Last week we posted an article that was enormously popular, we asked you to try and spot the difference between stock Pro Tools plugins and those from a popular premium brand. Here are the results.

The Results

Here’s the audio with the names of the plugins now shown, the complete list is at the bottom.

• Pro Tools - Vocal Solo Stock - Mix 1

• Pro Tools - Vocal Solo Premium - Mix 2

• Pro Tools - Vocal Solo FX Premium - Mix 3

• Pro Tools - Vocal Solo FX Stock - Mix 4

• Pro Tools - Vocal FX Stock - Mix 5

• Pro Tools - Vocal FX Premium - Mix 6

Did Anyone Guess Correctly?

Of those who committed to making a guess in the comments, only a small number correctly identified which plugin was which across all six example. In fact, some considered the Avid plugins better that the premium versions. Those who seemed certain about the reason for using premium plugins were no more likely to get the answers right.

Some thought the reverb was being changed across the examples, this was incorrect, the reverb was exactly the same and using the same settings on all examples.

What Can We Conclude?

Our survey of over 5000 people tells us that the majority of our readership are professionals. From this fun listening test we know that only a few (less than 20%) were able to consistently identify the right versions. Given that there were only two of each variant, guessing the answers may have given a better result for some.

It would be easy to make some cheap jibe and suggest that premium plugins are not worth investing in. That would be foolish. There are a number of reasons people invest in premium plugins; they may need to use DSP to increase track count, or when tracking to reduce latency. If that is the reason, then those using Avid Carbon or HDX can be assured that the Avid stock plugins stand up to scrutiny and perform well against one of the most popular premium brands. We imagine the results would be similar if we conducted the test using plugins from other popular DAWs like Logic Pro or Studio One.

There are many premium plugins on the market which far exceed the sound quality and features of those given as part of a DAW. For example premium reverb plugins are well worth investing in, as are many guitar modelling plugins.

For those who find themselves being squeezed financially, you can also be assured that if you need to use stock plugins to mix, then you’re not always settling for an inferior version.

This entire article as born out of us making a dumb assumption. We opened a Pro Tools session, saw a stock plugin made around 20 years ago and then we thought it wouldn’t stand up to more modern premium plugins… we were wrong.

Discuss.