I removed most of my plugins

[havran]

This is absolutely true! I largely got over my stage fright through this. I used to obsessively worry myself sick until my bandmates pointed something out that stuck with me. To paraphrase, they said, don’t worry if you forget the lyrics or play a wrong note or sing off key. The audience won’t even notice most of the time. Instead of freezing up, keep going! Keep singing! Make crap up! Just keep giving the audience a good show. There were times when I forgot the lyrics and just made crap up that didn’t make any sense. Or, I would encourage the audience to sing along. Or I would do something silly to make the audience laugh—I gave them a good show. I had several times where I thought I had done my worst show ever, only to have audience members come up to me later and gush about how great the show was. This convinced me of the truth and did wonders for my confidence!

Nice!

[havran]

So i had a writers block for some time now and decided to uninstall a lot of shit to see if something happens, it did, less stuff more creativity, it is like magic, you use only stuff you like and you are familiar with and no more paralysis from endless options.
It is hobby for me that i love and i dont need much, i am not making very complex and wild stuff anyway, i dont want hard to make, i want easy and to have fun, and less is more for that.
Please consider doing the same to be happy

Thank you, Mr. Anderson.

[jancivil]

I don't really think about "finished" or not finished, it's more that I know when it's good enough to go on an album. It's more of a "that'll do" than anything. But I know that a year later I won't be happy with it any more. That's just the way it goes.

I hear that. There's a saying as regards mixing, there are no finished mixes, only abandoned mixes.
So TBH I have gone back, in a couple of cases to things on my first album yrs ago and re-EQ'd some things and so forth. Some of it is hopeless, but some people like it
But once a fan asked me to keep one version public knowing the chances are good I'll upload a revision. They prefer it with the visualization & I don't sell the video.
So for them that piece is finished so stop already.

But, in terms of a composition I'm saying there is a point where nothing can be added and nothing can be subtracted from it. There was one mistake in something I care a lot about I finally wanted to sort the other day, but the only help for it [project corruption no one yet understands*] was surgical time-stretching of a two-file which was probably a waste of time.

* Update: VSL sorted it for me, I was able to go back to the thing, everything just like I left it.
("GPU Power" in MIR Pro is not compatible with it connected to a DAW in Rosetta 2 translation mode). Still imperfect but less of a cringe. I'm NOT going back to correct it in MIDI.

[pekbro]

It would take me too long to remove all my plugins...

21.1 gb vst 3 folder, replicated in a slightly smaller vst 2 folder. I do need to get rid of the bulk of the vst 2 though, also... I use clap format as well.

[BONES]

But, in terms of a composition I'm saying there is a point where nothing can be added and nothing can be subtracted from it.

We're not even sentimental about that stuff. If I buy a new plugin and it's got a really good patch that I can work into an old song, I'll happily add it as an extra part. That said, I think we're much better these days at making sure a song has everything it needs before we put it on an album. But 20 years ago we didn't have half the things to throw at a piece that we have today, and I was much narrower in my thinking about a lot of that stuff back then, so there will always be opportunities to add stuff to old songs. I think if the time ever comes that I can listen to an album a year after its release and still be happy with it, it will be time to give the game away. But while we continue to learn and grow, we'll keep ploughing ahead.

[jancivil]

Shit, I don't have anything from 20 yrs ago. All I had was Absynth, Reaktor Session and Kontakt before they appended a number to it. I did keep some of it in a different form but like you're saying new & better things had to apply, the originals sucked.

The things from 15 yrs ago, some of it I 'remastered' and sounds pretty good, some of it is 'yikes, was I deaf'.
I have enough output that very much going back and caring a lot ain't happening. I rarely do anything except EQ a two-file, and I've been close to obsessive, behaviorly doing that. I take a long time to do anything so "finished" is a concern.

[DrGonzo]

Creating "Systems" is a similar approach. Decide on a handful of plugins for a project and just stick with them during the creative phase. When the song/album is done, put on your Producer Hat and open the doors for all other plugins to widen the sound. Works equally well for hardware.

But the key is really to stick with a few plugins, or sample libraries.

[crimsonwarlock]

But 20 years ago we didn't have half the things to throw at a piece that we have today, and I was much narrower in my thinking about a lot of that stuff back then, so there will always be opportunities to add stuff to old songs.

How about 40 years ago

The latest track I did (mastered it 2 weeks ago) is a remake of a song I wrote (and performed live) in 1985. The 'new' version has all new instrumentation and a new and extended arrangement, that lifts it way above the original version. Obviously as a result of having things available now that I could only dream of back then.

