EDIT, nvm, I just bought the bundle for $99. No Upgrade path from the plugins I owned, so they told me I could sell or transfer the duplicates. I am not sure I did the right thing, as I found the 2 I really wanted, which would have been $38, so I think I was just being silly. Oh well. Another lesson learned. Original unedited post below:

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Hi, they have a $19 for any plugin sale currently on, and I was wondering what any of you think are their BEST plugins if I wanted to add two more to my collection. BTW, they are currently working on VST3 support, which is great news.

The ones I already have are
Magnetite (not bad)
Black and Blue Ash (2 of my favourite plugin compressors ever made)!
VLA 3A (pretty decent)
VLA FET (not bad, far prefer softube and UA - this was an impulse purchase).

any of their remaining commercial plugins you can heartily recommend? The sale could end any minute, I am not sure when as they never say, so I I'll try get some demo time in but will be checking back in for responses too, and as always, THANKS so much in advance!

So far I haven't tried anything from them that is in any way poor, and I can't even explain how much I LOVE the "ash" compressors. They are SO good (imho)!! But I am not over the moon with the tape (it's decent) and FET. Just imo, hence, asking for some opinions and heads up.

I have them all I think - my favourite is the Omnitec 67 which is an emulation of the venerable Altec 1567 preamp. It sounds fabulous to me and is the first thing on my mixbus. The preset 'bus revival' really puts some mojo into the mix. There is also the Omnitec 436 which is a companion compressor of the same vintage.

But expect most folks would say Black Rooster are most known for their take on the LA 2A and 1073. But they have not made a bad plugin as far as I know!

That's been going on for years.

Laura told me it's a free update that will be out in Autumn. That sounds fairly definitive. I guess we shall see! Lucky I mainly use AAX but I can see how it's a pita for others.

Ok, would be great if they at last got there.

I havent been able to get my BR plugs to show up on my M1, but I havent tried for a while. Are you guys seeing them on M1 silicon/Native?

I have most and have deleted all (yes, after spending time with them).
Pass. Far better uses for your money (e.g., D16, UAD, etc.).

I, personally, like them, and for a while they were my go-to for almost everything "analog ITB." These days, I still use their Pultecs regularly as well as the VPRE73, which I find to have a very very nice color indeed. Their reverbs are solid, space echo sounds very good, and compressors work well, although I'm tending to use others these days.

I think the bundle price is a bargain for a stack of good processing plugins! Spend some time with them, you might like them a lot.

I disagree, but plugins are something so subjective that of course I respect your opinion.
I do NOT like the reverbs, that's for sure, but I am really happy with the dynamics and EQs and channel strip indeed. Don't have a use for the guitar amps at all, since I don't play guitar. I suppose if I ever use a dry electric guitar sample there might be use for them at some point

All their plugins are A.S. native. I am sure this undertaking would have delayed VST3 and they probably considered it more important, which I am thankful for.
I installed the latest bulk installer a few hours back and had all the plugins checked, and I am using PT in native A.S. arm mode and they are showing up. So I am not sure what could be going wrong for you.

May I ask what DAW you are using and OS? You've definitely used their latest installer?
Now you are making me think I might not have Logic and PT in native arm mode (they don't work in Nuendo as not vst3) so I am going to double check tomorrow as I am in bed now, but I am truly certain I have never asked any DAW to run in Rosetta mode, nor have I even had to install Rosetta so far. I'd get a prompt to install Rossetta 2 like I used to with 1 all those years back if something needed it, yes?

Also, they have a very rare LA3A emulation, which I far prefer to the Waves. I like the sound of the UAD one a little more, actually maybe not more but I know it so well because I have used it for so many years that I tend to grab it, and generally I love UAD plugins, including their native synths, but these BRA plugins are good IMO. The ASH are my favourites and I use them non stop as a go to for punch. Always. I would have loved a wet/dry mode and I've never used the hardware nor a compressor before without traditional threshold, but whatever they do, I love the sound.
I also like to support indie devs, and that many plugins for $99 was a pretty crazy deal. I decided I will not even sell the 6 duplicates, I will give them away.

BTW, when I say rare with LA3A, I mean not many devs have emulated it in a plugin. There's something about it that I really like, same with the UAD version. I tend to go for it on vocals with a combination of an 1176 (always Softube for me).

I'll reserve my complete final judgement about BRA until after I have used every plugin I just paid for and really put them through their paces. As said above though, I don't like the plate reverb, but that's probably also got something to do with the fact that it's not superplate, which is my favourite reverb plugin ever made.

My Black Rooster plugins are working fine in Protools non-rosetta. They don't see much use anymore, but they're OK. I don't care much for the "shell" solution, though. Like Waves with one file in the plugins folder and the plugins themselves in Apps folder. The $99 deal will suit many people fine, I'm sure.

