For Drums and Bass, I like some of the Presets in the Vintage Compressor. There’s one called Brit Acoustic (if my memory serves, not on DAW now) that blew my mind when I first heard it. It took me some time to work out what was going on, but it was drastically shaping the tone of the kit. I was using it on a pretty dry Acoustic Agent standard rock kit. I like that “punch” button it has, too, it lets the transient pass and then kicks in on the rest. Nice. It kind of works backwards in a way, so I often have to re-wire my brain when I put it on.
The Tube Compressor I like on Vocals and also on guitar at times. I’ve not worked with it enough and think I should be using it more than I am. I think of it as a tone shaping compressor with the drive control and the internal side-chain it has. It’s nice.
I really like the Limiter. I use that on individual tracks for recording at times, on the Mix Bus and then on the Master Bus – when I’m trying to take something to a Master Level, final loudness. It’s clean and lets me control the loudness. I also like Limter6 and want to get the new “Gentleman’s edition” of it from Tokyo Dawn Labs.
I don’t like the Brickwall Limiter as much, it seems to make things sound more brittle. Maybe I’m not using it totally correctly yet.
I like the Maximizer on the Mix Bus and on individual tracks at times, but used sparingly. It seems to do nice things to the mids and high frequencies. I wish there was more control and more information about what it actually is doing. I keep meaning to try it on Vocals, but so far I’ve not had the right Project for that, but it might make backgrounds really pop out in a mix in a good way.
I like the Channel Strip a lot and how flexible it is. I often change the order of the items on it and it’s so clean to work with. I use the strip compressors for side-chain. Mostly I have the strip first, then the inserts, but sometimes I do put the strip after the inserts. I like the Pre Section too and use the Low and High cuts on that often, that then leaves me four other bands of EQ on the strip.
Frequency EQ is excellent. I’m using the M/S on the Low End to cut the bass from the side channel. It also has a lot of headroom. Very nice plug-in, well worth the upgrade to Ver 9, imho.
VST Dynamics I’ve not used as much as I should, but it’s a very good plug-in. Very clean, not for coloring the sound, just for controlling the dynamics.
Anyway, that’s some of where it’s at for me at this point. Good luck with your Proejcts. 