How many here have made an U-turn to get rid of GAS by sticking to only DAW stock synths?
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- KVRian
- 1370 posts since 2 Mar, 2018
As others have pointed out, it's not an all-or-nothing thing. If people are happy with what comes with their DAW, great, but IMO it makes no sense to prohibit one's self to that without trying at least some of what's out there, esp with synths, and also as pointed out, some DAWs don't come with a synth anyway.
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- KVRist
- 168 posts since 21 Feb, 2024
Yee Haw! Hillbilly Dance Music rules! Thanks for sharing this. It's got me all riled up! And thinking of GAS, now I gotta go get some moonshine!
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- KVRist
- 50 posts since 17 Jan, 2026
People will have different setups, but the modularity of Ableton keeps me somewhat in check even though I love most of the 3rd party VSTs I’ve acquired (and the ones I don’t love, reminded me to just chill and create).
In ableton, most things are solved with racks and occasionally max for live. People complain about voice limit, just add a layer. You can add layers to mimic sends. Someone was talking about zebra 3 needing macros, that’s in racks (and I sometimes think synth lovers way underutilize them for crazy quick sound design performance). Sequencers, add your own, etc. if something lacks warmth, add a tape emulation, some distortion and a tiny low pass filter. Just make your own synth folders to save into and save every preset as a rack.
After a while, you realize many synths (especially VSTs) are just repackages of very similar parts, things you can replicate with tiny amount of mixing and extra effects. Ableton stock is great for all sorts of extra bread and butter/utility sound design after a patch.
Anyways, that’s what keeps my gas in check. If the RAW sound isn’t bringing something totally new to the table, no reason to get it imo. At some point, if you already have enough to worry about gas, then you have enough.
Gas is so real though. However, the free Usual Suspects Nord 2x and others have really quelled my thirst too. Sorry if this part is the exact opposite of what you are trying to do, but They literally run the roms of thousands of dollars of synths, and they sound amazing. I started to wonder, if this isn’t enough, what is? I have roughly a $1000 Nord, $1500 Waldorf, $2000 Virus in my computer and THOSE aren’t good enough for me? These are some all time classic synths and that made me realize they are begging to actually be used, not collected. Those woke me up to the feeling everyone has eventually of “You have enough. Just use it”.
So, no. I don’t want to limit myself to stock at all, but I guess I have learned to limit by using my DAWs capabilities and what I have.
In ableton, most things are solved with racks and occasionally max for live. People complain about voice limit, just add a layer. You can add layers to mimic sends. Someone was talking about zebra 3 needing macros, that’s in racks (and I sometimes think synth lovers way underutilize them for crazy quick sound design performance). Sequencers, add your own, etc. if something lacks warmth, add a tape emulation, some distortion and a tiny low pass filter. Just make your own synth folders to save into and save every preset as a rack.
After a while, you realize many synths (especially VSTs) are just repackages of very similar parts, things you can replicate with tiny amount of mixing and extra effects. Ableton stock is great for all sorts of extra bread and butter/utility sound design after a patch.
Anyways, that’s what keeps my gas in check. If the RAW sound isn’t bringing something totally new to the table, no reason to get it imo. At some point, if you already have enough to worry about gas, then you have enough.
Gas is so real though. However, the free Usual Suspects Nord 2x and others have really quelled my thirst too. Sorry if this part is the exact opposite of what you are trying to do, but They literally run the roms of thousands of dollars of synths, and they sound amazing. I started to wonder, if this isn’t enough, what is? I have roughly a $1000 Nord, $1500 Waldorf, $2000 Virus in my computer and THOSE aren’t good enough for me? These are some all time classic synths and that made me realize they are begging to actually be used, not collected. Those woke me up to the feeling everyone has eventually of “You have enough. Just use it”.
So, no. I don’t want to limit myself to stock at all, but I guess I have learned to limit by using my DAWs capabilities and what I have.
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- KVRAF
- 1788 posts since 3 May, 2023 from Norway
Yes i agree. The older GUI was so much better
FL Studio 25 | AudioThing JULY - Deimos - U-he Filterscape - NI Kontour - Softube Model 80 - LUSH-2 - UAD Opal - WaveOSC
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- KVRist
- 230 posts since 4 Jun, 2017
I do find GAS to be a distraction to actually focus on producing music and enjoying the process. I do think there are tons of really excellent software.
I use FL. Stock synths are quite good and I could get by with them, but they’re not altogether comprehensive enough for me to want to do so. I am trying to limit my 3rd party synths though, trying to use SynthMaster 3 more since it’s comprehensive enough to cover most kinds of sounds.
I use FL. Stock synths are quite good and I could get by with them, but they’re not altogether comprehensive enough for me to want to do so. I am trying to limit my 3rd party synths though, trying to use SynthMaster 3 more since it’s comprehensive enough to cover most kinds of sounds.
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- KVRist
- 39 posts since 15 Dec, 2022
From my point of view, compressors are very much not interchangeable. I can't imagine trying to get the results I can get from TDR's Kotelnikov from Ableton's Multiband Compressor or vice versa. Can I imagine ways to work around the limitations of each to make it more like the other? Yes, but that doesn't mean that when applied to making music they can be readily interchanged without consequence.
I recently saw a reddit page in which none other than Venus Theory was to be found holding forth on the topic of channel strips. "Don't use channel strips," he all but sneered. "Make your own out of stock DAW devices."
He can have my lovely channel strips when he prises them from my rigormortised full-body deathgrip.
I recently saw a reddit page in which none other than Venus Theory was to be found holding forth on the topic of channel strips. "Don't use channel strips," he all but sneered. "Make your own out of stock DAW devices."
He can have my lovely channel strips when he prises them from my rigormortised full-body deathgrip.
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- KVRist
- 179 posts since 5 Jan, 2008 from Atlanta
Yes.Tracewidth wrote: Thu May 14, 2026 4:23 pm From my point of view, compressors are very much not interchangeable. I can't imagine trying to get the results I can get from TDR's Kotelnikov from Ableton's Multiband Compressor or vice versa. Can I imagine ways to work around the limitations of each to make it more like the other? Yes, but that doesn't mean that when applied to making music they can be readily interchanged without consequence.
I recently saw a reddit page in which none other than Venus Theory was to be found holding forth on the topic of channel strips. "Don't use channel strips," he all but sneered. "Make your own out of stock DAW devices."
He can have my lovely channel strips when he prises them from my rigormortised full-body deathgrip.
Although I think alot depends on what you are compressing.
For things like synths (where you dont really need to heavily compress it) you can sometimes stick any compressor on it and get workable results with basic tweaking, but something like an unprocessed vocal, different compressors work/behave very differently (and leave different artifacts). Yes you can take a well featured compressor and get the sounds of many compressors, but that doesn't mean you want to spend one hour trying to make something sound like an La2a when an La2a compressor emulation would have done. Compressors are very workflow devices too. Certain emulations do actually save time when you know what you are looking for and you know box A can achieve it in a few seconds.