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Best underrated plugins


AlphaFive
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Been producing for around 15 years now. Started on Reason 2.5 in about 2002. Fast forward over a decade and I've moved on to my third version of Ableton Live, complete with a decent suite of top plugins.

 

I've seen and tried most of the big titles. Nexus, Sylenth, Massive, even the fairly recent SynthMaster (highly recommended). I also believe there's much to be said for the smaller or less-celebrated plugins out there - both instruments and effects. There's some gems out there that don't get the recognition they deserve.

 

So my question is ... what are your favourite underrated plugins?

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S'pose I better kickstart this ...

 

Tone2's Electra synth is awesome and has a nice metallic edge that makes it sound different from other warmer trance n dance machines. It's pretty exxy tho.

 

Also if you're after a good reverb, ValhallaDSP is an awesome small setup with a range of simple but phat sounding reverbs.

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I'm gonna start off with these 2 tonight and work on a few more later on. Both of these plugs are from TAL (Togu Audio Line).

 

TAL Noise Maker

https://tal-software.com/products/tal-noisemaker

 

thumb_tal-noisemaker.png

 

As far as free synths go, this one is a little beauty. 

A mate of mine can probably vouch for this the most as he's used this plug in for years. The sounds you can achieve from this are very much on par with what you could achieve in sylenth. It doesn't have a host of onboard effects but some post processing can bring your Noise Maker sounds to life. This should be the number 1 on all young producers plugin list, and being free you shouldn't have to think twice.

 

TAL Dub

https://tal-software.com/products/tal-dub

 

thumb_tal-dub.jpg

 

I use this A LOT! Another freebie, Dub offers up simple and very effective echo effects. There are 3 versions of it but I only use the first one, which is probably the more basic one out of the 3. Pop this on your instrument / audio track or load it up on a bus and set it to multiple tracks for awesome results. Dub works great and it's usually my first pick over any other echo / delay plugins I own.  

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  • 4 weeks later...

+1 for TAL stuff. I use their plugins and it's pretty great. Also cheers Labrat for recommending Noisemaker, I had it on my hard drive but never bothered to use it until recently :)

 

I want to add one plugin that I think deserves a lot of love because of how good it sounds.

 

 

"MULTIPLY" by Acon Digital

 

https://acondigital.com/products/multiply/

 

 

This is probably the best freeware chorus plugin I've used, ever. It's very versatile, allowing you control all the little elements of it, including an inbuilt eq to shape how you want the wet signal to sound and up to 6 voices. Honestly though, the best part about this plugin is that the software was designed in such a way in which there is very little to no comb filtering at all, meaning that this is the cleanest sounding chorus I've ever used. It's really cool and it's free, so honestly, just check it out!

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  • 3 months later...

Not sure bout underrated but i know a number of producers who've never heard of it.

Glitch 2

https://illformed.com/

I love this little guy like a small child. I havent made a project in the last 18 mths that doesnt have it. great for gates, tape stops (my personal favourite and go-to for this), so warm distortion. all running from a linked step sequencer. the great thing is it can run all its effects in parallel which is fantastic if your trying to do some complicated shit. Admittedly there is alot there i don't use but for something that cost me less than 30 bucks at the time (deal if you had the first one) i have more than got my moneys worth.

The big reason i come back to it time and again is its simple ease of use. although by this point i pretty much know it inside and backwards :P 

 

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  • 1 month later...
10 hours ago, Bristles said:

I've been using Carbon Electra for a bit now and I've been loving it. Wouldn't say I'm great at sound design but everything comes out deep and warm which I think can be hard to find. Not exactly cheap but not bad compared to a lot out there.. about $100 on PluginBoutique..

 

I've got this. Went to a talk by David Carbone himself a while ago in Melbourne. It's good.

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