Over the years I've used some of the free Melda Production plugins, but never really relied on them for anything. They've rather been more of a curiosity to me, with their giant red banner at the bottom prompting you to upgrade. I have them all installed as expired demos and they're cool to play with when I have time, as they have a lot of unique plugins. But the prices seem to be well above industry standards for quality plugins and turns me off whenever I consider them. So I was curious if anyone here actually owns any of them and uses them regularly? Somebody MUST be buying them since they remain in business, but I don't hear a lot about them tbh.

I would love to hear anybody's inputs or perspective on them... not that I need any more plugins.

I tried some of their free stuff. I don't have anything in particular against them, but for some reason I couldn't warm up to them, so I won't be buying any of their stuff. I felt similar about Blue Cat. That probably doesn't help much

I use a handful off the top of my head:-
MAutoAign. A fantastic automatic phase correction tool.
MTurboComp. Flip through multiple compressors keeping the same settings.
MLimiterX. A really nice limiter.
MDynamicEQ. Used to use it a lot until Cubase gained Frequency.
MCompare. What it says on the tin, no better or worse than other similar plugins - just familiar with it.

I bought one but the UI was is so convoluted I never use it.

Yeah, that's been my experience too. Same with Blue Cat, but I do use their free Gain plugin regularly. Nice, simple gain control to insert in your chain wherever for additional staging options.

I'm with you there.

There are a few, like MTurboReverb that piqued my interested, but not for $325!

Like always, wait for the deals! Melda plugs are expensive at full price but there are good deals 2 or 3 times per year - and the more you own the better the deals get,

lol that is ridiculous. So is its "100 reverbs in one plugin!" sales pitch. Even if true, who the hell wants 100 reverbs?

You have to buy in to the modulation system which is as deep as anything that exists. Really. You can modulate anything in many ways. But there’s a learning curve. In a lot of ways they’re all very utilitarian plug ins that only get interesting once you spend time with them.

If you’re doing a lot of sound design or making electronic music the creative effects will take you far. Multiband granular etc is all really interesting.

Updates are free forever. The free bundle is cool. If you wait for a sale you can add lots of features to the free bundle for pretty cheap.

People complain about the gui’s but once you get used to them they’re all kind of the same

To each their own, but I prefer to use UIs that I actually like vs having to learn to "get used to" one I don't.

You’re not alone in that sentiment. I got the creative fx bundle ages ago at a ridiculous price so over the years have gotten to appreciate all it can do. There have been interface improvements in recent years but there’s common paradigms in a lot of the interfaces of the plug ins. Once you learn one the others become familiar.

But they’re very business like unless using some of the macro skins.

I recommend them to people who are fans of modular environments and “LFO on everything” type of experiments

I use MAnalyzer and MAutoAlign on most mixes.

The thing about the Melda stuff is that if you want a plugin where the answer to the question "can I get it to do this...?" is yes, and you don't mind thinking about how to get there, they're for you.

If you don't want that, you're probably not going to get on with them. People griping about too many reverbs just miss the point of MTurboReverb. It's a plugin that lets you design your own reverb without coding the thing in Max, PD or C++...should you ever want to. Most people don't. So they probably aren't going to click with MTurboReverb unless it happen to have particular model they want.

I love utilitarian stuff so I thought I'd like the Melda stuff, but it's just terrible IMO. The UI is bad, the plugins are slow and clunky to use, and most of the effects are bloated with useless features (the frequency shifter plugin is a great example of this). Even their acclaimed customization is surpassed by many other plugins.

Even if I wanted to design my own reverb, I'm not about to pay $300+ for the privilege.

That's good, because no-one is asking you to.

That programming capability was what piqued my interest in TurboReverb, tbh. I'm an old SW engineer and techie, so I'm not intimidated by it, and could make good use of it. I haven't tried with the demo yet, but will give it a go.

IDK, maybe I'll play with them more and see what strikes me as something I can't do without.

I appreciate the honest feedback from all.

MAutoalign and MDynamicEQ are the two Melda plugins I use all the time.

The point wth MTurboReverb is the types are well categorised. So if you've got an idea in your head for what you want - finding the right reverb sound is pretty quick rather than spending all day flicking through presets. I think I paid £40 for it IIRR - it's an excellent reverb.

I'm using MAutoVolume and MAutoAlign for my bass track mostly. No regret purchasing it's super useful to me. I also like their UI.

Ah, the old Melda Marmite love/hate thread. They are making an effort with the UIs but I’m not sure it’s enough…

As for the plugins themselves, I think they are first class! Very high quality DSP and super creative for sound design. Just pick them up when they are 70% off and then upgrade to the bundles. Very affordable if you’re patient. Then once you have a bundle, the new plugins just keep rolling in for free. What a great customer policy.

Wrong; Melda is.

they do constant rotating 50% off sales.. eventually, whatever the thing you're interested in will be half off.

but i'm not going to twist anyone's arm. do the thing that makes sense to you.

$150 is still far more than I'm willing to pay for a reverb, or even a boatload of reverbs. As you say, to each their own. I already have more reverbs than I really need anyway.

