Have we now reached "peak plug in"

[egbert101]

30 is still A LOT. It's amazing how much our G.A.S. and hoarding gets out of control. Honestly, I have so many plugins over ten years, probably hundreds.

[Synthman2000]

Don't dismiss the power of human emotion, ego and experience, we are arguably egotistical enough to destroy our own ability to inhabit our planet, that is a deep level of ego right there, wrong yes, but undeniably, incredibly powerful. Accepting AI is going to take over and decimate the value of human endeavor might be more revealing of ones own sensibilities.

Being a tad cold maybe ?

Not as a personal attack but if you accept AI as if it is game over it suggests the link between all human emotions, endeavor and great music must have quite a low value to some.

The universe is not cold hard data, physics and maths. That's our constructs, it may apply and be extremely useful but it is not experienced reality. When we or our loved ones are on our death beds we are not thinking.... This is totally cool... this is just thermodynamic equilibrum and entropy playing out.

Let's not forget cooperation. So much incredible music came about from collaboration.

Most people like a story, far fewer, the result of numbers.

[DCrown]

30 is still A LOT. It's amazing how much our G.A.S. and hoarding gets out of control. Honestly, I have so many plugins over ten years, probably hundreds.

Believe me, the amount (the rest) I moved to external drive was a lot haha

I don't regret having more plugins than I use or need, it's a hobby, a passion, so it's ok.
Even if I sold all plugins for the same price I once paid, I still couldn't buy a Lamborghini.

[audiouser720]

I think there are still not enough reverb plugins

[egbert101]

True, did anyone ever think or consider to make a reverb plugin ???

[drsyncenstein]

True, did anyone ever think or consider to make a reverb plugin ???

the time has come for someone to remake some reverb plugins!

[foosnark]

I get the distinct impression that developers are fearing the end is nigh.
...
It feels like BF was the last one that will ever be.

I think that's overly pessimistic.

The market has been saturating and maturing over the past several years for sure. This isn't a bad thing, it's just a lot more difficult for developers to be first at anything and better is a higher bar every year. It's not a gold rush but there's still room for creativity and character.

Certainly the market has been difficult this year, with post-lockdown sales slump and the economy generally being in the toilet for much of the world.

But I don't think developers fear that everyone is just going to stop buying plugins.

I prefer to think of this as a golden age of software, not "the end".

You can buy what you need to make a world class hit with $600.00 now, software wise, maybe even less, a great eq, comp, reverb delay, chorus and some special bits.

You can, but this has been true for many years now.

And a lot of us don't stop at $600 As much as people like to talk about "tools" this industry is, for the most part, not about what people need. It's mostly a hobbyist market. As long as developers can make stuff that fascinates us, they'll be able to sell that stuff.

I think now I am going to be the most cautious I have ever been about buying anything cause it is going to have to absolutely blow me away to buy anything now.

I've been thinking that way about synths for a few years now, particularly since getting back into hardware. I really don't need anything that covers the same old ground. I have dozens of synth plugins but can count the ones I actually use regularly on one hand.

I've been more open to buying effects, but after a few years of that I'm getting sated there too. (I was especially a sucker for characterful delays and reverbs (yes reverbs) but at this point, there are just two specific things I wish for that no developer has yet granted.)

Still this year I spent about $150 on softsynths, $350 on FX, and another $300 on miscellaneous stuff (Bitwig renewal, Entonal Studio, Seqund, VCV Rack modules). And the instant that Sumu and Myth drop I'm going to be scooping those up.

[paramita123]

There will be innovation in the controller space.
Keyboards and midi controllers for synths have improved, but not enough yet for controlling guitar FX.
I'd like something like an Expressive E foot Touche for controlling my BIAS FX 2...

One cool thing would be to develop a plugin based on webcam where you'd move your arms to modulate synths.
That could launch lots of silly tik tok videos though haha!

[jamcat]

That already exists in several forms.

[DCrown]

A casette tape recorder (no plugin, hardware!) with the option to record and use up to 32 cassettes, with effects (no autotune please), all in-and outputs one would need and some other features would be cool

[Bombadil]

I just grabbed Soundtoy's free Little Plate. Quite decent.

So, the answer seems to be, nöööö.

[rasmusklump]

Buy now

[egbert101]

Consume. Buy. Confirm. Submit. Reproduce.

[HOTF]

there will always be place for new creative and unique plugins but yeah emulations of old hardware units is getting saturated.

[martinjuenke]

This year I bought 4 fx plugins.
I think it was a good decision

Reverbs?