I removed most of my plugins

[machinesworking]

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.

Yep, my only super minor complaint is all U-He synths should have Zebras 4 XY macro section.

Rhizomatic might have my favorite version though, the Macro section allows for universal cc controls so you're not reliant on building up parameter macros in the DAW, but of course you can if you want, and not have to deal with the jumping that cc automation does.

[liquidsound]

I upgraded to Reason 13, it was $70…
I had no idea it was going to have a major impact for my music.

I removed all my current installed DAWs (3 out of 13 I collected in the past) and, at the same time, a massive amount of plugins (focusing on the Reason arsenal) and keeping only Serum, Diva and TAL U-No-LX.

Fabulous experience so far.

[crimsonwarlock]

I removed all my current installed DAWs (3 out of 13 I collected in the past) and, at the same time, a massive amount of plugins (focusing on the Reason arsenal)

That's basically what I did a few years ago

[jancivil]

How many plugins there may be in a folder notwithstanding, I use the same few instruments all the time. I have a few I haven't used in a while, but I started a project with a nice patch in Reaktor Kontour which I know fairly well last week.
In mixing from resulting printed audio 2-files I use iZotope Neutron frequently lately (offline processing that I commit to). It accounts for 9 plugins including "Neutron 4" proper (and that many licences).

[liquidsound]

I removed all my current installed DAWs (3 out of 13 I collected in the past) and, at the same time, a massive amount of plugins (focusing on the Reason arsenal)

That's basically what I did a few years ago

But we all need to wait for “The Appointed Hour”

[crimsonwarlock]

But we all need to wait for “The Appointed Hour”

I guess that's an Eno reference. But the relevance escapes me atm

[liquidsound]

But we all need to wait for “The Appointed Hour”

I guess that's an Eno reference. But the relevance escapes me atm

Closed to Biblical

[BONES]

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.

That's really interesting because my attitude to Arturia Collection is the exact opposite - I never reach for them because I have alternatives that might be a bit more effort to use but sound better to my ears and are, therefore, worth some slight hassle. In fact, buying the collection was probably the biggest blunder in my plugin buying life. I have literally never used any of them for anything. I haven't even bothered installing them the last few years. Same with Pigments. I should probably sell 'em, it seemed like a good deal at the time for $200 but turned out to be nothing but a waste of money for me.

OTOH, the Korg Collection was worth every penny, just for ARP Odyssey and ARP 2600. We use Prophecy a bit and now and then we might trot out MonoPoly or PolySix for something or other, despite them having tiny, unresizable GUIs and fairly basic patch management.

The UI of the Arturias is near perfect, I agree. The included effects and "technical additions" are well thought out and often spot on.

Actually, that stops me from using their SEM V. I find the extras useless compared to bx_oberhausen or GForce's SEMs. Even Cherry's SEM works better for me than Arturia's.

Cherry Audio is another company I reach for more often lately.

Cherry is a bit hit and miss but their good stuff is really good, despite cheap feeling GUIs and poor patch management.

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.

That's only true for me since I discovered a decent skin for Hive. I f**king hated Hive until I found Ploki's excellent GUI alternative. The RePros also annoy me, I still can't make heads nor tails of the stupid supplementary "Tweaks" controls. Dumb f**king idea that stops me from ever thinking about using them.

[DrGonzo]

Cherry is a bit hit and miss but their good stuff is really good, despite cheap feeling GUIs and poor patch management.

Yeah their patch management is very rudimentary and their UIs are not as sophisticated as u-he/Arturia - but I've gotten used to them. Even the browser. The first synth I bought from them was their Juno 106 clone and initially I felt it was incredibly weak sounding and dull - but after some serious dedication with it I got the tone and its nuances and how to push it in fun ways. I don't want to say I prefer it to the Arturia Juno - but the Arturia feels a bit too sugary for me. Recently I've started to look into their Dreamsynth - which is like a weird combination of an old Kawai rompler with weird PCM waves and an analog poly. The interface is really huge and messy but the sound is damn fantastic.

[yoursoul]

I upgraded to Reason 13, it was $70…
I had no idea it was going to have a major impact for my music.

I removed all my current installed DAWs (3 out of 13 I collected in the past) and, at the same time, a massive amount of plugins (focusing on the Reason arsenal) and keeping only Serum, Diva and TAL U-No-LX.

Fabulous experience so far.

wait for when you realise in a few months that you actually just need one good sample pack and one synth.

[Vortifex]

I just built a new PC and I'm tempted to start with a clean slate as far as my plugins go. It's difficult though, because the list of synths I'd really hate not having isn't a short one:

Repro 5, TAL-Mod, TAL-U-NO-LX, TAL-BassLine-101, Corona, Viper, Massive X, Minifreak V, Phonec 2, Abyss, OB-Xtrem3, Amigo

All of these sound different to each other, and none of them can successfully mimic any of the others.

The ones I will never get rid of are Viper and the TAL synths. The rest I could live without but I would miss them badly. I guess the minimal life ain't for me.

[liquidsound]

I upgraded to Reason 13, it was $70…
I had no idea it was going to have a major impact for my music.

I removed all my current installed DAWs (3 out of 13 I collected in the past) and, at the same time, a massive amount of plugins (focusing on the Reason arsenal) and keeping only Serum, Diva and TAL U-No-LX.

Fabulous experience so far.

wait for when you realise in a few months that you actually just need one good sample pack and one synth.

I think that with $70 I’ve got that fairly covered

[BONES]

The first synth I bought from them was their Juno 106 clone and initially I felt it was incredibly weak sounding and dull - but after some serious dedication with it I got the tone and its nuances and how to push it in fun ways. I don't want to say I prefer it to the Arturia Juno - but the Arturia feels a bit too sugary for me.

The only Juno emulation for me is Softube's Model 84. I don't know if it sounds like a Juno or not but it has a beautiful, subtle tone that I don't hear in Cherry's or Arturia's.

Atomika is the first Cherry synth I have really found a use for in our music and it got me trying out a few others, after writing them off early on. Thier free SEM is not terrible and I quite like their Pro Soloist, which I've used in a few places recently.

wait for when you realise in a few months that you actually just need one good sample pack and one synth.

The thing is, with software being so stupidly cheap, it's not about "need", we can all have anything we want. Today any of us can be like the guy with a wall of guitars in his home studio - he only needs one guitar but he likes having a collection, of which he is rightly very proud, prominently displayed so everyone can see how big a wanker he is. But as long as you're slightly ashamed of the enormity of your plugin collection, which is most of us, I think you're probably OK.

The ones I will never get rid of are Viper and the TAL synths. The rest I could live without but I would miss them badly. I guess the minimal life ain't for me.

I keep forgetting how special Viper is, I really should use it a lot more than I do. OTOH, I have TAL-Pha but it doesn't really do anything for me. I think I mostly bought it because everyone seems to love TAL synths but I find it quite ordinary. It's not terrible but it's nothing special, either. I'd probably use Korg's PolySix over it most of the time.

[eluherlu]

Believe me, it is just a 'phase'.. 'bored phase' in this creative world.. sooner or later you'll change your mind again

[harryupbabble]

i'm forever stuck in the classic rock phase

bass
guitar
drum
vocal

maybe a bit of
synth