How much money have you spent on plugins?
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- KVRAF
- 5183 posts since 22 Jul, 2006 from Tasmania, Australia
has anyone spent more than 10k usd on plugins?
-if so can we be in your company?
-if so can we be in your company?
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- KVRAF
- 1943 posts since 17 Jun, 2005
Haven't counted a grand total in a good while, however I don't think I've ever separated plugin expenses from other software licenses and also Kontakt instruments. The latter raises the sum total of the sort of... "all software instruments and effects" category considerably, in any case, i.e. when excluding DAW licenses/updates and non-audio software and so on. That being said, I'm pretty sure plugins, strictly speaking, are over 10k.
This is during a total time span of something like twenty years, mind you.
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- KVRian
- 831 posts since 2 Mar, 2018
It's as expensive...or not...as you make it. It doesn't have to be to make great music.
Do as others have said here...DON'T buy anything yet unless you're really sure you need it and something free or less expensive won't do the job. Cost and quality very often do not go hand in hand with music software. There is software which is outstanding and free (or really cheap) and software which is crap (or at least not as good) and expensive as hell. There's no correlation. Check out the list here on KVR or any of the other various freebie sites with free stuff and start trying. You'd be amazed at what you can find for free.
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- KVRAF
- 4873 posts since 25 Jan, 2014 from The End of The World as We Knowit
Look at One Synth Challenge for ten years of creative evidence:
https://sites.google.com/site/kvrosc/
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- KVRian
- 831 posts since 2 Mar, 2018
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- KVRist
- 94 posts since 11 Feb, 2005
Including hardware "plugins"? Ten$ of thou$and$
Advice I've given friends in the past: Don't buy anything until you are a pro with your DAW and know the built-in plugs proficiently. No sense wasting money on a compressor plugin if you don't know exactly how to dial in the attack/release or how to get rid of a funky resonance with a parametric EQ. Logic and Live native plugs are more than adequate for nearly everything. When you outgrow them you'll be able to answer your question. Also, Logic and Live have completely different workflows from each other. A 180 degree difference. Both are good but demo first before buying.
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- Suspended
- 16031 posts since 14 Jun, 2001 from Somewhere else, on principle
Whereas I'd suggest that if you really take the time to learn how to use the tools in your DAW, you will discover that those fancy modelled compressors people are stupid enough to pay a fortune for are mostly just snake oil and you'll save yourself a fortune.
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- KVRAF
- 1943 posts since 17 Jun, 2005
Because it is a distinction that is usually made in common industry parlance between plugin instruments/effects and any expansion library data that they use. (Asking "have you tried new plugins lately" isn't expecting a "yeah, I got this flute multisample for Kontakt" for an answer.) There is also an actual technical difference, as in, something like an orchestral instrument collection isn't "a plugin" by itself unless it also comes with its own executable binary component that runs inside a host environment.
However, in the end, it's very close in the same area of expenses anyway - so as you imply, I have seen this similarly, and haven't separated those expenses because there hasn't been a need to categorize that specifically there.
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- KVRian
- 831 posts since 2 Mar, 2018
Sure it is, since virtual instruments are plugins, which is the broader term...it doesn't matter if it runs in Kontakt or not. At least that's been my experience. YMMV.Guenon wrote: ↑Wed Mar 09, 2022 9:21 am Because it is a distinction that is usually made in common industry parlance between plugin instruments/effects and any expansion library data that they use. (Asking "have you tried new plugins lately" isn't expecting a "yeah, I got this flute multisample for Kontakt" for an answer.)
? Although plugins do indeed run inside a host environment (the DAW), they don't have an executable binary component. They are DLLs and data files and such.There is also an actual technical difference, as in, something like an orchestral instrument collection isn't "a plugin" by itself unless it also comes with its own executable binary component that runs inside a host environment.
An orchestral library is a plugin. It runs inside the DAW.
Standalone versions are different; they do have an executable and don't require a DAW or anything else.
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- KVRAF
- 1943 posts since 17 Jun, 2005
A plugin DLL is literally an executable binary component. If you don't believe this, examine a plugin DLL in a hex editor and observe that it has the same header as an EXE file intended for standalone use, and includes the traditional "This program cannot be run in DOS mode" error message.
Nevertheless, judging by the threads you are starting, this is also starting to look like trolling.
Broader term? You've (most likely intentionally) got this backwards. Yes, there are also other plugins than virtual instruments
, but in the context you are framing this in, a "virtual instrument" is a term that can be used of a plugin itself, or it can be something like a set of samples and a bit of structural description, intended to be used as input data in something that executes, reads that structure, and plays back the data in a controlled fashion. And so on.Also, ask yourself, is this really relevant to the actual thread? Why are you pursuing this line of thought so intently? Why are you, at the same time, starting those weird no-value threads? Don't you think all that sort of posting does is mostly just adding noise?
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- KVRAF
- 5824 posts since 17 Aug, 2004 from Berlin, Germany
All in all over the years, that makes about 5000€ for me (+2000€ for Cubase and updates).
But that's not what you spend when you start from scratch! If I were to start from scratch, I would plan on spending around 1000-2000€. That's with a USB audio interface, a Midi Controller, the DAW and a few plugins. But all DAWs have so many plugins and sample content that you don't even need plugins at the beginning... So the DAW and a good audio interface + midi controller and even 1000€ could be enough for that.
But that's not what you spend when you start from scratch! If I were to start from scratch, I would plan on spending around 1000-2000€. That's with a USB audio interface, a Midi Controller, the DAW and a few plugins. But all DAWs have so many plugins and sample content that you don't even need plugins at the beginning... So the DAW and a good audio interface + midi controller and even 1000€ could be enough for that.
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