HIDDEN GEM PLUGINS (with which you'd probably be a billionaire right now if you had them when you were like 20years old)

[concealed identity]

Not necessarily 'Hidden' but not discussed as often:

112dB - Redline Reverb 2

Redline Reverb is still one of the best reverb plugins I've ever used. It always seemed a little strange to me that it was so expensive, never goes on significant sale, and yet I don't know anyone else who uses it - in fact, almost everybody I've mentioned it to have never heard of it. But surely someone other than me must be buying it
(I'm not even sure how I found out about it!)

[careyletendre]

Not necessarily 'Hidden' but not discussed as often:

112dB - Redline Reverb 2

Redline Reverb is still one of the best reverb plugins I've ever used. It always seemed a little strange to me that it was so expensive, never goes on significant sale, and yet I don't know anyone else who uses it - in fact, almost everybody I've mentioned it to have never heard of it. But surely someone other than me must be buying it
(I'm not even sure how I found out about it!)

Interesting take on that plugin. For me, it goes back to 2009. It was an iconic reverb for me and many others here on KVR and elsewhere. Given the processing power at the time, it was quite manageable while also sounding incredible. The developer mentioned that he had over 150 instances of it running on a Core Duo back when it was released.

A true classic that, thankfully, has been updated to run on modern systems. Well worth the asking price, even today.

viewtopic.php?t=248608

[Monsieur_FyP]

All your gizmos are absolutely overpriced. Don't you have "hidden gems" that are a little more affordable?

[careyletendre]

All your gizmos are absolutely overpriced. Don't you have "hidden gems" that are a little more affordable?

Actually, no. Nearly all of my plugins are paid plugins. I think there are a lot of amazing free plugins out there, however, I am fortunate to be able to buy commercial plugins. I completely understand that it is not the case for everyone.

As for them being overpriced, I respectfully disagree. I've been collecting plugins for over 25yrs and have seen how much cheaper, on average, plugins are now than they have been in the past.

The few free plugins I use are probably very well known in the that market so I am probably not the one to ask about that area of the market.

Carey

[sandandpaint]

a few I like that are not discussed all that often, probably because they are more for ambient drone music rather than edm etc

https://2caudio.com/products/kaleidoscope Kaleidoscope is very powerful but I found it hard to learn, still struggle a bit,
https://www.soundmorph.com/product/49/dust Dust (fx) - I think they had some bugs early on that pissed people off but by the time I bought it the bugs were fixed and it is pretty solid for me. Also difficult to learn but can get quite unique sounds with the way it spatialises the grains
https://www.sonic-lab.com/passbot/ Passbot - if the others are tricky this is more than difficult but is worth it

[soundmodel]

Not sure if it's a hidden gem but https://www.kvraudio.com/product/l2007- ... ey-plugins is sometimes cited as a secret among Pro Tools users.

That limiter is very forgiving even for large GR.

Voxengo Elephant is quite similar.

TB Barricade is a close second.

[DCrown]

All Antress plugins are still gems and often better than most plugin emus released many years later
Waves RBass is no hidden gem, still gets a lot of use and all Waves Renaissance plugins are still unmatched after so many years

[0degree]

Wow, good stuff here, boomarked. Thank you guys

[soundmodel]

overloud TH-U Gem dopamine, no pun intended.

Oh this reminded me:

Positive Grid Pro Series:

https://macprovideo.com/article/audio-s ... -series-eq

IIRC, these are very CPU heavy models, and I think they were given free at some point of time. IIRC, the sound is very accurate though.

The tube EQ used to sound much better than PTEq-X by Ignite Amps IIRC.

[harddaysnight]

Hidden gems for me are almost always stock plugins, or free ones. Not sure why, I think it's just because being stock and/or free makes things feel like a bit of an underdog, so when they're awesome, they're maybe perceived as being better than they really are. A bit like how people get with Reaper (you can't tell me the fanbase would be so rabid if it didn't offer an infinite-trial of sorts).