[BONES]

Yeah, we've done that a couple of times with our "signature" song, SHOkNOVA. There are definitely a few of my songs from the 80s I'd be open to remaking from scratch, if I could find the time.

[machinesworking]

This comes up all the time. I'm a maximalist absolutely, on the laptop I have 500 plugins, and the desktop is near 700. Some of this is due to plugin collections, most is 24 years of collecting.

It's been the same for 40 years. I've always been most productive with a new set-up. When I bought a new workstation or a new hardware synth, I'd write a few songs in the first few months but by the time that set-up was 18 months old, I couldn't get any more out of it so I'd go and spend a few grand on something new, to get the creative juices flowing again.

I do relate to this to a degree, the shock of the new motivating. I don't know how many synths I bought because I wrote a song with the demo?

One thing though, it's not 500 plugins worth of songs. I do recognize that the cheapness of collections of plugins brings me dozens of plugins I never use. My only culling though is more about selling the ones I can sell that I don't need or use. In terms of getting choice paralysis and even the impetus to buy new plugins because it sparks creativity I realize how much of that is just cheap parlor tricks. It's all in my head.

[machinesworking]

One more thing, I'm at that level where if a plugin doesn't have a decent browser, with easy preset changing via up and down arrows, a resizable GUI, and some sort of Macro parameter section, I'm not going to be that impressed by the rest of it's features.

[chagzuki]

The latest track I did (mastered it 2 weeks ago) is a remake of a song I wrote (and performed live) in 1985. The 'new' version has all new instrumentation and a new and extended arrangement, that lifts it way above the original version. Obviously as a result of having things available now that I could only dream of back then.

That's nice. I'm in a similar process, redoing a few things that are 20 years old. The tools are so much better, my mind can do stuff it didn't back then, but also my mind was doing things back then that it can't do now. The old material is a time capsule to a unique moment, and now with a fresh perspective I can bring out the best in it.

[BONES]

One more thing, I'm at that level where if a plugin doesn't have a decent browser, with easy preset changing via up and down arrows, a resizable GUI, and some sort of Macro parameter section, I'm not going to be that impressed by the rest of it's features.

Those are all nice to haves for me, nothing I can't do without and, in general, none of them would affect my decision to buy or use a plugin, although they might stop me buying something really expensive, where you expect a bit more.

[machinesworking]

One more thing, I'm at that level where if a plugin doesn't have a decent browser, with easy preset changing via up and down arrows, a resizable GUI, and some sort of Macro parameter section, I'm not going to be that impressed by the rest of it's features.

Those are all nice to haves for me, nothing I can't do without and, in general, none of them would affect my decision to buy or use a plugin, although they might stop me buying something really expensive, where you expect a bit more.

I have at least 150 virtual instrument plugins. The average quality of plugins is so high at this point that if the interface is bad, tiny or presets are hard to navigate I'm not likely to reach for it. This isn't even that conscious of a decision, case in point, I've owned three Xils synths for over ten years now, and I rarely use them, they sound fantastic, no doubt, but the interface is so poorly designed that i just don't reach for them. Compare that to Arturia, I think most of their V Collection sounds pretty good, but not amazing. I think the interface is near perfect, resizable GUI, decent preset browser, low CPU hits and OK touch screen performance. In DP the built in synth is pretty cool to me for a lot of things, but the GUI is a postage stamp, so I rarely reach for it.

[DrGonzo]

The average quality of plugins is so high at this point that if the interface is bad, tiny or presets are hard to navigate I'm not likely to reach for it. This isn't even that conscious of a decision, case in point, I've owned three Xils synths for over ten years now, and I rarely use them, they sound fantastic, no doubt, but the interface is so poorly designed that i just don't reach for them. Compare that to Arturia, I think most of their V Collection sounds pretty good, but not amazing. I think the interface is near perfect, resizable GUI, decent preset browser, low CPU hits and OK touch screen performance.

The sound of the Arturia plugins is really good, but not excellent in any way. I know the sound of the real TB303 in my bones, and while the Arturia Acid V gets into the ballpark, it really doesn't cut it as a 303 emulation. But is it good enough? Absolutely. Would I use it? Without a doubt. All parts sum up to a great experience.

The UI of the Arturias is near perfect, I agree. The included effects and "technical additions" are well thought out and often spot on. I'm not a big fan of the included presets generally speaking though. For complex synths like Buchla and the 2600 I feel them trying to be "too cool" and technically impressive rather than useful. Cherry Audio is another company I reach for more often lately.

Still. Working with u-he synths is an experience I prefer above both Arturia and Cherry any day. Making sounds with u-he is like coming home.