Stereo Tool

Hi! So I'm not sure presets for these styles are quite as popular, it seems a lot are made for pop and electronic music with an emphasis on high bass. Consequently, a lot of the presets I've tried sound fatiguing or just don't do well with guitars or other mixing, especially on modern tracks. (Some sound exceptional on synthpop, but not on indie rock, for example)

I'm wondering therefore if anyone has any recommendations for settings, ideally ones not heavily dependent on extra paid features (Advanced Clipping is fine, the $$$ add-ons not so much), that you could recommend?

My favourite presets so far have been Ali's Optimod ones, Unreal 3, Freja Rock and 8th Wonder, but none sound quite perfect. The main problem is that the more aggressive presets sound a bit muddy on the less well-produced music or the vocals become unclear, and the less aggressive presets sound a little subdued.

Lately I'm finding harmonics synthesizers to fill in what's missing from my rock/guitar sounds. Stereo Tool has True Bass, which is a smart lower harmonic synthesizer. It only creates missing bass if it determines it should. Excellent module, and free.

For upper harmonics, however, I'm using Waves' emulation of the vintage Aphex Exciter. It makes things sound more sharpened and less subdued. It also helps with my tinnitus. If I'm passing over a feature in ST that does what I'm looking for, please, anybody let me know. I'd love to keep everything in a single plugin if at all possible.

As far as tone/compression goes, I'm not experienced enough in the multibands to suggest anything there. You can try keeping the multibands from another preset that's as close as possible to the sound you like, and rolling your own preset based around that.