Having just read a post about not hoarding plug-ins and reducing plug-in count to the bare minimum, I got to realize that my own list has changed over the last year. I used to rely a lot on Slate stuff, but this year things have changed for me. Plus now you see a trend toward the Swiss-army knife kind of solution, plug-ins that simplify tasks like Manic Compressor and Slam Dawg.

Right now, my bare bones plug-in list goes as follows:

Manic Compressor
Plus 10dB Compressor
Mongoose
Imperial Delay
Acon Equalize
Acon Restoration Suite
Slam Dawg
Slate VBC
Slate FG-X
Massey DRT
Steven Slate Drums 4
Brainworx Digital V2
Waves CLA vocals

I mostly record musicians and I don't use synths much. I can live with the (awesome) AIR instruments and synths that come in Pro Tools.

The only thing not included here are the UAD compressors and EQs because they are tethered to my Apollo and sometimes I can't work with them when I'm on a laptop.

What about you? What's your shortlist?

 

If i had to keep 10 vst's, i think i would go with :

-DC8C 2 from Klanghelm for everyday comp
-CLA comp from waves (i'm already trying to cheat : 3 plugs that i will count for 1!...)
-Fabfilter proQ 2 for surgical eq
-SilkEQ from acoustica for analog feeling
-Tube saturator from Wave Arts
-Satin from Uhe
-Elysia mpressor
-RVerb from waves (or RedLine reverb from 112db, this one is tricky...)
-Transient Shaper from Schaak Audio
-Bx XL V2 from Brainworx for the 2bus

That would be my choice, but i know i would miss several other plugins on many occasions!

 

Last edited: Nov 30, 2015

Nice post man!

I am currently stuck in that 100 plugin rut. I do not use most of them but it just makes the whole list look huge and confusing. I will need to work on letting go here soon. Looking forward to further posts on the subject so that I can see what others "bare bones" lists include.

 

• waves cla-76
• H-delay
  
• Fabfilter Pro-q2
• Fabfilter pro-ds
• Fabfilter pro-g
• Cakewalk ca2a
• Izotope nectar de-breath
• Izotope ozone 5, and recently 7
• (Sorry) Antaras auto-tune

 

Im in the process of sliming down my software. Starting to feel like its holding me back. Ill come back n type out what i decided to keep.

 

Outside of Ableton stock effects, the only ones I would miss are LFOTOOL and GUITAR RIG.

The only additional vsts that I want are the SoundToys ones, as I lost these when moving to 64 bit as I could never get jbridge to stop crashing with these

 

Sorry.. lol

Me too!.. Well, Melodyne!

 

Omnisphere
Trillian
StylusRMX
WAVES
All Native Instruments.
Amplitube
T-Racks
RealGuitar's
Serum
Sylenth
Nexus
All AAS
All Toontrack
Melodyne
All FXpansion.
All iZotope
All XLN Audio.
Ableton Live 9.

Could write, perform and produce 100 million songs.

 

Quick tip, plugins that you think you don't need or dont want to see but may want to keep, zip their .dll folders.

 

PRO-Q2
PRO-C2
Fab Saturn
Klanghelm DC8C2
Soundtoys
ArtsAcoustic Rev
Waves L3
LFO Tool
Elysia Alpha compressor
Invisible limiter


Zebra 2,Sylenth ,Omnisphere 2.

 

Waves Truverb
Softube CL1B
Brainworx V2
Ohmboyz Delay
Voxengo Elephant
Magnetic II
Melodyne
Audio Damage Dubstation
Camel Phat

Dune 2
Massive
Bass Engine
Beat Machine 1
Alchemy
Omnisphere 2
Few Kontakt Libs

 

Your list almost mirrors mine exactly, man. If I was forced at gunpoint to choose only five, they would be Trilian, Native Instruments, Toontracks, XLN, and Manic Compressor (a sweetheart of a compressor if there ever was one).

 

ugh.. after slimming my list a while back.. some of the posts in this thread are making me reinstall a few plugins.. >.<

Fab-Q(1+2), Fab-L, SPL transient designer, Elysia mpressor, NI Reaktor + Kontakt, Soundtoys, Sinevibes, DS Tantra, Sonalksis creative filter, Tone2 Bifilter + Warmverb, Waves: Trueverb - enigma - S1 imager, Eventide blackhole + ultrachannel, 2CA aether, the rob papen fx, Sylenth (& 32Lives), ProphetV.

A bunch of others, but i guess those others are all interchangeable and replaceable.

 

Maybe we should Collab sometime!

 

We should do a 10 plugin challenge. I do collect a lot of unused plugins that just sit there, however it isn't an issue and my productivity isn't affected as I always reach for the same plugins and am learning them inside out. I created a template with my favorite chain of plugins, and I usually focus on those plugs every time so I don't even think to search through plugin menus. I will move to a new set of plugins for change/different flavor once i master these. I do still like the idea of cutting down though. So a 10 plugin challenge for a month (or more) should not only be fun, but also help the productivity of all us hoarders, while showing us which plugs we value the most. Anybody in?

 

Waves
Kontakt
Amplitube (if You play guitars)
a few synths (if You play them)

 

I'll dive in. How about a kind of challenge/contest/educational exercise, something like... Choose your 10 plugs, mix a track and post your plugin chains in every track? It'd be a powerful learning experience. We could think of a prize or something.

 

Sounds like a plan!

 

klanghelm mjuc,t-racks cs = call it a day

 

For me it has basically come down to: Fabfilter, DMG Audio, Cytomic, Klanghelm, Tokyo Dawn Records, Valhalla DSP, a couple of T-rackS plugins, and about a dozen of various plugins from other developers like ToneBoosters, Voxengo, Sonimus etc. Certainly less than a hundred. That's it.

You really need 3-4 of every kind of plugin at the most, not 20. ;) Like 3-4 EQs, and 3-4 compressors etc. So choose the ones you like and use most often, and forget about the rest.

It really helps with the speed of production and it saves you money. Have another computer on the side for doing "try before buy" and Internet with it, so your main computer/DAW stays clean.

Cheers!