MTurboReverb might be Melda’s finest plugin and worth every penny simply because it is so deep and unique (but still grab it at 70% off).

This video is a decent dig into what makes it so special. https://youtu.be/DwHAbakxbBE?si=RBQoKV9MDrnYUE9Q

Melda's MGuitar suite I read about in SOS and tried it and had to have it. I have been using Tonex and thought it was the best but MGuiitar is my go to now.

It was $109 but then I was hearing demo hiss in many presets I liked and turned out that those were using MTurbo Reverb, TurboEQ, TurboDelay and MHarmonizer in demo mode.

I felt jilted a but but figured $338 more for all four Turbo plugs was worth it to have those presets working but the TurboReverb turns out to have a lot use uses for other tracks.

Dan

Yes, bought the whole bundle many years ago and use a lot of them. Top-notch stuff.
mBassador - magic on bass
mCompare - best plugin for referencing
mTransient - most powerful and precise transient shaper I have come across

MVintageRotary. One and done. They might have potential, there is obviously a great deal of depth in the design and development, but the interface is not my idea of fun, efficient or intuitive. The interface is like one of those sliding puzzles, where you have to move one piece out of the way to advance another piece. I found it stressful. Click on something and a large portion of the interface changes and I'm panicking saying, "What did I just do and how do I get back to where I was?"

The manual matches the challenging interfaces. MVintageRotary has a 112 page manual without a table of contents. I guess you can read over the manual, assess what's there and make your own table of contents.

Inconsistencies in color coding. In one section, EQ, 'Enable' is green, in the section directly below it, amp, 'Enable' is red.

In the plugin and manual, there are three images of various Leslie cabinets, it's your outside research project to figure out which ones they are. Hint, if you dig back through earlier versions of MVintageRotary, Melda explains which models they are, but is that progress to lose that information?

I would not try to operate this plugin in front of friends or customers.

I use them a lot!

Once you get used to the interface you understand how much value you can find in these plugins. I see lots of people spending a damn huge amount of money here, lots of people in the "the new product alert" with the "insta buy" comment for stuff that imo comes with a very little value cause of the limitations.

I.e. MTurboComp, it's a freaking good compressor, you can really do whatever you want if you go deeper in the advanced mode. I designed my own compressors and i dropped all the AA compressors (i'm a fan of AA stuff) i used before and i find myself using just the compressors i created inside MTC for stuff like 1176, la-2a, distressor and such, and MModernComp if i need clean compression.

Same with MAutoDynamicEq, that's now the only eq i use right now for every purpose! I also made a mini-series on my channel about that eq, cause it's amazing for real!

I think people buy plugins more for the look than the workflow, or at least this is what it looks like reading the forum.

I blame AA along other companies in my reviews cause of the lack of automatic gain compensation, cause it's very important for the workflow for every dynamic processor, and it's one of the strenght of software compared to hardware!

I have to work on the song, for the song, not wasting my time playing with the plugin.

All the Melda stuff comes with AGC in it, and it's a huge time safer, but most importantly a quality of life that makes a real difference not just for the workflow but for the sound too.

I love to test stuff, i'm a freaking nerd! I tried to mix a song using plugins just from one company "for the science" so a song using only Melda, a song using only AA, another only Waves, Arturia and so on, and everytime the big difference was the workflow not the sound.

Cause the sound comes out from my ears and knowledge more than the tools.

Ofc there is a kind of tradeoff between our tools and our preferences, what it's good for me, may be not for you, i mean we are all different.

Although i think Melda products are understimated for what they offer, and if you have the time and the will, next time you need something, give Melda a shot with the attitude of a 15 y.o. who is happy and interested to learn something new, and you may probably surprise yourself


m2c ofc

I use these:

• MLoudnessAnalyzer -- for quick levelling on busses and checking levels before final export
• MMultiAnalyzer-- on every track
• MTuner -- even work on drums quite well
• MSaturatorMB -- one of the best saturators, I feel
• MSpectralDelay-- Unique approach that works great on some material like pads and what not
• MCCGenerator -- useful for when those needs arrive

While I find the (expert) UI generally ugly, I'm in it for the sound, so only judging based on getting things done. The only thing I can't stand is interfacing the disk, which made not to buy MCompare some years ago. Also, I mainly use knob controllers, so the UI isn't that important compared to mappability. The sound is what is important and the UI is about helping me get there when I need to use it.

Generally I don't find Melda give great presets (for the above), but I prefer building my own anyway, so doesn't change much for me.

As with anything else, I use specific tools from a brand if these work better, or good enough for less money. In the end, it's about whether the tool allows me to get "that sound" that I want. What others might feel/think is very light compared to what I think and feel.

I bought all my Melda plug-ins at 50% off and also used the email list voucher. I even paid for the free bundle, even as I only use a handful from it.

Curious about these plugins - waves Mercury user and Leapwing -PSP - UAD and a host of others…

What’s your top plugins from them?
What do you like about that plugin?

Thanx
Best wishes Mike