Way too many plugins and choices - Need advice to fight GAS/Huge plugin folder

[AcrossTheSky]

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What's the % of freebies?

[Raddler1]

Never heard of that problem before.

Maybe read the user manuals of all your plugins and see what you discover.

I can only imagine you're being sarcastic.

[pekbro]

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What's the % of freebies?

Hmm, there are of course a few things I like, I would say, under 3 %.

[seafire]

Delete everything save one synth, and start writing songs. Once you have a dozen ideas, gradually introduce new synths to fill out sounds that you need to meet you vision


You really don't need more than 6 plugins.

[noiseresearch]

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[pekbro]

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no duplicates?

Out of curiosity: what was the first plugin you bought?

I do have dupes, but they are not installed. I prefer to use only one format, where ever possible. vst 3 at this point.

first plugin, hmm, probably Amplitube or Maybe Guitar Rig, amp sims are what got me into
buying plugins for sure (the whole computer music thing in fact). Both of those were
3 or $400 ea at the time too. I had them all.

[cdbaksu]

Yeah about delays... I just checked and I currently have f**king 36 of them.
Still, I use a naming/ordering system with prefixes (inside the DAW) which visually puts them in very specific groups and sub-groups, based on their style, purpose, workflow and "complexity".
So, despite having to look at quite a long list, it still takes just a few seconds to pick one.

That's a lot of delays! Which ones are your favorites?

Yeah that's a lot, definitely too much.
BTW right after I wrote that post, I deleted one, so now it's 35. MUCH BETTER


About favorites, it depends on their "category".

For general purpose it's either EchoBoy or ValhallaDelay, although I know you can get "experimental" with those too.

For "vintage" sound/workflow and delay+reverb combos I like AudioThing's OuterSpace and Audiority's SpaceAge555.

PSP42 and SoundToys' PrimalTap specifically for the sample-rate modulation trick.

ADA STD-1 and Audiority's SpaceStation get quite a bit of use, not for standard echo duties, but for how well they're suited for "vintage digital" early reflections.

UVI's Relayer is pretty great for multi-tap pattern editing.

For more unconventional stuff there's "weird yet simple" plugins like ValhallaSupermassive, AudioThing's Bubbles.
It gets a little more complex through sound mangling and unusual modulation, there's stuff like UA Fault/Sandman, AudioDamage's OtherDesertCities, Melda's MSpectralDelay, Soundtoy's Crystallizer.
Then u-he's MFM2 is quite complex but fun routing-wise, and especially fun in "user matrix" mode.

Several plugins are not stricly delays but they have an "echo" section with a pretty defined character (like AudioThing's Wires/Reels, Plogue's Chipcrusher or Eventide's H910/949 harmonizers), so they still appear on that list.
Eventide's Undulator (not strictly a delay) is also really underrated in my opinion, and it can sound f**king amazing.
Quadravox is also pretty cool.

Other notable mentions... Audiority's DarkMemory and VRS23, AudioThing's Mantis.

So the choice basically depends on what kind of sound/effect is required, and the amount of complexity I feel like dealing with at the moment.

Thanks for the recommendations! I'll keep an eye out for some of these, they sound fantastic!

It seems I only use 11 on a regular basis with PrimalTap and the Galaxy Echo type ones overlapping with yours. I do love SSL's X-Echo and X-Delay, Baby Audio's Comeback Kid, D16's Repeater, and Imaginando's K7D though. They seem to be popping up in most of my projects lately.

[Michael L]

Never heard of that problem before.

Maybe read the user manuals of all your plugins and see what you discover.

I can only imagine you're being sarcastic.

I am actually the first person to ever recommend RTFM as the cure for GAS.
You learn how to do more with what you already have.

[vurt]

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1820 less than that.

[Funky40]

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that´s alots. glad i´m not alone I´m now also above 1K
#@anonympluginaddicts

but: looking at "get info" vs. my plugin folders, these numbers can´t be correct !
I recently installed "unifie" (host). and i just saw (at last second) how it was installing HUGE amounts of plugins. At least that´s how it was looking to me.

My plugin count is several hundred plugins above of what should be. I have NO clue how comes.
somebody must have hacked my mac and would load plugins onto my SSD

[billinder33]

Going into Black Friday, felt like I need more creative delays. So I just spent the last couple of days demoing Melda MTurboDelay and realized I only need one.

Crazy versatile. In terms of sound design, it's basically endless.

[jobinho]

Lots of good plugin recommendations in a thread about avoiding new purchases.

[HenkDeWegWeg]

Selling all best ones one you own and keep bad ones, then you can enjoy again in the next 5 sales, more pleasures again to buy.

[Big DAW Audio]

It seems like you have enough plugins already to get the job done. As others mentioned, try adding 1-3 plugins for each category (distortion, delay, reverb, etc) to a collection and only use those plugins for your productions. This should be plenty and will limit the mental overload and issues that comes from viewing your full list of plugins. Only add plugins to this collection that you've used in the past year.

[CrystalWizard]

Buy, Buy, Buy. Who has time to create anything with all those plugins to buy and figure in. Seriously, put most of them in a folder and use the others until you know them inside out. Then take a few more out of that folder. I know, it's heresy...