What's the point of buying the newest plugins once you already have your bases covered?

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I acquired absolutely nothing (paid, freeware or otherwise) between around 2005 and 2012. I was making more experimental stuff at the time, with a workflow based around rendering absolutely every to audio then sequencing it. All the creative processing was done before it hit the sequencer. Once in the sequencer it was just basic stuff like compression and EQ. I felt like I had everything I needed to create absolutely any sound in my head.

I put my hand back in my pocket a few years back because I started making more 'synthy' music and so needed to cover a base I didn't have. Kind of ironic that the thing I was lacking was just high quality, straight synth tones.

Since then I've bought loads of stuff. I've kind of gone completely the other way, GASsing over upcoming synths that I've subsequently bought on release day. Not because I need them to cover a particular base. Perhaps simply because I don't make as much actual music as I used to and so playing with new toys is where I get my synth thrills.

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Let's put it this way: to fill my house with a hardware equivalent of every synth and synth product (individual rompler, drum machine, sampler, etc) i would have had to spend something like... I don't know... $100,000 in hardware, old and new. And that doesn't count the 10-15 grand pianos, the room full of guitars and basses, or the 20-30 drumkits... what else... oh, all those brass instruments... and ah yes, don't forget the various full orchestras! But just the synth hardware alone I would need to dedicate a full floor of my house. So why do I gladly drop $50 or $100 on the latest Legend or SynthMaster One when it comes out? Because I can! :)
You need to limit that rez, bro.

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I mainly buy plug-ins for that new synth smell.

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jbw wrote:I mainly buy plug-ins for that new synth smell.
:D

Still waiting for the smell simulator device, would also be great for games, and stuff like that. Especially for VR, that would make sense.
Last edited by chk071 on Tue Feb 21, 2017 11:41 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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As far as effects go, I'll never buy anything again. Eventually after about 10 years of mixing/sound engineering and the whole time thinking "my music isn't good enough because I haven't bought the right things yet" I eventually just felt I was there, meaning: radio quality production values (or close enough to) from my home studio, and at the same time realizing it was never about what gear/plug-ins you use, it's just about skills and knowledge. I use fruity loops so even though I've got thousands of dollars worth of plug-ins (waves and so on) I normally just use the basic built in parametric eq 2. Instruments are a bit different, but yeah, eq's, compressors, reverbs and such are all there, they all do the same thing... IN MY OPINION :hihi:

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chk071 wrote:
jbw wrote:I mainly buy plug-ins for that new synth smell.
:D

Still waiting for the smell emulator device, would also be great for games, and stuff like that. Especially for VR, that would make sense.
And after people get bored with that we can finally move on to nanotechnological digital synthesis. The kind of prototypical experience where people aren't only in full control of the synth, but become the synthesizer itself.

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jbw wrote:I mainly buy plug-ins for that new synth smell.
If you are getting strange smells when you install plugins, it's time for a new computer.
Ridan wrote: And after people get bored with that we can finally move on to nanotechnological digital synthesis. The kind of prototypical experience where people aren't only in full control of the synth, but become the synthesizer itself.
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It'll take some getting use to.

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kbaccki wrote:Let's put it this way: to fill my house with a hardware equivalent of every synth and synth product (individual rompler, drum machine, sampler, etc) i would have had to spend something like... I don't know... $100,000 in hardware, old and new. And that doesn't count the 10-15 grand pianos, the room full of guitars and basses, or the 20-30 drumkits... what else... oh, all those brass instruments... and ah yes, don't forget the various full orchestras! But just the synth hardware alone I would need to dedicate a full floor of my house. So why do I gladly drop $50 or $100 on the latest Legend or SynthMaster One when it comes out? Because I can! :)
 
^^ This! ^^

:D

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Hey, how can you have an economy if you aren't buying? Can't expect the 60-some odd billionaires to keep the economy going by their little old lonesomes, can we?

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MackTuesday wrote:For several years, most of the plugin releases I've seen have been rearrangements of the same concepts. Sometimes it's a new analog modeler, sometimes it's a new hybrid do-everything synth, sometimes it's a sampler, sometimes it's a physical modeler, sometimes it's a few selected parts thrown together. Nothing I've seen truly *sounds* new.

And when we hear innovative music, it's never because someone is using that new synth, it's because they're using their tools differently. When you go demo a new synth, you find it doesn't really do anything you couldn't get out of some previous one. And never mind listening to the demo music developers put on their websites. They really just show that the synth can do xyz kind of music you already care about.

And yet I see people getting excited about these new products as if the ones they already have in the same class aren't meeting some need of theirs.

Is it changes in user interface? Incremental improvements in sound quality?

What unsolved problems are the newest synth plugins addressing? Or what new results are they achieving?
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What's the point of buying the newest plugins once you already have your bases covered?
You dont have your bases covered. You are using old plugins. You need the newest plugins to have your bases covered. Ask any plugin company, they will tell you exactly the same.

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Old plugins tend to wear out and degrade in performance (also, frayed virtual cable can become a fire hazard).
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What's the point of buying the newest plugins once you already have your bases covered?
To me there's none :party:

There is no perfect plugin which cna do it all - and even if there was, it's good to try something new. Different plugins can inspire new sounds and techniques. But buying more of the same just because it's "new" - it's a waste of money to me. And time. I now use 2-3 synths for a track and it's well enough.

About effects... it's nice to have good effcts for any purpose, but I'm not the fan of having 20 physically-modelled compressors either. An effect can do what it is supposed to do or cannot, at the end of the day no one knows what was used to produce a track - only if the outcome is right.
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