Guys, why are we hating on OP?
Is he not having a valid point? Would his valid point make a difference if it was spell checked by AI?

I see software companies release audio software for more than 3 decades now.
When the industry was booming, there were more, less so if money was tight.
And for the last months or the last year we see a overwhelming flood of releases and new companies.

Is it a coincidence that this correlates with the appearance of vibe coding?
All of OPs points are very true in my opinion and it gets harder and harder to find the gems in the slop.

My solution for now is to stick with the old companies. It's like I do with youtube.
Are you a faceless channel that started Dec 25 and has over 300 videos? Then you're not my cup of tea.
And same with sofware. Company exists for months and spills out a waves ultimate like package? Somethings fishy!

 

Saccamano.....I like that!

 

The World in 2026

Rule number 1: There are no rules, anything goes.
Rule number 2: It's all a big scam, don't get caught.
Rule number 3: Stealing is part of the game.
Rule number 4: There's nothing new anymore, it's all been invented already.
Rule number 5: If your scam is exposed and you end up in court, just say your hippie parents were to blame.
Rule number 6: Always pay your lawyer, because without one you'll end up in jail.

 

God bless the real analog gear.

 

AI is similar to porno. it will destroy our cultures.

 

The socioeconomic system is the grift. I've never felt right about art-for-profit. It's not pure art. All music for profit is ultimately stained by the socioeconomic system within which it is created. So producing AI slop muzak makes total sense in such a system. The irony is that it's more honest or sincere.

I haven't read the entire thread, so maybe others have already said as much.

You have You Tube guys like Rick Beato kind of saying similar about AI slop muzak, but I see his own position through the aforementioned socioeconiomic system lense.

Led Zep or Genesis or King Crimson were all for-profit. We/They could have done better, IOW, and we will if or once we get off the musical chairs game gravy train.

 

Last edited: Apr 23, 2026 at 7:48 PM

Who pays your rent, your electricity, your drinking water, your food, your health insurance, and your pension?
You have to sell your ideas or your labor.

 

But you are asking me the question within the framework of what I just spoke about and you don't appear to realize it. That's also what I mean.
The musical-chairs-economy-by-gunpoint has us all so tightly by the gnads that it's hard to even imagine anything else. So we often end up arguing about it using its own terminology.

BTW, people file-share for different reasons, some of which are related to what I'm talking about.

No you don't. You only have to work within natural constraints, rather than artificial ones created by humans.
____

"Most people are not really free. They are confined by the niche in the world that they carve out for themselves. They limit themselves to fewer possibilities by the narrowness of their vision." ~ V. S. Naipaul

 

Last edited: Apr 24, 2026 at 12:38 AM

For me, I guess it comes down to the simple rule: If it sounds good, it is good. You can create a plugin with AI that is just generic, or you can create something that is actually a good plugin. It all comes down to how much work you put in. You will be able to generate a plugin rather quickly with AI, and it probably will not have much value. But if you go the extra mile, I think you can create something that has value.
I agree that you can create a plugin without knowing much or even anything about DSP programming, but that is not a bad thing, I suppose. If you have an artistic vision about what your plugin should be like and you can prompt the AI to actually build it, that can be a great thing.
Not everyone needs to know everything. The AI already knows more about programming than most people. And it will only get better. In the future a programmer will be more of a supervisor or conductor than an actual code generator. I think this is something that is already apparent today. So the question is, what do we do with it? How can we utilize it and create something that has value, rather than complaining about it.

 

Most new plugins are straight junk. There wasn't any big jump on DSP development after machine learning profiling. Most of NAM plugins sound shite (execpt some of Deep Vintage stuff) and the best way to use this tech is with a loader, the same way it was used since it was released. I think people are aiming to the wrong side and giving AI extra atention instead of curating the ears and programing skills to improve both sound and ressources to what we already have. Everyone complained about Acustica waste of ressources back in the day (and today as well) and are going to a far worse route right now.

 

You are a dreamer....!

 

In your world, yes, perhaps. But it isn't just your world or just you. And evolution isn't a dream. It's hard reality.

We eventually came out of the ocean to walk on land because there were 'dreamers', or 'visualizers' that walked the talk. Their talk, their dreams.

And unless you're another species, an alien or a bot, they took both of us with them.

'Dreaming' or 'visualizing' is the first step to doing, and being, like something different. Maybe it's out of necessity, maybe it's not, maybe it's out of simple curiosity or idiosyncrasy.

That's in part how species diverge.

The same things are not going to happen to everyone. Some will prefer to remain in the 'ocean' or to return to it. And that's ok.

 

Last edited: Apr 24, 2026 at 8:19 AM

This post, and all the other related posts and threads on this forum and others make sad reading.

Our old familiar world is fading. AI slop engulfs us. 'Entrepreneurs', grifters everywhere.

Invading every space.

Most worryingly of all, Foster, and his insane rantings are beginning to look more prophetic!

Seriously though, god help us all, it's insanity.

 

We are back to the classics since Karl Marx :
-tendency of the rate of profit to fall (TRPF)
-market saturation

It was already like that with industry in the 19 century.
Now it is the same with anything "virtual", internet related, even more with AI.

