Software Hoarding

[jamcat]

A lot of demoing instead of accumulating. A better option comes out years later? Replace one of your current plugins with it instead of adding more.

What do you mean by "Replace one of your current plugins with it instead of adding more"?

I do that in my songs, but not in my plugin menu. For the most part I'll still keep my old plugins installed, unless they're abandonware. I've already spent the money for them.

[zerocrossing]

A lot of demoing instead of accumulating. A better option comes out years later? Replace one of your current plugins with it instead of adding more.

What do you mean by "Replace one of your current plugins with it instead of adding more"?

I do that in my songs, but not in my plugin menu. For the most part I'll still keep my old plugins installed, unless they're abandonware. I've already spent the money for them.

[mjolnir]

I feel that the hoarding is driven by no single plugin being good enough for most or all of the work.
Too many plugins come with B.S. presets shrouding a few awesome ones. And they used to come with say, 50 presets, now they come with like 350.
So the problem is getting worse.

[rod_zero]

Synths, we have several full featured synths right now as Pigments, Serum 2, Vital, Phaseplant, and Zebra 3 soon, I honestly find it hard to justify having more than 2 from that group, too much overlap, and GUIs among them all are good.

I have all of those plus several more than are considered flagship "full featured" Synths

Do they have some overlap? Sure but there is also lots of stuff that the others don't do that is unique in each one

Even flagship software is inexpensive compared with hardware and you can build up your arsenal over several years and take advantage of sales, those unique things each one does are with the price of admission, all the other stuff that overlaps is just a bonus

If you can make use of those unique features, more power to you.

To me the simple fact of learning more than 2 of these powerhouse synths is a lot, like I wanna get a good grip of the character of the filters, the differences between their granular engines, and so on but it is quite time consuming

[Uncle E]

To me the simple fact of learning more than 2 of these powerhouse synths is a lot, like I wanna get a good grip of the character of the filters, the differences between their granular engines, and so on but it is quite time consuming

MiniFreak and Blofeld are pretty good for getting a lot of those capabilities in easier, more intuitive packages.

[IvyBirds]

If you can make use of those unique features, more power to you.

To me the simple fact of learning more than 2 of these powerhouse synths is a lot, like I wanna get a good grip of the character of the filters, the differences between their granular engines, and so on but it is quite time consuming

On average I have purchased one or two a year, taking advantage of Black Friday and Summer Sales. You can learn quite a bit about a synth in 6-12 months time

So for example of job want to get a good grip on the character of the filters you most certainly don't need more than. 6 months to do that. If you want to know the granular engine again you would have 6-12 months to do so

So take advantage of a summer sale and those will be coming up in a few months so buy one. Steinberg and UVI typically run really good Summer Sales. So get HALion of Falcon. Spend the next 6 months learning the filters, the granular, the Wavetables, or whatever. When Black Friday rolls around you should have a really good feel for everything that synth can do. Then check out what is on sale and what features they might have that your current flag ship doesn't and if that might be cool. If it is buy it. If you feel you still don't know the ins and outs of the one you got over the summer don't buy anything. Then repeat the process during the next big summer sale

Since you will know the first one really well by that point you will be able to tell if the overlap in the new synth is better or worse than the overlap in the old synth

For me I end up with the "gold standard" of each synthesis type. So for me when I want to use granular on VA or Samples I will reach for Omnisphere that's my hold standard that I compare all others to. I know Omnisphere's granular engine really well, I have controllers mapped to the controls I use the most, it's awesome. For FM it's HALion7, for Analog stuff it's DIVA, for presets and tweaking them it's Falcon with the UVI Soundwares, etc

The key is to spread your purchases out over time so you can really learn one before you move on to the next, and understanding you don't have to use all of it all the time, but instead focus on what that synth does better than anything else

I would buy HALion7 again just for the FM, and just for the Resynthesis/Spectral engines. I would buy Omnisphere again just for the sample library and granular and the awesome pads and sound scapes I can make. Etc

[Funky40]

These days, the only music "gear" that anyone really needs is one general-purpose synth plugin like Omnisphere, one flexible analog modeling synth plugin like Diva, one software sampler (take your pick from Falcon, HALion, or Kontakt,) and maybe one "sound design" / cinematic synth plugin like Zebra (or swap that out for a software modular if that's your thing).

hmm, and some next dude will chime in and say:
all you need to make music is a guitar and a microphone. ....the dude makes country.

What was your music again ?



To keep it short: my one is different !

[jamcat]

In Soviet Union, every comrade is rationed one general-purpose synth plugin, one flexible analog modeling synth plugin, one software sampler, and maybe if you are in Politburo, one "sound design" / cinematic synth plugin.

[JerGoertz]

No physical modeling synth?

[martiu]

No physical modeling synth?

chromaphone 3, buy now

[djanthonyw]

A lot of demoing instead of accumulating. A better option comes out years later? Replace one of your current plugins with it instead of adding more.

What do you mean by "Replace one of your current plugins with it instead of adding more"?

I do that in my songs, but not in my plugin menu. For the most part I'll still keep my old plugins installed, unless they're abandonware. I've already spent the money for them.

Meaning if you acquire a better option, you sell or delete the plugin it's replacing. Finished projects should be bounced to audio so there are no issues opening old projects.

[pekbro]

To me using the same plugins over and over, is boring and uninspiring. The same with instruments, I could never do with just one guitar or synth.

[Uncle E]

To me using the same plugins over and over, is boring and uninspiring.

DIVA is 13 years old.

[pekbro]

To me using the same plugins over and over, is boring and uninspiring.

DIVA is 13 years old.

So are my socks, what does that have to do with anything.

[seafire]

I thought it was older than 13.... Z2 is 20 tho.