I need a 12 step or something. I was doing good until all the freeware VSTI developers kept making them. My life has basically been over since synthedit.

I was expecting a warez debate.

Ha Ha. There are no plugins here. Abolutely None. We have deleted them all and expect to finish deleting the vstplugins folder soon.

Er.. fun as VSTi's are I wouldnt compare them to crack.
Although saying that I have only tried crack once or twice and I am certainly not addicted. Quite the opposite. And as soon as VSTi's came out I was totally hooked.
Hmm maybe you have got a point.

As the brother of a crack-addict and a VSTi user, I would have to say that you're a fucking twat who needs to go to a nearby retailer and buy a fucking sense of humor.

As I have had to apologize on this forum previously for making light of something others felt strongly about, I feel completely justified in screaming about something *I* feel strongly about!

I'm here to tell you, there's nothing funny about crack addiction... NOTHING! Maybe you could've substituted "getting high" for "crack addiction" in your post... that is, if you had any class...

Layyyter...

PS: It's definitely crack. Try it and find out, moron...

Yeah well...
what about the gazillions of alcies out there (quite a few definetely hanging out here too) or 100 000 + cigarette deaths a year (I'm a pack-a-day-man myself).
While I understand that your personal feelings may be hurt..there is a German saying that goes
"Humor ist, wenn man trotzdem lacht"
(Humour is to laugh in spite of bad things)

Marco

jeez... take it easy.

It was harmless man.

BTW - I voted for VSTi's because when we're kids we aren't taught that they're bad for us...

smart wrote:

BTW - I voted for VSTi's because when we're kids we aren't taught that they're bad for us...

heh, in my city (in Poland) local gangs forbided dealing heroin. realy, you can get all kinds of hemp, amphetamine or cocaine but folks that insist on unhealthy habit of taking heroin have to get it from remote source...

I for one didn´t have any contact with VST´s so far, and i´m glad about it.
my parents and the teachers in school started very early telling us kids not to touch these things ´cause they are bad for us and our health.
But i had a friend who was a VST-addict .... !
I tell ya - before he got into this VST-hell he was a rude and harsh agressive little young man. Then he used to go to electronic-hippie clubs and came back as a total friendly and nice VST-addict.
(okay okay, i must admit that he was juts a vst-effect addict, not a vsti-freak. but well, that´s heavy enough me thinks.)

So when i saw him i knew that i won´t touch this stuff from hell - we already started a huge campaign over here against VST and its supporters.

putte

i forgot to mention that a friend of mine was brought to hospital because one night he took 4 Audio Units at once!

The correct answer is "none of the above". Sinistar is more addictive than all of these things. At the very least, it offers an amphetamine-like rush that rivals all other controlled substances known to man...

And it does all that for a quarter. Or for free, if you've got the ROM, MAME and a decent joystick.

-David, "Run, coward!"

I spend my afternoons giving blow jobs to sleazy old business men down at the bus terminal to support my VSTi habit.

Bonteburg wrote:

or 100 000 + cigarette deaths a year (I'm a pack-a-day-man myself).

Now, if nictotine had been among the poll choices, I would have had to answer differently than I did. Because any doctor will tell you that nicotine is more addictive than heroin! And you can't buy heroin at your corner grocery or gas station.

I'm an 8-cigarette-a-day gal myself...but they are good, strong cigarettes. (Toke here, snuff; toke there, snuff.) But my per-day VSTi habit is greater and not so easily snuffed.

It would seem that the KVR forum is highly addictive

Sweet Thunder wrote:

I was expecting a warez debate.

Howl! I missed this the first time through!

FilthyK, I sure hope you don't think my sig is offensive but to be honest there are people like me that buy this stuff and then realize, 'what have I done'. You don't even have to buy things anymore. There's enough SynthEdit VSTis to make your head spin and almost all are free.

I've lost two friends to drug addiction, it is not easy to see 24 or 27 year old men die over a drug that enslaves them.

I don't think others here are insensitive to the situation, but maybe they've never experienced the outcomes.

BTW, has anyone who's posted have to quit a drug prescription or otherwise that had habituation or addictive properties, like narcotic pain pills?

I was intentionally put on that shit for several months. It changed me as a person and when I chose to stop taking the medication had withdrawl symptoms. I'm fortunate in that it was fairly fast and I don't appear to have a craving for drugs. In fact I still take the same medication as needed. But I can tell you first hand, when you have to quit taking a narcotic it is far from fun, even if the pusher was a doctor of yours.

Heavy stuff Bruce. I am on Tramadol, have been for YEARS, it's an odd synthetic which is not entirely understand, so gods know what happens if I stop taking it Also because General Practitioners in the UK can prescribe Pethidine easier than Morphone I get Pethidine. trying not to take too much of that, it supresses your breathing before you get dependant.
Heavy stuff...