Autumn 2024 eh.. A lot of us Cubase/Apple Silicon users already moved on 2-3 years ago since we can only run VST2 plugins in Rosetta which defeats the point of buying an ARM Mac heh. Once UAD went native, I forgot I even owned those BR plugins..

They are a small dev with limited staff, and I really think the Apple silicon announcement and subsequently focusing on that is what has delayed VST3. I was talking to one of my favourite indie devs about it, Rob Papen, and he basically said it was a nightmare for them to port everything and caused them a lot of problems. If I was a dev and had limited resources, I'd have probably chosen A.S. over VST3 also, and now that that's done, I guess they are back on the VST3. Time will tell of course, and I understand some have moved on as you say - fair enough too.
BTW isn't the choice of only allowing VST3 in the native arm versions of their DAWs up to Steinberg? or is it a limitation of ARM? Seems unlikely it would be the latter.
Even 5 years ago, a lot of us didn't really say vst3 was all that important and were still on the "vst 2 is just fine" bandwagon.
I have personally always loved VST3 cause it dispensed with having to worry about mono and stereo versions and had the suspend cpu feature when not active.

Anyway, hopefully BRA *will* do VST3, and soon, and they work well!

Steinberg discontinued VST2 well over a decade ago and told everyone it was time to move on. Now that the devs have dragged it out for too long, Steinberg finally said enough is enough and VST2 is no more on Apple Silicon. Still works on Windows and Intel Macs for now, but it's only a matter of time I would think. Every single developer I own plugins from has VST3s and has for quite awhile.. Small dev or not, they had ages at this point to start getting ready for it, since they knew it was coming back in like 2008.

Well I can honestly say this about 100 other devs as well. So personally I will cut them some slack, but again, I am totally on board with your right to be vocal about it and choose to say no to them, and am a completely "the customer is always the most important thing" person. I totally respect your decision. Cool with me.

At this stage, it's all talk anyway re VST3, and since it has been commented here that they have promised it for years, I won't hold my breath. I didn't know that until I made this topic. So when I initially got the reply from them, I was certain VST3 was coming, now I am not until I see it with my own eyes.

Favorites are their newer OmniTecs, the good old VPRE-73 & VLA-3A, not to forget the Pultecs.

About VST3, in the Future it will come to a Point where a Port will be inevitable.

Im in Cubase latest version! I need to revisit the install. its been a minute since I looked into this. Ill report back. Thx for replying!!!

No that's why you can't see them and won't be able to. Cubase apple silicon is vst3 only and BRA plugins aren't vst3 yet. So at least we have an explanation.

I mainly use AAX and AU (and very very occasionally VST3 when I want to run a VST-only plugin inside Pro Tools via Waves StudioRack) but is there really 100's of developers that still haven't updated to VST3? Dang.

R.

That was poorly worded on my part, I don't think there's 100's now, but there were 100's that were incredibly slow and resistant to port, and that's what I meant. Sorry about that. Like we were frustrated and constantly asking for VST3 versions.

Now I also only really use AAX and AU for old Logic projects

However, you say you need VST3 for Patchwork, doesn't it work with AU anymore? Oh, I see, VST only plugins. Wow, they still exist? And in Apple Silicon format no less?

Gotcha!

No I actually use the Waves 'StudioRack' AAX plugin as it can host VST3's now whenever I want to use a plugin that doesn't come in AAX.

Thankfully there's not too may of those (in fact the only one I can think of offhand that I'm waiting for is PsychoCircuitry's DBX160A because it's nice!) but I also use it (StudioRack) to build channel strips I can move between Pro Tools, Logic and Ableton as well.

R.

Trust me try the new Fuse Audio dbx emulation. Ok, not a 160A, but from another compressor in that series, the snap it can give is sick, it's really good. It has a demo, so, what have you got to lose? I never use the Waves dbx, now I don't even really even use the UAD much. Softube's VCA is interesting because it has expanded control, however I keep going back to the Fuse Audio, it's excellent.

Will check out Psycho Circuitry, hadn't heard of them before, thanks for the heads up.

Also I have to check now if I have Waves Studio Rack. Hopefully it has better integration that Patchwork with *choosing* a VST3 plugin to load, as Patchwork still drives me crazy in that scenario, especially cause it can't even remember last folder opened or have a preference to do so.

Edit, Oh I see Studio Rack is free (I am always doing things in the background whilst typing my comments, I can never focus on one thing, bad character trait of mine).
I am going to give that a go. I have almost all Waves plugins, everything bar the surround stuff and Clarity stuff, and haven't installed Studio Rack. I see they updated it for V15. Cool.

@Ol'Betsy, you've really made my day.

I had seen Waves Studio Rack a gazillion times in the app and never bothered to install it as I always thought it had something to do with their DSP interfaces.

This thing is amazing, and has now almost completely taken over Patchwork for me in Pro Tools, and works with Instruments too!

Best of all, it's free! That's crazy!

