Have we now reached "peak plug in"

[martinjuenke]

Consume. Buy. Confirm. Submit. Reproduce.

Subscribe.

[chk071]

I believe we have reached 'peak synth' and now 'peak plug in' you can probably get 4-7 versions of any classic gear and at least one very good version of pretty much anything you can think of.

I get the distinct impression that developers are fearing the end is nigh. The deals are almost unbelievable this year. I have bought bits that have been very cheap and then got another 20-30pct off finding another coupon after a search. Such value.

There is nothing to want for anymore. If you have the funds for any plug in it is all there in top quality. We must be close to nothing else needing to be coded.

And the crazy thing.. none of it makes you create a better piece of music or composition.

Just some icing on the cake and well placed flavours, if you know what you are doing.

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.

It feels like BF was the last one that will ever be. What do you sell people who have one really good version of everything. And you know most have 3 !

In think I am covered for the average human lifespan.

It seems like they only have FOMO left to sell you. 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'm fed to the max, if that's what you're asking.

[lotus2035]

I limit myself (boom tssch) to certain plugin companies making a rule not to start any newer collections.
FL Studio along with most of the plugins from Melda Production, Arturia, IK Multimedia, a few things from Brainworx/Plugin Alliance and Native Instruments, iZotope (mergers abound) and everything from Tokyo Dawn.
If I am going to add something new it will be from these companies only. Although Plugin Alliance being more of a distributors are adding stuff all the time, would need to be careful with them.
Registered a freebie from UAD recently but that is not a rabbit hole I want to go down, same goes for Waves.
There are so many other companies releasing great stuff but objectively I really don't need anything else, the line has to be drawn somewhere.
GAS is a seperate entity to being creative but some confuse one with the other.

Edit: Just got two mails with offers from UAD and Roland Cloud while typing this. I feel like I'm being watched.

[egbert101]

They're coming for your wallet.

[miloszz]

I like making new sounds - I have no desire (and no realistic chance) to make a 'hit record.' I'm not worried about efficiency, peak alpha brainwave workflow, #grindstyle, whatever.

So I bought two versions of a Quantec Room Simulator. Why? Because they sounded cool. They're fun to use. One has freeze, the other one has added features.

[runagate]

No, not at all.

In fact I personally once had tried more VSTs than anyone, ever. Probably by a very large margin, back in the day.
I am currently missing literally dozens of DSP processes I once had in the olden days, back when we started warning that our ephemeral tools may need to be preserved somehow. Well, that didn't work out well.

Don't get me wrong, I also have a ton of brilliant new things that I never imagined existing. Our field is still in its infancy, however.

For instance, emulating analog gear is a waste of time as that gear already exists. The ADSR idea made sense in the era when there was a physical restriction on doing something more complex, something that more closely resembles how musicians perform expression on instruments. We've barely, barely gotten into the era where MPE is supported by some software, hardware and DAWs and that is by no means all that impressive of a protocol. I have not given up on replacing it with something better. CLAP, barely supported at all (inexcusable), is a step better for expression and modulation. MIDI 2.0 exists for android, iOS, Windows and Linux now, and a handful of hardware and one DAW. The fact that people don't seem to understand how big of a change in workflow MIDI-CI will make just proves the point that people who understand what is possible probably gave up caring long ago and went back to their physical instruments.

Sometime someone will release a concatenative synthesis instrument using semantic ontology audio characteristic metatagging and solve inverse problems with dynamic audio trait targets updatable in realtime and everyone will say oh why didn't we do that before?

We don't even have instruments as expressive as physical ones yet due to many chicken-or-the-egg issues and everyone stubbornly refusing to innovate, instead waiting to see what the market will do and then follow. This is partly the fault of the MIDI Association not doing what they should have until 20 years too late, of course. There will be a time beyond emulation where digital instruments and composition tools will be MORE expressive than current physical instruments (electric guitar, violin, etc.) with even more multimodal input controls and smart generation of branching downstream DSP module signal chains treated as coherent events, generators and effects communicating, dynamically updatable via modulation and expression in real time, reporting the results to all DSP modules in the stream, and even able to be called upon in real time to instantiate to add to the desired audio outcome.

