Welcome to the Plugin Overkill Therapy Session:

1. First, acknowledge your addiction, that you are a plugin addict.
2. Insight is the first step to recovery.
3. Now is the time to change your actions, as these plugins have become a serious burden.
4. Since you won't be able to change the system or Audioz, you have to change your behavior yourself.

5. Here are some options I've tested myself:

a. Only download plugins you would actually buy.

b. For every new plugin you download, delete one plugin.

c. Scan your plugins with your DAW (Cakwalk Sonar tells you the number of installed plugins), write down the number, and delete 25%. If you feel like you still have too many, continue deleting until you feel normal and healthy again.

If anyone has any useful ideas or tips for reducing plugin overkill, please post them here.

 

my tips is never think of them as overkill. make peace with it, and learn to be calm and enjoy those 15000 plugins you have installed.

 

Thanks for your idea and perspective, I wrote it because User @Haze says:

FFS, PLZZZZZZZZZZZ DON'T POST ANY MORE FUCKING RELEASES, I CAN'T STAND IT ANY LONGER, I HAVE SO MANY PLUGINS I DON'T KNOW WHAT HALF OF THEM ARE AND NEED AN EXTRA 48 HOUR DAY A WEEK JUST TO TRY THEM ALL. I CAN'T TAKE IT ANY MORE, I DON'T NEED 95% OF THEM. TAKE ME AWAY AND TIE MY ARMS UP SO I CAN'T OPERATE A MOUSE ANY MORE. HELP, GET ME OUT OF HERE. SOS, MAYDAY, MAYDAY.

Source replay #42 : https://audiosex.pro/threads/win-plzzzzzzzzzzz.80538/page-3#post-852235

 

Okay, but what about "a friend of mine" who probably has over 150.000....

 

He's a collector! Just like others collect stamps or matchboxes, he collects plug-ins, etc.!

 

that's a rookie number, he/she probably never heard of Kontakt Libraries and the glory of 1 hour scrolling finding a good tambourine library.

 

Oh no, I do have heard form Kontakt libraries...eehhhm I mean he had heard of Kontakt libraries or she has. It is a hell of a job finding a tambourine indeed, of course, that's what he said of she....

 

my name is daxy and im a plugin addict
last night i downloaded a bunch of old 32 bit plugins just for a buzz i need help

 

Time for a Plugins Addicted Anonymous group.
My name is Paul and I am an Plugin Addict.....

 

"Hello, my name is ..., I'm addicted to plugins, libraries, samples and softsynths"
"Thank you ... for sharing with us your problems"
"What problems?!?"

 

1 - I am
2 - Ok
3 - Yeah, I acknowledge that I'm here so I can return to music instead of thinking about all those guitar sims and those d*mn kontakt wallpapers
4 - I'm sure it will be easier than try to lose some kgs by the end of the summer

Let's see if I can match your way

a. ...well, the fact is that I would buy every plugin that I download (if I only could be millionaire)
b. I already do it... I indeed delete the old versions of any plugin I download
c. around 4500 plugins...and 3500 kontakt libraries. yes I would easily erase 25% of them (if it makes you happy). But i should do it quickly, Cakewalk will soon stop to work (oh yeah, I can eventually download and use a cr*cked version, right)

Ok, this conversation is just making me feel better. I'm already feeling healthier and ready to exit this tunnel of the mixing postproduction overdose.

 

Last edited by a moderator: Jun 30, 2025 at 2:12 PM

I can quit whenever i want.

 

As you will no doubt be aware, that was actually humour but it does contain a semblance of truth. The context of course is what I wrote prior to that.

In other words I don't allow the plugin problem to overflow into my main work system, kinda...

It is true that I still have far too many plugins installed in the main system however. I don't use 75% of them these days but I do know they're all 99.99% stable and are there because of having old projects tied to them. My way to put them out of mind is to not have them in my plugin menu but still there in the background ready to load if they're needed.

That said, the testing side of it has become particularly wearisome of late. All the new devs releasing their own complete catalogue clones of what all the other previous devs have already made, all just wearing a different hairstyle and colour of lipstick, is a gross waste of time and effort. According to their marketing, you'd think it impossible to live without their game-changing software but it hardly ever proves to be true.

I do some work with a guy who has an admitted "problem" with buying plugins and Kontakt libraries that he simply doesn't need - he's a massive sucker for the marketing.

He's constantly asking me "Have you seen this new plugin? What do you think?"
I invariably answer with "What do you NEED it for?"
To which he'll respond with "I dunno, but it looks interesting".
I often find myself being given a tour of a new plugin and just find myself saying "So it does X that you can already do with Y that you already own, so why did you buy it?".
He also keeps trying to give me his spare licenses but I find myself saying no, I don't NEED them, I have everything I NEED. Years ago I would have been chewing his arm off for free licenses.

The biggest issue for me personally is the constant stream of insignificant updates. The change in recent years to the end-user beta-tester mentality of some devs has become problematic in the amount of time it takes to stay on top. I'm finding that I've not even fully tested whether something works before yet another update is rolled out. Most of us are of course aware of our favourite owl that exemplifies this behaviour the most...



EDIT: Out of curiosity I thought I'd take a look where APU was currently up to on the update mania scale and it seems we're up to v4.1.5. That's one increment at a time in just over a two year period, approx 315 updates in 788 days. Truly, truly bonkers.

 

Last edited: Jun 30, 2025 at 5:27 PM

My approach to saving unnecessary plugins is somewhat simpler.
Assuming that every plugin consumes space and system resources, it makes sense to limit their number to what is necessary and useful.

Spoiler: ...similar problem...

I have a similar problem with my motorhome. Space and total mass are also the limiting factors there. My wife fills it up until we can't almost get in.
So every year when holiday season starts I remove everything we haven't used in the last 12 months.
Ok, my wife is complaining every time but that's just an unchangeble fact of life, so I just go on.

I do the same (not used 12 month --> uninstall) with plugins. In this way I am quickly done with garbage collection and have a somewhat leaner system again and in the best case it is also more responsive.

 

Last edited: Jun 30, 2025 at 5:06 PM

What is the issue that you have exactly? What about it offends you so? What is this notion of "staying on top"? The top of what? Have you ever considered just not getting it? Is there something meaningful lost if you don't?

 

YOUR PLUGINS COULD BE SECRETLY KILLING YOU

 

We should file a class action

 

That's not how addiction works. When you stop getting high from snorting through nose, you inject the stuff into the blood. I will wait for UAD..

 

Many of us are completely in love with plugins, some of us are married to them. Some of us take our plugins to bed and cuddle with them. When asked what they would take with them to their desert island, the most common answer was an emergency power generator, 40 years of diesel, a PC/Mac, monitors, and hard drives with their entire Audioz collection of plugins and samples!