Top 10 VST Plugins for 2020! – Ableton, FL Studio, Logic

In this video I go through my top 10 VST plugins for 2020. What are your thoughts!!? Let me know in the comments 👇

Stock plugins are awesome – I love them – and in my opinion you can get about 90% of the way to truly pro sound with them.

However, using a few choice premium plugins can take you that last 10%.

Caveat 1: Don’t think a good plugin is going to make bad music sound good. It’s not. Seriously...It’s not!

These plugins can help take well composed, well produced music up to that next level.

Caveat 2: These are the VST audio plugins that I personally use. They are not the only options, and plugin choice – all else being equal – comes down to how well you like the user interface and how well you get to know it.

View them as an investment – not an expense. Whats more…You can download free demos for most of these, so try them out first and see what you like:

(Some of these are my affiliate links, so I do get a small commission. Some of them also give you a discount. All are easily findable on Google if you prefer.)

1. A premium Synth, like Serum or Sylenth1.
There are others, of course…these are just two I use a lot.
Why? Fun, fast and lots of presets available. Unique routing and modulation options. If you’re still hung about about the ethics of using presets as a starting point, get over it.
A rompler like Nexus is also good (although I’ve never used it so can’t really speak from experience on that).

5. A decent limiter.
If you get none of the others – if you really want to get your music up to commercial loudness and plan to do your own mastering – this is a key plugin to invest in. The FabFilter Pro-L2 and Sonnox Limiter are great.

8. A decent saturator.
Everyone needs one of these. There are some great ones out there. My favourite two that make it onto every track are Soundtoys Decapitator and House of Kush Omega.

►► My ENTIRE Music and Video Equipment:
My Audio Gear:

My Video Gear:

Cheers, and happy producing!
Will

OTHER VIDEOS TO CHECK OUT:

#plugins #vsts

[EDMTips]

In this video I go through my top 10 VST plugins for 2020. What are your thoughts!!? Let me know in the comments 👇

[pablocronin]

A video on LUF's would be great! There are so many people who don't understand them!

[boxingontheedge]

Hi Will. Thank you for consistently providing great videos! I would really enjoy a video on LUFS levels. If you have time that would be awesome! Cheers!

[luka]

Maybe do tips to reduce CPU usage? Because I noticed some CPU overload in your video

[TheresaTruong]

Wow this was very thorough. Thanks for providing all the links in the comments as well. Sound editing is not my forte but, I definitely refer to this video again if I ever want a stab at it. Liked and subscribed! Looking forward to your next video!

[JolyTematio]

Great value here! Plugins are so important to get better audio quality. Thnaks for sharing the best ones

[VictoriaNicole]

It's awesome looking into the minds of music. Vocals sound great with the fabfilter.

[blizzy]

Have you tried any of the Tokyo Dawn Labs plugins? Nova, Kotelnikov, Slick EQ and others. I really love those, got myself the Gentleman's Edition of all of them. Also, kilohearts subscription. Their plugins are awesome, too.

[BrunodeSouzaLino]

It's important that you learn what tools your DAW already has before you start purchasing plugins. This is especially important when you have the top of the line version of the DAW, like Ableton Suite, for example. It's very easy to get caught up in the "shortcut" plugins and "one button solutions", then be in a hardship when you don't have access to them.

[DrSuzanneDoyleMorrisinclusiq]

Very informative! Great video! Thanks!

[mariorossi]

If u try phase plant i think u ll foget serum and other similiar syntethizer. It can be difficult to use the first time, but after is so easy and overall very flexible respect serum and similar, overall furnished with many plug in to integrate in the synth and in the platform as ableton.
The only gap that has a strange sequencer/arpegiator not so powerfull as ana2 or better synthmaster one.
Try to get a look, u ll be in love 😁

[davehosley]

Great video LUFs video explaination would be super! Thanks

[albertohilsaca]

Hey will, you should check out hive 2 by uhe. Its like an updated version of sylenth. It has an amazing fat sound!!

[indigodeep]

Nice review. The only other limiter I found that allows you to get as loud as Pro L2 is the wall by Boz Digital.

[AidaLawlor]

Great Tip! Super informative! You have a New sub here!!

[cone]

Where is OTT? also T-Force is cool but it's just free alternative to Sylenth1 to me so... Anyways nice video!

[Mihai-M]

I get Oxford Inflator but not shows in Ableton i make a rescan and nothing.Please help me!Thank you!

[spandauneu]

why are plugins like fabfilter better than the EQ8 from Ableton i mean whats the technical point?

[blizzy]

In addition to my other comment, I'm using ShaperBox 2's volume module instead of LFO tool. Think globally, buy locally, I guess. (They're based in my home town Hamburg, Germany ;)

[TACKOD]

I recently started using Ableton Live. When I bought Intro, I didn't think it wouldn't include things like pitch and frequency shifting (as it was available in the trial version) and I'm looking for a vst that I could use to replace that. Is there a plugin like that for Live Intro? Or would I have to upgrade to another tier to access tools like that?