Sep 2, 2026
If somebody deleted your entire plugin folder and told you that you could only put five back, what would you choose?
That’s the challenge this week on The Pro Audio Suite.
Robbo, George and AP start stripping their setups back to the tools they genuinely rely on, from stock Pro Tools and Apple plugins through to Waves F6, H Reverb, SSL X Limit, TDR Nova, iZotope RX Mouth De Click and plenty more.
But the conversation quickly gets bigger than simply naming favourites.
Do stock plugins make more sense when you need old sessions to open years later? Do you really need a dedicated loudness plugin? Is a channel strip the smartest way to cheat the five plugin limit? And are we spending money automating jobs that are actually faster to do manually?
The guys also get into Serato Pitch 'n Time Pro, Pro Tools time compression, Cvox, Hush, Waves DeBreath, TwistedWave's click repair tools, LM Correct and the strange satisfaction of still doing certain jobs the long way around.
Then the rules change for AP.
Forget five plugins. He can only keep three microphones.
That leads to the 416, the 818, the NTG5, microphone lockers, U87s and eventually one of those classic Pro Audio Suite detours involving Betamax, VHS, Aston Martins, Triumphs, Ferraris and a lifetime of choosing the technically interesting option instead of the one that becomes ridiculously valuable.
So, if you could only keep five plugins, what survives?
The Pro Audio Suite is proudly supported by Tri Booth and Austrian Audio.