Should You Purchase Plugin-Alliance Plugins?
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- Опубліковано 8 сер 2023
- I take a look at Plugin-Alliance, one of the most popular plugin brands on the market. But does popular mean good? Are Plugin-Alliance plugins a "must have"? I give my opinion based on Sound Quality, Workflow, Product Selection, Customer Consideration, and Price Point to decide: Are Plugin-Alliance plugins worth purchasing?
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There is something about the notch filters in their SPL PQ that gets me every time. High Q boost in the lows on a kick drum is just beautiful.
when i grew up and woke up from my waves nightmare i came to realize that plugin alliance and fabfilter are my best friends especially when i add oxford to them
Two words...all caps..............BLACK BOX!!!!!!!😎
Love that plugin 💯💯💯
Thanks to Waves I found this company and fell in love with there products. I hope that they continue to innovate and provide high quality products. 10/10
The Amek 9099 is insane! I believe i went and purchased because one of your videos. One of my favorites. I love plugin alliance, the times i did contact customer service it was a bit of a lackluster experience but overall i gladly support the company. As i own almost all their plugins lol
Heyyy!! Fancy finding you here 😃
@@MsInstrumentalBeatz 👋 Hey! Yup you know me always in the pursuit of knowledge and plugins 😆
limiter clip on drums dialed in a bit via mix
nicccceeeee
I love to use it for vocals 😊
PA is probably my most-used plugin manufacturer on sessions. The AMEK 9099 is without a doubt one of the best sounding and comprehensive channel strips out there. Having a clipper built-in and being able to run it in parallel is a game changer. The Lindell stuff is also some of the best, like the 50 and 80 channel strips and the Neve 254E/354E. The 354E is a magic multi-band comp for the drum bus. AMEK 200 and VSM-3 are staples on my mastering chain. PA are a little slow for updates though and their installation manager app is in serious need of an update.
Definitely not the worst Installation manager out there though....
@@WeissAdvicebut pretty close 😂
I really dig this series. Looking forward to an Acustica Audio or Kush Audio Series!
If you are patient and smart about purchases you can get some amazing deals. Just make sure you are actually buying stuff you need. Really like the authorization scheme, super friendly to people who use a computer that's offline. Manuals and downloads are all right on the product pages. The timers on sales and the non sale prices are are bit anti-consumer, just gotta be smarter and show a bit of patience/restraint.
Great video i do really like plug in alliance over a 3 or 4 year period i have figured out my go to's and been able to use my vouchers every years to stock up think this will be my past year subscribing as i have most of what i want now anything new ill buy i have the bx2098 eq im pretty sure its the same as 9099 notch filters
For me PA offer best value on the market currently. Best bundle possible. Best business model as well regarding subscription and ownership. Kudos PA!
enjoying the new series, thank you for the share
I have some experience with support, really nothing complains. Love their selection, fair sales for older plugins. For me 10/10.
Plugin Alliance introduced me to the Bettermaker EQ232D, and after using that, I don't think I can ever stand to use a regular pultec emulation ever again. I definitely think PA has a great over-all selection, even if I don't end up really exploring most of it.
Native Instruments (Softube) Passive eq, is next level!
@@DoitYHWH If you want a great vintage sound, it sure is! However, what I like about the Bettermaker is how invisible it is. It's so good for modern productions, especially EDM, that I can't imagine taking an actual pultec emulation (as is typical of say Hardstyle).
@@Arcessitorthe bettermaker eq232 it’s literally a clean digital eq, its literally the same thing as using a pro q3 u can replicate the same curves since the bettermaker adds no harmonics, idk why anyone would buy that
@@slattslatt7946 You can't imagine why someone would want a clean EQ that doesn't add harmonics?
I don't know if I would describe Pro-Q3 as "clean". Maybe it's my imagination but I definitely hear a specific "fabfilter" sound from it.
