Music Production: Absolutely Necessary Plugins on a Budget

If you haven’t read my two articles on “my most used plugins”, I’d highly recommend reading those prior to reading this.

Unsurprisingly, I get this question a lot. “Which plugins do I absolutely need to have? I’m on a budget, so the cheaper the better.” Unfortunately, I’ll tell you right now that the music recording industry is not cheap, and if you’re really serious about this, expect to shell out anywhere from 5k to 25k just to get started (if you want to compete professionally, that is). If you’re just getting started and don’t know much, my recommendation is always buy cheap and upgrade when you feel you’ve outgrown the current equipment. Luckily, most hardware gear retains its value, so you should get a good percentage back on what you spent.

Anyways, let’s get started. I’ve purchased a lot of plugins over the years and I use most of them pretty regularly. Some of those, however, are quite expensive and probably not worth the dollar, if you’re on a budget. So here are my picks of what every producer/mix engineer should have:

Native Instruments Komplete Standard

I mentioned this in my previous article, but I’ll reiterate. It’s an industry standard for a reason. At its price-point, it can be a bit of a big pill to swallow, but I promise it’s worth every dollar. Not only does it come with some of the best virtual instruments on the market, but it comes with a series of unique and powerful effects that are usable in most circumstances. I’d use most of them in a mix session without a second thought. Try out a demo and see what you think, but I’m pretty sure you’ll like what you hear.

So why am I recommending the Standard version over the Ultimate? Honestly, I think Ultimate is overkill. There’s so much in there, it’s a little mind-boggling. I’ve never invested in it because I know I wouldn’t use half the libraries it comes with. Simple is better. Less is more. Learning to use the limited tools you have will make you more creative and get your productions sounding better faster. With that many resources at your disposal, you’ll inevitably get stuck in “choice paralysis” and not finish your projects. That said, I think the Select version isn’t enough. The real benefit of Komplete is in Kontakt, so if the package doesn’t come with Kontakt, it’s not worth it. Go with Standard. You’ll thank me later.

Plugin Alliance Mega Bundle

I’ve also mentioned this in my previous articles, and that’s because I love it so much. If you’re on a budget, you probably can’t afford the UAD suite. They sound absolutely brilliant, but you’ll have to pay a hefty price. Well, lucky for us, Plugin Alliance gets it. As of the time of writing, you can get a yearly subscription for $250 with their entire suite. Oh yeah, and did I mention they’re some of the best plugins on the market?

The big drawback is usability. Pretty much all their effects are recreation of classic and modern hardware, so they try to make the interface as similar to the hardware unit as they can. Which is great for the few of us that learned using consoles and rack gear, but not so great if you’re trying to learn on a laptop. If you’re learning, a lot of times it can be easier to learn on a parametric EQ or some other effect with a visual interface.

BUT, here’s the thing. If I could go back and talk to my younger self right now, I’d strongly advise him to tough it out and learn without the visuals. They become a crutch and keep you from focusing on what’s most important, listening. It’s still important to know how to use the visual interfaces, but if you’re coming from more of a console workflow, it should be an easy transition. And in pretty much every case, the sonic benefits you get from using a hardware emulation plugin are worth the extra time.

Now, I guess I should mention that the strong majority of plugins in this bundle are mixing tools. Coupled with Komplete, you’ve got a full set of industry standard tools at your disposal. For under $1000, I’d say you’re in pretty good shape. There will be a learning curve for each package, but it’s well worth the time and effort.

Depending on when you’re reading this, just a heads up that Plugin Alliance does a $50 off the yearly subscription every Black Friday. If you really need to save the extra few bucks, wait until then.

Before anyone asks, “Why this over the Slate bundle?”, I’ll openly admit I’ve never tried the Slate stuff. I hear they’re awesome and right up there with the UAD stuff, but I’ve never gotten around to investing the time into trying it all out. I’d imagine they’re pretty similar, since they appear to be emulating a lot of the same hardware, but Plugin Alliance was the one I tried first.

Alright, so you’re all set and ready to go with some of the industry’s best tools. What am I missing?

Well, Komplete comes with Replika, which is a pretty stellar delay, as well as the Raum reverb… but I’ll admit Raum isn’t my favorite. So from these packs, the only thing I think is missing is a really high quality reverb.

Valhalla Vintage Verb

A long time staple in the industry, renowned for its incredible sound and even more incredible price. It’s lightweight and sounds brilliant. For $50, it’s probably some of the best audio processing money you’ll ever spend. Tons of killer presets and is really easy to get set up and sounding great. My go-to reverb, unless I’m looking for something really specific. But don’t take my word for it. Take a quick look at the user reviews and threads on the forums. There are definitely better reverbs, but you can expect to spend 5–10x the price for them. And don’t be fooled by the price, it IS an industry standard. Do yourself a favor and grab it. You won’t regret it.

Now there are a few tools these bundles don’t cover. First an auto-tune plugin. If your vocalists are good, hopefully you won’t need one, but if you do, pretty much any of the popular plugins will work. Each have their pros and cons, but I’ll let you decide which one to get.

You also don’t get any “recovery” software. If you’re tracking a lot of live instruments, it’ll probably be worth it to invest in some, since it saves a ton of time. If you plan on using primarily virtual instruments, I wouldn’t worry about it. Izotope RX is probably the best right now (and most expensive), but Waves also offers a series of really good tools that are more reasonably priced.

Well, that’s it. With those two bundles and Valhalla, you get pretty much everything you could need, as far as processing goes. Anything else you’ll want will probably be very situation specific and/or have a very specific character that you want. But with these tools, you should be able to reasonably compete with modern sonic standards. If you’re really itching to spend more money, check out some of the tools I mentioned in my other articles, as they could potentially save you some time or add a bit of extra flavor.

And, as always, don’t take my word for it! Most of these have demos, so download them and try them out!

As many of you know, these articles are written as part of a “brain dump” recommended by an article I read. I’ve found them very helpful, but they often contain incorrect, vague, and misleading info, since they’re written in a short period shortly after I wake up. I find them very therapeutic, but I openly admit there isn’t a ton of cognitive thought or editing going into them. Keep that in mind. And most of all, remember that there are no rules in music. These are my recommendations, but it’s your responsibility to review, ponder, act, and discover for yourself. Good luck, have fun.