Well, it is a trimmed down version, but last month they had a special that you could get their Project Studio LE for $295. Came with a ton of plugins, including Revolver, which is a great reverb program. Coupling Revolver with Altiverb, you have pretty much anything you’d want….

I own NI’s Reaktor, and that has lots of ensembles that can be used as RTAS plug-ins. Spring Tank in particular is fantastic. Obviously you first have to buy Reaktor, which is not cheap. But then you have a near-infinite collection of ensembles, from soft synths and drum machines to reverbs, EQs, granulators etc. Some of the “home made” ensembles built by Reaktor users can be a bit buggy, but the bundled ensembles include lots of useful items.

There’s cheap in price, and there’s cheap in terms of cpu use. When you’re mixing in Pro Tools it’s partly about choosing which elements need the more deluxe plug-ins and which don’t. Some parts need your best parametric eq, while others need no more than a super-basic 1-band high pass; some parts need your best-sounding reverb, while others ned no more than the bundled digidesign delay. A good mix usually combines the deluxe and the disgusting, the hi-fi and the lo-fi.

I haven’t really used the Project Studio LE bundle because I have the Emerald Bundle, but I think most McDSP projects are top notch and can battle with the best of them, so Project Studio LE is probably a good buy… Even if it has trimmed down versions.

Free with a nag screen which vanishes if/when you make a donation.

What about reverbs? Are there any good ones that cost less than, say $100?