Some standouts - Ableton's Wavetable is a monster, as is Operator and Meld. Roar isn't underrated right now but you watch people forget about it just like they always do with stock plugins over time - it's killer. Electric is crazy cool. Ableton's jam-packed with awesome stock plugins but since they all their plugins look the same I think they fly under the radar - if these same plugins had cool looking GUI's etc, it'd be a different story.

FL Studio's Kepler is phenomenal and means FL Studio owners don't need to bother with JUNO emulations - it's covered, nobody mentions Kepler though (probably because it's FL Studio). An upgraded Kepler is coming soon that will be awesome too. Still with FL Studio, Multiband Delay is insane.

People love Bitwig's Grid, and it's great, but Phase-4 is awesome and worth exploring.

Studio One's Analog Delay is fantastic and competes with top-tier paid delay plugins, I prefer it over pretty much every other plugin delay I've used.

IDK how it's rated but Trackspacer is excellent too.

Why don't more people hype up Dune 3? Maybe not a hidden gem, but it's not brought up all that often in synth plugin discussions, even though it's excellent.

[sandandpaint]

https://youtu.be/iG5fIuPj304?si=4Ksj7CjCGYjvoUke


a dream for every person making ambient or drone - I think it has only been out since last year

[soundmodel]

Hidden gems for me are almost always stock plugins, or free ones. Not sure why, I think it's just because being stock and/or free makes things feel like a bit of an underdog, so when they're awesome, they're maybe perceived as being better than they really are. A bit like how people get with Reaper (you can't tell me the fanbase would be so rabid if it didn't offer an infinite-trial of sorts).

In this context you could also discuss that some of the stock plug-ins are third-party plug-ins hidden beneath the host's trademark. Like Logic's Alchemy synth was originally Camel Audio Alchemy.

I don't remember which ones they were, but I think Logic has more of this sort of stuff, maybe their reverbs were by some well-known third-party developer. Compressors maybe too.

EDIT:

Now I remember some, I think the Steinberg Maximizer is some well-known limiter rebranded. At least you will believe this, when you try it and notice that it's far better than it looks.

[harddaysnight]

Hidden gems for me are almost always stock plugins, or free ones. Not sure why, I think it's just because being stock and/or free makes things feel like a bit of an underdog, so when they're awesome, they're maybe perceived as being better than they really are. A bit like how people get with Reaper (you can't tell me the fanbase would be so rabid if it didn't offer an infinite-trial of sorts).

In this context you could also discuss that some of the stock plug-ins are third-party plug-ins hidden beneath the host's trademark. Like Logic's Alchemy synth was originally Camel Audio Alchemy.

I don't remember which ones they were, but I think Logic has more of this sort of stuff, maybe their reverbs were by some well-known third-party developer. Compressors maybe too.

EDIT:

Now I remember some, I think the Steinberg Maximizer is some well-known limiter rebranded. At least you will believe this, when you try it and notice that it's far better than it looks.

Great call - Ableton Live's Electric was made in collaboration with Applied Acoustics Systems. I'd bet there's plenty of these situations. Would love to know more.

This seems interesting enough to spend time looking into and keeping track of - there may very well be some companies making FX or plugins, that I love, and I'm not even aware of their existence. Electric is excellent. As is Alchemy.

Just using Applied Acoustics Systems as an example, I knew someone made Electric with/for Ableton and googled who it was to respond to you. I've just googled them, and now I see they have a handful of plugins, some EPs, a delay, a few synths, some sort of guitar modeller or whatever Strum GS-2 is.. wonder how many of these companies there are, making awesome stock plugins for DAWs, and then not being a name I've seen mentioned in threads or anything anywhere..

[KVRforumRulez]

Toneboosters. Those who know, know.

[ROTMetro]

https://youtu.be/iG5fIuPj304?si=4Ksj7CjCGYjvoUke


a dream for every person making ambient or drone - I think it has only been out since last year

Holy moly. I'm going to have to get Blue Cat's Late Replies and try hosting this in the feedback loop (I wonder if Late Replies can route the MIDI to it though). Recirculate is awesome, but it just made me want eve MORE control of the filter inside the loop.