Remind yourself of the fact there is no replacement or VST that will help your music more than time in the daw constructing.

 

You don't. You stock up indefinitely like an apocalypse is coming. You'll be underground producing music with every VST at your disposal. Nobody else will have them, so you can barter or just be the only music dude on the planet and everyone will listen to you. Assuming anyone else is left besides you. And your computer.

 

That's quaint, but there are a very good number of plugins that deliver significant workflow improvements which will "pay you back" much more than the 15 minutes of your time you invest to learn them, every time you use them.

There are way too many repetitive, time-consuming tasks involved in production. You do not need to concede artistic control to "AI plugins" like Sonible,etc. to still benefit from plugins with premium workflows.

 

Just say NO! It really works. Nancy Reagan single handedly stopped the drug and Aids problems with one short sentence.

 

It's workflow. Keep track of what they do, if something is a "filter" then all those plugins do the same basic thing, you're just looking for the GUI design that's opitmal for you. Same thing with like "bitcrushers", or "sub bass". You're under no obligation to use them all. "Multiband Compressors", etc . . . , they'll all about the same.

Just download them all, then take note of which ones you actually use.

At some point, just do a fresh install, then only install the ones you actually used.

 

Make a list of what you use all the time - simply delete everything else.

 

Become aware of the systems that govern your mind and body, which lead to such behavior.

Seeing something new, potentially useful or interesting causes a dopamine surge in your brain. This is the biological system that techbros (ab)used to get everyone addicted to social networks and more and more technology today. This is the same thing that draws you to download new plugins. That, plus FOMO, the Fear Of Missing Out.

All of this does serve a purpose for a while, as when you're new you should be trying out a lot of different software, tinkering with different workflows and finding what works best for you personally.

Eventually you will see patterns repeating, and the same type of plugin repeating itself, and you will start to ask yourself "Do I really need 50 compressors, and 25 EQs, where most of them do exactly the same thing?".

Eventually, you will realize which plugins you like, which are actually good, which are special in some sort of way, and that 90% of them are just copy/paste iterations of the same code over a different GUI +/- a feature or 2 as they desperately try to be different from all the other plugins that do exactly the same.

Stop the dopamine cycle by becoming aware of it, and start using your brain to figure out what you actually NEED, not just what you WANT.
Listen to some music that you like, that was made 20-30 years ago, realize that it was made without this steaming pile of software that is being pushed onto you every day as GAME CHANING, REVOLUTIONARY, NEVER BEFORE SEEN, and all the other marketing mumbo jumbo.

Eventually you'll realise that a musician with 10 tools, that he can use very well is way better than a "musician" with 1800 tools, that he barely ever touched, and is mostly focused on getting more tools.

 

'You can't polish a turd', but you can sprinkle glitter on them.

Choose the right sound, it shouldn't need any processing, especially if you're using lots of samples, because they have already been heavily processed.

Therefore I don't use any processing, zilch, I only use effects and they are mostly offline, guitar pedals etc.

You can make a great sounding mix with just the raw files, that's what I send to my engineer, the raw stems, with my mix, doddle innit.

And the proof of the pud would be I get a lot of favourable DJ reviews on my production, not just the song itself.

It also frees up more time to actually write music, eg, I never compress or gate etc cos it means more listening time, checking that everything is doin wot it's supposed to do, fiddle, listen, fiddle again, listen again und so on, & on & on & on, I leave all that to my amazing engineer, cos that's his job, not mine.

Jus done a sample pack mix for a competeition, with absolutely no processing from me, I'll just send those, sample pack stems to my engineer along with my mix as a guide, he mixes it to perfection, then it'll be mastered, then released and promoted on the dance floor, cos I just love doin it, and then some, that's my job.

 

audioz has been unfairly pillaged by addicts for too long. Introduce 150% tariffs and everything will be great again, believe me.

 

Perhaps the question should be: "Why do you want to stop?"

Is downloading causing you or your loved ones harm, or financial penalty?

You can keep on downloading as much as you want. Just delete after you've downloaded. You will have scratched the itch, and freed up your disk space as well. Rinse and Repeat.

Alternatively, you can download, install, launch, run a few presets, tweak a few knobs a la Wytse, and then delete.

It's an addiction - treat it as such: consult a professional if it's taken over your life.

 

Only download what you would buy. Just stop downloading!
Save yourself the time downloading and invest the time in your music.

 

Last edited: May 22, 2025

Dear Audiosex,

I've been around the scene since 2011 and still have my old hard drives with perhaps thousands of 32 bit plugins and instruments that are not installed on my computer, many which will no longer function on my newest system and whose gui's are so tiny on my monitor that I need binoculars to read the blurry functions. My question is, should I still keep them "just in case" or contribute them to the local recycling center for reabsorption into the universal binary?

Thanks,

Lois Lane

 

Please remember that you are part of the human family and that there are future generations for whom your old plugins can serve even for educational purposes or as a comparison to today's modern plugins. There are museums for everything, but are there also software museums where you can listen and test them online? Perhaps there are young people in your city to whom you can pass this on.

These plugins are part of the beginning of the digital age of virtual software synthesizers. From a purely practical point of view, I would sign with Lois Lane and auction it off online or donate it. Perhaps it could be given to the local school. I don't think there's much interest, but once it's gone, it's gone forever.

I have often been able to help users who wanted a very specific plugin, and like you, I kept everything.
If you ever have the time or inclination, you could upload it all and share the link with us.

 

I was just being cheeky.

 

Call the police, I´m pretty sure they can help you stop from downloading warez.

 

Downloading is one thing, installing all these plugins takes a lot more time. My Studio One Pro DAW is scanning 7869 plugins at the moment. Love it more than making music.

 

I switched to hardware.
Its cost forces me to actually learn it and use it

 

Unplug wifi router
Works fine 100%

 

gear acquisition syndrome kicks in