Hey fans and freaks,

well the relationship to the sister site offers - let's say - some extended demos to get used to almost any plugin. But after years I found out it's not constructive to have so much plugins. Plus someone said something wise: "Learn the plugins you use!" And that's what I'm doing and I reduced my plugins. And now I'm totally fine!

So hand on heart: How much plugins (no instruments) do you really use?

 

Handful really, Valhalla Plate, VVV, Shimmer and Delay, FabFilter ProQ3, Saturn and Simplon, Xfer Lfo Tool and OTT, TBProaudio DSEQ and mvMeter, Voxengo SPAN, MSED and PHA-979, Ozone, Cradle The God Particle, Endless Smile, Realphones... that's all I have installed.

 

I don't have that many so I use most of what I've got. I tend to select them for use rather than bulk download, or get massive packs with stuff I don't really know in.
But I'm still learning after 20 years of doing it so I try to use different plugins as much as possible. It's easy to get caught in the trap of using the really popular ones, or sticking to the same thing

 

It's not that easy, think it's hardest thing to do, when everyday there is new toy coming out promising wonders and rainbows or you start making mountains out of nuances that makes 0,1% real overall difference.

There's great thread on GS where Serban's assistant kicks in and start really contributing a lot of knowledge, those guys stick to their old weapons, same speakers, same tools, occasionally demo something when they have time, but when it's time to work, you pull your reliable weapon and get the job done.

 

Regularly not a lot, maybe 10-15, that's like 1% of everything i have, even less if you compare it to everything available on the sister site.

But surprisingly i don't feel overwhelmed or anything. I got used to ignore the rest until i need something really specific.

 

Got lots of plugins installed but because some come in a bundle which i want/use 1-2 plugins versus 13 that the bundle offers. And the only plugins that i use a vast array are preamps/summing amps/subtle analog color and reverbs, because each unity has a sound on it's own. For EQ and compression, i see myself using the same tools forever, if not, stock plugins.

 

Probably about 10 heavily, maybe 10, 20 more sporadically... I just did a clean install on a new machine and I only have about 20 fx installed. I only plan to have more if it's new things I want to check out or if it's something that I specifically need for an older project, we'll see.
It's funny to think about the old outboard days where generally speaking unless you were a gigantic expensive studio you didn't have a choice of compressors and reverbs for color, you had THE compressor, THE reverb... etc

 

Well I'm talking reliability vs experimentation really. I get bored of the same things and I want to push the envelope generally, thats why I've never stuck to one sound and probably never accomplished much in one genre.

Rather than than feel like I'm doing the same stale stuff over and over

 

There is such a thing as "too many plugins" in reference to Effects. You don't need 18 different reverbs, compressors, etc. No such thing as too many synthesizers. They all have very different features.

 

It's funny how the options with more votes are > 80% and <25%

 

The problem with lots of plugins, especially downloaded from the sister site, is the same problem i experienced as a kid at the old PSX days, where i had a crap ton of pirated games and were so many of them that i couldn't decide which game i was going to play. Or started playing one game, and stopped in the middle to play another. A huge amount of plugins can be a creativity destroyer, while your favorites will always enhance your best artistic side

 

With Effects, it is because they all have different parameter titles for the same things. You see YT videos where the guy in the video claims everyone gets compression wrong!!; and luckily they are there to finally explain it to all of us idiots. By bouncing around to different ones, it makes things very confusing to learn. But the real problem is that your ears aren't trained to hear the differences yet.

It's pretty funny but all these "sources of information" will tell you not to do things; because they did them all, and wasted their time doing them. In reality, someone who tells you "this is the only one you will ever need" is usually just trying to sell you something.

 

Sure, but in that case I would rather change my sound generators, sound design, composing and production approach, look more into creative effect tools, it would have bigger influence than using Kirchoff instead of ProQ or deciding which compressor emu to use and etc.

 

We all want to use the best tools but imho, if some infinitesimal difference between the color of a half dB cut in frequency between one eq or another is going to make or ruin your song, or with THIS compressor it's great but with THAT nearly but not quite identical compressor it sucks... there's probably a problem.

 

Yes, the problem is someone trying to sell you another plugin. If you ever watch the Jaycen Joshua/Dave Pensado episode of MixWithTheMasters; your example is exactly what is said about Pro-Q3 vs Wavesfactory Spectre. I think it was a product placement, and that doesn't really bother me. But it demonstrates where people come up with this stuff. "detailed plugin recipes with the secret magic settings that work on everything", etc.

 

I'm an FX junkie and I am always looking for new sounds.

 

just to open a spinoff

WideBlueSound Audio Plugin Uninstaller
https://www.widebluesound.com/audio-plugin-uninstaller/?

free, mac only (I've dropped out approx. 80% of them...)

 

I got all by sonimus
all by Klanghabitat

All by KitPlugin

and then Proq3

Then ableton stock plugz

The rest is me breathing life into sweet music

 

We need this program less on Mac than Windows users need it. But I will check it out anyway. Thank you for including it.

edit: Minimum Required MacOS is Mojave.

 

Last edited: Sep 24, 2023