How to find your way!
When MTL Women in Music asked me to write an article about audio plugins, I said to myself: wow, great challenge. How to go around in a few words such a vast universe, through which, ultimately, there is no right or wrong answer… Instead of making my “smarty pants” and rehashing ready-made answers (like several so-called audio-gurus on the networks), I decided instead to ask you some fundamental questions to fuel your thinking and your approach. I hope to help you answer the most important of them: “DOES IT WORK???”
1. Do I understand what I am doing?
Before spending hundreds or even thousands of dollars on plugins, I believe it is essential to understand the basic concepts that make up the vibrations of music. Behind each melody, each chord, each beat hides a fundamental aspect: the physics of sound. What are frequency, amplitude, timbre? What are the main waveforms? How to shape the envelope of a sound? How are harmonics created? How does a compressor, oscillator, filter work? What is the difference between vibrato, tremolo and wah wah? Hey yes, it’s a job! Because, in addition to understanding, you will have to train your ear to hear all that. Once the concepts are assimilated, it will be much easier to manipulate any plugin intelligently to achieve the desired result. Whether you use Ableton, Logic or ProTools, native plugins are great for experimenting.
2. What are my needs? And my means?!?
You should know that the world of plugins is a huge marketing game. With this in mind, it is important to determine your needs and priorities, depending on the stage you are at in your career, the time you have to invest, and of course, your financial means. Be warned: once you get started with plugins, it’s very easy to go into a tailspin and make repeated impulse purchases… If you’re serious about your ambition to produce music, I suggest purchasing a quality suite that will include the majority of essential plugins. Personally, initially I chose to invest in a bundle from the company Waves, whose products are excellent and which constitute a superb foundation for my collection. Once again, we must not forget that native plugins often do an excellent job, and that it is not essential to spend a fortune – especially if you are starting out!
3. Which companies resonate with me and my way of working?
There are so many options on the market that it’s not always easy to navigate. Depending on the type of musician you are, you will not necessarily have the same priorities, nor the same tastes as another producer… This is where trial and error comes into play. All companies offer demo versions. You may find the analogy strange, but I compare it a bit to finding your favorite brand of laundry. Over time, you have been able to confirm that you like the cuts, that the songs still sound good to you… It’s a bit the same thing with plugins. By experimenting, you end up finding companies that have interfaces with which you resonate, you feel in symbiosis, who inspire you in your musicality. For my part, I love Arturia for their synths and virtual instruments, Native Instruments, in particular the Kontakt sampler, a real pillar in my creations, Valhalla for their iconic reverbs and delays, Soundtoys for their range of effects and Izotope for their tools vocal production. There are so many other companies… it’s up to you to do your “own research”!
4. What are the best free plugins?
There are a lot of great, completely free plugins out there. It’s definitely worth getting one! Here are my 5 favorites (there are plenty of others that can be found very easily!)
#1 The Valhalla Supermassive reverb/delay
#2 the lo-fi Izotope Vinyl effect
#3 The Youlean Loudness Meter that I use to check the loudness of my master
#4 The TAL Chorus-LX (several other free plugins are available on their site)
#5 The Waves Lil Tube saturator (free with a purchase of $50 or during certain specials)
I would like to take this opportunity to tell you, as a general rule: I very rarely buy a plugin at full price! It’s important to keep an eye out for specials, especially during Black Friday… and to subscribe to the mailing lists of your favorite companies. Be careful of compulsive purchases though 🙂
5. How to find the right sources of information to learn?
The problem is not finding information… but rather finding GOOD information. I mentioned at the beginning of the article the so-called audio gurus who claim to provide you with miracle recipes to make your productions sound… In a few clicks, you realize that their career is absolutely non-existent and that their music is absolutely terrible… On the other hand, there are also a multitude of good artists who share great production tips on all platforms. Among my favorites:
- Live Twitch Streams (replay on YouTube) of Illangelo/Joy Odyssey ➡️ @joyodyssey @illangelo
Rachel K. Collier‘s YouTube channel ➡️ @rachelkcollier
Instagram Reels of So Wylie ➡️ @so.wylie
- FINNEAS YouTube videos, or via the Mix With The Masters platform ➡️ @finneas
Another problem that many people encounter is having the discipline to complete their projects. If you are serious, and want to accelerate your learning process, I strongly suggest you register for training. Personally, I graduated in music production at Station Clip Ableton Certified School. Even though I had already been producing with ProTools software for years, when I decided to transition to Ableton, I wanted to dust off my knowledge and my creative process. I did not regret my choice! It would have taken me 5 years to achieve the same result by groping in the dark. When you know that you will have to listen to your audio homework in front of the whole class, it gives a good kick in the butt… Besides, a song that I wrote and produced as part of my classes will appear on my next album !
I also took the online training courses Beat Accelerator Process / Mighty Producer by Damian Taylor ( @hereisdamian ) and Producing & Performing Live with Ableton by Rachel K. Collier. I continue to be curious, to study and to want to push my knowledge further. Music production and plugins are a world where the possibilities are endless. We always have something to learn. In addition, technologies change quickly; it’s important to stay up to date, monitor new trends, refresh your way of doing things.
À toi de jouer maintenant! Bonne route au pays des plugins. J’espère que ce petit article t’aura apporté quelques pistes. Et comme je dis toujours: STAY INSPIRED!!!
Musically xo
Caracol
@caracolmusic
Caracol is an artist, songwriter and director based in Montreal. Over the course of her career, she has released numerous albums and completed a multitude of tours in Canada and internationally. She has received numerous awards and nominations: GENIE, JUNO, FÉLIX, CANADIAN INDIE AWARDS, MIROIR, GAMIQ. Caracol is also active on the publishing scene, writing and producing songs for numerous artists (La Voix, Canada’s Got Talent, Star Académie) and producing music for television and cinema. Since 2023, she has been part of the Global Network of Women Producers headed by the National Arts Center (NAC). At the same time, she developed her publishing house LADY Music, and stood out politically to improve the music industry via the management committees of RAM and SPACQ-AE.