Most DAWs come with a pretty comprehensive set of included stock plugins and additional features, which, on paper at least, make them one-stop solutions for your production needs. The development of third-party plugins began at a time when this was far from the case. The Waves Q10 Paragraphic Equaliser was the first third-party plugin. Released in 1992, at that time, Pro Tools was at version 1, and the effects it shipped with were extremely rudimentary. EQ was available but was accessible in single bands along with some other basic offerings like chorus, delay and stereoise.
If we look at the tools available with a modern DAW, it’s clear that that raison d’etre no longer holds water. The complement of stock plugins which come as standard with a DAW like Logic Pro, Studio One, Cubase or Pro Tools seem to cover common tasks and the quality and functionality of these stock plugins are on par with third-party offerings. It does beg the question - Why do people use third-party plugins in 2022?
In this article, I’ll also refer to third-party supporting applications, which, while not strictly speaking ‘plugins’, are still third-party tools used from within a DAW.
Sound Quality
For a long time, the argument was that premium plugins were superior in sound quality. When buying an audio processor, you would hope that sound quality is at least one of the reasons it is superior to stock offerings. For the most part, this isn’t necessarily the case in 2022. Look at Logic Pro’s stock compressor plugin. It’s amazing! It sounds great, feels very, very premium and has the most convincing VU meter ballistics I’ve ever seen in any plugin ever. There are other examples I could give but suffice it to say, the argument that premium plugins sound better than stock plugins has been seriously eroded since that idea was first established.
However, that isn’t to say that it’s true across the board. In our article in which Grammy-winning mix engineer Mike Exeter mixed the same track using premium and stock plugins, the only really significant difference he found in terms of sound quality was in the quality of the reverbs. Stock reverbs have come a long way since D Verb was the stock reverb bundled with Pro Tools but so have premium reverbs. A reverb like Liquidsonics Cinematic Rooms really does still sound demonstrably better than a stock reverb.
But when talking about ‘sound quality’ it’s not necessarily about better and worse. Another example might be plugins which sound unique and are ‘genre correct’ for want of a better term. One such example is AutoTune which, while capable of unobtrusive, sympathetic correction, is also a ‘sound’ in itself which is seen by some as a requirement for some styles. If you want authentic, obvious AutoTune, you kind of have to use AutoTune. So In terms of sound quality, I’m suggesting that plugins either have to sound better or sound unmistakable.
Compatibility
What about compatibility? Of course, this is the major advantage of using stock plugins. Post mixers, in particular, tend to avoid third-party plugins for precisely this reason. While you might have your particular favourites, if you are trying to remain as compatible as possible with the largest number of people, then any deviation from using exclusively stock plugins carries with it an inherent disadvantage. That isn’t to say that post mixers don’t use third-party plugins, just that they tend to think more carefully than others about using them if a stock alternative will suffice.
There are some third-party plugins which are ubiquitous to the point that it’s not unreasonable to assume collaborators might have them. The problem is that no one agrees on exactly which these are! I’ve had conversations with post mixers that the Waves Gold bundle used to enjoy ‘almost stock’ status. Whether or not this is still the case is up for debate. I’ll tentatively suggest that FabFilter’s Pro-Q 3 is so popular as to be approaching this ‘almost stock’ status amongst music mixers too.
Learning
Having a background in education, I’m going to suggest that there is definitely an argument to be made that some third-party plugins can be very useful as teaching aids. A novice mixer might be better served by spending their money on something like Sonnox Claro, with all of its specialised features, which make it particularly useful for those who are learning EQ, rather than an SSL Channel Strip if they want to learn EQ. Or Fabfilter Pro C2 with its rich visual feedback rather than a Fairchild if they want to learn compression. The gain reduction history graph and the fact that the threshold is overlaid over the scrolling audio give an excellent visual guide to those who are struggling to hear what are often subtle changes. The Logic Compressor offers a similar gain reduction history graph, but it’s rather too small to be useful. Maybe in an update, they will offer a bigger size option.
The other side of that particular coin is avoiding having to learn. The rise of AI and machine learning have presented us with automatic or at least semi-automatic tools which offer the possibility to a self-operating producer to stay with the creative decisions and leave all that dry engineering to their computer. There’s nothing wrong with that, and at the moment, it is third-party tools which are leading the way. Plugins from the likes of Sonible with their Smart Comp or the excellent FAST Equaliser, which they created in partnership with Focusrite, give results which are hard to argue with and taking things further, the likes of LANDR give insight into what is possible.
Inspiration
In the same way, as some guitarists’ pedalboards seem to grow and grow, sometimes new things bring new ideas, and if a plugin inspires a good song, then that’s money well spent. Simple audio plugins are unlikely to do that, but in the same way as complex patches on the Roland D50 inspired songwriters back in the day, a virtual instrument with some killer patches might be all it takes to start a song which ends up as a keeper.
If we’re talking about virtual instruments with inspirational patches, then top of my list has to be Eric Persing’s work on Omnisphere. But it doesn’t have to be virtual instruments. The last plugin which really inspired me was Sound Particles’ Energy Panner. Enormous fun in Atmos!
The Real Reason?
However, while there is a case for all of these points, it seems that none of them are the biggest reason professionals continue to invest in third-party plugins and software. Asking our team of contributors, two themes emerged: Saving time and accessing features not currently offered using stock facilities in a DAW.
The old adage ‘time is money’ doesn’t apply to everyone, but it does apply to busy professionals and products which identify a problem which previously took a long time to fix and makes it go away are going to find a lot of friends in the pro community. One such product is Sound Radix’s Auto Align Post. It’s a great example of a difficult problem meeting a simple solution. The same goes for conforming and reconforming software; check out Matchbox from the Cargo Cult. Noise reduction and cleanup is another area where suitable tools don’t exist as part of the stock offering with DAWs. iZotope RX, Acon Digital Acoustica, Waves Clarity: All unmatched by anything stock DAW tools can do. And then there are just the things which specialist tools are doing better than built-in offerings. Although the Workspace Browser exists in Pro Tools, many professionals still favour Soundminer, Basehead, or Soundly. Stock tools built into a DAW might be ubiquitous and provided gratis with the DAW, but they have to be as good as the alternatives.
Workflows change, sometimes quickly, and small, agile companies usually provide solutions first. 3 years ago, far fewer people were concerned about how to collaborate remotely, but when the world changes, workflows catch up, and companies like Audiomovers have addressed these gaps. Cubase features excellent built-in tools for remote working but not all DAWs offer such facilities. The need to upmix stereo material to surround and immersive formats is another example where you’re likely to be calling on the facilities of third-party solutions like Nugen Audio’s Halo.
I could go on, but actually, there seems to be a common thread here which doesn’t contradict the opening point about Waves Q10 all the way back in ’94. While the case for straight-up EQ and Compressor plugins has changed and matured into a whole ecosystem of subdivisions of preferences and tastes, there are broadly two things happening in the third-party sector. Recreation of hardware or creating something new.
The former is something of an indulgence, but there’s nothing wrong with that. As Russ says, “plugins are like shoes”. You only need one pair but… The latter is more interesting, and if there is something you can’t do in your DAW using stock tools, there is probably a third-party tool out there which can do it. If there isn’t a third-party option, there is probably someone somewhere working on it…