Many plugins are only used post recording with real instruments. With other MIDI Vsti's, perhaps some other tweaking plugins.
The old school way of keeping as dry as possible making sure it sounds good dry, before I plug anything in, still works for me.
So I tend to have a few of each plugin where each one does a slightly different thing, simply because I do not know what I will want post production, rather than realising I do not have what I need at the end. I have not added them up and have no need or desire to do so.

 

Use???

 

If they're in my plugin collection, I at least try them out on everything. Having twenty different compressors might yield different results on your drum bus, or you may be shocked to discover that all twenty sound roughly the same ... and exactly like the shitty-looking comp plug that came with your DAW or that mDa lets you download for free. I like having options, and I keep holding onto plugs that I can now only run on 32Lives.

Full disclosure: I am a reverb junkie. Waaaaay back in 2001, I fell in love with Arboretum's Hyperverb plugs, and the company apparently went under before upgrading their platform to UB standards. I have a jillion reverb plugs, and none of them sound even close to Hyperverb. I've hit the point where I'm contemplating running my old G3 iBook and my v1 MOTU 828 interface as a sort of computerized reverb host that I can hardware insert from my current system, even though the sound quality would be 48kHz/24-bit and the whole setup would be a huge hassle.

 

This thread actually inspired me to do some much needed house cleaning of my plugins folder. Long overdue.

 

2 many, i own a few ,i use 1% , i m thinking to buy in afew months sound toys and delete the bunch of unused pluggins, But i m sure when a new pluggin comes here ohh i would love to try and keep it again,lol

 

I used to be a plugin snob, then about 10 years ago i forced myself just to use a few bundles ( like waves which i had hated before that)
and fabfilter and IK multimedia etc.
anyway i got used to a minimalistic setup ( still having enough of each type though)
then a couple years after that when i went back to a little larger variety i only keep what i really need and really use.

 

I recently reinstalled windows to get rid of 4 years of hoarding/clutter and only reinstalled plugins I actually use. I own about 80% of them(mostly plugin alliance). I have about 60 now and I probably had at least a thousand b4 the reinstall xD

 

who cares dude?! as long as we arent able to finish one decent track, we're f*ckin useless

 

Agreed, which is why I'm doing a mega-purge today. Uninstalling every plugin and library I haven't used for a year or more to free up space for stuff I actually use. Choices are great but when you get too many it stifles progression imo.

 

I'm using a set of probably 16 plugins in total. Not sure where that puts me.

 

Slate VMR and Tape Machine
Waves API 500 and CLA compressors
Fabfilter bundle
NI Reverb Classics
Softube Drawmer 1973
Kontackt 5
U-he Zebra 2, Repro, Diva, and Hive
Logic Pro X

Use them all everyday. Recovering addict, though. The rush of buying a new hyped plugin or sample library is the best. I definitely miss that!

 

I just installed the newest version of Logic (which I promptly crapped all over in another thread), and, despite the fact that it had already run the AU validation tool on everything previously in v10.3x, it ran the validator again. Over 1,200 goddamn plugs and VIs. That's waaaaay too many. To be fair, a lot of them are Waves and Melda Productions, but still.

 

Just these last few days I started the great purge. I have stuff from 2008 that I never use, for crying out loud! Nexus went yesterday, piano libraries, samples that sit in obscurity along dank dark hallways of zeros and ones...gone. I still have waaaaaay too many instruments and plugins, but they soon will be returned to the aether of nothingness and memory. It is liberating. My attitude is like that guy who did the Crazy Eddie commercials.

 

Last edited by a moderator: Aug 13, 2018

I have about 160 effects/specialty plug-ins and about 25 VSTs....not counting my Kontakt libraries as individual VSTs.
I have that *many because, since I do make diferent types of music, I do actually need different plugins for different genres. Many EQs, saturators and compressors of course can be used as go-to's, but it's still nice to have the option of differences in tone, especially if you're a tone junky....which I am. I do have some steady brands though like Slate, McDSP, Fabfilter, TBProAudio, Klanghelm, etc., saying nothing of specialty plug-ins like Regroover that get used much more than anything else, short of things like VU meters, limiters and RMS/LUFS meters.
And, I have that *few plug-ins because, some years back, I made myself start weeding out any plug-ins that I hadn't used (or, in some cases, even looked at,) in the last six months to a year. That practice has dropped my total by about half of what it was and it is incredibly freeing. I still download plug-ins constantly to try them out, but I keep a much closer on eye on plug-ins that actually have a place in my music.
As far as VSTs go, I am, as mentioned, a tone junky, so I constantly replace instruments (most recently, my Horns (thanks to BaSsDuDe, Olymoon, Jazzzz, and everyone else for their help and advice with that,) thus, I may have a handful of Rhodes or a couple Wurlitzers or whatever, but they remain in my collection because they are either unique or nothing better has come along (for what they are.)
Haha, I saw a video on YouTube of some guy on YouTube who mixes professionally for a living and he was saying how he loves the way you can sort plug-ins in Studio One. He opened his plug-ins folder and he had thousands. "Every artist who comes to me now thinks that they know what brand of plug-ins I should use to make their track sound its best," he said, laughing, "so I kind of have to have a 'Here's what I may need someday at my disposal,' and I have 'What I use for my music on the daily.'" I thought it was funny; his lamenting over how everyone knew what they thought would sound best--isn't that a mix engineer's job?

 

"We all have too many plugins..."

Speak for yourself!

 

Nexus!, I have to axe that one too-thanks for the reminder. Awesome sig btw

 

BOOM! Most DAW's like Live, Cubase, Studio One & Logic more than cover your FX processing needs for producing a a commercial grade mix. I do like some Ozone for the mastering. Other than that perhaps Kontakt and a few synths, less than 10 max, covers what you need to make professional, sellable music. Beyond that is that you are compensating for your small d*%k!!!

EDIT: Well I lied, I've got about 8 just from Amplesound

 

I like having the option of using a variety of synths but I get that it comes with the dilemma of preventing you from being productive. Sometimes you spend hours looking for a specific sound instead of creating actual music. In a way I wish I didn't have easy access to all those synths but there's no way I'm getting rid of them now that I have them.