Hey guys.

I'm looking to pick up a few plugs and I thought I'd check here before making the purchases.

I really like the interface of the Waves stuff, but I don't like their complex licensing - so I'm torn. I'm wondering if there's anything out there that sounds just as good or better and also has the really useable interface.

compression - Waves Renn Comp
eq - Waves Renn EQ
verb - PSP Easyverb
tape emulation - Massey Tape
delay - Massey Delay
colorful limiter/compressor - PSP Vintage Warmer

That's my shopping list now. Any thoughts?

and i THINK i'd like to stay away from using VST-RTAS. seems like the delay information it produces may not be as trust-worthy as using a straight RTAS plug and that makes me paranoid.

anyone?

Here is my personal, highly subjective opinion - grown out of experience though...

Waves - any product ; ridiculously overpriced and a gift that keeps on taking. Their customer support policy borders on criminal extortion imho. 'WUP' is a disaster. You gotta pay and pay and pay... If you don't mind buying a plugin and not even owning a licence, go ahead

Massey: the best unkept secret. Go for it.

PSP: I like their stuff, especially the Vintage warmer. Use it quite often.

Tip: Take a good look at companies like Roger Nichols Digital (ex Elemental Audio) and URS, they make top notch plugs at reasonable pricing and have excellent customer support.
Also, check Colin McDowell's McDSP plugins. They're green and sound good.

I think there are so many alternatives to Waves, that you do not need to put up with their extortion practices. Again, my (and hundreds of others) opinion, grown out of frustration and anger about their arrogance.

Hope this helps...

Oh, yeah, while the VST to RTAS wrapper is not bad at all, it still is and remains a wrapper, i.e. your plugs do not run natively and that can screw delay compensation.

Cheers
Arthur

PS: ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS try before buy, i.e. get a demo licence on your iLok!
Then try it on as many sources as possible, torture it and make an informed decision. Plugs are not cheap, no matter how you look at it, so better spend your hard earned cash wisely. E.g. I have yet to pay my first Euro for updates from McDSP and Roger Nichols and URS. That is customer support done well!

ok. after reading and thinking a lot here's where i'm at.

waves - i agree. i left microsoft because of the type of mentality waves seems to have. won't go with them.

Roger Nicols - i want something more straight forward. something more everyday. this one's out for me.

URS - pretty nice. problem is that i want compression and eq and don't want to buy 2 bundles to accomplish that. i'm demo'ing the channelstrip and it seems pretty nice. but not too flexible. the pro is nice but too much money.

metric halo channelstrip - i almost bought this 2 days ago. i really like it. flexible. easy to use. good on cpu. sounds good afa i can tell. lots of great reviews from pros who use it. i like this one a lot.

mcdsp - the reason i haven't bought the the above yet. i downloaded the demo of project studio today. it's easy to use. very flexible. sounds good. good reviews. seems like i'd get a bit more flexibility with this one plus the analog channel, chrometone, multicomp, and reverb. i might be able to not purchase the massey tape simulator and maybe not the psp reverb if i get this.

so it's down to mcdsp project studio and metric halo channelstrip.

i still like how simple and well-liked channelstrip is. so many comments about it being so SSL like. my gimmicky side is taking over a bit on that i guess.

thoughts? anything additional i should consider?

thanks!

Chose McDSP. Seemed like the best for the money. REALLY nice plugs!