Hi all,
here is something I needed to write down to get it out of my system, maybe someone will find this interesting even though it may be the 1000th thread about this. Thanks for reading, maybe you feel similar and it helps a little.

I started my music journey completely clueless 4 years ago with a cheap midi controller, FL Studio and a handful of free plugins. FL being a huge investment for me at that time, I learned everything of it by trial and error and had fun making some crappy tunes, thinking I will surely progress after a while. At that time I did not knew about the magnitude of the whole music production scene, commercialized to its core and trying to hook me with all the promises that don't hold up, and neither about the cracking scene.

I knew from the start that I wanted to do music in many different genres, but I thought I could just switch back and forth between them and then create nice album art in blender or whatever since I like art too. Anyway I found out most producers in my style use Ableton and certain other plugins like romplers that were financially out of reach for me at that time. So after a while I found two things - first, a certain sister site to try plugins indefinitely long and later plugin boutique to get discounts hopefully sometime in the future. That's basically the start of my plugin GAS addiction.

I was uncomfortable with using the cracks and eventually bought more stuff. I made a total of two songs I liked, but did not even use most things I bought. For example, I was not able to adapt to ableton's workflow. FL is much more modular with its Patcher and imo has a better automation and piano roll design. But I am sure that ableton sounds different, more suited to my kind of style with its special synths and fx.

While my financial situation improved since then, my spendings have escalated too to around 2k (wtf right).
OF COURSE my damn mind had to believe the ads "buy this and you'll be instantly good" and so on. So I caved in and bought plugins I don't even need as the free ones like Vital and Surge already cover almost everything. Some purchases were downright detrimental for me, as instead of learning what keys to play I stuck pitchmap on the mixer track like a total donkey, and instead of creating my own FX chains I relied on Tantra and Rift. They are kind of like AI music: Don't use them if you yourself want to be creative instead of the machine doing it for you.

And of course I scoured the sister site and found out I like this and that plugin that could easily set me back yet another 1k. So after two good songs and maybe 5 good short loops, I have nothing else to show for it as all I did was just trying out the newest shiny thing weekend after weekend for the last like 3 years instead of sitting down and do whatever it takes to get the sound I so desperately want to produce out of my speakers.

So what is my message? Better stick to the best free plugins out there as they are equivalent in quality to the best gear there was like 10 - 15 years ago, and only buy or crack what you KNOW you will need for more than like one song. Ishould just not visit plugin news websites anymore but its hard to stop these habits, good thing I never downloaded brainrot apps like TikTok.

Anyways I'll have a look at your comments tomorrow, thanks for reading and let's hope we all get there where we want to be!

 

Last edited: Jun 17, 2025 at 5:33 AM

Which makes it your own fault. Not judging here. I only look for new plugins if I need one and don't update plugins if they're already working fine and do what I need them to do. At some point I DID chase plugins, but quickly realized I shouldn't do that. I firmly believe in "don't fix if it ain't broken".

 

All beginnings are difficult; you have to make your own experiences, and some things work and some don't.
But you shouldn't over-dramatize your path, which is full of obstacles, but rather look ahead.

Before you buy something, download a demo version to test it out.

As the saying goes, "Practice makes perfect."
I think I gathered that you now have a rough idea of where your journey should take you.

Remember, music isn't a fixed process; it depends on what you love and what you want to do.
Failures are part of it; anything else would be stagnation.