It’s funny how ideas for articles come into our head at the Experts. This article started off as us downloading the Pro Tools demo from the Avid website, the next thing you know we’re comparing their stock plugins to premium ones costing hundreds of pounds. As the click baiters say, we discovered a ‘shocking truth!’

As already said, we had downloaded the Avid Pro Tools demo to test out a Mac. When we opened the session the Avid stock BF76 was open… a plugin that was released over 20 years ago. Our first thought was, “oh dear, not that old chestnut, this plugin is a bit old.” Then another voice came; “but what if we’ve made a bad assumption? What if we compared it to latest premium version?”

So, we decided to do that. Are Avid stock plugins (this 1176 was previously Bomb Factory) able to stand up to the latest modern versions of the same hardware?

It’s not the first time we’ve compared premium, or should we say paid for, plugins with stock and even free plugins.

• Stock And Premium Plugin Shoot Out. The Results And The Story Behind It

• We Compare A Mix Done With Free Plugins Then Premium Plugins

However, we wondered what would happen if we matched the settings on the Avid Pro Tools stock plugins and also then created different mix versions to compare. The mix is done with the plugins from Avid and then with plugins costing several hundred pounds.

In this case, we’ve used the Avid BF76 and their version of the Pultec EQ-1A.

The Mixes

Below are several mixes.

There is the vocal, with reverb and music. You might be able to spot the difference between the free stock plugins and the paid for version. It should be quite hard to spot the difference on this mix, certainly for most mere mortals.

There is the vocal with reverb but no music, making the possibilty of masking the difference harder.

There is also a mix with just the vocal, no reverb, spotting the difference should be much easier.

All versions are MP3, 192mbs. You may think WAV versions would be better, but here’s the final thing to consider. Most of the people listening to our tracks are listening on compressed formats and certainly less than perfect listening equipment.

Take a listen and see if you can spot which is which. Tell us in the comments below, we’ll give the results in a week or so. UPDATE - Use the button at the bottom to see the results,

The Shocking Truth

So here’s ‘the shocking truth about Pro Tools stock plugins.’ They don’t sound bad, in fact when compared to the premium versions it’s hard to tell the difference. It’s certainly not easy, put them in a mix and it’s almost impossible. Ask the average listener outside of the studio and they would look at you with a blank stare.

We’ll let you draw your own conclusions.