What makes a plugin "dated"?

[bermudagold]

So many reason to still use something like this nowadays as there's nothing like it anymore...

If you can bang out a tune that can be played in a dance club of say, 500 people, using this VirSyn app then more power to you.
Maybe one day it was capable and that's fine but these days you better bump.it up a notch if you want to get past the bedroom tweaker making chiptunes and ring tones.

nonsense...plenty of old plugs hold up today...some even surpass...the whole virsyn suite are some of those

[Sound_Bear]

Things that make a plugin "dated" as of 2025:

- it has a VST2 but not a VST3 version
- it exists in 32 Bit but not 64 Bit
- it has not received support updates in a long time
- it has been installed a long time ago on your computer
- it has been uninstalled a long time ago on your computer
- it has been uninstalled recently on your computer

There's at least one long thread discussing substantiated gripes with VST3, and the last two items make you sound like a bot.

[RirtualViot2013]

Things that make a plugin "dated" as of 2025:

- it has a VST2 but not a VST3 version
- it exists in 32 Bit but not 64 Bit
- it has not received support updates in a long time
- it has been installed a long time ago on your computer
- it has been uninstalled a long time ago on your computer
- it has been uninstalled recently on your computer

There's at least one long thread discussing substantiated gripes with VST3, and the last two items make you sound like a bot.

Thank you for informing me of the VST3 thread.
Have a nice day, Sound_Bear.

[jethrobull]

Always check the expiry date. Your mix could suffer if at least a few hours old.

[whyterabbyt]

Always check the expiry date. Your mix could suffer if at least a few hours old.

If in doubt, use 'touch' to update your mix.

https://www.man7.org/linux/man-pages/man1/touch.1.html

[jethrobull]

Always check the expiry date. Your mix could suffer if at least a few hours old.

If in doubt, use 'touch' to update your mix.

https://www.man7.org/linux/man-pages/man1/touch.1.html

[VOODOO U]

So many reason to still use something like this nowadays as there's nothing like it anymore...

If you can bang out a tune that can be played in a dance club of say, 500 people, using this VirSyn app then more power to you.
Maybe one day it was capable and that's fine but these days you better bump.it up a notch if you want to get past the bedroom tweaker making chiptunes and ring tones.

nonsense...plenty of old plugs hold up today...some even surpass...the whole virsyn suite are some of those

I repeat:
If you can bang out a tune that can be played in a dance club of say, 500 people, using this VirSyn app then more power to you.

[lwj]

It’s only dated if you can’t use it anymore because it doesn’t run. In terms of sound: trends are cyclical, quality is contextual and subjective, most people don’t give a damn about sound quality, generally.

[eLawnMust]

Tons of desktop dabblers use 'dated' shit... Very happy with it... Not an intelligent subject... I have heard some say 'samples' are dated... Stupid comment.... Do you bounce tracks? Do you render your song to WAV? Then you are making/using samples...

[Bobtime]

There's some fairly obvious technical factors that have been mentioned, i.e, VST2, 32 bit, not native apple silicon (or latest OS version).

But also, bad GUIs (and ones that don't scale to modern resolution). As much as most of us like to say we don't care how the plugin looks, usability is a big deal for workflow, and for being able to jump straight in and find what sounds good.

[eLawnMust]

Well, I was laughed at back in 2009 for wanting to make music on a netbook... But nowadays people are doing it on phones or using 4 foot screens so I still don't know what a 'modern resolution' is... Is it the phone size or the desktop size?...

And what about the 'offset'?... Some spend untold thousands on the music stuff & might fudge a small edge where a guy who buys 10 dollar laptops off ebay might not be far off from the pro setup...

Personally i am not too impressed by a good tune done in a 200K studio by a 'crew' I would rather listen to a perhaps mediocre tune done by someone on a netbook in a Beijing slum using solar power, QWERTY only input & certainly none of this shitty AI 'collab'...

[stoopicus]

Dated doesn't mean bad. For example, Microtonic is *still* the best drum virtual instrument

I'm being completely serious though. Would anyone argue against using Diva (or even Tyrell N6!) today?

[swilow11]

Tons of desktop dabblers use 'dated' shit... Very happy with it... Not an intelligent subject... I have heard some say 'samples' are dated... Stupid comment.... Do you bounce tracks? Do you render your song to WAV? Then you are making/using samples...

Very clever. Spotify is my go to sampler then.

Obviously by samples, people actually mean 'samples created by other people'.

[Bombadil]

I'd go with 32 bit, and the limitations involved.

Say, Miroslav 1. That sounds dated.

[eLawnMust]

Tons of desktop dabblers use 'dated' shit... Very happy with it... Not an intelligent subject... I have heard some say 'samples' are dated... Stupid comment.... Do you bounce tracks? Do you render your song to WAV? Then you are making/using samples...

Very clever. Spotify is my go to sampler then.

Obviously by samples, people actually mean 'samples created by other people'.

Really?... I make all my own samples since I sample every semitone, there are others out there doing same shit... I don't use anybody elses samples I create from sampling output of VSTi... So it's not so 'obvious' but ipso facto if you are bouncing a track or output to WAV you are thusly working with 'samples' it's a broad term...

As to 'dated' yeah it certainly don't mean 'bad' as old versions often sound just as good as new versions... Recently making a portable version of Psycle & testing some old plugs to use...

-ImpOSCar version 1 from 2004 sounds just as good as current...
-Synlenth1 version 1 sounds just as good (maybe better) than current...
-Vanguard 1.1 sounds just as good as any later version (about 20 years old now)
-Near 20 year-old version of Twin2 sound just as good as new...
-20 year old version 2.4.8 of Crystal sounds just as good as newest...
-Arguru's Voyager which is probably 20 years old sounds just as good as many modern Synths...
-Early version of Diva sounds just as good as newer (what 15 years old)
-All the old TubeOHM stuff sounds as good as anything else (modern sound)...

And these are much more efficient versions 32bit I guess peep don't believe it unless they see their CPU spiking up when hitting notes...

"Wow!!...CPU spiked up to 62% that means it's gotta sound good!!"

Yeah and that's with 16 cores & 32 GBRAM hell all I use is 32bit XP machines are anywhere from 1.25-4 GB RAM 1.6-2.2 GHZ single or dual core... Some gotten off ebay for as little as 10 bucks....

Problem is that nobody is doing the new-old testing like me otherwise they would be shitting their pants....

Now to take efficiency to the 'ultimate' level I make soundfonts every semitone sampled from excellent VSTi then load those up into Reason 3.0.4 NN-XT & it takes quite a bit just for CPU to show as the efficiency is so high... I have tried but there's NO VST system or DX system that matches this or even close... The synths are very good too hardly bump CPU at all...