Plugin Madness - Problems WIth Buying Plugins 

Barry, your wisdom and knowledge is MUCH appreciated!

I needed this video. As God is my witness, I will stop buying unnecessary plugins....... after I buy this Kit Blackbird channel strip. This is gonna harder than I thought lol.

i learned once you have good sound selection you don't need many plugins. good arrangement and good sound selection will have you using maybe 3 or or effects across the mix.

It's easy to get carried away with buying plugins like you said. Good advice to step back and realize how many you have and really get to know how those work. I did buy recently Relab 480L lexicon reverb which has become one of my favorites. Also Klangheln VUMT meter is cheap and a great VU meter. Now Im done, supposedly.

real talk! so honest. Barry Johns, i watch your videos often, i love how you tell the truth.

I just went through a mini-purge of all the plugins I have collected. I really like the fact that the updated Mac OS prevents some of the plugins from running. I’ve find that I reach for three to five major plugin companies (Plugin Alliance, Presonus, Fabfilter, Focusrite and Softube due to having Console One). I’ve spent sooo much money on plugins - Eventide, Native Instruments, T-Racks, UAD, etc. I’ve stuck with my four major plugin companies because they provide enough plugin licenses for my three studios (mobile, production, and recording/mixing/mastering studios). I hate using a plugin in my sessions and then when I go to my other studio I find that I can’t use it in the session because I only have two licenses (I’m looking at you Eventide and UAD; great plugins but hellified inconvenience). PA provides 4 licenses, Presonus is the DAW manufacturer so they are native, Fabfilter and Focusrite doesn’t limit, Softube provides 3 licenses. Why can’t the manufacturers provide at least 3 licenses with their plugins. Anyway, the purge will continue…

Thanks for bringing me to my senses. I am guilty of this, but I have been getting better at just using what I have.

When i buy a new plugin i usually start a playground session just to fuck around for 30 min. With some background Knowledge in Audio this usually is enough to grasp the functionality of any plugin. You're right about there's no magic Pill... But thats exactly why i want a large enough toolbox :D

Some GREAT advice here, Barry.

So simple and profound as always! Opening a video about plugins with the important basics: room treatment! I separate my plugins into two categories: effects and instruments. Instruments are always more worthy investment for me, giving me options, creativity, inspiration, and I can use multiple ones in even just one song. A new instrument library will add significantly more to a composition than yet another version of an effect would. However, even there, I stick to just a minimal number (yeah, EastWest is a reliable usual "suspect", I used the Symphonic Orchestra library for well over a decade now, and it was always enough) For channel strip or bus compressor, I will end up repeatedly using the same ones, so there is limited advantage of getting, say, every compressor from Plugin Alliance, or an emulation of the channel strip of every major console out there. Over the decades, I did adopt more DAWs, and interesting enough, with the amount of money one can end up spending on plugins, getting a new DAW that provides years of great workflow for a decent price. A few Waves plugins even on sale are more than a Logic license is, and Logic has had free upgrades for years!

I’ve definitely learned the ins and outs of some of my plugins, especially the UA channel strips I have. Not only is it educational and fun to learn but it pays dividends in your mixes. Spent too much money on this stuff to just have it and not put it to use.

there’s so many good plugins that are free (legally) as someone else has said. There’s also a lot to be said about learning what they do as you stated. the most I spent was on Black Friday when plug-ins I was looking at were all reduced $50 each. Since that time I haven’t boughten plug-ins (2 years ago), and instead I have added a few freebies. I know that the biggest issue with my mixing skills is me, not plug-ins.

This guy was about to say Florida studios 😁😁😁😁

I got off the plugin buying bandwagon with a PA subscription I only have bought drum libraries and some guitar Sims in recent years. I started getting hardware and try to avoid the option paralysis of plugins with the limitations of my hybrid setup and outboard gear only reaching for plugins I need for the mix. Also if I had a dollar for everytime I discovered that reaper already could do what many plugins I bought did with stock plugins I could buy a few extra reaper licenses lol Their pitch correction was the newest one it does much of what melodyne can do and it is free.