I enjoy them too. However; you might might want to read their regs. I did about 9-10 months ago and my take away was that if you leave the subscription you lose the assets you used vouchers to buy. I will look at it again and this will be one of those times I'd be happy to be wrong about. Headed there now. Happy mixing!
Good assesment of Plug in Alliance. So far i have not subscribed to the Mega Bundle. The plug-ins i most use from them in every mix(the classics if you will) i have purchased. That was even b4 they started the subscription. In comparison to Waves, they sure have chosen the right way, with that sort of hybrid subscription plan.The only concern i might have pointed to is that PA is now under the NI brand, bought up by that hedge fund.
I have maybe 15 of their plugins. And of the plugins I have they are some of my most used and favorite plugins. I didn't do subscription with them. I bought them all on sale for between $19 to $32. So for around $350 ish dollars over the last 3 years I have gotten everything I like from them so far. For me buying them outright worked out better. But if i were new to music I would get this as my first subscription, followed by Slate.
Can’t wait for them to be M1 native in AAX this month! It’s been a struggle not being able to use their plugins in pro tools without using Rosetta.
AAX is slow to be M1 native because Avid was slow to release an AAX SDK for M1.
@@WarrenPostma agreed, Avid really dropped the ball and took forever to be compatible. I'm excited to be able to use them again though since they said most will be done by the end of August!
amen
I'm a PA monthly subscriber. As I'm on my mixing & mastering journey for a clean & intuitive workflow, I have been using PA's products and will remain a PA subscriber for the near future. Would also mention that I'm a Slate Digital subscriber as well and I'm caught in a crossfire!!
I love plugin alliance. Their purple 1176 compressor (its named something else tho), u2a and u17 compressors, metricAB, and more are great plugins.
This is why I say sound is very subjective and use your own judgement. I hate the MC77 - it's one of the very very few plugins from PA that I don't think sounds good.
@@WeissAdvice Its sound is unique from other 76 compressors I've come across--completely understand why someone may not like it and its def not ideal for general use. But yea, I agree its real subjective.
I like PA and if you take your time and use the monthly vouchers you can get all the plugins you need at a really good price eventually. Thanks for all the great Videos, Big fan of casual Friday :)
I like their plug-ins. Their sales are pretty good, plus when you use their loyalty vouchers prices are really good. I wish they would update the gui on some of their older plug-ins. Some have sizing issues. All plugin companies have really good ones and a lot of fluff stuff. One thing I've noticed is the all of them have a distinct sound to each company. Soundtoys, softube, PA, Waves, Ik multimedia etc. I do like that PA plugin are very cpu friendly. Ik are definitely cpu heavy not as bad as acustica though.
That is a really good solution. So you get the subscription, and then after a year get to keep 10 of them on perpetual licence?
I got back into recording after a couple decades on the bench. I started checking out PA's offerings.I'm finding the quality very good and features surpassing my daily needs. I didn't subscribe but am now up to 43 purchased plugins and with the sales and monthly vouchers I have never paid more than $20 for a single plugin and get most with the dynamic discounts for $7-12.50 ! Compared to the hardware analog units I used to buy you can't beat it. Plus you get to try any out for 2 weeks.
do one on T-Racks (IK multimedia) and softube too please :-)
Great video, I'm a year late but needed to hear what you had to say about Plugin Alliance!!!! I have a lot of subscriptions and I'm trying to get rid of subs I don't need nor use, or that I can replace. I've been paying to use UAD, SlateDigital / SSL, however, I love the way Luna sounds and I'm starting to do all my mixing and mastering in Luna. However, I'm a Studio One Geek, and Atmos is very important to have, but....I really don't see the benefit to pay for a Studio One subscription, when I have the perpetual license, so I'm digging through your videos to see how I need to move LOL!!!!
Im shocked you didn’t discuss the dichotomy that is their listed prices for plugins, vs the fact that sales are ubiquitous where plugins regularly go for 10% asking price. That’s the weirdest thing about PA for me. But I agree, I absolutely love their products - and given the choice of one publisher and only one - it would be PA hands down. Easily the best selection of bread and butter EQs and compressors, plus excellent plugs for tone shaping and some really unique gems in there.
