My Top 3 Affordable Plugin Bundles

Good plugins can greatly enhance your mixes. Of course not every one can afford some of the high price plugin bundles out today. So I’m going to share with you my top 3 affordable plugin bundles. While these bundles are affordable ($350 and less) plugin companies like Waves and McDsp run sales ALL the time, so you can end up getting them for less. I have never paid full price for a plugin bundle. I patiently wait for it go on sale. I strongly recommend going to these companies’ websites and signing up for their newsletters. This way you are always in the loop of when a sale occurs. It’s a good idea to follow them on Twitter and Facebook as well. Now to the bundles.

From affordable plugin bundles

1. McDsp Classic Pack
a. price $350
b. plugins 4
c. tweaky, versatile plugins
d. www.McDsp.com 


The McDSP Classic Pack gives you a compressor, eq, multiband compresspor and an analog console emulator plugin in analog channel. Technically this bundle gets you four plugins, but if you break it down you really get 3 versions of compressor bank, 3 versions of filter bank, 3 versions of the multiband compressor, and 2 versions of analog channel. So when you look at it that way you really get 11 plugins total. Though the Classic Pack is the most expensive of the three, I feel its the most versatile. You really get a lot for your money. Compressor Bank is the most versatile compressor plugin out there IMO. You can literally use it on anything. Filter Bank, like Compressor Bank, is very versatile and with three versions you can really do a lot. Analog Channel emulates tape machines and analog consoles. All the plugins in the bundle are extremely “tweaky”, very versatile and if your into presets you get a ton of them here. Again, $350 is more than the other two bundles I listed but Colin runs sales ALL the time. Be patient if you have your eye on a particular thing. I picked mine up this year when McDSP had a $199 sale going on. If I had no other plugins for my DAW and had to choose between these 3 bundles I would take this one for its versatility.

From affordable plugin bundles

2. Softube Mix Bundle
 a. price $300
 b. plugins 5
 c. battling UA for top analog modeling plugins on the market
 d. www.softube.com 


Softube has really made a name in the audio game for analog modeling. For those who don’t know what analog modeling is its taking hardware and creating software that sounds just like the hardware, or as close they can get it. With the mix bundle you get their passive-active pack, which features 3 EQ’s, the FET compressor, which models the 1176 and the TSAR-1R, which is a mini version of the TSAR-1 reverb. The passive-active pack is modeled after 60’s and 70’sBritish EQ’s. These EQ’s aren’t surgical EQ’s, but they are very good and boosting and sweetening your tracks, especially in the high end. The FET compressor is a 1176 on steroids. low and high cut filters, look ahead and a mix knob makes this a very versatile compressor. The reverb is the best I’ve used in a plugin. I’m comparing that to Digidesign D-verb, AIR verbs, Sonnox reverb (which is a very good reverb!) and McDSP revolver verb. I just finished a mix for JaShayla where I used this reverb on her vocals and the results were amazing. This bundle is versatile, but the least versatile IMO. However these are really, really good sounding plugins.

From affordable plugin bundles

3. Waves Musicians Bundle 2
 a. price $99
 b. plugins 6
 c. plugin originators, veterans in the game
 d. www.waves.com 


If there is one thing you are guaranteed to see in commercial studios besides pro tools and an analog console its plugins from Waves. Waves has been making plugins since 1992 and has what I believe is the largest number of plugins available than other company at 128. Waves has also been the most expensive I’ve seen, but over the last few years they have been lowering their prices to help compete with all the new competition. The Waves Musicians 2 bundle, which I paid $199 for two years ago, gives you some nice plugins for an affordable price. These were the first plugins I ever purchased. This bundle gives you eq, 3 compressors, and a delay. The Rvox compressor is easy to use and easy to get good results with, making it my favorite plugin in this bundle. You get Raxx specifically for bass, Rvox for vocals, and Rcomp can handle everything else. The Req is good, and considering it comes in a $99 bundle makes it great. Waves also runs specials all the time. This bundle ranks #2 in versatility to me of the three.