Great advice Barry. I made this mistake in about the first 90 days of getting serious about home recording because Waves had such crazy deals on sale that I did not take the time to learn what Cubase already had embedded. As it turned as my musicianship and other skills increased the less I liked waves and in comparison to the stock plugins. Fast forward, I have uninstalled all of my waves stuff except for the Omni Channel (which will soon be gone) and use a two channel strips from BWX, a stock delay in cubase, Pro CL2 and Pro Q3 from fabfilter and that's pretty much it. As I have integrated hardware even the channel strips will be phased out eventually. When you look back on all the money spent on plugins could have been better served for other purposes.

Pure wisdom!!!

I hate the “drag and drop” plug-in preset and AI culture. However, if they change how you interact with your audio, I argue that they can still be useful-if for no other reason then having certain plugins is the reason I make certain mixing decisions I might not make otherwise. It’s not magical. But it can be uniquely inspiring. And the usefulness of AI isn’t getting plugins to do the job for you. It’s on getting them to self-learn, and be more effective than humans could design them to be. But you’re so right about looking at them like tools. I also look at my guitars as tools, and I certainly have a few of those, as many of us do. They all feel different to me-both in how they physically feel In my hands, and the way they inspire me. Same is true of all of my various EQ plugins. Sure, in the hardware world, I probably couldn’t and wouldn’t have 400 unique models. But I do learn them all, and figure out how they can be useful to me. I make templates for myself based on different signal chains I end up making my go-tos. And when I’m not using a template, I’m playing with new plugins to find my next go to-my next installation to my “rack,” you could say. Maybe I’m just making excuses to feel better about all the money I spend, but the truth is, with all the plugins that are out there, I don’t know which ones are likely to be my next go-tos. I like Dan Woralls recent statement about tools-when it comes to making a mix for a client-use tools you know inside and out. When you’re not mixing for clients, use new tools and learn them. I’ve compared mixing for clients like playing a live gig, where tooling around with various new plugins is more like practicing scales at home so your next live show is even better.

Thanks so much for correcting yourself regarding FL Studio! Sounds small, but so many traditionalists call it by its 20 year old name - to sound condescending, or infer that it’s just a toy

I must have tried a couple of hundred plugins over the years. Trials, subscriptions etc. Then I made a list of those I kept using each and every time. Then I found cheap alternatives for some (why would I spend 100$ on a clipper?). Then I started ticking off the items. The only VSTs outside the list I have installed are the free ones. That's it. I can now focus on doing the work instead of wasting hours trying 30th analog-modeled-signature-whatever EQ.

PAG - plugin acquisition syndrome :), spending more time searching for new, shiny plugins vs. mastering the gear you have. I use stock (Logic) and plugins from analog obsession.

I’m always a sucker when it comes to sound design plugins that will give me a new perspective and new ideas that I wouldn’t ever have without the inspiration (more of a production tool instead of mixing). I’m also a sucker when it comes to the newer dynamic plugins like split EQ by Eventide or SCUPLT by ADPTR AUDIO. There are all sorts of workarounds and alternatives to getting more attack from transients or resonance from a particular frequency range but Split EQ makes things so much faster. The first step, of course, is a treated room then a great capture of the sound source. Al Schmitt would know exactly which microphone to use, where to place that microphone, as well as all of the recording studio hacks and tricks to get extremely close to the desired sound right out of the gate. I don’t have access to tons of microphones, I’m actually usually mixing someone else’s recordings. This means that their are a cluster of discrepancies, frequency masking, phase issues, etc.. A lot of todays mix engineers are truly going by sound only because there’s such a huge gap when it comes to the technical side of mixing and the artistic side. As you said, so many plugin manufacturers will straight up take the code used in other plugins and cram them into one of theirs. The people that know how this stuff works are all shaking our heads in shame but for the new producers and engineers out there, it’s a lot easier to buy a $25 “LoFi” plug-in rather than watching videos and figuring out that you can put a hpf & lpf on the audio then add other pitch variation elements, some tape, maybe some distortion, to achieve the same results. This is another reason why I like UA (sorry Barry 😂). Hardly any of their plugins seem linear. I don’t know near as much as you do but when I run Plugin Doctor on my UA plugins, they’re almost always doing something way out of the ordinary in order to replicate the hardware in true fashion. All that being said, it’s a choice of ingredients. Do I want a super transparent & clean mix? I will gravitate towards the Fabfilter, iZotope, WEISS stuff. If I’m wanting color, character or mojo (Jack White, Vance Powell stuff) I’m more than likely going to grab more console emulations and hardware emulations. I’m not saying you can’t achieve one sound without the other but what I am saying is, during the Great Depression, families had to get extremely creative with their meals as a byproduct of not having many ingredient options. In the audio world, i believe it’s the same. Stock plugins are great to learn how to cook and if you get good enough at cooking, you can get incredible incredible results. I also love the world of knowing exactly what spice to use in specific applications (which plug-in to use).. I know I can get a sequence of plugins to sound really close to the UA 1176 rev A but I would much rather just throw the plug-in on the channel. I greatly appreciate your content my friend! It’s very necessary to todays engineers

