Can you ever have "too many" plugins?

**pikingrin** · 04-17-2015

Outside of scouring the net for freebies I've also ended up with the majority of Waves' dynamics and EQ plugs (on sale, of course) and I feel like it's gotten out of control. Is there such a thing as having too many plugins?

Trying to curb my GAS...

**Tadpui** · 04-17-2015

New gear is always a double-edged sword. It takes time to get to know the basics of each new piece of gear, and can take a long time to really get to know it inside and out. That's all time that could've been spent making new music with gear that you're already familiar with.

I bought Waves Gold bundle around xmas time and I still haven't made my way through all of the plugs in there. Basically I use L1 and H-Comp a lot and have only fiddled with the rest a little bit. But those 2 plugs are so head-and-shoulders above anything else I own that they've been worth the investment.

Just take your time, don't feel obliged to use any of it in a project "just because you can". Play with each of them, read the manuals for them, watch a YouTube video or two on each of them, fire up a couple of new experiment projects and turn some knobs. There are some really good quality plugs in there!

**ashcat_lt** · 04-17-2015

Yep, I most certainly do! Aside from the ones that still show up in my list but don't actually work like the Cubase plugs and a bunch of SynthEdit stuff that Reaper doesn't want to use for one reason or another, I have a whole bunch of comps, limiters, saturators, filters and EQs that I never touch because I get everything I need out of ReaComp, ReaEQ and a couple of JS plugs that I hacked together myself.

**pikingrin** · 04-17-2015

Originally Posted by ashcat_lt

Yep, I most certainly do! Aside from the ones that still show up in my list but don't actually work like the Cubase plugs and a bunch of SynthEdit stuff that Reaper doesn't want to use for one reason or another, I have a whole bunch of comps, limiters, saturators, filters and EQs that I never touch because I get everything I need out of ReaComp, ReaEQ and a couple of JS plugs that I hacked together myself.

That's just the thing, the Cubase plugs aren't at all bad but I get sucked into the chase by the options and sale prices that are less than 1/4 of what the retail value is. Regardless, I'm a sucker for options. If these plugs don't work after this PC dies (a few times, my HDs are backed up now in triplicate) then I might scream a little bit. Maybe that's a problem for another thread though...

**mjbphotos** · 04-20-2015

IF you spend hours trying out different comps, EQs or other plugins, then YES, you may have too many! I tend to fall back on the ones I'm conformtable with, too - ReaEQ, ReaComp and ReaVerb, for example, because when I try others, I ended up chasing my tail to get things dialed in.

**Xcaliber** · 04-20-2015

I have't bought any plug-ins yet (though I've thought about it quite a few times), but I went through a period where I downloaded EVERYTHING that was free that I could find. Now when I look at my plug-in list I don't know what 90% of them are. I really feel like I should have learned how to use the basics before downloading, but I have GAS big time.

**kcearl** · 04-21-2015

in the past year Ive bought a couple of eventide plugs and a collection of cheapo's...thatll be it for me this year too

**DM60** · 04-21-2015

I have more than I need. If I do buy more, it will be for a reason and not just GAS. I am really trying to avoid too much of that.

**Xcaliber** · 04-21-2015

I don't like the compressor that's included in Studio One. I'm sure it works fine, but the interface and the "graph" that they use just doesn't make sense to me. I can't seem to get it to work sometimes (which I'm sure is user error more than a problem with the plug-in). I like the plug-ins that look more like "traditional" hardware than a piece of software. I've been eyeing the "virtual" series plug-ins from Slate Digital for a while, but I don't want to waste my money since I don't really know how to use them effectively yet.

**BroKen_H** · 04-21-2015

In Reason, there's no such thing. There's only like 200 total plugs (including VST and VSTi) A lot of those are not even worth your time looking at. I've got 2 nice limiters, about a dozen good comps, three EQs (3 band, 4 band and 1/3 octave), some nice dual oscillators, dual pitch shifter, a few demolition plugs and all the normal phase/chorus/unison/reverb/etc. stuff. Probably only about 4 dozen plugs, total. And there's just not that much more available.