The less margin companies make, the more they push quantity.
At the end, quality falls. And market is saturated by too many products ... pushing even less margin.
Rince and repeat.

It was already written in 1867, but ppl prefer to pretend they know Karl Marx instead of READING him.
How many ppl speak about KM without even reading a single chapter ?

Now you have it under your eyes in every form, from RAM NAND shortage to oversaturated plugins market.
But you can still pretend it is propaganda or USSR scam.

 

too much noise for nothing .. make music.. ai is very cheap crap.. looks and sounds bad.. besides it is ALL software. no a real physical thing. but this is what the new regeneration have .. i means the new ones.. it's ok.. music sounds songs.. with a few plugins you can do a lot.. it is not the plugin or the hardware in the end. it is the song. bad or good recording.. i miss my roland vs 880 and cassettes.. we use what is around us. end of it.

 

Yeah . the Karl Marx thing is fair enough, and industrialisation too. Those changed the landscape back in the day, and peoples lives.

I'm just not so sure profit is the motivator now though.

The tech bros appear to have unlimited access to capital.

It more and more looks like what it is, making humans and human input irrelevant, redundant and superfluous to requirement.

 

Last edited: Apr 24, 2026 at 12:51 PM

The more I make electronic music.
The more I understand FM synthesis, wavetable, granular, virtual analog...
The more I understand how to use Reverbs, delays, filters, distortions...
The more I understand how to use Equalizers, compressors, Clippers, Limiters...

The more I now how to get the result I'm looking for.
The more I just use Ableton Live stock plugins.

I'm soft-straying away from high quality plugins like Pro Q3/4, Serum 1/2, Basslane Pro, Boost, Kclip3, Valhalla...
So "Fast food" plugins ? I don't even know about them.
I feel like you can tell pretty easily what is snake oil, over hyped, gimmicky and what is not anyway.

For Electronic music I don't think anyone needs more than their preferred DAW, their favorite "power" synth and Fabfilter.
In my opinion if you use Ableton Live you actually don't need anything else.

I would rather much buy Elektron Gear rather than be a plugin collector and never get anything done.

Now about A.I., I just don't get it.
Making music one of the most enjoyable thing in my life.
Why would I give that away ?

A.I. should heal my if I get sick, do my chores and fix the economy.
I should be having fun.

 

Unlimited access to capital for some ppl yes.
But i speak about global, not Apple or Google.

Take a look at your supermarket lanes going empty, and you will see what i mean

Capitalism in his end form try to be "virtual", meaning without any physical dependence (including proletarians ...).
Meaning "exchange value" eat "use value".
More money in the whole capitalist system APART real production of real goods.
So yes there is money for AI, but less for food production (example).

That's how we end with broken global petrol market balance due to a war.
And at the same time, market share raising like never before.
Because capitalism in his end form don't care about "use value".

Compare petrol production figures and Wall Street Dow Jones this month (+6%).

 

1: Just keeping with the all time masters, or the ones that u can actually SEE their evolution from the beggining, and for this i mean from the 2000 til this day xd like idk, arturia and fabfilter we can say their useful.
2: i guess sometimes this cant be handled anymore so will be not weird to see some law or kind of restrcition about this... this is like the worst factory we ever experienced xd its literraly a crap factory, something similar to china's logic industry.

 

This problem has existed long before the advent of mainstream AI. Examples include companies like Submission Audio with their Flatline plugin. First thing I asked myself when I saw it and heard the company owner boast (who's mainly a mastering engineer) was: This guy's plugins are MIDI Basses, which are just sampled instruments. How on Earth did he manage to create a DSP plugin that's supposed to mimic "$10,000 converters" (according to him in his YouTube video). It doesn't make sense. He's a mastering engineer, he found a money-grab alley (make MIDI basses for modern metal, which doesn't require advanced math) and no one but him cracked the $10,000 question, AND it's his only DSP plugin beside a bass enhancer. Give me a break. Companies that do this correctly are able to differentiate themselves because 1- They either make something no one else has made (oeksound), or 2- They make SEVERAL high quality sounding plugins that become popular or at least very well respected, NOT just one (u-he. DIVE/ZEBRA are extremely popular, but their Presswerk compressor is highly respected, even if not overly popular). Supposed exceptions stick out like a sore thumb.

A solution is simply to not continue to seek out new plugins. If a new plugin is released that really peaks your interest, try it out and if you like it that much, buy it, but don't allow it to turn into GAS. Others will learn the lesson eventually. People need to take responsibility for not looking both ways before crossing the street. "Oh, but X YouTuber said it's the BOMB". And who is X Youtuber again?? Why should you care about his opinion?? "X famous engineer said it's the BOMB", and how many other plugins has that same engineer praised?? Is he REALLY using all of them? Do people really believe he isn't being paid for his opinion to be blasted on the company website as a full blown endorsement?? As I already mentioned, every person is responsible, first and foremost, for not looking both ways before crossing the street.

 

Last edited: Apr 24, 2026 at 7:36 PM