I never got sucked into the plug-in world that much. After buying the Waves Gold bundle, I realized that most of them I don't use. It made me explore and test and figure out what I'm looking for and at the end of the day, I realized that almost only need stock plug-ins and a Wave L1. My gripe with plug-ins is that they're far from future-proof. After a few years, they're close to being unusable. You get them and next thing you know you're three OSs away or Macs switched from Intel to M1 and they're not compatible unless you upgrade or anything obnoxious like that. The plug-in promise is that recall will be very easy compared to hardware, I'm not so sure about that. I switched to Mac in 2018 and in 2021 I tried opening one of my 2016 Pro Tools session to make slight modification to an album I already released. I just wanted to correct a few things. Turns out that after countless hours of trying to recall my session and reinstall everything, I could only get my session back at about 75%. Some manufactures didn't exist anymore, another one had a version 2 of my plug-ins and didn't let me download version 1 any longer, I couldn't recall my preset. Some others (waves) wanted me to pay money to update my licences, some were not available on the Macs… Every plug-in had its own challenge. Anyway, you get the picture. Bottomline, I think it's safer to use a little plug-ins as possible and stick with stock one as much as you can.

Well said Barry Johns Studio Talk Plugins are like "musical crack" so very addictive, after all there in nothing wrong with the ones that are supplied with your DAW. Don't believe the hype marketing campaign to be an "early adopter". Get the trial first before you commit. I agree I don't believe in the subscription model (too many of that already in modern society). I test first get advice and wait till it comes on special. FYI Dirk from Plugin Alliance found it very amusing when I coined that phrase "musical crack" back to him several years ago on his FB page.

Lol. My issue is analog gear. That's my sickness. Compressor mountain in my house. Along with pianos and guitar amplifier.

Bought all of Eventide’s plug-ins

After starting this back when we recorded on thin strips of rusty metal, I am still of the belief that I am the weakest link in the studio chain. No plug in will ever fix that.

all i need is the ssl bundle. its like 10 dollars a month and everything sounds amazing and easy to use. i'm done buying

Can you do review of ubuntu studio? Plenty of free plugins there 😁

I have many from over the years and the ones I most often use are stupid simple. The rvox waves compressor is the best! 😂🤷🏻‍♂️The LA2A (and La3a) from UAD easy too. Simple is better. My master usually has only the L3 waves plug-in on it. People don’t realize speed and ease is huge. I have a song idea and few minutes later it is recorded and mixed easy peasy. Bob Ross doesn’t take all day to paint and recording shouldn’t be twiddling knobs endlessly without results. Easy to get lost in the weeds mixing, especially starting out.

you eventually have so many plugins that it takes forever to choose want you want to use. not to mention that you also need to learn to use them. small is beautiful.

Good advice, as often. Furthermore I must say there're a lot of legaly free plugins which work perfectly. So maybe before buying something you could not find in you DAW you can have a look at all these legaly free plugins, a lot of them are excellent. And Barry, saying fruity loops" instead of FL or "Mark Of The Unicorn" instead of MOTU is an aging marker. I'm an old cat too and I often do the same... 👨🏻‍🦳

The over-reliance on tools hinders actually learning. So many have 100’s of plugins yet cannot properly record a vocal.

I do that.

i mostly use stock plugins by ableton

The truth Is you may need to go through the whole bunch for you to really find your way......just do lots of free trails you may see what’s good for your sound

If produced & recorded right, you can do a professional job with stock plugins. But still... buying plugins is damn fun ;)

I've been saying this for years. Use the plugin just like you would if it was the hardware.

I was literally just about to comment that I agree that you should use a plug-in like hardware and try it on everything. But you made the comment in the video saying that the only people that would comment on this video were people that do that. Hope that clarifies.

Oh look? An AI plugin that writes the whole song for me? Wow? Another 10 AI plugins to make the previous ones sound like 10 more AIs WOW!