1. GET THE BEST SOURCE POSSIBLE If you find yourself stacking plugins and not getting anywhere, there's a good chance your source tone isn't up to par. Whether it be tracking DI guitars/bass, or tracking a live drum kit/cab/vocal/etc... really work on getting that initial tone solid before jumping into plugins and tweaking. This means using quality instruments, brand new strings, new heads, etc. The better sounding your source is, the less processing it should take. | 
