3 FREE Excellent Plugins...

Discussions of VST and VST3 plugins for Mixcraft users.

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geo524
Posts: 101
Joined: Thu May 07, 2015 5:26 am

3 FREE Excellent Plugins...

Post by geo524 »

TDR/VOS Slick EQ; Molot and Limiter6. Slap these VSTs on your stereo bus for mastering and let the music play. Total Awesomeness!! Try these plugs on your stereo buss in the order below using the following presets then tweak as needed. I'm finding that I can use this chain on most of my stereo tracks with minimal adjustments per song.

1) Slick EQ (I usually start with the "American" preset and dial in just a small amount of high gain as needed. Out Stage on the right side of the plugin is set to mellow or linear. Differences are subtle.
2) Molot with the "premaster" preset.
3) Limiter6 last in your chain with "master3" preset. Just make sure you pull the gain on the compressor back to about -3 db before you hit play. This beast is loud!

As stated on Vladg's website Molot adds a lot of coloring to the sound which may or may not be ideal for you. I like it quite a bit though.

http://www.tokyodawn.net/tdr-vos-slickeq/
https://vladgsound.wordpress.com/plugins/molot/
https://vladgsound.wordpress.com/plugins/limiter6/

Also check out Melda Production's free plugin pack. I recently upgraded to their paid versions but the freebies pack quite a punch. http://www.meldaproduction.com/plugins/ ... ectsBundle
Win 10x64; Reaper; MixCraft 9 Pro; AMD FX4100 x4; 3.8GHz; DDR3 32 GB Ram; Dual 23" HP Monitors; Focusrite Scarlett 18i20 Gen2; SSD 1TB; 3 x 1TB and 1 x 640 GB HDD; Mackie HR 624 Monitors; Kali LP 8 monitors
Brother Charles
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Re: 3 FREE Excellent Plugins...

Post by Brother Charles »

All good stuff.
Melda plugs rock!
Thanks & God Bless,
Bro. Charles
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geo524
Posts: 101
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Re: 3 FREE Excellent Plugins...

Post by geo524 »

I really like Melda Plugins. There is an update for them that addresses some technical problems with Studio One and FL Studio. http://www.meldaproduction.com/index.php

Toneboosters rocks too! :D
Win 10x64; Reaper; MixCraft 9 Pro; AMD FX4100 x4; 3.8GHz; DDR3 32 GB Ram; Dual 23" HP Monitors; Focusrite Scarlett 18i20 Gen2; SSD 1TB; 3 x 1TB and 1 x 640 GB HDD; Mackie HR 624 Monitors; Kali LP 8 monitors
Brother Charles
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Re: 3 FREE Excellent Plugins...

Post by Brother Charles »

+1
ToneBoosters, YES!
martinweeks
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Re: 3 FREE Excellent Plugins...

Post by martinweeks »

re: TDR/VOS Slick EQ; Molot and Limiter6.

You're right about loud, scared the C*** out of me first time I kicked in the Limiter 6. For some reason (again probably my laptop) I cannot turn on the clipper protection portion of limiter 6 without problems. But that's okay as I always practice good low db settings from start to finish.

The molot is a bit confusing to me. Visually I'm used to reading left to right...same with watching vu dial type meters. You know like the classic sports cars and their rpm dials. left to right. So when I'm watching the dials how am I correctly supposed to interpret the meters moving? right to left or left to right? I'm assuming that where there is red line I should not be but that's as far as I can get before my brain starts melting again. Any good advice on how to properly guage what's going on with the level dials? Thanks.

Marty
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geo524
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Re: 3 FREE Excellent Plugins...

