Which vsts to keep?

[aallvor]

Hi!

I'm having a hard time sorting the wheat from the chaff so to speak, when it comes to my vst folder, and it's seriously halting my productivity..

There are about 80 of the buggers now, all freeware, but I don't know which to keep, cause they're all worth having, more or less..

So, a challenge; If you were to have only 8 vsts (fx), which would you go for?


Cheers


A

[MrM]

Only 80 so far?

Why do you want to keep 8, are the other ones not good enough?

As you said it yourslef ; they're all worth having.

[arke]

depends on the host you're using and what it provides on VST effects ... maybe just get the BetaBugs bugpack. Between that and your host you should pretty much be set

[aallvor]

Only 80 so far?

Why do you want to keep 8, are the other ones not good enough?

As you said it yourslef ; they're all worth having.

Well, initially I had somewhere between 120 and 170..
Point is, no, I want to trim it down to an absolute minimum, and then learn those inside out. Hence the challenge. Again, if someone pointed a gun to your head and said 'you can keep 8', which ones would YOU choose?

I'm not asking anyone to do the job for me, just some general tips and pointers..



Regards,

A

[aallvor]

depends on the host you're using and what it provides on VST effects ... maybe just get the BetaBugs bugpack. Between that and your host you should pretty much be set

Interestingly enough, I actually removed the Betabugs, so there you go..

Am using Renoise btw.

[elwood]

How about this strategy: Try and see what you can do with only the host's plugins. If and when there is something you can't do with them, try a corresponding 3rd party plugin to see if it gets the job done better.

[arturmeinild]

With only freeware, the ones I keep are: A nice selection of free Amp simulators, BuzComp free, Auto/Sidechain Gate (slim slow slider), North Pole, PLParEQ4, Luxonix LFX-1310, Glaceverb, Pianoverb, Voxengo free, Kjærhus Classic series, Nomad Factory free and those from Spirit Canyon...

[MrM]

Well suppose some person pointed a gun at me, handed me some really good song, and said; "listen you f#@$, you may only use 8 fx..'

I would gladly use 8 of the http://www.kjaerhusaudio.com/classic-series.php series.
I would skip the EQ, my host can do EQ well enough...

[foosnark]

Well suppose some person pointed a gun at me, handed me some really good song, and said; "listen you f#@$, you may only use 8 fx..'

I'd say "go ahead and shoot me."

[MrM]

Why, said person handed me a 'really good song'

...such a song doesn't need FX anywayz, bother!

[declassified]

Seems like nobody else here likes keeping their number of VSTs on a minimum. I really like it, because I can load up any of the (about 20) effect plugins I have and know how much I should tweak which knob...
If I could keep eight of them, they'd be:
smartelectronix ***scope (both of them, they count as one for some reason)
digitalfishphones dominion (essential for snappy drums and especially for keeping the transients when you're distorting)
Elevayta FreEQ Boy (E S S E N T I A L)
NyquistEQ (hard to keep your eyes on it because you'll be distracted by your CPU meter)
Frohmage (for the sound)
Blockfish (puuummpppppp)
Some distortion plugin (I tend to switch them once per month)
revolverb (because it's so simple and so flexible at the same time)

[shamann]

Well, I would never want to do with only eight effects. I often use more than that on one track. But, I'll play along, and even restrict it to freeware. Eight plugins I wouldn't want to be without and could get along quite fine with:

e-phonic Retrodelay
Kiesel FreeDelay
Obertone Filterbank
Devine Machine minion
Ohm Force Frohmage
12th Floor ChromaDelay
Audio Damage Fuzz+
Noizware TriDirt

Effects are like my musical lifeblood, so I have hundreds around, and that's after getting rid of most of the crap.

[Warmonger]

These Kjaerhus Classics:
Delay
Chorus
Compressor
Auto-Filter
Reverb
Master Limiter

and

Smartelectronix Supaphaser
Elemental Audio's Inspector

Honestly, I use more freeware instruments than freeware effects, so it was hard finding 8 effects that I couldn't live without.

[Hink]

I minamized my vsts...but I didn't get rid of any, I just save them on a cd

[Meffy]

This might work. Move ALL your plug-ins to a "holding" directory. Now when you start a project, see which ones you feel must be copied back into your VST directory to do any serious work. There ya go.