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Taking Stock: Which DAW Has the Best Stock Plug-ins for You?

Friday June 4, 2021. 02:00 PM , from Sweetwater inSync
While you can make great music with any DAW, they all
approach the tasks of recording, sound-design editing, and mixing differently.
So, when it comes to selecting a DAW, it’s important to evaluate them according
to how their unique workflows and features will complement your approach to
music making. That said, sometimes it’s easy to overlook another extremely
significant criterion for choosing a DAW — its stock plug-ins.

Nowadays, stock plug-ins have far outpaced the super-simple
processors that came bundled free with DAWs even a decade ago. In fact, stock
plug-in effects and virtual instruments may end up comprising the core of your
effects arsenal. In this article, we explore the stock plug-ins of five of
Sweetwater’s most popular DAWs to answer the question: “Which DAW has the best
stock plug-ins for you?”

Avid Pro Tools | Ultimate Stock Plug-insPreSonus Studio One 5 Professional Stock Plug-insImage Line FL Studio 20 Signature Edition Stock Plug-insAbleton Live 11 Suite Stock Plug-insSteinberg Cubase Pro 11 Stock Plug-ins

Avid Pro Tools | Ultimate

When you download Pro Tools | Ultimate, you’re treated to a robust plug-in package that features more than 75 utility and effects plug-ins and virtual instruments from Avid, Bomb Factory, and AIR Music Technology. As the industry-leading DAW for decades, Pro Tools mimics, to a degree, the experience of working on a large-format recording console, so it’s no surprise that it excels in production situations based on capturing live performances — and its stock plug-in collection reflects that emphasis.

With spot-on emulations of classic hardware compressors and EQs, a host of modulation and time-based effects, the Eleven MKII guitar and bass amp simulator, UVI’s Falcon sampler, and a surprisingly inclusive assembly of stompbox emulations, Pro Tools stock plug-ins hit all the right notes when it comes to massaging your raw tracks into finished, radio-ready songs. However, Pro Tools doesn’t limit you to just bread and butter effects, it also offers numerous creative sound-design processors, such as the X-Form time stretcher and pitch shifter, AIR Frequency Shifter, and AIR Talkbox vocoder.

3 standout Pro Tools | Ultimate stock plug-ins

Moogerfooger
Bundle: Introduced by legendary synth designer Bob Moog in 1998, the
Moogerfooger family of voltage-controlled analog effects captured the imagination
of gearheads from all corners. And, after being discontinued in 2009, they have
commanded exorbitant prices on the collector’s market. While you might not be
able to get your hands on the real things, the Moogerfooger Bundle provides
authentic software re-creations of four Moogerfooger pedals: the Ring
Modulator, Lowpass Filter, 12-stage Phaser, and Analog Delay. They’re ideal for
adding some analog-flavored effects to your productions and mixes.

Pultec
Bundle: Few pieces of gear are as universally renowned as Pultec EQs; they
are a staple in professional recording and mixing facilities. With their sweet
tube-based sound, versatility, and ease of use, Pultec EQs excel at many
tone-shaping tasks. The Pultec Bundle includes the EQP-1A, the EQH-2, and the
MEQ-5. Whether you’re fine-tuning individual sources or putting the final
polish on your mix with a mix-bus EQ, the Pultec Bundle has the right tool for
the job.

AIR Lo-Fi: AIR Lo-Fi is advertised as a relatively straightforward bitcrusher and saturation effect. However, it is something of a secret weapon for pro mixing engineers. When used judiciously, AIR Lo-Fi has a knack for making vocals, snare drums, and guitars pop. While it is not the most versatile saturator on the market, it is simple to use, it’s light on your CPU, and it has a reliably great sound.

Explore Avid Pro Tools

PreSonus Studio One 5 Professional

PreSonus Studio One 5 Professional is a uniquely versatile DAW that combines aspects of both the traditional workflow of Pro Tools and the creative flexibility of Ableton. Users who predominantly record live instruments will appreciate Studio One’s console-style layout and linear timeline. While in-the-box experimentalists will revel in Studio One’s formidable beat-production tools, extended MIDI capabilities, and comprehensive virtual-instrument integration. However, Studio One truly shines in hybrid production setups.

The Studio One 5 Professional plug-in package boasts a wide range of creative effects and workhorse processors, including the usual suspects of software-emulated hardware EQs and compressors alongside advanced delays and reverbs, modulators, and soft synths. Plus, several MIDI effects are on deck, including an intelligent chord generator, a powerful arpeggiator, and a MIDI filter for setting velocity ranges and constraining your virtual instruments and external sound modules to play only the notes within a scale.

