just collecting music sucks

 

plugins have more features and take up less space

 

..
one of my favourite Sententiae Romanae like
...
si vis pacem para bellum.

I'me not a real prepper but but my passion to prepare myself for everything is a bit extensive.
When I went on a 3 to 4 weeks vacation, I used to always send a package with 50kg of books for my wife and me in advance by mail, so that I do not have to starve literarily at the vacation destination. Today we are greatful to have kindle readers.

 

Last edited: Jul 13, 2022

I also noticed at some point a nonsensical collecting habit that prevented me from being more productive.
Then last year I deleted everything I hadn't used in the last two years (except purchased things). I almost don't install new plugins anymore and since my PC is much mor stable

Now I have to work on hanging around less at AS

 

You will be set after you install a 100th compressor. Not kidding. This is a fact.

 

After years of collecting plugins/samples and also making lots of music (most of dubious quality), I'm trying to restrain myself mostly because my SSD is almost full and I only use a small fraction of all the plugins and samples I have. The sample collection is so big that is very difficult and time consuming to organize and to use. No longer buying synth plugins based on the amount of presets or a specific soundbank, now I mostly buy plugins to do some specific tasks in the mixing and mastering process. I've passed the last few years trying to learn how to mix and master better, hopefully now I will finish some of the dozens of unfinished projects I have on my disk. Also trying not use any warez, I'm getting the licenses for the plugins I use most, just want to support creators and feel more legit.

 

What size is this SSD?!!! They are very expensive to use for samples unless it is Kontakt libraries, because you want the optimized performance of an SSD.

 

It is a 1TB SSD, bought my new laptop with performance in mind because that was a limitation in my old one. I also have two external disks, one SSD (500GB) and a HDD (1TB) if I need but I use the HDD mainly for backup. So... I can get some more samples if I want

 

I learned the hard way a LOT of plugins use several files for presets ... and so are very slow on regular HDD to browse presets
I'm leaning toward using my second NVME as samples/kontakt support (desktop of course)

It is a good limitation to set. Until of course you are collecting orchestral/cinematic kontakt banks

As a side note, windows users can "buffer" their regular HDD on SSD/NVME/RAM with Primo Cache
A lot of gamers use it, i use it for audio
It is like a big hybrid HDD. And you can upcycle your old SSDs

 

the +devices (chorus+,delay+,flanger+,eq+,phaser+) and the CLAP format were a pretty big help in Bitwig, now I'm using the +stock devices (and Grid ones) and u-he synths(Dive, Hive, Ace) and checking https://clapdb.tech/ from time to time

 

I paint dead nature when I'm not downloading .

btw. I have a 12TB NAS chock full of plugins and samples... I use about 5% maybe. But it feels nice to have it. [?] When the apocalypse comes, I'm not gonna starve for new samples... and I'll be dead before I manage to preview all of them.

 

Last edited: Jul 15, 2022

@SineWave
Your next buy :

 

i just get capstan from the sister site once a week then delete the rar after it downloads cause my money dont jiggle jiggle ..it goes

 

Ideally during plugin acquisition and testing, the ear also trains. Eventually one should realize that 95% of the plugins are the same: same eqs, same dynamics, same saturators, same delays, same reverbs, etc. With the very very rare odd plugin. The next natural step is to downsize to a respectable list of favourites (the “best” plugins as: sound predictibility, scalable gui, ease of setup, cpu load, os compatibility and futureproof etc). Then hopefully you’re going to notice that a lot of sounds need very similar treatment and instead of various exquisite chains of 20 plugs “doing just a little”, one can achieve the same sound with 3-4 plugins doing exactly what they have to do.

Yes, we will lose lots of fellows during the process - around 80% I’d dare to say, that will never make music (I remember someone on reddit that hes addicted to buying tutorials and in 16 years never made a song) but that’s life - only the ones with enough passion for work (collecting, watching, reading is not work!) will win

 

That means you'll have to pry all the Plugin Alliance and Acoustica plugins from my dead hands. Oh wait... [is it one or the other?] Hint: Me not likes PA or the Ac.

 

I too, have many TB of plugins and samples.
I have quite an extensive setup with many thousands actually installed.

As a computer hobbyist first and music hobbyist 2nd I don't worry about interference with creative flow like many others must, but i do find myself tiring of the collection process.

I just created a "@Win10 final" with a slimmer setup to focus on production, while i can boot into my old setup to revisit my huge setup.

The result has been surprising. My snare still sucks

 

Great one, DoubleTake. I also have problems with snares. Only DBX helps, I'm afraid. Cheap remedy really. Cheaper than a lot of plugins.

 

Stopped hoarding software, too easy not to do anything with it. It didn't cost anything anyway, right
Instead, I bought a bunch of synths, guitars, a 5 string bass, mixer, combo amp, PA system, etc.
They're much harder to ignore as they exist in reality.
Also, they cost money so I feel like an idiot if I don't justify the expense by playing and learning them as much as possible.
God bless Long & McQuade Music and their 6 months no interest.
$750 a month
Good thing I quit drinking

 

I collect plugins and samples to create something.

 

I collect everything that is collectable (that interest me) and doing music full time. Own a small studio, 2 rooms filled with instruments, thousands of (vinyl, cd, cassettes) records and 8 terabytes of HD filled with warez (and legit stuff of course) and a NAS filled with my work for almost 15 years (20 if touring years count) since day one and still going strong. The key is doing everything that pleases you and minimize the amount of F given and never bow to elitist bastard that think they have a better idea of how you should live your life. Even if it is just another trap sample pack, if you like it, get it, if you don't, post on AS about how you hate them. then move on. There's nothing wrong about collecting plugins/samples professionally if that is what you choose to do IMO. What is really wrong is to think that you HAVE TO make music.