Quality of Live's Plugins

nebulae · Post by **nebulae** » Thu Dec 21, 2006 6:25 pm

I know this has been discussed before, but with Live 6 out for a while now, I was wondering what the overall consensus was with respect to Live's native plugins. Do you feel the need to get other bread-n-butter plugs like EQ, compression, and reverb? Do Live's plugs have good quality in addition to being super CPU efficient? And if you use other plugs, which ones do you use and why?L

slow riot · Post by **slow riot** » Thu Dec 21, 2006 6:35 pm

with regard to bread and butter effects, I only use the native ableton ones. I'm not seriously schooled in sound engineering or whatever, but they get the results that I would expect from my knowledge of the application of such tools.

obviously I use other plugins, but none which overlap with the ableton ones with regard to their function (actually, apart from a sidechain compressor, but for normal compression I still use the ableton ones).

sweetjesus · Post by **sweetjesus** » Thu Dec 21, 2006 6:35 pm

i think live is great for bread and butter
its magic plugins you can add to live

say live plugins + vintage warmer + ozone would give me great results

knotkranky · Post by **knotkranky** » Thu Dec 21, 2006 6:52 pm

Simple rule of thumb. More cpu drain the better the quality. The caveat being it poorly coded. But the the rule of thumb is 99.9% true.

What is definitely true is that a super great sounding eq, compressor and reverb are hard on the cpu. That said, the more powerful the computer, the better the sound quality.

I use Live plugs to keep my computer quick when composing, but they don't end up in my masters.

nebulae · Post by **nebulae** » Thu Dec 21, 2006 7:19 pm

knotkranky wrote:I use Live plugs to keep my computer quick when composing, but they don't end up in my masters.

So then do you redo all your EQ settings and such when you're ready to mix down?

ciw · Post by **ciw** » Thu Dec 21, 2006 7:21 pm

if it were available, i would choose "i don't feel qualified to comment". i wonder how many others here would also tick that one.

difference · Post by **difference** » Thu Dec 21, 2006 7:24 pm

Live's plugs are OK on the most part. I use others for variety more than anything.

With the expression of the compressors. They are the worst I have ever tried.

knotkranky · Post by **knotkranky** » Thu Dec 21, 2006 7:38 pm

nebulae wrote:
knotkranky wrote:I use Live plugs to keep my computer quick when composing, but they don't end up in my masters.
So then do you redo all your EQ settings and such when you're ready to mix down?

Yup. But I typically don't eq or compress while i'm getting my track together. I only use two software programs. Live and PT. I start in Live and end up in PT with most od's in PT. If I eq in Live, it's a general fix the problem setting that takes 2 seconds, so i'm not tweeking in Live. If I need a lot of eq when i'm in Live while i'm composing, then something is wrong with my arrangement. So I replace the sound or part instead of eq'ing. Except for a little bit on the record side (bass, gtr etc), for the mix, I have no pre eq'd or compressed tracks. All raw audio.

roach808 · Post by **roach808** » Thu Dec 21, 2006 8:21 pm

Its always a mix and match for me. I do like the live plugins tho. The dynamic tube and saturator always rock my sox off. Ontop of that its delays are really awesome 2.

as for the comps, i do use them from time to time when i want some really ghetto compression nothing too fancy.

Machinesworking · Post by **Machinesworking** » Thu Dec 21, 2006 8:28 pm

I like Live's unique plugs lik e beat repeat, but I'm not sold on the EQs etc. and it's a bit wonky to have the third choice add in the part about CPU. Although it's pretty normal for third party plug ins to be more CPU intensive I haven't found Live's to be really that CPU light.

DJ VAKIS · Post by **DJ VAKIS** » Thu Dec 21, 2006 8:48 pm

Live plugins are great.
Ok if you want to go a bit farther then waves is the way.

knotkranky · Post by **knotkranky** » Thu Dec 21, 2006 8:50 pm

Machinesworking wrote:I like Live's unique plugs lik e beat repeat, but I'm not sold on the EQs etc. and it's a bit wonky to have the third choice add in the part about CPU. Although it's pretty normal for third party plug ins to be more CPU intensive I haven't found Live's to be really that CPU light.

Beat repeat. That's a plug I like a lot. Unique and addictive. It really makes it's own sound other than improving one. I use to have to make stutters with loads of edits. oui!

+1 on Waves

Machinesworking · Post by **Machinesworking** » Thu Dec 21, 2006 8:55 pm

After dealing with Komplete care etc. I'm no fan of scams to get me to pay for updates on a yearly basis..... I own no Waves products, Nomad Factory is doing it for me, PSP would if they ever got UB out.....
If you haven't for some reason messed with Buffer Override, it's a great compliment to Beat Repeat.

leisuremuffin · Post by **leisuremuffin** » Thu Dec 21, 2006 8:58 pm

trust your ears.

$$ does not = quality

native live effect does not = not as good as pay plugin.

just listen closely

.lm.

knotkranky · Post by **knotkranky** » Thu Dec 21, 2006 9:00 pm

Machinesworking wrote:After dealing with Komplete care etc. I'm no fan of scams to get me to pay for updates on a yearly basis..... I own no Waves products, Nomad Factory is doing it for me, PSP would if they ever got UB out.....
If you haven't for some reason messed with Buffer Override, it's a great compliment to Beat Repeat.

Well, good point. I can't stand that waves wup crap. You're right. i would love to get away from them for that reason alone. Does sound good though.

Quality of Live's Plugins

Are Live's Plugins Good Enough?

Quality of Live's Plugins