Since I'm having some GAS, I figure we might as well give an honorable mention the P.A.S. ( plugin acquisition syndrome) .
GAS in the digital domain = P.A.S. You heard it here first! :tongue:
When DAW's first came out I thought and couldn't care less if it put analog out of business. Man was I off in my thinking but not far off in reality. I thought plugins were the best thing going and I couldn't get enough of them into my system. I was so convinced and so impressed with how plugins eliminated all the wire. I was convinced they had to sound better because the recording process is so clean sounding, individually. VSTi, oh ya... more more more.
I lost my ability to think OTB. Whenever I read topics about hardware, especially by others who "didn't have Pro Tools" I though, hmmm my Pro Tools rig was way better, it was the industry standard. Because I had invested 25 grand into it and didn't really have any high-endexperience ... I mean, the same track count and effects for this in the analog domain would cost 100 grand and take up a bunch of real estate. The simplicity was more reason I bought into it. I pushed it like everyone else while sound quality I never knew I missed took a back seat. It was all fun until the 2-bus started getting ugly.
Anyway, I had about $10,000 on top of the 25 grand invested in plugins. I kept looking for the best plugins to get me there. Over and over I continue to try and create space in my sound but it is always cluttered to my liking.
It wasn't until I reverted back to some old recording years later did I recognize something that I'm finding has become a pandemic and IMO, altered the way music sounds. I think we are becoming brain washed or conditioned. Are we forcing out affordable high-endanalog even further because it will soon be of no interest to the norm? Maybe... and that might not be a bad thing for me.
10 years later, I won't load that crap into my system for fear I will start using it again lol. Its like a cancer. It has got to be pretty exceptional for me to even consider most plugin these days. Music is so effected by plugins and its only getting worse. When I used Pro Tools I had 60 plugins in my system and I wanted more and more. I was crazy over it all.
Today, I have very little going on ITB. I'm more focused a few different high-endpreamps , variety of very good mics, quality converters, fine cable, a few high-endhardware pieces and very limited plugins.
I'd be curious to hear how many plugins you use or have loaded into your DAW? Do you have P.A.S. ?
Comments
I use very few plugins. I specialize in acoustic music that is m
I use very few plugins. I specialize in acoustic music that is mostly Folk, Irish/Celtic and Singer Songwriter. Usually, this only requires a bit of reverb to ad back some room ambience into the music. Very little is needed, and I have just a handful of reverb plugs that I use on 95% of the material. Almost no "special" effects are ever called for. I also use compression plugins and Cubase's built-in EQ.
My mixes are not often too dense, mixing is pretty straight forward.
Most of my investment is going into the front end... mics and preamps. Oh, and a great sounding live room and a couple of iso booths.
Jeff
Well again, great thread. As much as I appreciate that I can run
Well again, great thread. As much as I appreciate that I can run a plugin that is a good representation of a compressor that I probably could never afford. I have yet to find a plugin reverb that comes close to the depth of a good hardware reverb unit. I've been looking for a digital equivalent to a 480L. I haven't found one. If it's out there please let me know.
I think it's time to start working within limitations again. It makes you work harder to get the sound right. There's less margin for error. Make it sound good and forget the effects. If it doesn't sound good from the start, it's not going to get better with effects. Maybe I'm just thinking out loud here.
There are rumors on the UAD board that UA is working on some sor
There are rumors on the UAD board that UA is working on some sort of Lexicon plugin, but it may be nothing more than wishful thinking. Of course, the UAD is a hardware reverb (comp, eq, etc.) in some sense - just not in a separate box. I've been using the EMT Plate plugin all the time since I bought it. Really good plate sound for a plugin.
While I've bought a bunch of plugs recently, I'm not using that many per track. Basically every track gets some sort of compressor and eq. Sometimes an expander/gate on the kick and snare. Reverb bus. Manley Massive on the main bus, limiter if I'm not sending a track to be mastered. But it's nice to have a pallet of choices for the compressors and limiters and the reverb.
Oh I like this thread too! Massive Mastering, post: 359533 wrot
Oh I like this thread too!
Massive Mastering, post: 359533 wrote: The monitoring and the room. It goes to two of the only real "rules" in audio --
1) No matter what your talent, skill, etc., you will only ever hear as accurately and consistently as your monitoring chain allows you to hear.
2) No matter how accurate and consistent your monitoring chain may be, it will only ever be as accurate and consistent as the room they're in allows them to be.
