There are too many plugins on my hard drive.

[audiojunkie]

Linux is also worth considering if you want to free yourself from pluginitis.
I did some research lately and i was surprised that from all plugins i own and still use, only a good algorithmic reverb would be missing.
compressors are also a bit underrepresented, but getting Presswerk would fix that.
That would of course mean another purchase i wouldn't need to make on Windows, but the situation is actually still not too bad.

Fun fact though: at least at the moment, Linux would actually offer me more synths from my current arsenal, than M1 native on MacOS.
This might change of course, since it is not too unlikely that some of these get native M1 support in the not so distant future aswell

Out of curiosity though: how well is Linux equipped for low latency ASIO (or equivalent) and how many audio interfaces are supported to run as efficient as on Windows or MacOS?

Properly tuned, Linux can run better than Windows. It can run lighter and even use a real-time kernel. The benefit of Linux is the increased flexibility and efficiency, at the cost of a learning curve.

As far as hardware goes, it can use anything that is Class Compliant, so most of what Apple uses works for Linux as well.

[dellboy]

Second worst part is the Steinberg Library Manager. Mostly because it appears to default to installing on the C: drive partition and does not give the user a way to chose otherwise. It downloads onto C:, it installs downloaded apps onto C:, and if you have an issue with the arrangement it says you can go pound sand.

Cubase is a pain for not allowing installation to an external drive. The only solution is to use the library manager to move it all over onto an external drive after it has all installed to the C:drive.

[FapFilter]

Linux is also worth considering if you want to free yourself from pluginitis.
I did some research lately and i was surprised that from all plugins i own and still use, only a good algorithmic reverb would be missing.
compressors are also a bit underrepresented, but getting Presswerk would fix that.
That would of course mean another purchase i wouldn't need to make on Windows, but the situation is actually still not too bad.

Fun fact though: at least at the moment, Linux would actually offer me more synths from my current arsenal, than M1 native on MacOS.
This might change of course, since it is not too unlikely that some of these get native M1 support in the not so distant future aswell

Out of curiosity though: how well is Linux equipped for low latency ASIO (or equivalent) and how many audio interfaces are supported to run as efficient as on Windows or MacOS?

Properly tuned, Linux can run better than Windows. It can run lighter and even use a real-time kernel. The benefit of Linux is the increased flexibility and efficiency, at the cost of a learning curve.

As far as hardware goes, it can use anything that is Class Compliant, so most of what Apple uses works for Linux as well.

That sounds nice... maybe on my next PC i will give Linux another chance

[VitaminD]

I'm still very new and mildly worried about the intense urgency I feel to download every free thingamajig that I catch wind of. I tell myself I'll organize them when I get a bit more settled in (probably) Live, but if I'm honest I'm not entirely sure what a bunch of them do. BUT THEY'RE FREE!!

And what if it turns out I need CheeseGraterMegatrax9000 some time down the line and then it's $50, eh, then what?!

Is that the upgrade from OnePingOnly?

I find the issue isn't really downloading all these things, but in using them in projects. Because now you've baked their existence on your data drives for as long as you want to reopen that project.

Yes, one can render to wav. But then that loses the flexibility with editing the arrangement or MIDI patterns at a later time. And if you ever need to recreate that sound for live performance, you'll likely need the same plugin anyways.

This probably wouldn't be as big of a deal for me had the developers of the software I use, just retained their plugin names over multiple generations of the products. Instead they did pluginv1.dll pluginv2.dll pluginv3.dll etc

And there is no way (I know of) to swap a v1 to v3 and retain the settings. It can quickly become a big mess of having to use multiple installers even in a single developer's product lineup.

[VitaminD]

Second worst part is the Steinberg Library Manager. Mostly because it appears to default to installing on the C: drive partition and does not give the user a way to chose otherwise. It downloads onto C:, it installs downloaded apps onto C:, and if you have an issue with the arrangement it says you can go pound sand.

Cubase is a pain for not allowing installation to an external drive. The only solution is to use the library manager to move it all over onto an external drive after it has all installed to the C:drive.

The trick is not to use that awful Steinberg Library Manager! If you use the offline installer, you can chose where Cubase is installed to.

Yes, it doesn't catch everything, but the main ~7GB of program and files can be directed via the offline installer to anywhere you want them to be installed.

[harryupbabble]

last time i checked i had about 12,000 free vst plugins on my hard drive. i guess that is too many to most, but not in terms of disk space cos for example xoxos plugins aren't bloated and have no installers, just small .dll files really.

[lobanov]

Oh, yes, this hurts... And if I use a plugin somewhere (where?!) I not always can delete it. Good tricky synth patch is hard to reproduce.

I always check if developer offers plugins without installers and try not to use installers at all. Sometimes I even unpack installers and check whether it's possible to install a plugin by copying it (if a plugins doesn't depend on specific folders it's possible). Then I copy these plugins in special (sub)folder and backup them. Very important not to mix them up to plugins that require installation and depend on the registry and specific hardcoded folders. So, partly I'm "portable". When reinstalling I just copy this folder.

But this works with relatively simple products only.

[darksensation88]

The bad of Ilok

[fese]

Actually migrating ilok plugins to a new computer is a piece of cake. just plug in the key, done. Also easy with NI access or IK product manager…
The pita is all the plugins where you have to enter your name and a serial, and that for every plugin of the company, after having had to install them separately one after another, like with u-he, valhalla or Fuse. Great plugins, great companies, but not when migrating to a newly installed system.

[vurt]

purge that shit!
tabula rasa!!!

[darksensation88]

Actually migrating ilok plugins to a new computer is a piece of cake. just plug in the key, done. Also easy with NI access or IK product manager…
The pita is all the plugins where you have to enter your name and a serial, and that for every plugin of the company, after having had to install them separately one after another, like with u-he, valhalla or Fuse. Great plugins, great companies, but not when migrating to a newly installed system.

It is not for the companies NI or IK (even if with IK you have to pay if your download links are expired and you've not made a backup, that's not nice) but when you migrate to a new system it is a pain unregister, install on the new machine and authorize again all vst, sure Native Access is one of that make it's job done.

[Truckerbob]

Wow. This is all helpfully chastening.

The plugins may be 'free'...but do I want to pay the cognitive maintenance cost?

[Synth Master Jedi]

The bad of Ilok

Ilok is great. Whenever I move or switch to a new machine, my iLok plugins are the easiest ones to move with the least hassle because they're all on a dongle.

Other plugins with serials, machine activations etc. and other copy protection methods are more of a hassle and take longer to get set up and running again.

[chk071]

True.

[darksensation88]

The bad of Ilok

Ilok is great. Whenever I move or switch to a new machine, my iLok plugins are the easiest ones to move with the least hassle because they're all on a dongle.

Other plugins with serials, machine activations etc. and other copy protection methods are more of a hassle and take longer to get set up and running again.

It is different with a dongle, it 's more easy , in that case you don't need to unauthorize the machine because the licence is already in the stick, simply put it on the new machine and install the software.