3 standout Studio One 5 Professional stock plug-ins

Fat
Channel XT: PreSonus has poured a significant amount of effort into developing
and refining the Fat Channel XT channel strip plug-in. Originally designed to
promote integration between Studio One and PreSonus StudioLive mixers, Fat
Channel XT leverages PreSonus’s cutting-edge State Space Model technology to
deliver eight compressors and seven EQs meticulously modeled from coveted
vintage studio hardware. No matter if you’re looking for something clean and
transparent or vibey and characterful, Fat Channel XT is up to the task.

Mojito:
Not to be confused with the deliciously minty libation, the PreSonus Mojito
is a no-frills monophonic, subtractive synthesizer that will appeal to seasoned
synthesists and synth newbies. Based on classic analog mono synths, Mojito
comprises a single multi-waveform oscillator, a four-pole lowpass filter, and a
modulation-effects section. Mojito is an excellent synth for exploring the
fundamentals of subtractive synthesis, and it has a super-fat vintage sound,
which lends itself to growling bass lines and stinging leads.

Autofilter: Filter effectscan add instant interest to bland guitars, synths, and percussive elements, and the PreSonus Autofilter is a remarkably capable filter effect that can totally hang with pricey third-party plug-ins. With two multimode filters, five LFO types, and an envelope follower, Autofilter gives you ample control over manipulating the filters’ behaviors to create everything from slow, dramatic sweeps and autowah sounds to skittering, sequenced-filter mayhem.

Explore PreSonus Studio One 5

Image Line FL Studio 20 Signature Edition

What began as an attempt to gamify music production has
evolved into a fully mature DAW, which has been heartily embraced by hip-hop,
pop, and EDM producers. Launched in 1997, FL Studio (formerly known as Fruity
Loops) is based around a simple and intuitive step-sequencer format that allows
artists to build beats quickly and efficiently. Its many notable users include
Sonny Digital, Lex Luger, Mike Will Made It, and Basshunter, and it is
inextricably linked to trap, grime, and dubstep.

FL Studio 20 Signature Edition is an excellent tool for any genre, but it is particularly suited to in-the-box music production — which is reflected in its offering of stock plug-ins. Featuring several deep virtual instruments, sample-manipulation tools, and sound-shaping plug-ins, FL Studio 20 Signature Edition encourages you to bend, twist, and transform sounds within a fun and approachable creative environment.

3 standout FL Studio 20 Signature Edition stock plug-ins

Sytrus: A staple of FL Studio’s suite of
virtual instruments, Sytrus provides six fully customizable oscillators, three
filter modules, a power-packed effects engine, and a modulation matrix for
creating ultracomplex patches. For beginning sound designers, Sytrus can seem a
little intimidating at first. However, it’s worth investing the time it takes
to master Sytrus as it offers limitless sound-creation potential.

Fruity Convolver: Most FL Studio users are familiar with Fruity Reeverb 2, FL Studio’s stock algorithmic reverb. But there’s another superb reverb option living in FL Studio’s stock plug-in folder — Fruity Convolver. A convolution plug-in, Fruity Convolver allows you to load impulse responses (IRs) of physical spaces and hardware reverb units; it’s the same technology behind the industry-standard Altiverb reverb plug-in. Fruity Convolver comes loaded with a solid collection of IRs, and it permits loading custom and third-party IRs. And you’re not limited to using only reverb IRs. At Sweetwater, we’ve tried everything from amp and cab sims to four-track tape machines and vintage microphones!

Gross Beat: Arguably the most celebrated FL Studio stock plug-in, Gross Beat is an innovative glitch and stutter effect used to bend time and to fashion unpredictable rhythms out of any source material. With 36 user-definable time and volume envelopes, which can be linked to any MIDI keyboard or pad for real-time control, Gross Beat is not just a plug-in — it’s a live performance tool. Used to great effect by Daft Punk on the Tron: Legacy soundtrack, and in countless hit songs, Gross Beat is one of the coolest plug-ins available, stock or otherwise.

Explore FL Studio 20

Ableton Live 11 Suite

Like FL Studio, Ableton Live caters to in-the-box music
producers that crave creative freedom. Ableton Live offers two ways to interact
with a project, Arrangement View and Session View. Arrangement View provides a
familiar linear-timeline format, similar to other DAWs; while Session View
serves up a nonlinear experience, hosting standalone scenes and clips that
allow you to capture ideas quickly and audition them in multiple
configurations. Session View is both a spectacular songwriting tool and a
loop-based performance platform.