Every VST is not a synth, every crack is not a hole

Permanent4 wrote:

The correct answer is "none of the above". Sinistar is more addictive than all of these things. At the very least, it offers an amphetamine-like rush that rivals all other controlled substances known to man... And it does all that for a quarter. Or for free, if you've got the ROM, MAME and a decent joystick. -David, "Run, coward!"

Yes! Ah, nothing like the joy of finding out you're not alone in the world. I'm not sure how many folks around here were in the arcade in the early days of video games... but indeed there is and has never been a game quite like Sinistar.

There's a funny story about that game... the game developers worked for months to balance the game, to make it fair so you would chuck a quarter in and always get a few minutes of quality gameplay. Well the suits decided they wanted to milk more money from it, so they had the difficulty level cranked way up so the average game would last 40 seconds instead of 2 minutes.

It was also the first game to feature voice synthesis, and somehow the combination just pissed you off... your game would be over in 30 seconds, Sinistar laughing at you sadistically saying "run coward, ha ha ha!" and you found yourself getting quarters again and again...

-Garret

patchworkcat wrote:

because General Practitioners in the UK can prescribe Pethidine easier than Morphone...

I think I need

patchworkcat,

it wasn't hard kicking, a runny nose and really bad flu like symptoms with some occasional cramps. But what really sucked was having no pain medication as an alternative.

The only reason I'm still taking narcotics, in my case Oxycontin and if needed Oxycodone is because I kicked and didn't use more. I had 100 pills left after going off Oxycontin completely. I had a drug store of the greatest hits of narcotics, Vicodin, Roxycodone, Tylenol 3's, more I don't even remember.

We joke about drugs and booze a lot but I've taken people I worked with to intervention centers for drugs and booze. Some took three tries before anything happened. Of my musician associates I was the only one not addicted to something for several years until I couldn't put up with the lead singer having me take him to the methadone clinic and then shooting up between sets.

So I take the whole thing seriously although I do think humor is ok, but I think a lot of humor is based on saddness and fear. I also think this is a perfectly reasonable way of expressing oneself.

I think jacking off is more addictive then anything... I do it like 6 times a day myself... I am so lonely aww that the spot

Bonteburg wrote:

Yeah well... what about the gazillions of alcies out there (quite a few definetely hanging out here too) or 100 000 + cigarette deaths a year (I'm a pack-a-day-man myself). While I understand that your personal feelings may be hurt..there is a German saying that goes "Humor ist, wenn man trotzdem lacht" (Humour is to laugh in spite of bad things) Marco

Germans know what humour is?!?!

Hey Marco! [and everyone]

x_bruce wrote:

BTW, has anyone who's posted have to quit a drug prescription or otherwise that had habituation or addictive properties, like narcotic pain pills?

Yes. My sister's now going through sheer hell withdrawing from a "harmless" little Xanax prescription she's taken for years. But it's not just the narcotics that are dangerous. I've been Rx drug-free now for three years, I'm proud to say, but was on all kinds of crap for decades...antidepressants, mostly. Neurontin is one of the most destructive drugs I've ever taken and I didn't realize how much so until I'd managed to wean myself off of it. It only took me a year.

Just because a doctor prescribes something for you does not mean it's good for you. The pharmaceutical companies want money, first and foremost, and most doctors know very little about the drugs they are pushed to push. I'm convinced I've suffered considerable brain damage from the "meds" I've been given. So be careful out there.

Xanax
what a pill
back in the early 90's I started getting some really nasty panic attacks and was prescribed xanax.
the panic attacks gradually became much less intense over the next 2 years but I was still taking that magic little pill for the next 5 years until I finally weaned myself off of them.

The lesson learned here is anything can have unexpected concequences. And that brings back the whole VST as addiction thing.

For some people with impulse control I'd say anything they get into can be a problem and if it happens to be VST instruments it can be a expensive diversion. Until the band's recent change to Sonar I had so many VSTis that it was becoming absurd.

My conclusions have been mixed. On one hand right now in DXi land the best synths are the most expensive ones for the most part. Fortunately and after selling off equipment and doing without most of the NI line resides on our computers. And although this could start another OT debate in this thread I do think NI has some of the best sounding plugins for the sounds I hear in my head. It also has the most comprehensive experimental tools via Reaktor. rgc:audio also resides in my DXi folder in z3ta and Pentagon 1 which I still think is a spectacular synth that has held up well since it's inception.

Maybe if I needed a great TB303 or hoover sound I'd be unhappy but that's not my thing.

Also, there are synths that I'd miss not using assuming the VSTi to DXi wrappers work for them. I have ways of using them but here's what I've realized. There are only so many synths and only so much time to explore. It is addictive and depending on how poor or wealthy you are it plays a big role in how destructive the impulse can be. So whether the thread was meant to be tongue in cheek it actually brings up a interesting point about what addiction is.