Post by geo524 »

Hi Marty,

Yeah. Got me the first time around too. It only needed to happen once though. :lol:

Looking at the meter on the Molot it's left to right. Highest peak should not exceed 0 db. Up to the red line is fine but make sure the signal does not go into the red. In my analog days it was okay to go into the red zone, but with digital anything after 0 db can spell trouble. :(

Limiter6 is pretty much becoming my "go-to" limiter even over my paid for, more expensive plug-ins. Molot has a tendency to add a lot of color to the audio so I use it sparingly unless I'm looking for that extra bite. When used in the mastering chain I usually always start with the "premaster" setting and then tweak the attack, release, threshold and makeup gain and leave it on the soft knee setting. I haven't had to tweak the other controls. Hope this helps.
Win 10x64; Reaper; MixCraft 9 Pro; AMD FX4100 x4; 3.8GHz; DDR3 32 GB Ram; Dual 23" HP Monitors; Focusrite Scarlett 18i20 Gen2; SSD 1TB; 3 x 1TB and 1 x 640 GB HDD; Mackie HR 624 Monitors; Kali LP 8 monitors
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msnickybee
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Re: 3 FREE Excellent Plugins...

Post by msnickybee »

Huge shout out too for "Limiter no. 6".
TDR feedback compressor, Izotope Essentials, the Acoustica ones, and many others....
None of them compare really.
But it needs a lot of taming.
I particularly like the mid/side compression and limiting, and also the multiband options. This is HUGELY flexible!
None of the built-in acoustica options have parallel or mid/side compression (although there might be a new one in ProStudio, can't remember).
I have genuinely not come across a better compressor/limiter, most of them are more about simple Brickwall limiting.
Nicky
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geo524
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Re: 3 FREE Excellent Plugins...

Post by geo524 »

Limiter 6 has been my go to plugin ever since I discovered it. It just works for me. Love it on the stereo bus but I agree. It does need taming. It's a real beast but what I really like is as long as you don't really push it you don't hear any of the side effects that are usually associated with limiting and compression. Understanding what all the controls do can be a little daunting at first but I start with a preset and do minor tweaks as needed. It is one of the best free finds I've found in a long time.
Win 10x64; Reaper; MixCraft 9 Pro; AMD FX4100 x4; 3.8GHz; DDR3 32 GB Ram; Dual 23" HP Monitors; Focusrite Scarlett 18i20 Gen2; SSD 1TB; 3 x 1TB and 1 x 640 GB HDD; Mackie HR 624 Monitors; Kali LP 8 monitors
jddrock
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Re: 3 FREE Excellent Plugins...

Post by jddrock »

Wow! Thanks for the heads up geo524! I just got all 3 of these and tried 'em out on a mix I had finished but was having trouble mastering. The Slick EQ worked really well on the track. All I really did was adjust the high gain and it sweetened up the dull sound I had before to just the right place, not too bright but definitely a lot more energy and pop than what I had before. Limiter6 is fantastic! I used the "Master 3" preset and played around with it for a minute. I will definitely be using this in my mastering sessions from now on. I had trouble before getting my tracks closer to commercial CD levels without squashing my sound, but Limiter6 has helped a lot. I don't always care for the way a lot of mastering engineers now days have been compromising dynamics just to pump out a mix louder than another guy. Sometimes it's appropriate(i.e. EDM music), but Limiter6 has helped me get closer to commercial level, but in such a way that I'm not totally throwing all the dynamics of the mix out the window.
I tried the Molot compressor a little bit, but I already had another compressor on the mix and had tweaked it before to glue everything together. I didn't want to change the sound I already had with that compressor. With that compressor going and the Molot it was just too much(it was actually a little reminiscent of a lot of modern mastering :lol: ), so I took it out of the chain and let Limiter6 do its thing, and it turned out great. Thanks again for putting these up, may never have found 'em. I'd encourage everyone reading this to try them out. They've worked GREAT for me so far. Here's to better mixes!!! :D
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geo524
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Re: 3 FREE Excellent Plugins...

Post by geo524 »

Excellent jddrock. Here's another gem of a free plug-in. Been using this one a lot on individual tracks as well as on the stereo bus. http://www.kvraudio.com/product/luftikus-by-lkjb Happy tracking! :D
Win 10x64; Reaper; MixCraft 9 Pro; AMD FX4100 x4; 3.8GHz; DDR3 32 GB Ram; Dual 23" HP Monitors; Focusrite Scarlett 18i20 Gen2; SSD 1TB; 3 x 1TB and 1 x 640 GB HDD; Mackie HR 624 Monitors; Kali LP 8 monitors
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