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

[Michael L]

I really hope you didnt just want to hurt my feelings with your comment.

No.

I gave you a thumbs up because I agree about “retail therapy” but in the fighting-GAS spirit of this thread presented a way to feel less sad without buying.

Marie Kondo is famous for that, do you know?

(I tried it myself a few times. It’s difficult because plugins are intangible but I do think it’s the best way, because you need to connect plugins to your personal joy in making music with them, which can get lost in kvr consumerism.)

[El°HYM]

Me usually takes a screenshot of the plugin just to stare at it, like for hours. After some time it gets boring and a little while further you will discard your GAS with this supreme zen mind of matter tech, which is also called the cliffhanger technique.

[Michael L]

Good technique, because you take the time to get in touch with your own feelings.

It's easy to forget one's own artistic identity when one focuses attention too much on others' work, like plugins and presets.

[Zeisner]

If you are still hanging on to 32-bit VST2 plugins in 2025, you may have a hoarding disorder, which is far more concerning than GAS.

What's wrong with 32-bit VST2 plugins? If you don't need the VST3 audio/MIDI routing (because your host already handles that) or the extended memory address space per plugin (because none requires more than 4 GB RAM) there's no reason to switch (except GAS of course).

There are plenty of great 32-bit VST plugins which have no 64-bit VST3 version (or equivalent) either. A good example would be latency-free buss send/receive plugins which can be controlled via VST automation. You can also do some interesting things like frankensteining your own DLL out of several plugins with container wrappers (which is great to make custom channel strips and for shortening your plugin list even further). I like having this level of freedom and control. It would be great to have that with 64-bit VST3 plugins too, but either it's technically not possible or no developer cares about coding stuff like that anymore. That's why I keep my 32-bit VST2 plugins to this day.

[SoftSynthLover99]

Buying the wrong plugins causes the vast majority of GAS I think. If you go for the cheaper option and it doesn’t really do “X” properly, GAS kicks in and you end up with 20 delay plugins that are just OK instead of maybe 2-4 delays that for sure are best in class and have you covered. I have zero GAS for delay plugins because I went Soundtoys and Eventide early on and if I can’t get good delay tones with those it’s probably not the plugin that’s at fault. Heck, just Echoboy alone is pretty much all the delay I need 99% of the time.

Analog emulations? Get the UAD plugins. Not much else beats them if anything. Surgical tools? Fabfilter etc etc.

95% of the plugins available are not worth buying and when you realize that, GAS is less of a thing. What you should look for is the 5% that IS worth buying/owning and “filter” out the rest

[audiojunkie]

Can it load VST3 and VST2, esp. old ones 32 bits?

If you are still hanging on to 32-bit VST2 plugins in 2025, you may have a hoarding disorder, which is far more concerning than GAS.

LOL The lack of HiDPI/4k resolution scaling on those old apps cured me years ago.

[Zeisner]

Analog emulations? Get the UAD plugins.

Did they fix the aliasing in the meantime or is it still as bad (Context)?

[jamcat]

If you are still hanging on to 32-bit VST2 plugins in 2025, you may have a hoarding disorder, which is far more concerning than GAS.

What's wrong with 32-bit VST2 plugins?

They were made to run on a processor with less power than your phone, and a screen with fewer pixels, too. And you can hear it.

[SoftSynthLover99]

Analog emulations? Get the UAD plugins.

Did they fix the aliasing in the meantime or is it still as bad (Context)?

Nothing to really fix as all plugins have some form of aliasing. And I don’t hear any audible aliasing when I’m mixing with them especially the 1176 collection which IMO is the closest to the actual hardware that I also own. I run all my sessions at 96/24 or higher sample rates to avoid such issues anyway.

All those aliasing measurements are useless in the end. If you turn the plugin on and it sounds better ON than without, who cares! I remember people were saying Decapitator by Soundtoys was bad because it had aliasing issues, yet Decapitator sounds awesome and is used in great mixes and productions since it came out.

IMO tools like plugin doctor are used to drive people’s GAS through the roof! If UAD and Soundtoys have any measurable aliasing, then it’s safe to say aliasing within these limits is a non issue.

[sandandpaint]

I have just started using the free version and so far find ProducerGrid a very hand utility for using and understanding what plugins I have - 434 of them which is probably a few too many but not so bad considering they have accumulated over 20 years

https://producergrid.com/

[jobinho]

The real demo period for a plugin occurs after you've bought it, maybe months later you can determine if it's worth using again and again but 15 days will never reveal that to you.

So rather than getting annoyed at 'wasted money' or 'buying the wrong plugins', accept this is part of making music, if you dont use a plugin sell it or uninstall it and move on.

[lobanov]

Can it load VST3 and VST2, esp. old ones 32 bits?

If you are still hanging on to 32-bit VST2 plugins in 2025, you may have a hoarding disorder, which is far more concerning than GAS.

32 bits VST2 in Notion? A note taking app?

If you don't understand irony, it's even more serious than hoarding syndrome and GAS combined.

P. S. Some people in some circumstances may need plugins from the past. If they need to open an old projects. With synth it may be important.

[SoftSynthLover99]

The real demo period for a plugin occurs after you've bought it, maybe months later you can determine if it's worth using again and again but 15 days will never reveal that to you.

So rather than getting annoyed at 'wasted money' or 'buying the wrong plugins', accept this is part of making music, if you dont use a plugin sell it or uninstall it and move on.

I disagree. I can usually tell right away if something is gonna fit into my workflow or gonna be worth using. Even when something is extremely complex and can do a lot that I won’t fully understand until months later.

The key really is to buy the right plugins or gear so you don’t keep wasting time and money on sub par versions of an EQ, comp, delay, reverb etc. When you’ve got your essentials covered in each category GAS is not really a thing. However GAS is always a thing when you’ve chosen incorrectly your tools in my experience.

Also people should be careful with lesser known companies as they do have a tendency to close up shop or discontinue plugins more often than more established industry leaders (UAD Waves Fabfilter etc). Understanding HOW and WHY you get GAS is the only way to defeat it completely!

[jamcat]

Can it load VST3 and VST2, esp. old ones 32 bits?

If you are still hanging on to 32-bit VST2 plugins in 2025, you may have a hoarding disorder, which is far more concerning than GAS.

32 bits VST2 in Notion? A note taking app?

If you don't understand irony, it's even more serious than hoarding syndrome and GAS combined.

Notion is also scoring software from PreSonus that has been around since 2005. Older versions definitely load 32-bit VST2 plugins. So how was I supposed to see irony there?

https://www.presonus.com/pages/notion

[Michael L]

Also people should be careful with lesser known companies as they do have a tendency to close up shop or discontinue plugins more often than more established industry leaders (UAD Waves Fabfilter etc). Understanding HOW and WHY you get GAS is the only way to defeat it completely!

People also get GAS when they are bored by established-industry-leaders but are excited to see (not always buy) the innovations of lesser-known-companies like BlueCat, MuLab, MetaSynth, Tone2, Madrona, FullBucket, Toneboosters, etc. who are just one person who will one day be discontinued, as we all will . . .