Do I really need all these VST plugins?

My plugin collection over the past 5 years has increased from the stock plugins provided by Bitwig to a collection featuring some big names and some expense.

While for myself this is really nice to see how I have increased my collection, both my computer hard drive and my bank balance do not agree.

Decisions decisions

So the question is valid – do I really need all these plugins? The answer in short is no. So then the next question is what to keep and what goes? I decided to approach this in a couple of ways. The first being to look at the list I collated below and see how important I rank the plugin:

---

I find these 4 questions allow me to make an educated decision whether or not to keep the plugin on my system. So let me break each option down and explain further.

How often do I use it?

This one is fairly self explanatory. If I do not use the plugin at all then there is no need to keep it on my system. If it gets used rarely then we move on to the next question.

Cost to buy

Have I invested a lot of money in to this plugin when I bought it? I tend to really do my research with plugins I buy so normally if it is going to be expensive, then I need to justify to myself it will be worthwhile.

The major money I have spent is on Native Instruments Komplete 10 (now upgraded to 12) and FabFilter ProQ3. Both I’m glad to say I use on nearly all my tracks. Anything else I will generally wait for a sale or keep an eye on my deals page for new things coming in.

Cost to run

Not all plugins are one off costs, some are subscription based or rent to own. My biggest investment on rent to own was Serum.

I made a point of affording the £10 per month and although it took 18 months for it to become my own (which I prefer) the cost didn’t impact me on a month to month basis.

I also used the Plugin Alliance Mix and Master bundle for a couple of months (buying 1 month at a time subscription) however I just do not use the range of plugins in there. It seems wiser now to wait for the plugins I would use to come on sale and grab them then.

Do I know how to use it?

I think this is one us plugin junkies often overlook when adding to the VST collection. I have a number of synths and effects which I do not use to their fullest capacity. It’s amazing how much can be created in Bitwig’s “The Grid” but I’ve not given myself enough time to sit down and learn it.

I think the same can be said with Reaktor Blocks from NI. If I spent some time learning them, I’d probably sway away from buying plugins which do particular features out of the box. I could create the same effect or output with a little learning.

So which plugins to keep?

I think every good producer should have one of each of these in their toolbox:

After that, anything else is a bonus. You can of course have variants of each of the above. The key thing is that you understand and know how to work each one of them – fully.  With the addition of the Bitwig built in DAW plugins and effects, I’ve got plenty of choice.

Adding all this theory together I have kept hold of a number of plugins which I regularly use and never want to get rid of them. I have also made a commitment to myself to learn some of the ones I like the idea of but haven’t used fully (yet!)

Conclusion

Finally I make sure that I try and broaden my horizons in as many ways as possible when producing.

Trying plugins I don’t use often is a good way. Another method is to try using a sampler to make a full track. Or use your synth as the drum machine. Mix it up a bit and you will find a new lease of creativity.

I hope this posts helps to convince you to ditch the plugins which are holding you back and that it opens your eyes to make the most of what you have.

Happy producing.