Great song, great shouter, good riffs - was a blast to mix =)

[dcp10200]

Decent starter plugins? Hard to say, really, because after 5 years I have realised that it's all about workflow and nothing else. There is no magic bullet that will make your mix sound great. Dozens of very small decision make a mix great, and automation plays a huge role too.

Ignore people who tell you that "this compressor" or "this eq" is the best in the world. Thats crap. A good friend told me to buy UAD stuff when I started and so I spend thousands of euros for UAD hardware & plugins - and I rarely use them today. same goes with waves. I have 20+ Waves plugins and I would sell them immediately if someone wants them.

I mix most of my stuff with Slate plugins these days. So my advice would be:

- Spend 299 Dollar for the slate everything bundle and you get all his stuff plus a fantastic reverb for one year. The Comps are nice, the EQs are nice, VCC and VTM are great plugins that will help you get better mixes. Plus you get new stuff every few weeks. 300 Dollar is a joke and if you decide to stop doing this you dont sit on a pile of plugins that are nothing worth anymore.
- go and buy Eiosis Air EQ. It's transparent, the presets are a huge help for starters (they are not really presets - just starting points for a lot of instruments to cut or boost stuff)
- and you can't go wrong with the fabfilter plugins. With Pro EQ and Pro C you have all you need if you dont need that special "something" that slate plugins have.

I would never ever again buy plugins from waves (horrible customer support) and UAD (way too expensive). If I could start from scratch I would buy the fab stuff, the slate bundle and some special plugins like AirEQ and some other tools and use the stock plugins from cubase for the rest.

Can't thank you enough blitz. Cheers. I'm aware of those plugins...been doing a lot of enquiries into it all. So many plugins to sway you...like a seedy little bloke in an Amsterdam whore house. Like the solo function in Fab Eq to find nasty elements for cutting. Thats a plus.
My dream is to own everything Sonnox Oxford do. Again just a dream.
UAD are the big boys in the playground without a doubt. But way too expensive for a start up studio.

Great mix though. If your not earning money mixing for a day job I'm shocked.

I'm a fan of the waves CLA Classic Compressors personally, A friend gave me a bunch of Waves plugins that he wasn't using a while back to try out until I get myself a Mac. Blitzzz is totally right though, there are no magic plugins, it's all about what fits with your workflow. The Slate stuff is really nice from what I have seen ( keep you iLok key guarded with your life, I lost mine when I had Revival and I haven't been able to find it since). Also the popular Waves stuff goes on special quite abit, have a look out for Gold bundle.

[Blitzzz]

Thats why I have 2 iloks - Just in case. I got one with VMR 4 free so I keepthat one as an emergency backup.

[Blitzzz]

And to james: Don't spend so much money like I did. It's okay for me because it's my hobby and I would have spent that money for other things if not for plugins/samples and stuff. Just don't get too excited when you see new adds about new plugins or new DAWs that tell you they are the only thing you need to make great mixes. I'm using Cubase since Version 5 and stayed with it for most of the time. I got a pro version of Studio One 2 some months ago and tried to make the switch because so many people said so namy good things about S2 but for me Cubase 7/8 just has way more features that I actually use compared with Studio One. Don't believe marketing and don't ever ever go on gearslutz and let elitist jerks tell you that the stuff you use is crap

[dcp10200]

Thats why I have 2 iloks - Just in case. I got one with VMR 4 free so I keepthat one as an emergency backup.

Yeah, I only had my iLok that came with my Mbox Mini with Pro Tools Express unfortunately, and I'm not willing to spend 50 bucks on a free version of a DAW that doesn't work well on windows or a free plugin. I'm getting a mac soon and I'm most likely going to run Reaper or Logic. I used Pro Tools at at my recording school but I'm not willing to pay 699 on Pro Tools and then have to pay 100 dollars every month just so I can use it.

[Blitzzz]

You might wanna check Studio One 2 instead of Logic. As a Cubase user I don't see why I should change because Cubase gets constant updates and it has 99,99% of the features that S2 has and then some more. BUT some of the logic and PT users I know on FB made the switch and really say good things about S2. It doesn't cost much and you also get free & huge updates on a regular basis.

The workflow is a little smoother compared with Cubase but that "little" wasn't enough for me. The biggest thing that turned me off was the fact that Cubase has much better midi editors. The drag & drop workflow was great, and the way it handles virtual instruments and midi data was impressive.

[dcp10200]

You might wanna check Studio One 2 instead of Logic. As a Cubase user I don't see why I should change because Cubase gets constant updates and it has 99,99% of the features that S2 has and then some more. BUT some of the logic and PT users I know on FB made the switch and really say good things about S2. It doesn't cost much and you also get free & huge updates on a regular basis.

The workflow is a little smoother compared with Cubase but that "little" wasn't enough for me. The biggest thing that turned me off was the fact that Cubase has much better midi editors. The drag & drop workflow was great, and the way it handles virtual instruments and midi data was impressive.

I'm leaning towards Reaper because that's what I know works (my current windows DAW is reaper and it's great for mixing and mastering) the editing can be somewhat clunky but it's not too bad

[Blitzzz]

Reaper is like the linux of all existing DAWs - powerful but too complex and distracting.