I kinda mention the perpetual sale thing in passing, but I find it's overshadowed by the voucher model anyway. I think I said it explicitly in the Waves video - the company marks up the prices so they can be constantly on sale.
I don't do this for my own products, I think it's goofy. But I also understand why companies do it.
PA has become my favourite plugin line, for all the reasons you mention. The TMT channels strips are my go-to for mixing, between them there's one for every genre. Stereomaker and Shredspread get used in every mix, as does the Townhouse bus compressor. I own and use almost all their mastering compressors and EQs and again, there's something for every genre. The Bassdude is my fave amp sim and I love the SPL drum replacer. The installation manager works flawlessly every time. What's not to like?
Being nitpicky, but I wish the installation manager told you which plugins you've actually purchased. That's my biggest gripe.
@@WeissAdvice agreed
@@WeissAdviceAgreed...as well as the ones you have installed.
great video, imo i think this is the best sub for someone past the beginner stage. when you gain some experience and know a bit more about what your going for and understand more about compresiion, etc this is the best bundle. for a beginner not so much thats just my opinion. i sub to pa and think its well worth it. i just hit a year and am considering what 3 to pick to own lol. and as i have seen in the comment yes corporate a holes have invaded ( lets see how it works for avid) but for whats available i think if you get one sub with your stock plgins your vcovered. i like pa but the slate, ssl, and often over looked mcdsp ... as always learn your tools, be creative and have fu. and thank you for the content
Metric AB is a must
Personally, Plug-in Alliance is my favorite (primarily because some of their plugins came with my DAW which put me on to them lol).
The Unfiltered Audio stuff is all really awesome, but especially Bass-Mint!
It is. It takes a second to get the swing of their plugins, but once ya do they're very cool.
I agree I bought all of the Unfiltered Audio plugins as they are just simply amazing.
Agree - Unfiltered Audio rock! Really like their Lion synth too, which doesn’t get a lot of love
Great video but with no thumbnails on screen for the specific plugins it gets a bit hard to navigate..
Black Box HG-2 is the greatest plugion i own (other than Pro-Q 3) lol love them!
also you should do FAB next
Same, black box is my go to
Yeah it makes everything sound better
Hi Matthew, thanks for the video. : ) I like Plugin Alliance and would definitely recommend them. However, I doubt many Cubase users would go as high with Workflow marks given that finding presets can be a nightmare. And maybe it was a good idea not to mention their process for software updates. : ) Kind regards, Darren (Wales, UK)
What's wrong with their software updates? I'm on the latest PT and Ventura using the latest install of PA - not having any issues.
@@WeissAdvice I'm no great lover of Waves, but even their Desktop Installer alerts you when an individual plugin needs updating. Then you click on a button. Job done. Same with iZotope, NI, etc. If you're having a similar experience with PA, I must be doing something wrong. ( :
I like PA overall but have gone elsewhere for particular plugins such as tape emulation and limiting.
I was going to buy a few plugins to add color. 5 plugins were $550. So instead i got the Mega Bundle for $799 which is 180 plugins. Sweet deal.
I need help!!!! How can I use these plug ins as stand alones without having to use a daw
PA has become a company that I really have come to enjoy using in my work. Amazing collection except maybe the vuitual guitar instruments. But the mixing plugins are amazing
True, I never mess with the virtual guitars. Frankly, I've never heard a good virtual electric guitar tbh.
Plugin alliance is the best period. I use them all..great stuff
What kind of mic is that in front of you?
There’s one category that I think should be considered: compatibility. I’ve had PA plugins consistently crash my sessions of late. I’ve reached out to them and all they said was they don’t fully support OS Ventura and they don’t know if and when they will😢. I can’t use an older OS Because Ventura is the OS My new mac shipped with. It hurts because PA to me was a staple and now I’ve figured out plugins to swap all my favs from other companies. However all the points you mentioned are 💯% true and that’s y I loved them in the 1st place.