I'm not a new age kind of guy. People that destroy themselves over this kind of stuff need help and it's not out of the range of reality to expect them to get it. People have to accept responsiblity for their actions, even those with illnesses.

I never did crack but know too many people that have family and friends addicted to it. I've snorted herion a couple times. To be honest I get a better buzz off my pain meds. My one month prescription lasted me six months so it's not like I pop them like candy.

There are theories about addiction that go beyond on the couch shrinks asking how your parents damaged you. There are addictive personalities and they will have a pre-disposition towards certain drugs or things OCD type behavior manifested in any number of ways. People who buy 600 pairs of shoes? Record collectors that do without to get a perfect copy of a RCA 1962 performance by Fritz Reiner? Televison show theme conventions like Star Trek? The need to buy buildings, refurbish and sell? The need to become a star? It can be varing degrees and if channeled into something useful can be a good thing.

One person said to be driven may seem a lunatic to others. In our society we view doctors as more important than just about anything although the plumber is our best friend when we can't use the bathroom and our teachers are the least appreciated. One of my sister-in-laws took a ghetto school and made it into one of the schools Clinton visited for it's huge turn around. In it's neighborhood it is a safe haven from an otherwise lawless part of town. Some of my family think she is nuts for working there. Some probably think I'm nuts for sticking with music since I was 12 years old.

People up here at K-v-R have stated they make music because they have to. I believe many would become similar to someone kicking drugs - mood disorders, longing and unhappiness and general psychological pain. When my computer was messed up for a few weeks a couple years ago I was bouncing off the wall because I had no way of recording. The only thing that made me feel reasonable was knowing it would be fixed eventually, but I'm certain some people would become completely irrational in a similar situation just as I'm sure some would just say, I'll take care of it when I have the time.

So maybe there's more to what we call addiction than we thought and maybe it's not just a chemical thing but a cereberal thing too. And maybe on some levels it's perfectly normal as most of the people that have made history were driven, some mad. Maybe I'm reaching but I see patterns here.

putte wrote:

I for one didn´t have any contact with VST´s so far, and i´m glad about it. my parents and the teachers in school started very early telling us kids not to touch these things ´cause they are bad for us and our health. But i had a friend who was a VST-addict .... ! I tell ya - before he got into this VST-hell he was a rude and harsh agressive little young man. Then he used to go to electronic-hippie clubs and came back as a total friendly and nice VST-addict. (okay okay, i must admit that he was juts a vst-effect addict, not a vsti-freak. but well, that´s heavy enough me thinks.) So when i saw him i knew that i won´t touch this stuff from hell - we already started a huge campaign over here against VST and its supporters. putte

I know you're using a VST!


-realmarco
____________________
(signature)
how's about MACing it(get it? )

HeY EmAgIc MaKe EVD6 As A VsTi pLeAsE

they are ALL addictive.



I prefer vsti's though

Garret wrote:

Yes! Ah, nothing like the joy of finding out you're not alone in the world. I'm not sure how many folks around here were in the arcade in the early days of video games... but indeed there is and has never been a game quite like Sinistar.

And a good thing, too! If more video games were like Sinistar, they would never have become what they are today.

Note to MAME users -- get yourself a good analog joystick to play Sinistar. An 8-directional gamepad simply doesn't give you the same control.

-David, dusting off my old Gravis Blackhawk right now...

x_bruce wrote:

So maybe there's more to what we call addiction than we thought and maybe it's not just a chemical thing but a cereberal thing too. And maybe on some levels it's perfectly normal as most of the people that have made history were driven, some mad.

Definitely. I think obsessive-compulsive personality disorder(TM) is the trademark of all people who are driven to achieve something, whether they be musicians, writers, scientists, or pornstars - amateur and professional alike. There's NO other way to explain why one would spend thousand of hours messing with a computer...

BTW, watch Requiem for a Dream from Darren Aronofsky. Its examination of the mechanisms of addiction is exactly along the same lines as yours.

dingo wrote...

Quote:

obsessive-compulsive personality disorder(TM)

I wish I had the forsight to trademark more stuff.

'Requiem for a Dream' was one of the films I noted in the best soundtrack thread. I have the DVD but it's difficult to watch and yes, the themes covered are very similar to my take on this kind of thing.

Kajiki wrote:

I know you're using a VST! -realmarco ____________________ (signature) how's about MACing it(get it? ) HeY EmAgIc MaKe EVD6 As A VsTi pLeAsE

er Kajiki..whtcha doing with my sign and all


on topic, it no secret to most of you that once I was a heroin addict.

I'd be lying if i didn't say I miss it every day of the week especially when I order some pizza(!?!)

one thing I'd like to add to the debate is that you, don't become addict to substances,,your re-disposed to be it is just luck/judgment and opportunity that helped you guys become alcoholics and pot heads rather that smack addicts

if a child get born and is placed in complete and utter isolation from drugs bozze and glorification of the two(even with the other kids) he is still a drug addict..

scary eh!