Do you really need 100 VST's?

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Vandy12

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I am a home recorder and the new sequencers coming out have so many VSTs built into the programs.

Fruity Loops comes to mind. I presently use Cubase 7.

I was curious about how the pro studios use VST's. I would think over time and with experience

one would filter out what is not needed and keep what is, and the number would be small.

Utilize a small group of good ones to do the job vs. 100.

I just don't think you need all those VST's. With that being said, if you were to pick say

five or ten VST's if you only could use those five or ten in your recordings, which ones would you pick?

Not looking for any special company promotions here, just for example limiter, reverb,
ect., but if you want to put the name of some you can't live without, I would like to hear what
you consistantly use to get the job done.

Lastly, is there any reason whatsoever now-a-days to buy VST equivelant hardware?
What would be the benefit of buying a limiter stereo component vs. just using the
one that comes in sequencer or a VST you can purchase?

Thanks,

Vandy
 
I guess it would be a parametric EQ, SSL channel, API 2500, R-Verb, and the logic stock compressor.
I would say I use around 20-30 VST's over the course of a mix. Mainly various EQ's and Compressors and a reverb bus or two.
I do some gating and sometimes pitch correction but I always bounce those plugs to save CPU.
 
Vandy12 said:
if you were to pick say

five or ten VST's if you only could use those five or ten in your recordings, which ones would you pick?
Click to expand...

1. Knufinke SIR 2
2. Waves q10
3. Slate Digital Trigger
4. Some sort of multi tap delay, I'm using one by nomad factory but as long as it had at least 3 taps I'm good with it.
5. Dither plug (the one they include in cubase is fine, UV22HR)
6. A good bootstrap limiter.
7. Transient Monster
8-10: URS compressors (the 1980,1970, and 1975)
11. Celemony Melodyne

If we are only talking about insert effects. VST instruments are a different matter.

I use stock cubase stuff for gates (almost never use gates though) and De esser as I find them to be fine.

Honestly cubase 7 has enough plugins to just mix with those IMO. I think they have very few holes in what is offered. I could re make the list above like so and be pretty close to the same stuff, just less features:

1. Cubase Reverence
2. Cubase studio eq (although I find 4 bands to be limiting)
3. Nothing in cubase really replaces this one.
4. Cubase Stereo Delay
5. Cubase (apogee) UV22HR
6. Cubase Brickwall limiter
7. Cubase Envelope shaper
8. Cubase Compressor
9. Cubase vintage compressor
10. Cubase Tube compressor
11. Cubase vari-audio 2 (although this isn't really a plugin per say)
 
Auralsects said:
Good mikes and good technique trump all.
Click to expand...

Also, I'm rolling my eyes at you. The standards (eq, compression, reverb) are going to be apart of any mix no matter how good the source material is.
 
I have 7 VST left in my folder

My last two mixes I didn't use any of them but then I have a couple of hardware pieces that I used instead
 
I don't throw out plugins. But I have some that I wish I never bought. lol
 
When I first started my studio I got a ton of freeware plugs. Most I fiddled with, never really used. Some I used frequently. Others got replaced when I got pro plugs. About the only freeware plugs I got post-UAD have been bootsy's stuff.

Anyway, my 10 most used plugs would probably have to be (in no particular order):

1: UAD LA2A
2: UAD Helios EQ
3: UAD 1176
4: UAD Pultec
5: UAD EMT 140 Reverb
6: ReaDelay
7: Density Mk. III
8: TesslaPro
9: FerricTDS
10: NoName EQ

8 and 9 I throw on all my 2-buss if I want to do a quick "master" for public consumption.
 
I still use the Sonitus vst's I got with Sonar 5/6 years ago.....only now I use them in Reaper. I have a small number of others I use. Ampeg Bass Amp sim, Amplitude, PSP Vintage, GComp. That's about it.
 
I only use Sylenth and Ableton Live's synths. I don't think you need a huge amount of synths...so many users have come up with a huge number of presets for Sylenth and the posibilities are probably endless. Think about it; back in the day how many folks could afford 50 hardware synths? Did they not come up with great music though with what they had?

However, if you really feel like you need a fresh sound and can't get it from your synth, by all means get a few more vsts but you can distract yourself instead of getting good at one thing. Not to mention spend a ton of dough :)
 
100+ is probably a lot more plugins than anyone is likely to use frequently, but I use a lot of stuff on my mixes these days.
For my last project, the FX I used included...

Compression
reverb
transient controller
gate
drum trigger
about 3 EQs (depending on how fine-grained of control I needed)
home-brew drum loop generator
home-brew synth arpeggiator
home-brew channel switch
vocoder
EZ drummer
Vocaloid
3 or so delays (depending on the sound I needed for the instrument)
amp modeler
2 or 3 guitar-type FX (chorus, flanger, etc.)
Wave distortion
sample reversing
pitch shifter
Plus a bunch of automation on panning and volume.

So 20+. Although I'm starting to offset some of the work of the flavor FX directly into the arpeggiator (i.e. I don't use chorus or delay as much anymore)
 
Mr Clean said:
I still use the Sonitus vst's I got with Sonar 5/6 years ago.....only now I use them in Reaper. I have a small number of others I use. Ampeg Bass Amp sim, Amplitude, PSP Vintage, GComp. That's about it.
Click to expand...

I'm still using Sonar/Sonitus, add to that the other stock plugins that are shipped with X2 and a couple of Pro Channel modules and there's not really much that isn't covered.
But I still use the T-Racks suite, especially the CSR 'verbs
 
If you include virtual instruments, then my list is considerably larger.
 
Guitargodgt said:
If you include virtual instruments, then my list is considerably larger.
Click to expand...

What do you use man?

I just looked, and I have a few VSTi's that I use. Mostly drum stuff. Around 20 plugins that I use on occasion, and probably 10 that I use on a regular basis. Having the extra ones, are more for effects and stuff. I am not including the stuff that comes with Cubase.
 
Steven Slate, Addictive Drums, and Superior Drummer all gets used.

Then under keys there is all the Steinberg stuff, some Arturia stuff, and a few other plugs I got for a steal of a price.

Technically Kontakt players is sort of multiple VST instruments even though it's just one. I have a few libraries for that (session strings and NY grand).

I use all the stock cubase stuff on a pretty regular basis as well.
 
Do you need 100+ plug ins? NO!

I don't really have that many plug-ins so I'm not a good judge here but...

I think any plug-in that you know inside and out is a good one. Pro Tools, like most DAWs ships with the bread and butter plugs like compressors and EQ's, and while there are some that may be nicer, you should be good to go right off the bat. You DO NOT have to get a crap ton of plugs to get to work.


Virtual instruments are a matter of choice, and how you work. For example I'm looking at East West's library thinking more from the orchestral perspective, but I have a friend that uses (synth plug) Omnispehere and the Komplete Ultimate collection. For compatability reasons, it would be great to get some of that in my own library so we can work together easier.

EZ Drummer - I just picked this up as it's quite affordable, sounds great, and lives up to it's name. I was looking at the Steve Slate stuff, but for $70 I couldn't pass it up. PT comes with Mini Grand and Xpand2, so combined with my Roland keyboard (XP-80) I have plenty of sounds. I just want more. 8-)


So do you NEED them? No, but they are nice to have. You'll find your main 5 and use those 90% of the time, no matter how many you have to choose from, just like even though I have a bunch of guitars, I use one more than the others.

I hope this helps.
 
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