Basic plugins for Reaper

[jhob101]

Hi all,

New here and new to making music on linux, and pretty new to DAW stuff generally. Been using reaper for a few months on & off, but still very much learning how it all works.

I'm finding myself getting pretty overwhelmed with all the various plugins & what to use where. This is often enough to prevent me actually doing anything.

So I'm looking to find a decent, simple basic set of plugins for stuff like:

• Compression
  EQ
  Reverb
  Delay
  Limiter
  Saturation
  Mastering (which might be a combination of some of the above or a single plugin dedicated to that purpose)

Stuff I'm doing at the moment is mostly vocal/acoustic guitar stuff. I prefer analogue sounding stuff. I'd like plugins that come with a good array of presets to give me decent starting points to work from and learn how the plugins work. Plugins that give good visual feedback as to what's happening and don't have too many knobs/settings.

Looking at free/open source, preferably native but I have got yabridge/wine setup for windows VSTs so that's an option too.

I have looked at the LASP plugins, but found all the variations confusing and overwhelming (like the 8 Graphic EQs with options for stereo/mono/left right/mid side/x16/x32 etc)

What plugins/plugin suites would you recommend for someone in my situation? TIA!

[tseaver]

Not exactly a balm for option paralysis, but there are likely choices among the AirWindows plugins which suit your needs:

https://www.airwindows.com/

There are no fancy GUIs: all the configurability is in "default parameter" land. I'm not a Reaper user, and so don't know what the user experience is there, but in Ardour, the parameters for each plugin show up in a default (DAW-generated) dialog.

Note that I've never used the AirWindows plugins "in anger": I've just poked around with them.

[jhob101]

Thanks for that, looks like an interesting set of plugins. I just downloaded the consolidated version, which has a gui with a description of each effect which I think I'll find useful. You can also filter to 'basic' or 'recommended' plugins to cut down the noise a bit.

Someone else recommended just getting used to the plugins that ship with reaper, and I think that's a good place for me to start too.

And I bought Step by Step Mixing using only 5 plugins which looks good for getting a basic workflow going and getting to know those essential plugins better.

[Impostor]

I still mostly use the Calf Studio Gear plugins. It's only a matter of time before they'll stop working, but no other set of plugins I've seen offers an equivalent intuitive and easy user experience (1). There are no presets, but honestly, because of (1), you probably won't need them anyway.

The only plugin set which in my view can measure up to Calf, w.r.t (1), is the U-he Uhbik collection. But that one is proprietary and needs to be paid for. Does come with presets though.

But I don't use Reaper, so I don't know if Calf or Uhbik even work in it.

[Axel-Erfurt]

Compression
EQ
Reverb
Delay
Limiter

Reaper has already built it all in.

[d.healey]

Use the built in plugins.

[jhob101]

Use the built in plugins.

Yep, that was the conclusion I came to - I was overcomplicating the wheel again!

Although through asking the question, I realised that what I actually need to do is invest the time to learn how the settings in these core plugins affect the sound, so that I'm able to use them effectively.

[krosancolossus]

Use the built in plugins.

Yep, that was the conclusion I came to - I was overcomplicating the wheel again!

Although through asking the question, I realised that what I actually need to do is invest the time to learn how the settings in these core plugins affect the sound, so that I'm able to use them effectively.

The build in plugins are great. If you want something a bit more interesting with a niceish GUI for delay/saturation the https://chowdsp.com/products.html are really great - especially the tape saturation and the weird delay options!

[petespelman]

The Reaper homepage has a link to a bunch of videos and one section 'Why and how to use' might provide you with some useful pointers as to how the sound is affected by the different settings.

[jhob101]

The Reaper homepage has a link to a bunch of videos and one section 'Why and how to use' might provide you with some useful pointers as to how the sound is affected by the different settings.

Thanks for pointing that out. Number of times I've been on the reaper homepage and not noticed the videos!

Just watched a couple and looks like exactly the sort of thing I need, including just learning reaper generally.

[jhob101]

Use the built in plugins.

Yep, that was the conclusion I came to - I was overcomplicating the wheel again!

Although through asking the question, I realised that what I actually need to do is invest the time to learn how the settings in these core plugins affect the sound, so that I'm able to use them effectively.

The build in plugins are great. If you want something a bit more interesting with a niceish GUI for delay/saturation the https://chowdsp.com/products.html are really great - especially the tape saturation and the weird delay options!

Cheers, I'll take a look at that. I do like saturation effects.