, mcdsp, glue, impact

VT3 - EQ. Its NOT transparent at all. Sometimes if I just wanna add a bit of ooomph to the bottom, just put this plug in on with NO GAIN to the 3 bands and it just brings out a bit. For me the frequency choices in mid and hi control can be a bit harsh but Ive heard from Rock guys who use a LOT. Im more Smooth sounding soul house, classic sound... But again occasional just by putting it on some low harmonics and boom gets brought forward. and sometime nice to give a little grundge to a pretty soft synth.


Extra Bits

THC Distortion is VERY Heavy... Not subtle I don't use it much if ever but Maybe im just not creative with it.

DRT v2 Drum Replacement. If you need this sort of thing I have heard VERY great things about it. I have only used V2 ages ago. the workflow for people was really good from my research but mainly the ability to really grasp and translate the amplitude to velocity for midi replacing was top nich from what I have heard.

For me even though I don't use THC and DRT much is ever it was worth the full pack price.

So check em out.

Best thing is DEMOS are fully functioning FOREVER. . only caveat is No settings are saved upon session close. . but you can certainly open, tweak print and then if not right, try again... easy.

and then decide for yourself.

Tape head is one that I would say is hard to replicate we all have other limiters and compressors and eqs with vintage vibes and even tape delays and stuff. Tape head is nice and if I was to only buy one thats where i would go. not as subtle as the dave hill and or mc dsp stuff. I loved the FATSO warmth stuff and this is similar but then has the ability to add some sparkle up top... in the Nice freq ranges Not the harsh ones.

its a cool company Steven is really down to earth and smart cool guy.

(damn I should hit them up for an sale person position huh??)

Anyway don't let the price fool ya. Really great code under there...

Re: How good are Massey Plugins really?!
 

Agree across the board with SM. The free demo makes it a no-brainer to try:D

Re: How good are Massey Plugins really?!
 

I own all of them but THC and they are all good. My two favorites are the L2007 limiter and TD5 delay. The L2007 is nice on the drum buss, master or any track that need to be tamed for that matter. The delay can have a nice chewy, organic or clean, spacey, ethereal feel to it depending on how you set it up. CT5 is nice when I am looking for a more transparent comp on something. Tapehead is great for snare etc. VT3 sees less use here as I have other EQ's I lean on and when I need one the De-Esser is great.

I really like Steve's business model and he has personally helped me sort out some plugin issues in the past. I don't think you could go wrong grabbing the whole bunch of 'em really.

Re: How good are Massey Plugins really?!
 

I own the de esser, CT5, and L2007. They are nice plugins and fantastic for the money. CT5 just works, no fuss.

Re: How good are Massey Plugins really?!
 

L2007, TapeHead and DeEsser are really great tools!!! Get them (and ask them for AAX-DSP versions! I think there is a survey going on somwhere)

Re: How good are Massey Plugins really?!
 

+1. Love all 3. And looking foward for AAX-DSP

Re: How good are Massey Plugins really?!
 

I have all of them and each is very good but I lean most heavily upon Tapehead, CT5 and DeEsser. If doing it over again I'd still buy them all because they're relatively inexpensive but those 3 are what I'd start with. L2007 is an honorably mention. It was our go-to limiter for several years (now it's Elixir) and it still wins in a few shootouts. It's a very nice plugin.

Re: How good are Massey Plugins really?!
 

I love them all but cannot live without the L2007 and the de-esser. Everything you've heard is true - they are great stuff.

Re: How good are Massey Plugins really?!
 

I'm mostly waiting for the TD5. Though I'm happy that L2007 and TapeHead are now out, but the waiting continues...