More Waves alternatives- opinions on Sonalksis plugs?

[mahler007]

hey DUC,
I've generally heard great things about the Sonalksis plugs, but am curious if any of you have specific experiences with them, and if so, how useful you have found them to be... I am looking for replacements or subs for my Waves Renaissance EQs and compressor, which I generally find extremely useful.

I know, I know, download them myself and try them, and I will. I'm just not working on any audio projects at the moment but am still curious to hear your thoughts...

Cheers,
Andrew

[Sonic Nomad]

Andrew,

One off the great things about being on Pro Tools is MCDSP.
I have both the Waves Gold and Renaissance bundles and three months ago decided to expand my collection. Finally settling for the MCDSP Emerald Pack Native.
This was a rather costly exercise and I initially felt that I had made a mistake as they didn't make sense sound wise. But as I kept going back to them over time I began to realize that my expectations and usage was the problem.

You owe it to yourself to check them out.

If it's just EQ and Comps you want then go for the FilterBank and CompressorBank and if you can get the whole lot.

www.mcdsp.com

David

[Stiff]

I'm still looking to try the Sonalksis stuff myself, but I'll give a +1 for McDSP... Also the Massey stuff, though I really don't see them as replacements for the plug-ins you're mentioning.

[JazzyJ]

Hi, I've only got limited experience of the Sonalksis plugs (a friend's comercial studio) and thought they were capable of some good sound sculpturing but there's alot of different controls on them and this means there not so user friendly unless you put the time in to learn how to use them.


Some plugs that I've found great over time (PT5, PT6, PT7 for EQ / Comp are:


1)Metric Halo's - Channel Strip (Awesome, brilliant, the bomb - but is quite expensive RTAS $345, TDM $699) http://www.mhsecure.com/products/ChannelStrip/


2)Wave Arts - Track Plug (similar to Metric Halo's Channel strip but cheaper, but not as good)


and finally, dare I say it for a straight compressor


I love Steve Massey's - CT4

Massey's stuff if always simple to use, cheap, sounds great and has PT 6 compatibility aswell.

The guys a diamond: http://www.masseyplugins.com/


But if you've got the cash, you can't go wrong with Metric Halo's channel strip for Eq, gating and comp.


Well that's my opinion anyway.

JazzyJ

G4 Dual 1.3Ghz, 2GB Ram, internal FW drives, OSX 10.3.9, PT 6.4, Digi 001
Dell 6000 notebook, 1.7 ghz Intel, 512 Ram, Win XP SP2, PT7.3.1, Mbox

[req06]

Sonalksis is good, but I prefer the URS stuff the 1970/1980 comps and for eq mcdsp filter bank is great.

Also Sony have a special offer at the moment, their dynamics channel strip is fantastic as is the eq, buy both and get the equally good trans mod free!

[hmorovic]

Another vote for MCDSP here: since I got URS Classic EQ and MCDSP FilterBank I never used Renn EQ again! You will see...
As for compressors, I find CompressorBank and Sonalksis way better than Renn Compr.
But it is just an opinion, you should try the demos to convince yourself!

Hope this helps,

H.

[Matt82au]

I found personally that the Sonalksis plugs were some of the best i have ever used. I haven't tried URS, but comparing them to waves, McDSP, stock digi and wavearts, they really extremely well for me. The compressor is fantastic, i like how it seems to have its own unique analogue-like flavour, while not actually emulating any particular known compressor. it seemed to work well on everything, voice, vocal, drums, 2-bus etc.

The EQ as well was not only extremely configurable, but very musical, and i love how you can turn on a frequency graph to see how you are affecting the signal as well.

Do give these a shot, everyone out there has their opinions and fave options for these bread and butter plugins, but they are definetely worth a shot.

[mahler007]

hey y'all,
thanks for the posts. i have all the Massey plugins (there's no reason not to, really) and love them. The EQ is very special, though, and sometimes i find myself needing a more exact and less colored EQ. The compresor is great, but I often like to have more control over the attack and release times, ratio, etc...

Anyway, I'm sure i'll get around to downloading and trying out the demos for all the various things- thanks again for the advice!

Cheers,
Andrew