Favourite audio plugins when developing audio design? Thread

Hi all,

Just a brief intro as I am new to the forum, I would like to say hello in the first place

And then my question: which are your favourite plugins and DAW when it comes to design sound for games? I work on films and TV as a sound designer/engineer, and I am a gamer myself So I am really curious as to what are your favourite tools when it comes to game audio.

Many thanks

Cubase and/or ProTools for writing/design. FMOD for implementation into the game.

Pro Tools all the way, as for plugins I couldn't live without
Waves Gold Bundle - Waves has the absolute best EQs, Compressors, Limiters, Reverb, and general effects plugins
East-West/Kontakt 5 - East/West is the best (affordable) classic midi instruments package. Vienna is better but that also very expensive at $6000 for the full pack.
Omnisphere - Very affordable and versatile all around Synth plugin.

Nothing beats running real-world instruments through an 80+Lb Midas
console and getting it all right at the pickup! Other than that: Cubase +
Kontakt 5 + Synth1VST (Freeware) -> Adobe Audition -> FMOD or
Unreal Blueprint or Both.

And I got some surprisingly wonderful
sounds from using my $99 Zoom Handy Recorder in the field. Handled being
very close to the muzzle of an AK quite nicely.

A combo of all
of the above if I need certain sounds that Kontakt won't give me. Made a
neat little song from running my thumb across a heat sink. For
a while, I was going old school and linear; putting various field
recordings together to create implied sounds using Adobe Audition, but
recently enjoy the flexibility and intuitiveness that FMOD gives. The Unreal Pipeline is glorious for sound design.

I will admit, however that FM synthesis, or rather the FM8 in Kontakt makes my head hurt.

Edited by: Half-Rats

I know it's not plugins as I'm a sucker for hardware but for not much more money than many plugins out there and still on the digital side of things I'd recommend Virus Ti2 all day long! Or the classic Micro Korg through DBX 120a (subharmonic generator) and a decent analogue filter. As far as DAW are concerned it doesn't matter what you use as long as it works for you. The problem I find with plugins is that it's so easy to jump to presets. Fusing real sound recordings and synthesis will always get the best results for SFX as you have something that sounds real but modern and having that digital element gives you far more control over tuning into the right frequencies to get the effect you want. Waves is amazing but costly once you start adding all of the plugins. Modern technology is so good you can't go wrong with a lot of the stuff out there. I find efficiency is the most important thing for me. Quality is down to decent A/D converters good monitoring. I think the DAWs are so close on that front nowadays. I tend to steer clear of sample synths as anyone can pick a sound and hit record unless you re-sample the s**t out of it!