PT 10 & Plug-in Presets

[arcturus_prime]

I am currently looking to get a good DAW to work with, Pro Tools is definitely a candidate. Only thing is I apparently need to pay $50 and get a USB key just to try it out (which I refuse to do). My main concern is the quantity/quality of plug-in presets that Pro Tools 10 has. I am far from a professional in music production, I actually just recently entered the domain of DAW's, so having different types of pre-sets for VST plug-ins such as compressors, EQs, etc., would be pretty much invaluable to me.

I have tried Reaper, and they do have a wealth of presets for the most important plug-ins, just wondering where Pro Tools sits on this one? Any information would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

[19 frets]

I'll let others with more experience comment on the plug-in presets. But I will point out that you cannot run third party VST plug-ins with Pro Tools unless you use some sort of bridge product. Pro Tools does not run VSTs. So you will be limited to plug-ins that come with Pro Tools or that are purchased specifically to be compatible with Pro Tools plug-in format. Just FYI.

[Obsidian Dragon]

Here are the RTAS plugins that come included with Protools 10. Again these are of the RTAS format (Real Time Audio Suite) because Protools does not use Steinberg's Virtual Studio Technology (VST) plugins directly. FXpansion makes a VST to RTAS wrapper utility that allow many VST's to be used in Protools. Also note that Protools will be going to version 11 sometime in the near future and RTAS will no longer be used in favor of the new AAX plugin format.

These are the Virtual Instruments plugins (known as VIs)
Big Fish Audio loop library (8 GB)
Boom drum machine and sequencer
DB-33 tonewheel organ emulator with rotating speaker simulation
Mini Grand acoustic grand piano
Structure Free sample player (based on Structure)
Vacuum monophonic vacuum tube synthesizer
Xpand!2 multitimbral synth and sample workstation

These are the signal processing plugins
1-Band EQ III
4-Band EQ III
7-Band EQ III
AIR Chorus
AIR Distortion
AIR Dynamic Delay
AIR Enhancer
AIR Ensemble
AIR Filter Gate
AIR Flanger
AIR Frequency Shifter
AIR FuzzWah
AIR KillEQ
AIR Lo-Fi
AIR MultiChorus
AIR Multi-Delay
AIR Nonlinear Reverb
AIR Phaser
AIR Reverb
AIR Spring Reverb
AIR StereoWidth
AIR Talkbox
AIR Vintage Filter
BF76 Compressor 1176 emulator
BF Essential Clip Remover
BF Essential Correlation Meter phase fixer
BF Essential Meter Bridge VU metering
BF Essential Noise Meter
Channel Strip (based on the System 5 console)
Chorus
Click
Compressor/Limiter
D-Verb reverb and ambience
DC Offset Removal
De-Esser
Delay
DigiReWire
Dither
Down Mixer (5.1 to stereo fold down)
Duplicate
Eleven Free (guitar amp emulator based on Eleven)
Expander/Gate
Extra Long Delay II
Flanger
Gain
Invert
Lo-Fi retro processing
Long Delay II
Maxim sound maximizer
Medium Delay II
Mod Delay III
Multi-Tap Delay
Normalize
PhaseScope
Ping-Pong Delay
Pitch
Pitch Shift
POWr Dither
Recti-Fi harmonic synthesis
Reverse
SansAmp tube amp simulator
Sci-Fi ring modulator
Signal Generator
Short Delay II
Slap Delay II
PhaseScope
Time Compression Expansion
Time Shift time/pitch stretching
TL AutoPan panning effects
TL InTune digital tuner
TL MasterMeter oversampling meter
TL Metro versatile metronome
Trim
Vari-Fi speed shifter

[albee1952]

Truth is, you have many options(Pro Tools, Cubase, Sonar, Reaper, Logic, Digital Performer, Studio One........) and all of them are very capable(competition is a good thing). Many of us use PT because we like the way it works(each of the above programs has its own set of quirks, advantages and disadvantages), and many use PT to be compatible with other studios(that's totally up to you on how important that is). Since you are in "audition" mode, I would try Studio One. It gets great reviews and doesn't require an iLok.