Stock vs. third-party plugins: Which do you use more?

[holonology]

Nice thread idea, with increasing relevance today maybe?

I think we all know how simple life can be with a DAW and stock only tools. Open unflattened old projects, be lean on your CPU, and take the creative limitations for a spin. There's also a lot less brain power needed to achieve certain things once you know your way around, which is helpful for writing. I use Ableton, and I am always impressed at what it offers, but despite what some might say, it does has its own vices and approaches that may or may not gel with the music you make. For example, the subtractive synths to my ears sound mostly pretty and they have a sortof crystalline digital sheen almost regardless of which one you use. There are subtle differences of course. But as a DAW designed for live use, it prioritizes low CPU over processing power, and the big benefits of plugins are generally a bigger array of useful presets, a more intuitive/fun interface, or easier access the richness that stock either doesn't do (or requires extensive work to get there.) Essentially you're buying options, fun and sometimes a faster process.

Like a lot of people, my approach to this has changed over time skewing towards fewer plugins. Initially, I was excited by all the possibilities of plugins and I went off into the vast wilderness of options, exploring, testing, buying, using etc. I never fell into the "gamechanger" trap, because anyone who writes knows that the tune is more important than the technique behind it for the most part. But for sure I fell into the IKEA trap (aka "oooh that's interesting") more than a few times. The idea of no plugins appeals, and I sometimes do projects with nothing but stock, though eventually I find myself reaching for something outside of stock.

There days, I tend to go for stock stuff when writing because it's easier. Then I will experiment by bringing in plugins to build on the idea and add variety or richer sounds to the picture. The ratio does change. But overall, I'd say mostly stock for anything uncomplicated and vanilla, then I'll use a rotating cast of tools for adding additional sonic options or just to switch things up a bit. It varies, but overall it lands somewhere in the 50/50 mark.

I think it's mostly about what inspires you. There are a lot of ways to make music, but the most important thing is to enjoy the process. If that's stock only or sound designing yourself - that's great. But equally, if it inspires you to rotate through a bunch of different synths and presets then go for it.

[pekbro]

For me it depends on what I’m using, if I’m using Live, I use stock stuff way more than plugins. I use them in Reason, FL Studio and
Reaper as well, but way less than with Live.
In Bitwig, Studio One and Mulab, I don’t really
use them much, if at all.

[jamcat]

I’m using the new Tuner2 in Studio One 7.2. That’s about it.

[nirm123]

Stock are usually better

[lwj]

IKEA trap. Hahaha, I’m gonna borrow that.

I barely use stock plugins, but it’s worth mentioning that most of my sound is hardware based so I don’t really look to plugins for any kind of character or sound magic.

So it’s all about workflow and getting a good enough result quickly and nothing beats Fabfilter in that respect, imo. I like that pro-c and pro-q let me do almost anything I want in a single, very familiar interface.

The moment I have to audition different plug-ins to find the perfect sounding one, I zone out massively and forget what I was after in the first. Random other stuff I hear while auditioning plugins, samples or presets will grab my ear and take me out of the flow.

Keeping myself in that flow state while I’m working is way more important than some aliasing or having a different nuance to my snare compression or whatever.

Not dissing anyone’s workflow, but the workflows most people seem to use don’t really work for me. But figuring that one out has been the single biggest creativity and productivity boost I’ve had.

[lavastudios]

I voted equal preference as I use the stock EQ and compressor in Pro Tools much of the time. Rarely use stock reverb though, and often use saturation from a 3rd party.

[Igro]

Almost never stock. Too generic., I guess they never spent too much time on them while developing. Unless they are standard sounding (Tremolo, AutoPan etc)

[Ah_Dziz]

I use them all quite a bit. When I'm using bitwig I have all the modulation so those types of features are redundant. Also most eq can be made dynamic and any effect can be made into a compressor/ expander with a envelope follower.

[davincikillsme]

Third Party. But if I would start again I would Stick to Stock more

[counterparty]

I use Logic the most, and get a lot of use out of the stock tape delay and stock compressor (when I want clean digital-sounding compression). Most of the other stock plugins have 3rd party alternatives that sound better to me. I do sometimes build out a track using stock plugins when I know I'm going to give it to somebody else who needs to be able to open it as-is, but usually I would finish it off by replacing a lot of the stock plugins afterwards.

[ROTMetro]

I think the first post nailed it, specifically for Ableton. You can use stock (in Ableton) to do most everything, but between the interface and preset system it's hard to personally get to the ability to do that what starting. Third party get's me close with presets, and presents things in a way I can see what is different with the preset that works and learn. Ableton is really hard to understand it all. It's great and efficient once you know it, but it's tricky to learn on, and almost impossible to jump between two instances of an effect to quick see 'oh this is doing XYZ, which is why it works here'.

[Ah_Dziz]

The answers to your survey are very much set like one is better) worse than the other. There are many reasons to use a tool over another. I'm perfectly happy with with either host or 3rd party plugins if they do the thing I need them to.

All other things being equal I'll use the host plugin over a 3rd party plugin. They are often more efficient and less graphics intensive. Things are usually not equal though so it's mostly a toss up for me.

[Tracewidth]

I love a stock EQ. If I ever had to cut or boost with Pro-Q, I don't know what I'd do with myself.

You hear me, Fates? Do *not* conspire to land me up with a bunch of free/gift FabFilter software !

[ramseysounds]

Yes

[rasmusklump]

Since I am a Cubase user and steinberg has the worst history of abandoning stock plugins I only use third party plugins to maintain a long time project compatibility. Paradox.....