The reason I am loving it so much is that it's doing what I have wanted out of Patchwork forever - displaying the third party plugins in a list like a DAW mixer rather than having to manually load them from the finder or explorer, which I have always thought was a ridiculous design choice in MB-7 and Patchwork. The thing is, I didn't really have many alternatives in Pro Tools, so always used the BC products. I still love MB-7 and will of course use it when I need to turn any plugin into multiband, but I am no longer going to use Patchwork at all, unless I absolutely *have* to turn a plugin that isn't capable of it into one with a wet/dry function.

What would really just add Studio Verse its final touches are if it allowed undoing of VST3 plugin parameters.

But I just LOVE the way it shows plugin latency with *any* plugin that reports it, and the easy mixer insert type nature of its design.

The only thing I can't quite work out is why, when I have chosen to display effects by manufacturer, are all my VST3 developers out of Alphabetical order. They are literally all over the place, and there doesn't seem to be a way to organise them, but I will actually write to Waves about that.

What a great free little plugin, and for Waves users it has heaps of chain presets that some might find very interesting.

The other thing is that it loads plugins SO fast, and the interface open/close is instant. Seriously, no perceptible delay at all.

Now I just have to make sure I can automate, as that's the only thing I haven't checked yet, and if not, I guess I'd have to use Patchwork for that too. But fingers crossed, as I am loving Studio Verse. For now I have set the plugins to show by type since by developer is out of order, however I really do prefer Steinberg's way of developer and then it shows the sub types once you've chosen a dev. I know my plugins and devs, so always usually know what I am looking for.
That's another thing, there's a built in search to find a plugin and it works with the VST3!

I can honestly see some preferring this to their DAW's own plugin insert structure. Just a little more TLC to make it perfect and it will make all commercial chainers completely redundant.

PS Btw, I have tried 20 plugins from 20 entirely different devs, and haven't encountered a single stability issue.

PPS Not only does automation work, it displays the plugin name and parameter rather than a generic CC like Blue cat. Bye, Patchwork! You need to really lift up your game to match this, and the only thing that you have an edge with is the wet/dry for any plugin that doesn't already have it and undo for plugin parameters, but otherwise, the Waves is superior in all other ways. And I am a huge Blue Cat lover and have been plugging them for years, so this is big for me to say, believe me, although of course this in no way changes my stellar opinion of other BC plugins ,like the ridiculously versatile dynamics or delay which I use all the time, to name just 2.

Another edit, 26/07/24

The FREE Waves StudioVerse can also turn any effect into multiband, so I no longer have any use for Blue Cat MB-7 either. The only reason I will keep patchwork installed is for the 1 in a 1000 situation where I really want a wet dry on a dynamics plugin that doesn't have it. That's it.
If Waves add undo for VST3 plugin parameters, BC's offerings have become completely pointless.
The thing is, when it came out, the wet/dry was a good idea, sure, but I honestly don't think I even own any plugins anymore that should have a parallel function that don't. So the only thing is that they can load AU, but the only AU I have are ones that are AUv3 that don't have VST3 versions, and Patchwork can't use those anyway. IF they ever updated that so I could use the likes of Sunrizer in Pro Tools (right now I am using it in Mainstage standalone via virtual midi and routing into an audio track into PT), then we're talking.
But until that happens, these sell for $228 for the both of them, which is ridiculous when you can get Studio Verse for free.

Don't sleep on this, even if you hate Waves. I have never received a spam from Waves in 30 years, ever, so don't worry about them having your email, create an account and get studio verse, you are SERIOUSLY missing out if you don't, especially if you are a PT user. But even if you use Logic or Cubase or DP, for example, it's still worth having for the Multiband features. Even for a simple modulation effect, Multiband is important, so you can avoid processing the bass frequencies. This is a seriously great plugin and even I am surprised Waves are offering it for free. Amazing. This thing is so good that I want to create a dedicated topic to discuss it.

I have some Black Rooster plugins.

They're decent for the price but I don't use them much.

I like the VPre-72 and Magnetite.

The VLA-2A Mark II is also decent, I actually prefer over the Waves CLA-2a.

I'm not using them at the moment but I could put any of those on a track and they would be good.

The others few I have I haven't used very much.

The OmniTecs are great. I like many of BRA plugins sonically. The reverbs are ok but for some reason I never use them. The lack of VST3 is a bit disappointing. Hope they fix that soon.

I just bought the new BRA All Bundle for $99 . . . ! . . . All are VST3 . . . ! . . . :-)
(-;

Thanks for the heads up, haven’t checked for a long time.
I bought the bundle a long time ago, and it has been hit and miss for me (as are all bundles ime).
Mostly I don’t get along with their UIs, especially the older ones are rather poorly designed in my opinion, trying to go for a realistic hardware look but failing completely, just looks silly, especially those fake 3D knobs…
I kinda lost hope regarding VST3 and thus ignored them for the time being, because I have a policy of not using plugins anymore where I am not sure about future support, but I might need to revisit them.