Should we ditch VST/AAX instruments altogether?

[stoopicus]

we're all mad here

Ahh right, yes. That kind of mad. Ok, carry on, then.

[seafire]

Why would you ditch a useful tool? The end game is song writing, no?

Whatever gets you there... surely?

You can put restrictions on yourself if it helps, but, don't blame the tools....ever.

[jamcat]

We should go back to DX plugins.

[stoopicus]

Ensoniq Voice Crystals.

[egbert101]

No talent? I understand. There's always drone music.

[Zipede]

PS: better a boomer than a bummer.

I'm proud boomer too and sick of hearing people say modern music is rubbish, it's embarrassing.

To OP, The list of great modern artists is endless, almost too much choice. A bit like having too many VSTs can cause choice paralysis. But have a try, I think you'll find it's worth it.

Edit: I just checked boomer dates 1946-1964 and it seems I missed it by a couple years, maybe that's why I don't understand the original post.

[Zipede]

..

[audiojunkie]

(English is not my first language, fyi)

I know it might seem strange to ask this kind of question in this kind of forum, but there are some questions that need to be asked.

Lets say that our ultimate goal is to create music.
And lets say that we want our music to sound as humanely as possible.
Do we really NEED virtual instruments, or maybe it does more harm than good?

Here is obstacle number one:
Latency and quantization.

It doesn't matter if you are an 8 grade pianist, eventually when you record your performance via midi, you'll have even the smallest amount of latency (lets even say 2ms).
And then you'll have two choices:
Quantizing, or leaving the performance as it is, with the tiny delay.
Each option will ultimately not be 100% identical to your original performance, as it could have been if it was recorded with a real piano via microphone, or with an external synth via direct audio signal.
When recording with midi, you are going to sacrifice some humanity in your performance, and any attached "fixes" are still mechanical in their nature and won't be 100% identical to your natural, instantaneous performance.

Obstacle number two:
Way too many options.

Do we really need Kontakt Komplete, Sampletank MAX, Omnisphere, or any other gigantic vst that includes thousands and thousands of sounds, just to create a song?
How many sounds do we need in a song, anyway?
How many instruments Bach needed to create Toccata and Fugue in D minor?
How many instruments The Beatles needed to create Strawberry Fields Forever?
How many instruments Queen needed to create Bohemian Rhapsody?


Lets admit it: modern music is mostly rubbish.
The vast majority of the greatest hits in popular music were created way before the invention of digital instruments.
Is it possible, that the endless amount of possibilities, perfect editing options etc just shifted the focus of musicians from writing the perfect song, to chase after the perfect sound and production?
Maybe having some limitations is good for creativity?
Maybe one keyboard and one guitar is all we need these days to create a good record?

I think we reached an absurd time where we have companies that are excited to announce that their product "includes over 14,000 sounds!" or " a massive 600 GB of sounds and over 18,000 instruments" as if its a necessity to create music, and an endless amount of customers who are willing to fill in their credit card number in order to get their hands on another piece of code that produces sounds which the majority of it they'll never need, hear or use.

How come companies made us believe that having 600 GB of sounds is an advantage instead of a hindrance?

How many brushes Picasso needed?
How many tennis racquets Rafael Nadal uses in a game?
How many balls Lebron James need in the court?
How many many balls Messi use in a soccer game?

Pink Floyd didn't use 600 GB of sounds to create The Dark Side Of The Moon, why should we?

I know it might seems like an old man yells at cloud type of rant, but trust me I ain't old at all.
And even if I was it doesn't matter.

I think it's time to admit it that some of us became sound collectors instead of music creators.
I know that in some way, I did.

I hope that I made some of you ponder a little bit about this whole concept in some deeper level, and maybe reach some new conclusions.

Personally, I decided to walk away from virtual instruments for the time being.
Maybe one guitar and one external keyboard is all I need.
There is something liberating with knowing that you have a limited amount of options.

I swear I didn't feel so free in a long time.

First of all, you speak better English than I do with my second (Spanish) and third (Korean) languages. I fully understand and appreciate how hard it is to adequately transfer what I mean to a non native language. I applaud your extensive efforts on this post.

That said, while I may not agree with some of your argument points, and I don't think we need to do away with plugins, there is definitely something to be said about liberating yourself to increase productivity. I'm a long-time KVR member, and I used to collect plugins specifically for their presets. I had hundreds of plugins. When I wanted to sit down and create something, I would spend all of my time playing with various presets. In the end, almost always I would end up with nothing to show for my time spent. Sure, I had fun, but it wasn't very productive.

After many years of doing this, an epiphany hit me--I'd get more done if I stopped collecting presets and focused on getting to know an essential set of tools, so that I could know how to make the exact sound I want.

I simplified things. I stopped collecting plugins, and focused on getting the best quality plugin for the type of sound I want, and with the easiest interface for accomplishing what I want. I now have a small handful of tools that I like and know well. I feel that I am much, much more productive than I used to be. I still look for plugins, but I look for them in a different way than I used to. I look for tools superior to the ones that I have, so that I can replace a plugin with a better one. In order for it to be better, it must excel beyond the quality and ease of use of my current plugin that is to be replaced. The number of plugins that I use remains small, even if I replace one of my tools with a better one.

In addition to that, I've started trying to treat my music like I did in my old garage band days. I haven't been in a band for over 20 years, but I remember how productive we were when we had limited equipment. The guitar player basically had his guitar, the bass player his bass, the keyboardist the keyboard, the drummer the drums. I try to work around a core group of instruments to build up a song. I may swap sounds later, but it is easier for me to initially stick to a core set of instruments to build my song. So, in this sense, I can understand how liberating it is to not have to be a "preset kiddie" and be able to immediately grab the right simple tool for the job and just get it done.

So, in answer to your question, no, I don't think we should get rid of plugins. The tools I currently use in my laptop are better than the $100,000 studios of the past, and I'm much more productive than I used to be. But it's important to accept that everyone works differently, and not everyone will agree with my personal methodology.

Best wishes!

[JerGoertz]

This is what we should be playing, not VST's

[seangm]

del

[El°HYM]

Not if its an old telephone.

[Atlatnesiti]

OP forgot to mention AU’s - I guess he doesn’t have clue what that is
I would like to hear his music-minus computer though…

[seangm]

Not if its an old telephone.

So it's ok as long as we're using Omnisphere v1? That's a relief, need to dig up my old installer CDs.

[El°HYM]

No, like an old telephone which was analog.

[jancivil]

...absurd, because music isn't really about recording and preserving the absolutely best possible quality, it's just about humans interacting and playing music and singing in a ritual.

What's absurd there is this severely narrow definition of music and somebody thinking to define it as such for everyone else. And it's as though caring about sound (a big part of why I bother) violates some ethos or loftier ideal. Bullshit. My music is about itself, the idea is to be creative using sound, musical sound perhaps primarily.

Also here's the fallacy of argument from tradition. I've heard my father talk highly about singing in the Church tradition, I never have, it wasn't how life was for me and I felt no need to seek it.
It doesn't mean I'm doing something other than music, how stupid. I'm not recording and preserving artifacts from another activity either, the recording is the activity. Maybe get out of that cave and embrace more of the world as it is.

also, an old telephone is still electronic technology allowing communication to occur artificially as it were