The Plugin Boutique Awards 2023: Winners and Highly Commended
You voted for the music software that rocked your world this year, in the second annual incarnation of our awards ceremony
Plugin technology is like the Wild West of music production, and with some of the most talented gunslingin’ DSP developers at our sides, 2023 has made us witnesses to a huge showdown of top-quality plugins. We’ve seen hard-hitting new drum tools, charming analogue synths, innovative EQs and impressive reverbs to say the least, as well as many, many other plugins that have set the tone for others to follow.
Last year’s Plugin Boutique Awards was the first of its kind, with us throwing the voting open to you to pick your favourites in each of 12 categories. And this year we’re doing it all again!
So get your finger on the scrollwheel and pretend it’s The Oscars, as one-by-one, we reveal the winners of the Plugin Boutique Awards 2023
Best VST Plugins As Voted By You In 2023:
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Best Dynamics / EQ Plugin – Winner – Universal Audio Capitol Mastering Compressor
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Best Saturation / Distortion Plugin – Winner – Excite Audio Motion:Harmonic
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Best Modulation / Delay Plugin – Winner – Minimal Audio Cluster Delay
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Best Multi-effect Plugin – Winner – Native Instruments Guitar Rig Pro
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Best Music Theory / Sequencer – Winner – Pitch Innovations Groove Shaper
Best Bundle
Winner – Arturia FX Collection 4
Once again, we find an Arturia bundle on the podium at the Plugin Boutique Awards. This time, it’s their FX Collection 4 taking gold in the Best Bundle category. The bundle contains a healthy combination of boutique hardware emulations such as the Rev LX-24, as well as complex modern digital effects plugins such as Dist COLDFIRE. There’s a total of 30 plugins in the bundle which contain over 1000 high-quality presets between them.
Highly Commended – iZotope Music Production Suite 6
iZotope’s AI-powered offering of audio cleanup, mixing and mastering tools are amongst the best on the market and this bundle gives you access to all of that and more. You also get Native Instruments and Brainworx effects bundles as a part of the package.
Best Synth of 2023
Winner – Arturia ACID V
This year, Arturia added another classic synth emulation to their lineup. This time, the Acid V plugin, designed to create those instantly recognisable squelchy acid tones of the Roland TB-303. In keeping with the original, you get the same striking looks of the original, plus a choice of saw and square waves. Add to that a modern 14-mode distortion circuit, a more in-depth sequencer and arpeggiator plus modulation and FX windows, the Acid V truly brings the 303 into the modern production domain.
Highly Commended – FabFilter Twin 3
The third iteration of Twin, FabFilter’s flagship synth, adds improved sound, simplified modulation control, a brand new arpeggiator for sequencing complex and evolving melodies, and a brand new FX section which includes reverb, delay, chorus, phaser/flanger, drive and compression.
Highly Commended – Universal Audio PolyMAX
You might know Universal Audio for their highly-respected software emulations of classic outboard hardware effects, but their industry-leading DSP has been put to good use in their synths too. This vintage-inspired plugin is designed to sound as fat and as an analogue as possible, all while giving you the practicality and flexibility of software.
Best Dynamics / EQ Plugin
Winner – Universal Audio Capitol Mastering Compressor
Universal Audio’s addition of native support was a welcome addition to those who don’t own their DSP hardware, and has made their meticulously-modelled software emulations more accessible than ever. One such plugin is this, a tube mastering compressor with a rich tone and a rich history too. With exclusive licence from Capitol Studios, this is your chance to get a flavour of this custom-made dynamics powerhouse, all within your computer.
Highly Commended – Solid State Logic G3 MultiBusComp
Another heavy hitter in the hardware domain is SSL, and their G3 MultiBusComp has made it onto this list thanks to its classic SSL sound, multiband “glue” compression tone, 4K drive circuit button plus comprehensive sidechaining and filtering options.
Best Reverb Plugin
Winner – Soundtoys SuperPlate
This year, we saw an update to Soundtoys’ powerful reverb plugin, Little Plate. It’s fair to say that SuperPlate was a major update for the popular plate reverb, and it brought with it some upgrades that we knew were missing from its predecessor, along with some features we didn’t even know we needed.
A Pre-delay control, a high-pass filter and Soundtoys’ usual Input and Output gain make the plugin feel more refined, but it’s the three preamps, five analogue plate styles and decay ducking options that take Soundtoys’ only reverb plugin into the upper echelons of time-based effects.
Best Saturation / Distortion Plugin
Winner – Excite Audio Motion:Harmonic
This innovative plugin from Excite Audio is billed as a distortion, but given its versatility and sonic scope, it’s almost more appropriate to call it a multi-effects plugin. At its core, Motion:Harmonic is a plugin for adding expression and movement to any signal through distortion, bitcrushing and filtering. You can automate multiple parameters at once using the Hexagon and Magnetic Cursor controllers. You even apply your processing on a multiband basis for maximum control.
