Plugins (stock and/or 3rd party) are useful as much as I decide they will be by my needs

 

People seem to forget how bad some stuff out there can really be.

 

Live and let collect plugins, as my grandpa used to say.

 

No they don't matter, to me the only plugins that matter are the ones that might change how I write music.

Maybe a better piano roll? Good UI with quality of life features and just feels better to use than your native piano roll or your automation lanes?, maybe a tracker UI?

Something that lets me write music faster, not the same compressor number 10000 that will take my mix to da next level :D

 

FabFilter, Acustica/Nebula, Plugin Alliance, and Cradle are necessary imo. Some Waves and UAD. Most (not all) other plugins are extraneous to me. But doesn't stop me from having 4000 Audio Units

 

Ehh..I like to start trouble LOL.

 

Something tells me that actually you like to follow hype youtubers that told you everybody loves UAD and FabFilter.

You should follow Dan Worrall instead. And also the FabFilter channel - it has tutorials made by him, applicable for any and all properly made plugins.

 

"No. Go commando, stock plugins only. Stop being weak." That made me laugh hard. Go commando... go cowboy

I totally hadn't thought of that possibility...

 

my problem with 80% of plugins is optics. like what are you trying to achieve making the UI similar to a real machine?

thanx but i dont want a compressor emulation filling my WHOLE damn screen for just 3-5 dials. are they crazy?
whatever you do, THE REAL FEEL of turning the real, big knobs on those legendary devices will never be achieved, so why dont just make a nice damn little UI like Reaper's plugins or Ableton paradigm? like im trynna work here man and your plugin fills my whole screen, not very ergonomic. but hey i guess the amount of time your graphix designers put is gonna make a real difference to my sound!

 

..yeah, that's incorrect. Respectfully, If you read my OP, I'm more on the MeldaProduction/AirWindows/Kush Audio side of YouTubers. Im also a fan of Worrall, and his early UVI vids. Thanks for the rec though! Love the guy!

 

Last edited: Aug 22, 2025

Totally agree UI's are such a distraction, especially when bad plugins produce very little. So, are plugins still needed?

 

Do idiotic musicians know any other profession, where is that kind of religious discussion about the tools used? It's like the kindergarten in a cult like Jim Jones' or Charlie Manson's or ... that thing with the 4 capital letters.

 

when I first started playing there was only Reverb, Tremelo and Tape delay units, there were no pedals. most of us occasionally just used the reverb or Tremelo/Vibrato built in our amps. We were musicians first and foremost a lot of creativity came from those basics. I have returned to using only my vintage Amps without the distracting mess of my collection of vintage pedals and rack units or my PC . We tend to forget the beauty of this simplicity.

 

I use a large handful of them, maybe 8 or 10 different synths, about the same amount for dynamics and such but there's always exceptions with them you never know when you'll need an expander you've never used before, and for fx pretty much anything that sounds good, stock included. The point is you don't need that much, you just need to know how to use it well...and obviously the better it sounds regardless of what you do to it the better. Some plugins you can just turn some knobs and always get something interesting, others not so much.

 

stock plugins for mastering if used PROPERLY gives amazing results

 

yea plugins are clown business mostly,
now when I think about it, mixing itself is clown business too,

if you make music, you may feel nicer when you look at nice plugins or gear, don't underestimate that...

 

Huh, then how did you put
Know what, never mind.

 

I use a combination of keyboards, guitars and samples.

So I’ll grab a drum loop I dig & start playing. Then it depends whether I start with guitar or keys and either a chord riff or a bass riff, or I may opt to bring a sample in first.

Then it’s simply a matter of playing, (or bringing in) some, 2, 4 or 8 bar riffs, (maybe longer,) setting each level as they are added, this will eventually be the guide mix I give to my engineer.

Everything I play or bring in gets stacked up into an eight or maybe four bar looped section and I mute and solo as I progress to flesh out the arrangement, playing more stuff in, to different combinations of soloed/muted tracks, it’s those actions that becomes say a verse, chorus etc.

When it’s really cookin’ I’ll start looking for vocals, then I’ll start building the arrangement around those vocals, as I will already be fully aware, (by previously muting and soloing,) how many sections I have, so the whole, (or most of) basic arrangement/structure, will be done und dusted before first days’ work ends.

My Cubase is set to show about 20 odd tracks in the size I like working with, for viewing the arrangement as I progress structuring it, this visual guide is very important to me, especially for copy and pasting the overall structure, tells me everything I need to know at a glance very easy to cut/copy whole chunks out, stick ‘em in elsewhere wotever.

Nothing will have had any processing at all, only effects, if needed

That's it