I am well aware of the fact that almost no one will read, let alone understand, these things I say but anyone who is interested is welcome to contact me to discuss it anytime.

Again, this field is in it's infancy. I agree, though, that making more VA stopped being useful 15 years ago. I don't think anyone is going to make better quality ones than u-he or artruria anyway.

[Mind Riot]

I think AI still has a ways to go. But with the breakneck pace of technological development, how long before AI can compose a song that's indistinguishable from any of the other pieces of pop drivel out there?

Imagine if it had gone for a modern country song instead. That is such non-creative paint by the numbers shit music the AI probably would have nailed it on the first try.

[SLiC]

Yeh, plugin saturation has happened and a lot of companies will go under as so may of us have everything we need (several times over) and I cant believe there are enough new people taking up the #'hobby' to keep everyone going.

I will never need to buy another 'emulation' of old analogue synths, but when something new comes along I occasionally still buy, for example viewtopic.php?t=604436

[DCrown]

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

Reverbs?

Have any good reverbs been released recently? Let me know, maybe I will buy a fifth plugin haha
In my new 30 plugin folder I have Waves IR-1, Relab lex480 essentials and sunset sound studios reverbs, should be enough
(I had a long discussion with myself whether to ban Waves Renaissance Reverb, but it's gone now)

[gauderbock]

...a concatenative synthesis instrument using semantic ontology audio characteristic metatagging and solve inverse problems with dynamic audio trait targets updatable in realtime

Where do I buy now?

[vurt]

till the next doohicky comes along....

[jens]

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.

Exactly - plus if (say) 90% of all musicians would give up making music because AI "took their job" that would be a splendid thing in my book.

[Synthman2000]

"For instance, emulating analog gear is a waste of time as that gear already exists"

Not for $30-100 though. Same with doh...... I have to say it......... reverb.

Also

https://reverb.com/item/4939332-ams-nev ... viced-1580

I'll stick with my fave delays thanks.

Everything AI audio I have heard so far has been complete and total junk.

AI is as important as you make it. The cliches are sad, "This time next year".. "It's take over the word and kill us all" etc. Really ? Is there nothing in between, let's at least hear it next year before we pretend we know anything. My guess it will be junk 2024 version and so on.

I have no interest in it, nothing AI can over come my needs, they remain the same, whether altruistic or 100pct self indulged egotistical sonic pleasure.

It's all about me baby, not some number crunched, soulless, empty, boring, yes it's actually mind numbingly boring if nothing else, who cares if a robot can sing ? 11kHz low res mp3, cr*p bandwidth, getting it wrong mainly, garbage. Don't even get me started on the non entity which is AI pseudo DIY finalizing.

[DCrown]

I think AI still has a ways to go. But with the breakneck pace of technological development, how long before AI can compose a song that's indistinguishable from any of the other pieces of pop drivel out there?

Imagine if it had gone for a modern country song instead. That is such non-creative paint by the numbers shit music the AI probably would have nailed it on the first try.

Simply awful and soulless, but I saw more interesting examples AI Freddy Mercury singing Mj's Thriller song. Didn't impress me, but was interesting. A better result could have been by singing Thriller by yourself imitating Freddy's singing style, because Freddy wouldn't do this high uhs and ahs like mj or mj's breathing noise sometimes, especially these parts sounded strange. So imagine how Freddy would sing the song, sing and record, doesn't even have to be perfect and then let AI Freddy sing your vocals, I think this way the result would be better. Of course one would need some singing skills, but you wouldn't have to sing as good as Freddy

[Synthman2000]

AI in music is only going to be a thing if people who are incapable of thought buy in. Just don't buy in and that will be end of it in audio. You are the controller of AI in your life and that is it.

Let it do cancer screening scans etc. that's fine. But don't sign yourself off as incapable of being creative, if you do that's your problem to solve, no wonder people will be quiet about using it. It's like internal acceptance of being incapable of making something worth hearing. Don't let AI make that you.

I suppose the brain dead will think it gives them a creative edge that they are on the cusp of being something great. Wrong !

Now is your chance to up your game.

People want a story not mathematical regurgitation. Even the most straight electronic music can have a story, AI music is nothing.