What are the standout plugins at Plugin Alliance

The ones I know I use on everything are the townhouse compressor (like a dirtier version of the UAD 33609) on drum bus and their SPL Transient Designer I have all over the place.

JMH

I like the Acme Opticom. It can get a nice crunch that sounds good on otherwise clean sources, like acoustic guitar.

The Neold stuff is good, too. As is the Pro Audio DSM. And if you like console plugs, their Focusrite is underrated IMO.

bx_bassdude is very usable. Again I have no idea what it costs or what I'd pay for it but I use it all the time.

EDIT - It's $9.99 right now. That's a no-brainer.

The Acme is my go to snare compressor. It makes them just sound big and punchy more than anything else I've tried. I'm sure everyone has read my comments on the SPL PQ plugin by now. Still blows my mind that I can't tell it apart from the hardware on sections of the song that hit both the plugin and the hardware at different points in the Audio Animals video if I close my eyes. I see that the hardware doesn't have an input knob like the software, so I'm guessing Paul was hitting it with enough level to get the sort of transient popping effect that another mastering guy told me about his hardware doing. The 902 is still what I use over other de-essers. The Vitalizer bass control for soft and tight functions very similarly to the one that Access Analog has, which is a different model. To me, that's very useful across a whole mix. There's a lot of good stuff at PA and maybe I'd use more if I weren't limited by cpu cycles. The Millenia stuff is good but I wish it was more tweakable, Focusrite, Townhouse, Unfiltered Audio, BX Opto, Bax Eq and Museq sounded very close to the hardware on Youtube, Lindell console is great but I don't have enough cpu to put it all over, Purple is pretty good if you want an 1176 with more bite, Sa2rate is decent, Phil's Cascade was pretty cool, there's a lot.

The VSM and Shadow Hills plugins are decent but pretty far off from the real thing. I've tried to get into the DSM but have never taken to it. The mono makers on these are very inferior to Basslane Pro according to Flotown Mastering. Whenever Access Analog allows us to use the Alpha separately I'd love to compare it with the plugin. There's only one comparison video out there that I know of and the guy told me he didn't use dither with the hardware if I recall. With PA it just depends on what you already have. They don't have an answer for a lot of stuff that I regularly use. Reverb is a weak area for them. Tapeface is ok but it's no Satin. I vastly prefer the Culture Vulture sound over the Black Box in hardware and plugin form. You could probably get by using nothing but PA plugins, but I imagine it'd be a lot more difficult than just being able to use everything you usually do.

Acme Opticom XLA-3, Townhouse, BX_Masterdesk_Truepeak is OK if you don't already have something like that. I will sometimes use it to spin off an interim "master-like" mix to someone.  it's easy to tweak and get something decent quickly.   I  have the Maag 2 and wish I had realized that PA had the same things before I bought Maag 4 from UAD. I'd used it even more if it was Native.  Same for the Ampeg B15 - get the one from PA (same stuff).  I like the Amek EQ200 on a master bus.  I've got almost all of the console strips but still use my Waves SSL (I like it).  Almost switched over when Waves pulled that subscription stunt.  I use the Bax_EQ a lot too.  Love the m/s settings.  I used Buxom Betty recently (sounded way better than the clients plugin). SPL De-Verb can be useful. 

probably depends what kind of plugins you use most often?  So many are $29.99 or less.  Plus there is the $10 off voucher and do you have a "monthly voucher"?   I used the 10 off to get the Neold U2A a couple days ago (it was $20 then). now I need to install it...

My favs are:

bx_console SSL 4000 E, bx_console AMEK 9099, AMEK mastering compressor, Lindell 902 De-esser, The Oven, Shadow Hills Class A, SPL TwinTube and Vitalizer, bx_masterdesk, bettermaker EQ, Vertigo VSM-3 

I like PA's version of SPL Vitalizer better than UA's, I have no idea why. Maybe the code on UA's never got updated at some point. 

This one.

Kirchoff if you need it. Their new compressor is cool too.

Kiive stuff

The Oven, the newer black box, the newer shadow hills comp, the vertigo vsm, silver bullet.

Been having fun with the frindle dsm comp lately.

How do you feel about Refinement in the age of Soothe? I've heard that it's a 3K dip and some saturation but I've also heard it works well if you don't go in expecting more than that and don't want the potentially overcooked sound from Soothe.

Elysia nvelope - $9.99
I have the plug and the hardware. The plug is excellent.

Metric AB, acme opticom, and shredspread are the non-UAD ones I use all the time.

Bx digital eq v3, maag eqs, ampeg bass amp sims and even refinement are all usable and find their way into my mixes here and there.

Why not just get the TDR Arbiter? That thing can replace a dbx 902 / 520, which is no easy feat. No tonal loss. Kills esses and high hats dead. No massive dulling like Soothe dug into do something real and I like Soothe but haven't bought it because the only area where I felt it was useful was killing really bad Chinese capsule condenser high end and those vocals need way more than just that usually. They need to be rerecorded. Most of the vocals I get are still done via an SM58 (needs de-popping) or an SM57 with a tube sock over it like the President so I don't need it.