Here's a brief email article that I received from Joe Gilder's "Home Recording Studio" (Free) Newsletter.

Reposted with his permission. Thanx, Joe.

Got an email from one of my new Understanding EQ customers.

Anthony, who started out with recording on mostly all-analog setup, is now getting his feet wet in the digital world. He writes:

"Everything seems to be made way more complicated than needed, plus hundreds of plugins. I spend more time messing about with the software than getting any music done!"

Here was my response, which I thought would be handy to share with you today:

--

I feel your pain. The best thing you can do is limit your options.
Rather than 100 plugins, find yourself ONE of each of these:

• 1. EQ
• Compressor
• Reverb
• Delay

Get REALLY good at those, and you will

a. have more fun and

b. not get bogged down with all the software options.

If I could add anything else to that list, I'd throw in a limiter and maybe a good distortion plugin.

But to be completely honest, most of my mixes use only those 4 plugins, over and over and over...

--

So, there you have it. If you CAN'T get great mixes with only those four plugins, something else is wrong.