Get rid of ANY plugin you haven't used in the past two months, for starters.

I wholeheartedly agree with DIGIT. I just went through this recently, and am still going through this. It got to the point where I had to weed through column after column of plugins (whether I was looking for a synth or an effect).

Finally, I decided to pick the VSTs I REALLY liked. That cut the list down to about 2/3 its original size. Then I cut down things I liked but never really used. For every plugin I asked myself, "Do I really plan on using this? Do I have another plugin that I can use instead of this?" That cut it down to about 1/2 the original size.

I'm sort of down to a handful of developers, mostly non-free (don't want to get rid of those!). The free ones I do suggest are things like Inspector for metering, and the digitalfishphones plugins. The digitalfishphones are probably the best sounding FREE plugins out there.
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I use FL Studio too, and I don't think just having plugins available for use slows it down, only if you actually load them. It does slow down the overall process to have to look through 100 plugins to find the one you need, though.

ok Ive had a look at them and got rid of the stuff that I dont think im likely to use.got it right down to about 15 synths and 10 effects.But fl is running really badly.I load up one of my songs and without even playing fl is using 25 to 50 of the cpu power.it never used to do that over the past year or so.When i play the track its a solid 100 and cant be played.Ive got a ton 700 mb of sf2 files in fl folders.could it be having an effect - whilst not using them? What about if i reinstall fl studio from scratch? Could that help? Could something have happened to the programme?

It seems that some of those free plugins may have been improperly written and/or may be causing some system/program issues.

Also, I don't know if FL is actually loading/reserving resorces even if the plugins are not being used. I am sure it scans for plugins at bootup, like most other programs. However, there should be NO CPU use related to plugin until those are actually loaded into the program. If you see CPU use beyond normal level WITHOUT any plugins loaded into the program then, there is a serious issue and re-installing may help.

If you are running WIN XP you can also do a RESTORE to a time in which the progam was running smoothly.

You must realize that FREE plugins are a crap shoot and unless a particular plugin has been around a while and people have talked about positively I wouldn't touch it if I were you.

Personally, I think 15 synths is still too much but, that's MOO :)

hehe youre right about 15 being too much.Ill chop them down again.ive reinstalled fl.seems a bit better.I messed around with audio options (I turned on use polling and hardware buffer - Im not sure what they mean or if theyre helping but songs are playing a bit better.Still using up 30+ CPU power when tracks arent playing though. I dont know about restore and all that business.

why not create a folder named "Unused plug-ins" or "de-activated plug-ins?"
It is curious how several daw users go crazy after every new plug-in release nowadays.

I see dozens of new plug-íns every month, but engineering and mixing skills have not changed or improved that much among users.

One decade ago vey few people counted on plugins to reach a certain "sound quality".

I myself do not use more than 10 different plug-ins.

(Vintage Warmer, Waves Q10, Ren Eq, Amp Farm, Compressor Banks, LA2A, Serato, Waves De-esser, Tc Master X, TC Chorus, PAz).

DIGIT wrote: You must realize that FREE plugins are a crap shoot

hoy... :shock: that was unexpected from you...
crap is everywhere, but without trying you cannot ascertain which is and which is not.
Quality is not determined by the money you pay, but from the skills of the programmers...there are FREE plugins that are by far light years better than payware.

No Cresta, Digit is absolutely correct, he just didn't go far enough.

It cannot be argued that installing anything into one's computer is a crap shoot. Whether it costs money or is free is almost irrelevent. Only saving grace with something you buy is that there might be reliable tech support - NOW! So you can bet back to work as soon as possible, not when the "freebie" developer gets home from his McJob and checks his NetZero account email.

It also cannot be argued that once installed, a "complete" UN-install of anything is nearly impossible - the leftover crap just keeps building and building and building until corruption or an un-fixable conflict occurs(OR the HD's full, no matter how large it is.).

DO NOT INSTALL ANYYTHING INTO YOUR COMPUTER - PERIOD - WHEN YOU ARE NOT ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN:

1. YOU R-E-A-L-L-Y WANT THIS!

2. YOU R-E-A-L-L-Y NEED THIS!

3. YOU'RE R-E-A-L-L-Y READY TO FORMAT EVERY HD ON YOUR MACHINE AND RE-INSTALL THE WORKS FROM YOUR(JUST UPDATED) BACKUP, WHEN IT MESSES UP THE SYSTEM(You DO have a "complete" backup system, right, other than Windows "restore"???). The poster claims to not know much - his comment about "not knowing restore", alone, was enough to tell me his machine is, very likely, messed-up for lots of reasons. Do NOT follow his example of downloading/installing everything under the sun.

How do you know before you try all these fun goodies? Know all you can BEFORE you even consider a "try", then, think again and don't do it.

TG

well, that is not actually what I was discussing :)
What you are referring to is indeed partially not incorrect, but only in professional field; instead, I was opposing to the generalized statement "FREE plugins are a crap" made by DIGIT.
By the way: "installing" a VST plugin will not leave any trace on the system, since it is a single .dll file.

Cresta wrote: well, that is not actually what I was discussing :)
What you are referring to is indeed partially not incorrect, but only in professional field; instead, I was opposing to the generalized statement "FREE plugins are a crap" made by DIGIT.
By the way: "installing" a VST plugin will not leave any trace on the system, since it is a single .dll file.

Sounds like a miscommunication. A "crap shoot" is NOT saying that free plugins are "crap". It's a reference to the gambling game of Craps. I think he meant that with free plugins, you may get something horrible, or you may get something excellent (or something in between).

oh well, if things are like this I can assume we are on the same boat :)

theyre not all just .dll files though
some of them you just delete but others have to be uninstalled and when you do that it still seems to leave .dll file and other stuff in the folder.So you have delete yourself.But it could be possible that its putting stuff on the comp that i have no knowledge of.
Anyway Im over that period of trying out every vst available
Although i do still feel the urge to just have a quick search for anything interesting:)
As it goes I found that having the extra vsts just sunk my creativity over the past few months.Got bogged down in the stuff and most of it was useless
No big deal.you live and you learn.
Probably right in general - nothing is for free

its a bit like when i clean out my home.Throw out all the crap that i dont need and never needed.Makes you feel good.Clean up time:)

Just curious. With all that downloading, installing, uninstalling, have you had a chance to defrag that drive? A highly fragmented drive will slow your program down if it has to do a lot of seeking. Not to mention it will cause skips in audio.

no i havent done that.Not sure what it is.:) Ill look into it