I appreciate you chiming in. A good portion of the comments here are pointing out the Ventura compatibility, and I genuinely have not had that problem. I would have never known that was an issue were it not for people pointing it out, and it does make me reconsider their "customer service and consideration" score.
Broadly agree with your overview Matt. On the customer service side been really dragging their heels with OS Ventura compatibility in Logic Pro. Still not quite there yet and launching a plug-in crashes whole session and prevents use of any historic session. Really missed using AMEK 200 and Black Box.
Wild. Are you on an intel Mac or an M1? Cause I'm running Ventura without issue. But a lot of people are saying it's a problem.
I’m on a 2020 intel Mac Book pro
Finally PA issued capability update yesterday, 10 months after OS Ventura release. Really frustrating time.
For me i'd say Plugin Alliance is the best combo of "value for money" + "high quality" on the market. They're #1. They actually might be #1 in those 2 categories SEPERATELY let alone combined (it's debatable, but it'd be a close debate)
Re: TOMO LISA. I didn't find it too hard to wrap my head around, but holy SHIT that thing is CPU hungry. Something like 23% CPU for me. Also, it is surprisingly phasey!!! The LF shelf is nice and juicy though
I think I would agree, if you combined "value for money + quality" overall, I'd probably have PA at #1.
I made a couple videos for Lisa because a lot of people were struggling with it. I think for the most users it's a little confusing at first. I've taken those videos down because PA because told me to go fuck myself LOL. It is also a little more cpu intensive. Any kind of dynamic EQ will be pretty phasy. If you check C6, F6, FF Pro-MB, etc you'll notice a lot of phase artifacts as well.
For sure yeah, but the phase artefact in LISA moving around, almost like a phaser or something (only on the mid-range bands), i haven't heard that before in other dynamic EQ's. Or maybe i've been oblivious to it until now
Oh boy i would've loved to have seen that LISA vid haha. Damn!@@WeissAdvice
Waves and Plugin Alliance make up 90% of the plugins I mix with. Acustica and Tokyo Dawn make up 90% of what I master with.
So PA is definitely worth buying IMO.
I don't do subscriptions for work related products, imagine you don't have work coming in for a month or two and you can't afford to pay for your subscription, that an unnecessary stress spiral. Just buy the plugins you need when they are $29 which happens many times a year and always download the demo first.
I love the Brainwox stuff from PA. Never got anything I didn't;t like from the Alliance
There are some WAVES plugins I almost can’t live without, there are some SOUNDTOYS I never work without.
Plugin-alliance has a huge number of plugins I would never want to be without.
It’s important to understand that some of the developer companies under their umbrella operate more as their own entity than others do.
If you don’t mind me asking what are the Soundtoys one you wouldn’t want to live without?
very keen to hear what you say about T-Racks... personally i think they're amongst the best sound-wise, twattish download policy though
I'm going to make an IK Multimedia vid for next week.
I like these little break downs, but I really have to ask. Have you taken payment from any plugin companies? Not saying that makes you bad, people gotta eat. But it would be a good thing to know.
Yes. However, PA is not one of them. Any time I have a sponsorship/endorsement with a company I make it expressly clear - as you will see in the Slate video.
If you only had the PA sub, which reverb would be your main one?
Tails, but I do think this is one of the few places where PA lacks.
@@WeissAdvice Great pick, Matt! And agreed. Thank you so much for this series!
I have almost completely bailed on PA. I use a plugin here or there, but I find many of their plugins to sound brittle, harsh, very digital--which is not what many of their plugins are supposed to do....Tone Projects, Leapwing, Softube, on the other hand....They do, however, have a great variety of plugins, and I like their alliances with other smaller plugin companies.
Yes.
Do a review on pulsar modular plugins
I like what I've tried. Their transformer thing is cool. I like their reverb + dly lunar thing, but I don't find myself using it much.
These will work if you have outboard gear, but all your gona get a Pre Mastering Quality from Plugin Alliance.......
