The Best 20 Plugins of ALL TIME (ranked)

Oxford limiter or oxford inflator for vocals ?

there's so much options that i lost it.... 😬

From the window to the wall we getting lit up in this BIH? Worst fucking lyrics ever!

the acustica bashing i cant hahahah

I own 13 of 20 on the list. Just about on. And yep Elephant is the best Limiter of them all! Still remember the day I first heard it like wtf is this sorcery?! 😂

Tone Projects Kelvin and Michelangelo, Flux IRCAM Reverb

Some good plug ins here. Would have been nice to have heard some other genres particularly since the vocals aren’t particularly dynamic and the drums are programmed. Let’s face it, if they’re programmed then they’re already consistent transients that can be balanced by simply EQing, saturating and getting levels on the individual tracks.

Hey there, big fan of your work guys but I'd like to give some feedback.
If you can change the order of the before and after so that the dry signal (before) comes first before the the wet signal. It would make a difference a lot of difference in noticing the differences. Also, exaggerating the parameters a bit so that they are noticed on most playback devices because I rarely have my monitors on me when watching your videos.

🙃

LMAO

+Melodyne!!!!!

OFF > ON is better than ON > OFF

Your authenticy will forever make Sage Audio a sage in the game.

great info and video, will definitely be trying these...

Ssl deess beats weiss

Thanks so much for these videos your helping a lot!!❤

whats the difference between oxford lim "enhance" and oxford inflator?

Is there any plugin that works the same exact way as Eventide’s precision timeline plugin? Really don’t want to spend $100 for a plugin like that

Can you show them on the MP Controller which is a dedicated plugin controller?

I'm also going to give a shout-out to Metric A/B. Maybe doesn't qualify here as it's not really used for processing audio but it's one of the most useful plug-ins I've ever bought, not sure if there's anything else quite like it out there. It's always on my master bus now.

This was fun. Just wanted to add that Pulsar makes some of the best compressors and EQs in the game, with the definitive 8200. Total game changer. Gullfoss is nice too, even if I find myself wondering what I’m actually using it for. Couple of others that I couldn’t live without: Kazrog’s range, Wavesfactory (especially Spectre and Trackspacer), Softube 1973 and Tape, Overloud’s Dopamine, and some of the Plugin Alliance stuff (Noveltech, Lindell De-Esser, SPL, Brainworx etc). Cytomic’s Glue is also surely a classic at this point.

I’ll give my list

20.bettermaker bus compressor
19. SSL transformer
18. Waves BB tubes
17.AMEK 9099
16.Weiss Deesser
15. SPL IRON
14.UAD AVALON VT-737SP/KAZROG VT 747SP (both sound dumb good)
13. Eventide split Eq
12. Kirchhoff Eq
11. Eioss Air Eq (the mid range king)
10. Soothe 2
9. NI RAUM (outside of seventh heaven RAUM is incredible and it’s FREE )
8. Seventh Heaven
7 UAD LA-2 + LA2A (use it on instruments like strings,pads,leads or bus groups NOT JUST VOX)
6.Sonox Oxford limiter /INFLATOR
5.Elysia Alpha compressor
4.Master plan
3. Weiss DS-1 MK 3
2.THE God Partical
1. Tone projects Michelangelo

Showcasing a De-esser using a vocal sample part, without Ess-es...

since you did put Saturn 2 first, I wonder what you think about Volcano 3, Timeless 3 and Pro-R 2 ?

I like PressWerk very much

IMO, this isn't the best way to do a list, here's a personal take :

The best among the best are :
- TDR SLick EQM (best clean mixbus/mastering EQ)
- TimP L-Bus V2 for Nebula (best SSL/ mixbus compressor)
- UAD LA2A
- Arturia LX24
- Kazrog True Iron
- IK Sunset Sound
- Voosteq Model-N

For this list, there's no competitor that comes close, in term of sound and/or GUI/price.

Then, a good selection in each category :

EQs :
- clean : any eq that isn't cramping (logic's stock is perfect)
- sustain/transient : Ozone's last one is free and does the job :)
- bus : TDR slick EQ M is the best digital mastering EQ you can get. You can literally transform a mix with it without artefacts (due to coding quality AND GUI)
- colored : UA pultec, Softube EQF-100, Pulsar (Massive, 495)..etc


COMP :
- FET : UA 1176, Arturia FET76, Pulsar 1178 & Smasher
- Opto : UA LA2A, Softube TLA-100
- Vari-Mu : Magic Death Eye Stereo (does wonders on the mixbus), Arturia STA, Klanghelm MJUC

- VCA : TimP L-Bus V2 (better than some hardware), SSL Native (good but not as the previous one), UAD Api-2500

SATURATION :
- Tube : Arturia Dist-Tube Culture
- Transformers : Kazrog True Iron
- Tape : Softube Tape, UAD ATR-102
- Channel Strip (Neve-style) : Voosteq Model-N

