Plugin Management

[Debutante]

...I've given all of mine a small rprefix so that similar plugins are all lined up. Choruses start CHR - Monstachorus and filters FIL - Ohmygod for examples ( and actually that prefix comes as FIL (M) - Ohmygod for a modulating filter). I used to name them according to manufacturer, but I still lost sight of alot of them. With small prefixes, when I want to pick a delay, or see if one would work, I am able at once to see all the options I have with the same prefix and try each one without having to go through the entire list of plugins isolating what i remember to be delays.

The only time you have too many plugins, I think, is when you are unable to manage them. I think you can have too many synthesizers, but not effects, ESPECIALLY modulation effects like choruses and phasers and lfo'ed filters. I have yet to come across two flangers or two choruses that I think sound the same. These ones always cut the spectrum very differently and cause different phase results depending on available controls.

If you have been doing this for a very long time and know exactly what you need then It's OK to delete all but 10 plugins or so. But if you are just starting and want to carve your niche into things then I believe you should learn to use and hear as many plugins as possible. As long as I can manage them properly, as a beginner I think I should keep my options open instead of limiting my tools to even more limited talent. As I get better, I will easily see the ones that are of no use to me whatsoever and know why that is so, and that is the most important part to me.