Plugin Addiction

As of writing this post, I have approximately 1992 plugins on my system! When I think about it that's about 1982 more than I actually need, lol!

Thank goodness for Help Me Devon's 'Bypass' as it quickly scanned my hard drive and lists the plugins it finds. And let me tell you, it was worse! Over the years, and in my inexperience, I had been installing VST2, VST3, AAX, and sometimes CLAP files every time I installed a plugin I bought or found for free (Props to Bedroom Producer Blog for that). I was able to drastically clean up space on my hard drive by simply deleting all the extra unneeded formats.

Then it was on! WHAT PLUGINS CAN I DELETE? WHAT CAN I LIVE WITHOUT?

This was surprisingly difficult for me. I have always been a sucker for a free plugin and it adds up over the course of roughly 15 years of messing around with this stuff. I know that I literally only use about 10 or so plugins consistently in a mixing context. Plus, I signed up for a couple subscriptions that pretty much covered the bases and rounded out a collection of professional grade mixing plugins. Remind me to do a post about my journey of the SUBSCRIPTION PLAN! I subbed to just about all of them for a year (Waves, Plugin Alliance, Slate, SSL, Harrison, Baby Audio, Kush, Landr, Eventide, Black Salt Audio) and after that year I whittled it down to a select few that I thought offered the best bang for the buck and had the best business models. More on that later.

So, this was difficult for me because while I knew I didn't need 90% of these things to do my job, I still loved having so much at my disposal for when I actually try to create music or do some sound design sessions. I love to make beats and melodies and really throw the kitchen sink at mangling some sound to get some trippy soundscapes going. So, it was sort of like those hoarding shows where the person is just being totally unreasonable about getting rid of literal trash, lol. But I did manage to cut a lot of the bloat down by just gritting my teeth and deleting a lot of useless plugins that I either never even used once or just opened once and was like "Oh neat, that sucks". And at some point, you have to ask yourself "how many compressors do i need? Do i need 7 different emulations of a Pultec EQ? Yes, there are some that are legends. Yes, there are some lesser-known secret sauce ones I have found and would never part with. But truth be told, the plugin industry makes so much money off of us shcmucks by literally repackaging the same things and giving it a slightly new Gui and saying, "now with mid/side capabilities", lol! The sad part is that we fall for it. At least I do. During Black Friday Sales I spent probably $1000 on new plugins. I know, right? To be fair, almost half of that was simply buying FabFilter Pro Q-4, Pro C-2, Pro L-2, and Saturn 2. I think we can all agree that those are the ones YOU WANT to buy, lol.

So, this begs the question: WHAT DO YOU NEED? And how many of them do you need?

Plugins can be separated into various categories (probably not exhaustive here, but you get it)

Preamps // EQ // Compressors // Channel Strips // Spatial Effects // Analysis // Instruments // Miscellaneous Utility

What are your go to plugins in these categories? Can you live without some of them? Could you, say, delete a plugin for everyone you can list as a favorite? Like...can't that Daw Junkie plugin you have just hit the recycle bin? Let me know in the comments about your plugin addiction. This is a safe place, lmao! Let me hold your hand while you trash that 42nd Delay plugin you got and never use. Hopefully you will find, as I have found, a little solace in the fact that you are limiting your options which I firmly believe fuels extra creativity.

Cheers!

Cory