On Mon, Oct 17, 2011 at 5:22 PM, James Stone <jamesmstone@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi All,

Just wondered if people could give me a list of their favorite DSP
plugins for "normal" studio recording type jobs.

I guess I would need a parametric EQ, compressor and reverb.. Anything else?

Whenever I have tried to mix a live recording before, I have always
got lost in the spectacular array of different plugins - but quite
often never found one that quite fits the bill. So I'm wondering if I
have everything I need installed at the moment - and what the number 1
go-to effects are for people here?

I use MixBus for all of my mixing these days and use the built-in Harrison compression and limiting, as needed, and occasionally some EQ, as well as various LADSPA/LV2 FX like flanger or delay. And I swear by the IR convolution reverb plugin, it just sounds fantastic for symphonic music.

I tend not to use a lot of compression on tracks for pre-mastering & mixing, maybe a little on a bass line or vocal. For symphonic music, though, I never use compression on any individual tracks and try to mix those tracks with as little processing as possible (and reverbs always on busses). Compression can kill the natural dynamics and timbre of an orchestra.