Ableton Live 11 Suite delivers a king’s ransom of stock plug-ins with no less than 15 software instruments, 72 audio and MIDI effects, and 29 content packs that are overflowing with samples, loops, and textures. One of the philosophies behind Ableton Live is to promote deep interaction within and between effects with custom macros and numerous automation lanes. Plus, Ableton Live 11 Suite includes Max for Live, which allows you to build your own effects and instruments from scratch. If you love making never-before-heard sounds, then Ableton Live 11 Suite may be the DAW for you!

3 standout Ableton Live 11 Suite stock plug-ins

Collision: Pitched percussion has a major
presence in modern pop, hip-hop, and EDM productions, and Ableton Live’s
Collision provides a unique way to build mallet sounds using physical-modeling
technology. Presenting seven resonator types, including beams, strings,
membranes, pipes, and tubes, Collision gives you full control over the sonic
profile of your instruments. You can select the resonator’s material, define
the attack and decay, add harmonic and disharmonic overtones, and modulate
parameters with an internal LFO to build a pitched percussion instrument that
surpasses the bounds of the physical world.

String
Quartet: Created exclusively for Ableton Live 11 Suite by Spitfire Audio,
an industry leader in instrumental multisampling, String Quartet is remarkably
realistic and primed for intimate arrangements. A variety of note lengths and
bowing techniques are on deck for creating expressive performances, and it
comes loaded with numerous MIDI clips in various styles to spark inspiration.

PitchLoop89: Currently, there’s a resurgent interest in late-1970s and early-1980s digital rack effects units, which have certain idiosyncratic qualities, such as a pleasing graininess, due to the technological limitations of that time. PitchLoop89 is a faithful emulation of a cult-classic pitch-shifting delay — the Publison DHM 89 B2. A knockout plug-in for glitch effects, shimmering delays, and warbling vibrato, PitchLoop89 blends old-school digital flavor with a few welcome modern enhancements.

Explore Ableton Live 11

Steinberg Cubase Pro 11

As one of the industry’s most mature DAWs, Cubase Pro 11 is extraordinarily flexible, making it an excellent choice for any production style. Cubase is well regarded for its stability and elegant layout. From DJ and super-producer Zedd to famed composer Alan Silvestri, Cubase is central to the workflow of numerous professional artists.

Cubase Pro 11 has a monstrous stock plug-in bundle with 90 effects and eight virtual instruments jam-packed with over 3,000 sounds. All of the standard processors are included as well as a superlative channel strip inspired by analog consoles. But Cubase Pro 11 goes above and beyond with its slew of sound-design plug-ins comprising myriad delays, reverbs, modulators, harmonizers, and saturation effects.

3 standout Steinberg Cubase Pro 11 stock plug-ins

Multiband Envelope Shaper: Multiband
compression is a common studio effect, allowing independent dynamic control
over specific frequency bands. And multiband saturators seem to be the plug-in
du jour lately. However, the Cubase Multiband Envelope Shaper is something you
don’t see every day. The Multiband Envelope Shaper lets you set the attack and
release of a signal with independent control over four EQ bands. With it, you can
completely reshape drums, synthesizers, acoustic instruments, and much more.
It’s one of those plug-ins you never knew you needed until you try it!

LoopMash
FX: Taking its cues from turntablists, LoopMash FX is a convenient plug-in
for adding DJ effects like backspins, scratches, stutters, reverse playback,
and slowdowns to a track. Assign the parameters to a MIDI controller or draw in
automation to generate wild, dynamic effects.

HALion Sonic SE: HALion Sonic SE is Cubase’s powerful sample-based synthesizer and production tool. With a massive library of content, HALion Sonic SE is a spectacular launching point for your compositions. Plus, it comes with the awesome FLUX wavetable synthesizer, loaded with over 70 custom-designed waves and 100 presets by top sound designers.

Explore Steinberg Cubase 11

Conclusion

Stock plug-ins have come a long way, with today’s DAWs empowering you with more incredible tools than ever for jump-starting your music making! So, when it’s time to choose your DAW, don’t forget to check out their stock plug-in lists. If you have other questions about how to choose the right DAW for you, please reach out to your Sweetwater Sales Engineer at (800) 222-4700.

Explore All DAW Software
The post Taking Stock: Which DAW Has the Best Stock Plug-ins for You? appeared first on inSync.
https://www.sweetwater.com/insync/which-daw-has-the-best-stock-plug-ins-for-you/
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