I believe I've contracted severe freeware-pluginitis.

[AsPeeXXXVIII]

Up until last night, I had a measly 20+ freeware plugins in my VST folder. Now, as a result of browsing the KVR Audio database for a "few" more, I have 50-something.

I don't even know what I'm going to do with half of them. I just went on a spontaneous downloading spree. But then again, I suppose having so many plugins has the benefit of more choices when it comes to producing...

It's like waking up after a rough night out with a raging hangover and no memory of what happened. But it's also oddly exciting at the same time - there's a whole new sense of opportunity that comes with it. I can't wait to slap all those cool new reverbs and whatnot onto a track and see what they can do.

In case anyone's curious, the plugins I downloaded are as follows:

• Anubis 2
• Baxxpander
• Big Clock
• ClipStar
• COMPAKT Simple Bitcrusher
• Compressor AC1
• dirty harry
• Doppler Dome
• DSK B3x
• DSK Brass
• DSK Chaos Theory
• DSK Darkness Theory 3
• DSK DreamZ
• DSK Strings
• DSK TechSynth
• DSK ThoR
• DSK World StringZ
• Elottronix XL
• EVOL
• Feldspar
• Gorgon
• Horus
• JP7A
• jsCompShaper
• Lokomotiv
• Lucid
• Osiris XT
• Regressif
• S.A.M
• Sprike
• Uno FM
• Vesta
• Zebralette

[Michael L]

You don't even know what you're going to do with half of them?

There's a freeware app for that!

Its called Inspiration and it was developed for the 2012 KVR Developer Challenge:

"Inspiration is an application developed to stimulate the creativity of music composers. Influenced by Brian Eno’s Oblique Strategies, and techniques described in several books about songwriting, Inspiration allows its users to get random, more or less abstract advice that can provide ways to handle the blank page syndrome, new “cooking recipes” to create music in general, ideas to develop or finish your last song, write a lot of music in a short time, take different musical paths...."

It is quite cool.

https://musicalentropy.wordpress.com/20 ... on-kvr-dc/

[slipstick]

Can't see the problem. I must have downloaded hundreds of freebies. Then I check them out. Then I delete most of them because they don't offer anything special over and above plugins I already had and know better. But occasionally I find a real gem. I think the last one was Tone2's Firebird which now turns up, at least in the background somewhere, on most of my tracks.

OTOH I do sometimes feel like my main hobby is plugin testing rather than making music. But it's a hobby. If it's fun who cares ?

Now to go and find some "Inspiration".

Steve

[Multicellular]

Make a little note file or, better spreadsheet, including
Name of plug
Date you downloaded
Last date you actually used it one in a finished song

That or a good folder organization in your DAW.

Not like they take up any significant room on your hard drive, but they can take up a lot of time messing with stuff just to mess with it.

I regularly use 20 or so freebees. But I once had this disease bad and had 100+ on the HD.

[Nielzie]

Buy a Mac and/or go 64-bit only and you can cross the fast majority off your list

[Jace-BeOS]

Buy a Mac and/or go 64-bit only and you can cross the fast majority off your list

This is exactly what helped cure me of the disorder of VST collection. I'm glad, too. It was like hoarding. I had gigabytes and hundreds of plugins, and was hardly using any of them. I bought a Receptor to move all those things there... ha ha ha ha, Receptor, ha ha ha... Didn't work for many plugins, and then the power supply died.

[kamalmanzukie]

you must understand, this is not with much hope of a cure. think of it as entering a new phase in life. the only real thing to do is to horde to near compulsion until well after it is a problem and begin your recovery after the inevitable shitshow. three years minimum

[sqigls]

Sounds like SOMEBODY'S got a case of the... 'Freebie Jeebies'

[funky lime]

You'd best not check out vst4free.com then...

Some of the best stuff out there, in my opinion, is free. And with a decent bridge (thanks, Reaper), even those 32-bit SynthEdit/SynthMaker plugs (Hello Bootsie) can be permanent fixtures in your virtual studio.

Some of my most-used plugins are 32-bit freebies from years ago. ArcDev ET-301 is my favorite "dirty" delay. Bootsie's EpicVerb will probably never leave my hard drive. SimulAnalog's Univibe still sees regular use. Hell, I even use a couple Antress plugins now and then. And the Random functions on Oatmeal or HG Fortune's synths yield consistently usable results. We've been spoiled for at least a decade now with amazing free plugins.