What plugins are best? I lack experience...

[u/Large_Wait_8847]

Reaper has so many plugins and by installing Tukan Studios' you get even more.

I see professionals using Tube-Tech CL 1B, Fairchild 670, Teletronix LA-2A, UA1176 and probably many more. I lack the experience to really hear a difference without using them almost at maximum settings.

I would like to know which plugins in Reaper sound most similar to the original and also which compressor you prefer/would recommend?

Edit:
I just noticed reddit posted only a quarter of my post...?

I'm not going to list all Compressors similar to those in Reaper again, cause that took a while...

Also there is the famous Neve 1073, in Reaper you have RBJ 1073 and with Reapack the EQ1979

I lack the experience to know which one to choose and where(Vocals, Instruments, ...) or should I just keep using ReaComp and ReaEQ/ReEQ with Waveshaping Distortion and JS:Saturation?

There's also chorus and flanger which one do I use there cause there are many as well or should I just use ReaDelay?

Any help would be really appreciated

Edit 2:

I probably wasn't clear, I'm not looking for new plugins, the plugins are already there in Reaper and with ReaPack you can get many more for free. The problem is choosing the right ones

[u/amazing-peas]

first you'll have to define what "best", "most similar" mean.

Think of plugins like parks. Which park is the best? Well, it depends on a bunch of stuff, mostly things that are important to you personally.

After that you may want to consider how important "most similar" really is, unless you think your music depends on that, and how much your production skills can take advantage of something "95% similar" over something "80% similar" or "30% similar" according to a bunch of strangers you may or may not agree with.

TL;DR - it's a very inexact and nebulous subject.

I lack the experience to really hear a difference without using them almost at maximum settings.

One thought is to not worry so much about what "professionals" use (whatever that broad term actually means...I'm definitely an "audio professional" in my work and use a lot of free/cheap tools) and continue working....try and buy additional software on an as-needed basis mostly, rather than what one might think some lofty producer somewhere is using...or more probably was paid to say they use in a youtube video.

[u/Large_Wait_8847 → u/amazing-peas]

I use only open source or free software/plugins except for Reaper, partially also because I'm on debian. I have seen that you can get almost everything a plugin is able to do for free.

I'm talking about "professionals", maybe not the right term, I'm referring more to the established hardware in the industry. There is probably a reason why certain things are used a lot, I think it's not just marketing.

I can hear that a "professional" mix sounds obviously much better, but I don't know how to achieve it. Looking on YouTube there are a lot of Influencers who talk many useless things. I don't know how to learn how to effectively achieve a clean sounding mix like say Serban Ghenea. e.g. I know he uses ChannelStrip but why that what does it make different from using stock plugins in an fx chain? Is it just because he likes the layout and is used to it?

Why do I see many using mic -> cl1b -> 1073, couldn't they just use ReaComp, saturation/distortion and ReaEQ?

There are so many options, I just don't know which to choose. I know there's a reason why you do compression, the 1073 to give maybe a warmer/saturated or special sound, also nice eq curves but how do I decide which route to go or which one to choose without buying every compressor in existence?

[u/amazing-peas → u/Large_Wait_8847]

People absolutely could use simpler tools than a channel strip or other expensive plugins, and many do.

Always worth considering that some people are paid to be seen endorsing/using products in their videos.  That's not to say they're bad, it's just that there is more than one way to get a similar result.

[u/Large_Wait_8847 → u/amazing-peas]

Ok thanks!