Useful Plug Ins for Post?

[Zooce]

Hey all,

I am very new to post production (and I'm loving every minute of it BTW) and I would like to know which 'essential' plug ins I should start looking at. Unfortunately my budget is quite limited at the moment so please keep that in mind if you comment.

**I currently only have the plug ins that came with PT8 LE**

Thanks,

-Zooce

[mikevarela]

You're sparking a hot debate...

You should think of each plugin as a tool that solves a problem. As you gain more experience and more issues arise, you'll need to find ways to solve them.

I say this because many people think that by owning an impressive set of plugins, they can tout success and bragging rights. It's simply not true. These are only tools in your tool belt.

Having said that, you should own a compressor, limiter, convolution + regular reverb, EQ set (one to many bands) and some design stuff.

Digidesign's EQ3 is a great set, easy to use and very efficient, plus ubiquitous. The reverbs aren't as grand, but if you get DV Toolkit (which you should), then TL Space is great.

[cherryfields]

I'm pretty new myself (old but very new to post) but in my opinion the compatibility with others is pretty important.

If you're working on a project that will end up on another PT system you have to know what kind of plug-ins they have cos there's nothing (well there probably is but..) more frustrating that open a session and getting that message about all the plug-ins not available...

I just love the McDSP stuff and so do the rest of the guys I'm working with.
Speakerphone is a great tool and I always use that as an audiosuite and put the settings in a folder. Massenbourg MDW EQ is great but if you're the only one that can afford it then it's useless if you work with others (my opinion)

I recently upgraded to Waves Gold bundle and I must say that there's a lot of useful tools included in that package

Izotope RX denoiser is probably a must or at least something similar cos Digidesign's DINR isn't really usable in my opinion (again)

Massey has a great limiter you should buy right away
http://www.masseyplugins.com/

Opps! time to sleep
cheers / Mike

[Vedat]

Try Wave Rider . It's a must for Post.

[edboy7]

Waves with Dolby plugins(Mercury) or a separate Neyrick perhaps
Izotope RX for cleaning
that should do it.

[Frank Kruse]

Originally Posted by mikevarela

Digidesign's EQ3 is a great set, easy to use and very efficient, plus ubiquitous.

EQ3 can also can cause huge trouble that can stop your hole mix.
See here:

http://duc.digidesign.com/showthread.php?t=250476

Use that EQ with great care!

Frank.

[MIKEROPHONICS]

Personally I use Sonnox - great eq and dynamics - bullet proof and sound great. Not a fan of eq3 - for Frank's reasons.
Inflator is great for fattening and increasing loudness of voices without affecting dynamics - so you can ride your M&E hotter under the SYNC or VO and have a more involving mix.
Revibe is also bullet proof - but needs HD accel

Source Connect for Internet VO recording
Source Live for playing your mixes to clients
Source Talkback if you have no desk

Soundminer for SFX

Conformalizer for reconforms

I would like to perhaps get speakerphone soon

Isotope RX until you can afford Cedar DNS ONE

Neyrink/Dolby for surround when you can afford

I have Sound Toys - great for special fx - but not for every day bread and butter work

Personally I won't touch Waves with a barge pole - (whoops - can of worms) - but that is a personal choice that has been discussed to death here.

Should cover most eventualities

cheers

[D'Animation]

On a budget, I would look at Massey's L2007/CT4 and maybe the Flux basic dynamics plugs - a worthy upgrade from the stock digi dynamics plugs and reasonable priced too
The Soundtoys stuff is great for sound design but the new bundled AIR plugs can be used to make something decent too
D

[Gary Nattrass]

Apart from the PT plug ins and my waves renaissance package (sorry Mike) two plug ins I use all the time for post here in the UK are TL Space which is part of the DV toolkit and PPMulator so that I have PPM metering for broadcast delivery.

http://www.rawmaterialsoftware.com/ppm.php

[tom_lowe]

Originally Posted by Gary Nattrass

Apart from the PT plug ins and my waves renaissance package (sorry Mike) two plug ins I use all the time for post here in the UK are TL Space which is part of the DV toolkit and PPMulator so that I have PPM metering for broadcast delivery.

http://www.rawmaterialsoftware.com/ppm.php

+1 for PPMulator, but it's now being developed by zplane.de they also have a nice (and well priced) pitch-shifter called Elastique which can get good results, especially if going from 24fps to 25fps and you want to correct the 4% pitch increase.