REVERBS :
- Lexicon : Arturia LX24, Valhalla VintageVerb
- Room / Chambers : IK Sunset Sound, UAD Hitsville Chambers
- Creative : Eventide Blackhole, Waves Lo-Fi Space, Baby Audio Spaced Out
- Plate : Arturia Plate, UAD plates (lots of good options), plates in IK Sunset Sound
- Spring : Klanghelm TENS, Arturia REV-Spring, spring in UK Sunset Sound

DELAYS :
- Valhalle Vintage Delay
- Baby Audio Spaced Out

IMAGERS :
- Leapwing StageOne
- TDR Slick EQ M (Which has great imaging options)

MODULATION :
- UAD Space Echo
- Arturia Dimension-D ("what your vocals need")

LIMITERS :
- Fabfilter Pro L2
- still searching for a convincing analog limiter emulation :)

CLIPPERS :
- Fabfilter Pro L2 (A DIGITAL MODERN LIMITER IS A CLIPPER !!!!!!!!!!!!! followed by a compressor's release)

DE-ESSERS :
- Fabfilter Pro-DS
- Sonible DEES looks nice, next purchase

MULTIBAND COMPRESSORS :
- Fabfilter Pro-MB
- Trackspacer

ANALYZERS :
- Sonible True Balance & True Loudness for tonal balance and loudness comparison
- ADPTR Metric A/B for referencing

OTHER :
- Soothe 2 for acoustic stuff
- Tone Projects Basslane for bass high-frequencies
- BX Subsynth for bass low-frequencies

Voilà ! This doesn't mean you need all of these to make good mixes, but that's quite a good selection IMO

Gotta have mv2, rvox, and klanghelm mjuc.

Can't argue with the list. Most of these I don't have, but that's OK.

I've got a Soundtoys 5.4 where I could get saturation, echo, other effects. Right now I'm using the SuperPlate. Sorry I just got the bundle a week ago.

Basic Melda compressor for sidechain ducking, their MDynamicEQ as well
Pulsar Audio 1178, Smasher, Mu compressors then their Massive and W495 EQ
UAD LA-2A
Relab LX480 V4 dual engine
Softube saturation knob
LVC Clipped-MAX and Limited-MAX
TRD Nova
Techivation T-De-Esser and T-Puncher
Klanghelm Vu meters, SDRR, MJUC, TENS jr
YouLean meter
Antares Choir free and 2 month demo of Auto Tune bundle
A few Soundspot plug-ins I'm not using

No real order but ones I've got that I typically use often.

Does soothe 2 ever go on sale?

great selection, horrific song choice. unlistenable.

Criminal omission. PSP Vintage Warmer. Old, but gold.

Kirchhoff is good but I think Eventide split eq is a pretty impressive challenger to pro Q
Sooth is great!

Besides the obvious, like FabFilter, Kirchhoff, 7-th Heaven, I’d pay attention to Valhalla VintageVerb, SoundToys Super Plate, SSL X-Comp, Black Box HG-2, all bx_consoles, Slate FG-X2 – they are just amazing and absolutely necessary in my workflow.

Soundspot and Tokyo Dawn Plugins are probably some of my favorites, the TDR Nova was what inspired the features in the Fabfilter Pro Q3

I always wonder if people are recycling old lists, especially when they suggest things like Universal Audio's 1176 Classic Limiter Collection "requires a UA processor", when we all know they have had a native version out now for the entirety of 2023!

Yet nobody talks about TONEBOOSTERS Plugins 🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️

the enhance in Sonnox limiter is not like in Inflator?

Can you do a seperate tutorial on how to set up something like the mythical 3D preset or go in detail on how it works

Great review! This really helps. Thanks so much!

i don't agree with Sage on u-he's Presswerk. It compresses the low end too much for me but the other frequencies, it does an extraordinary job.

could you test and review Playfair Audio - Dynamic Grading?

Distortion and analog modeling plugins sound like shit

What do you dislike about Ozone?

Great list, I agree some of this are the best of their kind

A list without Musik Hack’s Master Plan is no list of mine.

The most powerfully transparent limiter/clipper I’ve ever used. Just google the reviews

No trackspacer??? And…. Shade?? Nah dude, this aint it!

Interesting list, thanks for this take on the topic. The one from your list I would include in mine would be Satin, completely agree that this is the best tape emulation, still to this day. IK tape machine collection being a close second. One I very much disagree with, and I don't think should be ANYWHERE top 20 plugin list is Arturia Comp Fet-76. Testing it against hardware, it didn't even come close, and there are much better options out there. The main problem with the Arturia is that per default it aggresively rolls off all highs starting around 5k. So both high mids and highs.
You can test this with Bertom. The hardware actually has quite a bit of excitment and openess up there, which seperates it from many plugin options...at the same gain reduction there is an openess in the mids and highs with the hardware, but the Arturia Comp Fet-76 doubles down on this classic plugin problem, making it worse than even other plugins. We're talking a full 3 dB cut in the highs just by inserting it, and there is no way to remedy it within Comp Fet-76, as its "Band EQ" is simply a detection feeder, not a normal eq. They should really add an option to have a more flat response instead of robbing the source of all the mids and highs even before compression. I own the plugin but never found a single source where it was useful due to this issue. So many better alternatives.

Pro Audio DSP DSM??? It's my favorite of all time.

Crap music.