Soundtoys 5

No matter how powerful your DAW is, you’re always going to add more external plugins to your mix. It’s not necessarily a good thing, nor is it bad or wrong; it’s just how many producers prefer to work. Sure, some of the more experienced ones will start noticing that they don’t really need that many VSTs in the first place, and will just keep a few favorites. But until one gets to a higher level, there’s nothing wrong with trying out all the tools you can find.

Today we’re going to take a look at a plugin bundle that literally is all the tools you can find. Well, that’s obviously an exaggeration, but nevertheless, Soundtoys 5 is a pretty versatile collection that may interest you.

At the moment, Soundtoys 5 features 21 analog-sounding effects, each of them representing emulations of classic units such as Decapitator, EchoBoy, Phase Mistress, PrimalTap, or Little AlterBoy. While each of these can be acquired separately, the Effect Rack that allows you to bring most of them together is exclusive to the Soundtoys 5 bundle.

You may be wondering why you should get the full collection since you can easily add the plugins that you need directly to your DAW. Well, one answer would be that, even though Soundtoys 5 seems pricy, it would actually cost you just as much to get only three of the 21 available plugins. Secondly, the Effect Rack is powerful enough to make the investment worth it.

While testing Soundtoys 5, I wasn’t able to add more than six plugins to the Effect Rack. Maybe my CPU or video card can’t handle more, or maybe it’s just a software limitation. But it’s not like you’re going to need more anyway. Keep in mind that these are all warm-sounding, powerful, analog effect units. They’re also quite easy-to-use and come with their own presets.

But the most presets are actually on the rack, which features many different arrangements created specifically for drums, guitars, vocals, sound design, modulation, and a few other elements. It’s safe to say that Soundtoys 5 is a collection that many producers will find useful.