How to pare down an overgrown plugin collection?

[cleverr1]

A feature that would really help here would be where DAWs allow the user to create masks so if you choose to you only get to see the plugins in the mask you could select when you start a new project.

Like Cubase then.

and at the same time! It's easy to find once you know it's there.
Choosing what to put in the simplest set will be a sort of desert island disks challenge

Thanks Dude

[Mushy Mushy]

and at the same time! It's easy to find once you know it's there.
Choosing what to put in the simplest set will be a sort of desert island disks challenge

Thanks Dude

Yep, I love it. Keeps my plugins neat, tidy, shortlisted and presented exactly how I want them. I only have one list but you can create multiple should you have a need to do so (projects perhaps).

Re creating the shortlist: that's easy. i just started with it empty and only added when I needed a plugin. And even then the question was made whether it's likely a one-off use or repeated.

[menolin]

I have an old laptop that I demo plugins on and leave all the shite on that one. Any big purchases or plugins I'm going to use a lot I put on my main laptop.

[clipnotic]

I had the same "problem", because I bought very much the last years from the most know companies. My solution was to lay down some rules for me.

Rule 1
Sale everything I don't use since 1 year

Rule 2
Never buy again VSTs from companies if:

- License Transfer Fee is over $10
- copy crotection with hardware dongle
- pedantry copy protection
- bad support
- support forum deletes posts
- overpriced upgrades
- to much time for or no bug fixes
- bug fixes only with payable upgrades

And that rules are really great, because at the moment I'm thinking about to buy just one new plugin!

[macmuse]

A feature that would really help here would be where DAWs allow the user to create masks so if you choose to you only get to see the plugins in the mask you could select when you start a new project.

Like Cubase then.

Could you explain that please? Am still somewhat new to Cubase.

[Mushy Mushy]

A feature that would really help here would be where DAWs allow the user to create masks so if you choose to you only get to see the plugins in the mask you could select when you start a new project.

Like Cubase then.

Could you explain that please? Am still somewhat new to Cubase.

In the Plugin Manager you can create custom lists including folders and you can place the plugins where you wish. For example, instead of listing 500 Waves plugins due to the duplicates I have only the stereo ones in the Waves folder and the mono, etc ones in a seperate folder.

So you could create a list per project, a list per function (ie, mastering), a list per artist, whatever you want.

[macmuse]

Ahhh, I see. Thank you very much! List per project, great idea, particularly to keep track of what plugins have been used (and need to check the project) before I sell them. (Which is something I eventually want to do because there are too many).

[MMaarrkk]

I guess FL has your favourites. Which helps to at least access your goto plugins, but having an ability to do folders would be really nice.

[ztrauq]

I had the same "problem", because I bought very much the last years from the most know companies. My solution was to lay down some rules for me.

Rule 1
Sale everything I don't use since 1 year

Rule 2
Never buy again VSTs from companies if:

- License Transfer Fee is over $10
- copy crotection with hardware dongle
- pedantry copy protection
- bad support
- support forum deletes posts
- overpriced upgrades
- to much time for or no bug fixes
- bug fixes only with payable upgrades

And that rules are really great, because at the moment I'm thinking about to buy just one new plugin!

That's a great set of things to consider, thanks for sharing those!

I guess FL has your favourites. Which helps to at least access your goto plugins, but having an ability to do folders would be really nice.

I've been using a similar feature on Studio One to at least narrow down my favorite instruments so I can have them on hand quickly. As I've been looking at things I've definitely been able to divide things into more general go-to plugins, and ones that I have around to do a very specific thing, which I may not need all the time but when I do need it, I need it.

Just for fun, on the old machine I took all the plugins out of their folder, then only put back in the ones I recognized and didn't go "meh" when I looked at the name. Only around 50% went back in...