Voxengo Sobor
I have to say that voxengo plugins are incredible and often much better than more expensive equivalents "when they are available" as many voxengo plugins have no equivalent. I'm blown away by their sonic excellence and the ease with which you can find textures with great musicality and interest. The interface is clear and functional without unnecessary and distracting decorations. There's everything you need to control sounds or sculpt them.
Soniformer offers advanced and transparent dynamics processing, with all types of compression and expansion possible (upward, downward, de-compression, de-expansion). It's useful for beautiful, homogeneous multiband compression as well as for recovering a file lacking in dynamics, correcting phase corelation problems.
Sobor is simply one of the best reverbs I've ever heard and I've got quite a collection of them! It's the only one I use regularly 100%wet because the small spaces it produces allow you to create nuanced 3d depth with complete transparency. But of course it's also possible to create unrealistic spaces ranging from plate reverb to vintage models.
LF Max Punch is so well thought out in its conception that it gives the right presence and punch to low tones much more easily and better than with the other enhancers I'd used before or the other various ‘classic’ techniques, and once you've tried it, you can't do without it.
I can assure you that I regret having missed out on the offer to upgrade to the complete bundle when it was possible... I have reduced my vst folder but everything I own from voxengo is there - these are the tools I use for each of my projects! Thank you Voxengo.
After a phase of trying other plugins, mostly analog emulations, by other makers, I once again have to commend Voxengo for the quality of their plugins.
If you want a compressor that can tame the peaks of a vocal while giving it a polished sheen, I highly recommend Deft Compressor.
For giving warmth to vocals? Or a bass compressor that (in my opinion) works much better than most LA2A emulations? Use Crunchessor. I use the 2A preset to keep the levels of bass tracks consistent without sounding squeezed (something I often hear from LA2A plugins).
Deft Compressor going into Crunchessor is my preferred version of "1176 to LA2A", that is, a fast attack compressor going into a smoother attack compressor.
I still highly prefer CRTIV Tape Bus compared to other tape plugins I have if I want to keep an open high-end sound to the track. It's really good at keeping the punch and transients on the master bus while improving the crest factor (push the record gain).
I have to say that Warmifier is great since unlike other saturation plugins, it's not easy to overdo the amount of saturation. It's super subtle, and these days I find that using too much saturation has a blurring effect on tracks.
Sobor is just unbelievably good. You have to try it.
Voxengo is just really good DSP - high quality digital - without the mask or crutch of trying to emulate old, classic analog gear. There are a handful of small devs like that, and just like Voxengo I highly suggest you try them out.
I just want to say thank you for making amazing plugins. All of your plugins sound great, are easy to use, and offer so many features providing ease of use, but also provide deep customization. This is no small feat..especially coming from one person!
Thank you for your dedication to providing great sounding plugins.