With such a bewildering array of lustworthy virtual effects out there to be discovered, many developers simplify the buying process by packaging multiple plugins in functionally or conceptually related sets. These bundles not only help to bring a sense of coherence to your sound design and mixing workflows, but can also save you a ton of cash. Here are six of our favourites…

Best value for money: Plugin Alliance MEGA Bundle

Available as a $24.99/month or $249.99/year subscription, PA’s enormous (and always growing) smorgasbord of plugin effects represents truly extraordinary value for money – and even more so when you factor in the $249.99 voucher subscribers receive every year to spend on permanent ownership of anything they like from the catalogue.

Currently numbering 138, the MEGA Bundle is stuffed with acclaimed processors by the likes of Brainworx, Shadow Hills, SSL, Mäag, Lindell Audio and SPL, to name but a few. From ‘boutique’ mixing and mastering tools, to vintage emulations, guitar amp sims, colourful creative toys and even a couple of synths, it’s a comprehensive and exceptionally high-quality collection that would be a bargain at twice the price.

Best for innovation: Sound Radix Radical Bundle

Sound Radix are known for their range of rather brilliant mixing and problem-solving plugins, and the Radical Bundle comprises five of the best. Auto-Align sorts out phase and temporal issues in multi-mic recordings; Pi does similar things to multi-channel mixes via phase rotation; SurferEQ is a unique equaliser that dynamically shifts its filters to track the pitch of the input signal; POWAIR is a super transparent dual-stage adaptive compressor/limiter; and Drum Leveler detects individual hits in drum tracks for compression/expansion and gating.

Sure, these certainly aren’t things that every producer needs, but for the pro engineer looking to make her/his mixing life that bit easier, the focused and futuristic gadgets provided by Radical Bundle might prove genuinely life-changing.

Best for versatility: Waves Mercury Bundle

Arguably the last word in all-in effects packages, Waves’ flagship Mercury Bundle houses 180 plugins (almost all effects) from throughout their illustrious history. Spanning the gamut from revered classics such as the ‘C’ Compressor, ‘L’ Maximizer/Ultramaximizer and Renaissance series, to newer processors including the Chris Lord-Alge, Eddie Kramer, Jack Joseph Puig, Tony Maserati and Manny Maroquin collections, Greg Wells’ one-knob wonders, a trio of superb API emulations and much, much more, there’s almost nothing you could think of doing to a sound or mix that isn’t covered by the Mercury Bundle.

Yes, it’s silly money at the full ask of over seven grand, but being on sale as often as it is, no one should ever actually pay anywhere near that much. And, of course, there are the lower-tier Waves Bundles to consider too, especially Gold, Platinum and Diamond, which are frequently slashed in price by up to 90%.

Best for creativity: MeldaProduction MCreativeFX Bundle

Currently standing at 108 plugins, Melda’s library of effects has long been a secret weapon of many a clued-up producer, and MCreativeFX Bundle brings you the most spectacular of them at a massive discount. All the transformative fundamentals – reverb, delay, distortion, frequency shifting, modulation-based shenanigans, etc – are represented in various forms, enhanced with multiband functionality, copious modulation options and all manner of powerful proprietary tools and subsystems. But it’s the more out-there likes of MRhythmizerMB (glitching and repeats), MSuperLooper (live looping), MWobbler (edgy filtering), MMorph (fuse and blend two separate sounds), MGranularMB (granular resynthesis), MTransfomer (wild frequency shifting and manipulation) and MTurboDelay (40 delay types!) that really get the imagination fired up, elevating the whole collective to a proposition that we’d happily pay considerably more for.

Best for mixing: FabFilter Mixing Bundle

When it comes to the mixing essentials, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Dutch developers FabFilter have the non-emulation-based market all to themselves, so ubiquitous have their Pro-C 2 compressor, Pro-Q 3 EQ and Pro-G gate become of late. And such popularity is well deserved, as all three plugins set standards in their perfectly balanced combination of depth, features, ease of use and knockout sonics.

Joining that core trio of must-haves in the Mixing Bundle, Pro-DS, Pro-R, Saturn 2 and Timeless 3 serve up equally stellar de-essing, reverb, multiband distortion and delay. Saturn and Pro-R are particularly noteworthy, the first delivering some of the most convincing analogue saturation you’ll hear in the virtual realm, and Pro-R’s ingenious Space control and Decay Rate EQ putting it in a class of its own; but Timeless 3’s May 2021 update was a big deal, too, adding feedback FX and extra filters to its arsenal, not to mention a beautiful new GUI.

Best for analogue-style mixing on a budget: McDSP Retro Bundle

Okay, so we’ve contrived this last gong just to get our final entrant onto the list, but this threesome of analogue emulation plugins is so darn good that we couldn’t let it fall through the categorical cracks. Retro Pack takes in the 4020 Retro EQ, 4030 Retro Compressor and 4040 Retro Limiter, all three of which are built on McDSP’s stunningly authentic analogue modelling algorithms, with the aim of making your in-the-box mixes sounds like they’re coming out of a vintage desk – although no specific real-world hardware is being emulated.

The 4020 Retro EQ features high and low shelving bands, two parametric bands, and low- and high-pass filters; while the 4030 Retro Compressor incorporates dry/wet mix control for parallel compression and a sidechain input; and the 4040 Retro Limiter keeps things simple with its Ceiling and Gain (up to +36dB) knobs, and is equally at home on the master bus or individual instrument channels. Most importantly, all three sound simply amazing, and we can’t recommend them highly enough for those craving that warm, classy old-school vibe.

Six of the best they undoubtedly are, but really, with so many worthy plugin bundles on the market, this lot barely qualify as the tip of the iceberg. Let us know your top picks in the comments below.