Hi!
Recently i felt overwhelmed with the many plugins that i collected over the years (bought and k'd) I only kept the ones installed that i used and tried to limit myself with the possibilities.

I also worked with an SSL Axiom, outboard hardware like the 1176 and lexicon. Somehow I lost a lot of creativity with this process, compared to my old laptop only projects and decided to go back to only Ableton stock plugins - except instruments, LFO tool, and mastering maximizers.

Anyway, i noticed that with my knowledge now, i can achieve the sound that i want. A few years back, i thought you absolutely need external vst's to sound good and bought everything (Soundtoys, Fabfilter, Izotope, NOT waves lol). And maybe you know the feeling that you NEED to use it because you bought it already. In Ableton to make an "analogue" compressor i need to stack plugins instead of loading just a vst, but it's a lot of fun!

But now i loaded a very old project where i created an awesome bass sound with Rc-20, Trash 2, sdrr2 and decapitator. And i can't seem to recreate that bass sound! But when i use the plugins again, i fear going back to download everything that i find online... Or maybe i just can't do it because there are so many possibilities that it's not possible to create it exactly like it was before...

I found a cool trick along the way - you can import trash 2 IR's on Ableton hybrid reverb and recreate the trash 2 convolution tabs that way!


Limitations enhance creativity, but from an engineer type of view, you want the "best" sound possible. But is the Best Sound just a marketing or "make things 2 db louder, and it sounds better" kind of thing?

Just wanted to share this struggle with people who might understand my feelings, no one on real life does and i would love to hear experiences from you all about that matter!

 

I share the same feelings

 

One of the benefits of doing this a longer time and getting good at it is that you are able to really squeeze out the maximum out of a plugin.
No matter if its reverb, compressor, sound design, you work fast and get a good sound fast.
There is a place for stock and a place for analog emu plugins.
What you describe has more to do with the songwriting process itself, where you can work faster with less distraction, makes sense.

 

I look back at how it all began.

Before the first digital audio workstation, I had a four-track recorder with a cassette for recording. 1 x input for the drums that came from a multi-timbral synthesizer, 1 x input for the acoustic guitar and 1 x input for the voice / microphone. The knowledge comes from musician magazines. Other musicians made hard disc recording for several thousand dollars. Finding and renting a practice room was all expensive. Then came the PC with a hard drive - it's 1998 - expensive ... then the Internet 1 hour AOL $ 10 - the first blank CD $ 20. Everything was slow and flawed and relatively expensive.

That was the beginning of the digital evolution - then everything got faster and cheaper, within 10 years - then the first VSTi and Cubase or FL Studio, didn't sound really good, you learned a lot and everything was new. You bought yourself a new PC or upgraded again and again. Everything was getting better and cheaper around sounding better too. 24 hour flat rate and 4 GHz and 16 GB RAM and LED monitors. I've tested all of the VSTi and VST and I've kept the best.

In my opinion, we actually test products for their stability, good handling and sound. Sometimes you are struck by the variety and mass. You also want to experience digital progress. In my opinion we are now living in an information overkill. The brain says stop - greed says more. It only helps to sit down and try to analyze it mentally and solve the problem. Is trial and error. Humans make mistakes - this is what distinguishes us from a robot.

For me, 2021 is the year to find out what we've already invented and what great products we use. I'm more concerned about what might break down soon and whether the money will be enough. Less is more ... and say stop - stop what do I want, stop downloads - save and burn everything - save data - make backups, prepare for hackers.

Do not see that the apartment burns down because you have too many devices on one socket. Make an insurance.
In the evening in bed, end the mental cinema with a stop and say to yourself it's peace - no bombs drop, I have electricity and internet, I have drinking water and something to eat. Back to nature. What we as humans have already invented .... Thanks for the offer, dear industry, I already have enough EQ and compressions and wav files for the next 200 years.

 

There are demonstrations for every major DAW in existence by name engineers all over the place, with them only using the stock plugins that came with the DAW they are demonstrating. Every one of them created a good final mix. There will always be a better plugin that comes onto the market. I am not saying that people should only use what comes with the DAW, just that if you know how to use what you have, whatever those plugins may be, then that more than often is good enough.

 

I use stock Logic plugins wherever I can, but they can have their limitations. I generally do not use them to "creatively abuse" an effect.
But they are good quality and really add to the "Bang for Buck", when you compare buying Logic to other daw packages.