You master with
Acustica Audio
UAD and Kiive Audio
unless your really really good with Plugin Alliance Plugins and some really good Analog gear
I think their plugins are solid, I have 60+, but after a /terrible/ customer service experience, I'm no longer at all interested in using or recommending them. And in the process I've found some really, really great alternatives, in particular from some of the more boutique developers out there.
they haven't got support for OS Ventura which was introduced last October.........so customer support and consideration, I meannnnnn
I guess I didn't know. I've been using them on Ventura without issue, but you're like the 300th person to mention this, so I guess it's not the same experience across the board.
So fabfilter and softube next :)
Probably gonna do Fabfilter. I don't have a lot of experience with softube. I'll probably tackle that one a bit later.
@@WeissAdvice +1 on softube
Pure facts without expressing an opinion.
1. PA in its amp simulators uses the worst ever method of selecting pulses (a list without hierarchy longer than the height of the screen with cumbersome scrolling, and with each subsequent change). It has never been corrected, so workflow is terrible and I have stopped to use them.
2. Older plugins are often completely neglected when it comes to improving the nuisance,
3. Problem with plugins in VST3 version and reading presets reported to support eons ago (it can be done well - example of Melda plugins, but also others). For months I was waiting for any improvement or at least announcing a will to improve - no progress so I am only installing VST2 versions for the last few years.
To be fair - I don't use the amp simulators in PA any more than I use the amp sims in Waves. I tend to stick with NI Guitar Rig. So I accidentally discounted that in my opinion.
plugin alliance are some of he best plugins. I just wish they would fix the issues with the plugins and apple logic. tons of crashes
I've been seeing that a lot in the comments. I'm curious as to what exactly it is as I'm on Ventura and not having issues. But I also have the Intel Mac, not the M1.
@@WeissAdvice yep it's all the silicon devices
That looks like an Erickson Labs 251🤔
I love Plugin Alliance plugins, but I still won’t forgive them for the time they held tons of flash sales on their plugins and then released the Mega subscription bundle immediately afterwards which devalued all of our purchases. I spent thousands during those flash sales and then I felt like my money went up in smoke
jeez. I must've missed that, that's pretty fucked.
@@WeissAdvice it was terrible. There’s was a huge gearspace thread about it too
Is water wet? 😏
they always running sales nobody higher then uad plugins
true
I avoid all analog inspired plug ins because they dont have the mojo like the analog hardware they emulate. Acustica Nebula 4 is one exception but only with certain programs from third party developers.
I don't typically compare analog emulations to their actual analog counterparts. I find it's fairly useless.
@@WeissAdvice It is. Completely different technologies.
@@WeissAdvice What about Waves plugs which you have reviewed and slate audio and that hoser eq Modeled off of a Ward-Beck Systems M462B hardware EQ unit?.
Last time you used the Amek in one of your videos you said "this channel strip" w/o naming it. I thought you had beef with PA for some reason.
It doesn't change the usefulness of the information, but the way your ring-light is positioned on recent videos has been making a reflection on your glasses that is very distracting. It looks like you have a second set of eyes looking a different way. Like a double D-Bo. Which would be a good band name, too.
I actually do have a beef with PA. I've done presets for them, they never gave me NFRs even for the individual products I did presets for, and when I discussed doing an endorsement deal the head of marketing was very rude to me.
But with all that said, these are personal issues that don't reflect the company as a whole, in my opinion.
@@WeissAdvice Well that is big of you to take time and effort to still say good things. Hopefully they come around. I did find good use for the preset on the Tomo, though!
no brainer
4 out of 5 ... you are definitely not a Mac user. Most PA plugins are still not Ventura OS compatible. PA is a joke, they took my money.
I'm not sure when Apple started to sell new Macs with Ventura OS... but it a long time ago
I am a Mac user, on Ventura.
NO, that is the simple answer. They used to be great, but now it's bugs bugs bugs and zero support. They've grown too big to care. So simple answer, no don't buy PA.