Best Vocal Processor
Winner – iZotope Nectar 4
This plugin has already featured in these awards, as part of the iZotope Production Suite that was Highly Commended in the Best Bundle category. Nectar is the vocal processing component of iZotope’s catalogue, and harnesses the power of machine learning to apply suitable processing to your vocals according to your input, or the reference vocals you feed it. With thirteen inbuilt processing components, this is a one-stop-shop for professional vocals.
Best Modulation / Delay Plugin
Winner – Minimal Audio Cluster Delay
This complex and versatile delay plugin is designed for creating unique, rhythmic and musical effects for a range of purposes. The macro controls are great for quickly transforming the shape and character of your processing, and the large visualiser lets you see how your delay is going to sound. There’s even automatic ducking for transparency, and six in-built effects for further processing.
Highly Commended – Air Music Technology Delay Pro
Air Music Technology’s Delay Pro gives you Digital and Analog modes, LFO options, stereo control, envelope following, diffusion and much more. You also get three modulation modes for adding unique movement to your delayed signal.
Best Multi-effect Plugin
Winner – Native Instruments Guitar Rig Pro
Some people claim that guitar amp and cab simulations are an area in which digital processing is behind when compared to their hardware counterparts. Native Instruments are doing their absolute utmost to prove them wrong. With a huge range of amps, effects and pedals, it’s quick, simple and fun to add analogue flavour to guitars and basses, or just about any signal you can throw into it.
Highly Commended – Arturia EFX Motions
This powerful plugin takes traditional audio processing such as dynamics, filtering, distortion, volume and panning, and shakes them up with complex and evolving motion generators. Turn static, lifeless recordings and samples into totally new beasts with five motion modules, five types of filtering, ten distortion types and over 300 factory presets.
Best Virtual Instrument
Heavyocity Gravity 2
It’s fair to say there’s plenty of competition in the Virtual Instrument category, so ranking at all is no mean feat, let alone topping the ranking with almost a third of the votes. With over 1000 unique and editable sources which include textures, transitions and hits, Gravity 2 is the ultimate film and game scoring tool.
Highly Commended – Rhodes V8 Pro
While there are a few Rhodes emulations out there, this is the first to bear the official Rhodes name. With over 30,000 high fidelity samples recorded from a Rhodes MK8, by the people who made it, and featuring adjustable mechanical noise, Bucket-Brigade delay, Vari-Pan and much more, this plugin is the closest you will get to owning a Rhodes in the software world.
Best Utility Plugin
Winner – sonible smart:deess
De-essing could hardly be described as the most glamorous task in the production process. Thankfully, Sonible have graced us with their AI-powered smart:deess, making the task of removing nasty sibilance more simple and more sexy than ever. The plugin listens to the signal, and intelligently identifies which parts of a signal need to be attenuated. It then turns them down for you, but you can dive in and adjust not only the amount of attenuation, but the shape of it too.
Highly Commended – Excite Audio Vision 4X
This plugin was developed in conjunction with famed dance music trio, Noisia, and is designed to allow you to visualise every last nuance of a signal through its four resizable analysis windows. You get a spectrogram, bar graph, waveform and phase correlation meter, so you can really see what’s happening in your productions.
Best Sampler / Drum Machine
Winner – D16 Group Drumazon 2
Most DAWs come with some form of sequencer, but they don’t come with comprehensive drum machines as powerful as this one. They also don’t come with high-quality emulations of the original Roland TR-909. Drumazon 2 makes it quick and simple to write captivating and punchy drum grooves in seconds, or you can use the Randomize function and let the plugin come up with inspiring new patterns for you.
Best Sampler / Drum Machine – Highly Commended – Serato Sample 2
As Serato continue their expansion from legendary DJ software to powerful production tools, their Sample 2 plugin is a firm favourite for sampling fanatics or anyone looking to overcome a pesky period of writer’s block. Load any sound source into Sample 2 and it will automatically chop it into 32 ready-to-play samples. It comes with Serato’s powerful repitching algorithm under the hood, so you can get to shifting and timestretching your samples without worrying about nasty artefacts.
Best Music Theory / Sequencer
Winner – Pitch Innovations Groove Shaper
This jolly-looking plugin invites experimentation and exploration through its colourful and playful interface. While it’s not immediately obvious what each of the buttons does, as soon as you start pressing, you’ll notice Groove Shaper start to craft unique and engaging patterns to send into your chosen instrument. Use the Magic Dice to generate an infinite number of randomised grooves for instant inspiration.
Highly Commended – W.A. Production Loop Engine
This colourful plugin classes itself as an infinite loop generator, and allows you to create evolving polyphonic note patterns with ease, write basslines that remain in key at all times, or sequences to send to drum machines and samplers. There’s a manual note editor, chord mode, and much more.
Most Innovative Plugin of 2023
Winner – iZotope Ozone 11
Mastering can be a tricky subject. Everyone needs it, but not everyone knows (or wants to know) how to do it. Fear not, as iZotope’s huge collection of AI-powered software solutions covers mastering too with Ozone 11. Set a Target genre for Ozone to work towards, or better yet, give it a reference track to analyse so that it can make objective mastering decisions based on the tone, loudness, dynamics and width of professionally mastered tracks.