Let's call the monitoring chain the monitors themselves, the amplifier, the controller and the DA.
If you've got your chain and your room in good order, everything else is up to you -- Freeware, shareware or the most expensive and exotic hardware, it's all your fault.
I think this is the most solid advise we can give everyone who passes by our community. I strongly feel the majority do not have their room and monitor system in order to a level that teaches you the truth. Its so easy to be half ass with acoustic understanding and just get to recording. We tend to buy more "gear" or "plug-ins" to correct sound when a huge percentage could and most likely is the lack of really hearing what's going on in the mix. If you can't hear it, you are SOL and spinning your wheels forever. You are guessing and never certain.
You know how beautiful music sounds when its all in tune? You know how terrible it all is when it isn't? Mixing is the same thing. If you get it right, get your room in tune so you can hear how it all blends and flows together, things becomes wider and harmonic beauty opens up. Its a no brainer. Good gear and less crap needs less correction.
Get your room in order and it all starts making more sense. It becomes easier to understand things yourself instead of relying on others who you think have the answers for you. Like the gear pimps solely interested in juicing us up, causing all the BS GAS and PAS. I saw this all unfolding 10 years ago and now look at us. We're thinking we need ten different preamps, 60 plug-ins and $10,000 cables FFS.
But it sure is fun...
+1 for the room acoustic! The beauty of it: when the treatment i
+1 for the room acoustic! The beauty of it: when the treatment is done correctly, you are finished with it. The room is usable for ever, some refurbishing of cloths and paint excluded.
If you planed your studio wisely you have even thought of future contingencies like adding 5.1 speaker systems or expanding outboard.
+1 Monitors...no need to tell more then already said.
Have I got GAS?... No, but I might have when I were still analog, even for sure...
Have I got PAS? Could be, but lower then ever ... I probably forget a few, but I guess there are about 250 Plugs like
90+ Waves Mercury...which I never use...not even installed
42 UAD plugs often used
Melodyne the little helper or even day safer
50+ of the very usable Nuendo (+ VST3) plugin collection of my DAW
Wizoo W5 still one of the best surround Verbs (Wizzo bought by M-Audio, M-Audio by DigiDesign..forthwith all support stopped)
Wizoo W2
Fdelay + Reflect from VirSyn
4 plugs of Brainworx
Some FX racks plugs from VSTi softwares like B4 organ
30 Plugs from the TC PowerCore
6 of a restauration suite
Some plugs of WaveLab 7
Drumagog
and about 6 Euro-grand of VSTi
With all that neatly installed, I am no fan of filling up the insert slots of all channels, at all. As many , I try to capture the sound as good and close to what I need as possible. So, some recordings sound not good by themselves , but blend nicely with much less FX and EQing into the mix. I guess, when you started with a total of 6 Aux sends and 1 insert per track channel, you are closer to nature, anyhow. ;-)
Have we got T.C.I. ?? After GAS and PAS ... Have you got TCI (
Have we got T.C.I. ??
After GAS and PAS ... Have you got TCI ( Track Count Insanity )???
Not being fixed on 24 tracks of a MTR is great, but over the last years I have seen project ..swollen to 250 and more tracks..Some have complained at Nuendo forum that they can't go beyond 500 ( with the known trick 1000 tracks) same for midi
I mean ...is this still healthy?
I had smart assistents and inturns here who made real mess out of a simple demo recording job. They used anything up to 120 tracks for a 4 piece band... When I told them to produce a SKA band demo on 24 tracks like my Sony DASH 3324S had, they almost wacked out. PlugIn counts of more then 250 in a project seemed quite ok for them... Not for me, though. They were gone, soon... Selfcomplacent little smart arses they were..
How many Tracks do you use in an average project?
I know, from my former partner who works at SoundDelux in LA, now, that at film mixing stages they have easily more then 400..but let us stay with a standart band project of 4 to 8 musicians..
Damn! You would post this an hour after I installed my new UAD-
Damn! You would post this an hour after I installed my new UAD-2 Quad card.
Update: Here are the plugins that I have:
Basic Digi PT9 package: (Can't find a listing that I can cut and paste)
Sonnox Reverb
Waves Silver Bundle:
TrueVerb
L1 Ultramaximizer
Q10 paragraphic Equalizer
C1 Parametric Compander
IR-L Convolution Reverb
SuperTap
Doubler
DeEsser
S1 Stereo Imager
Renaissance Axx
Renaissance Compressor
Renaissance Equalizer
MaxxBass
MondoMod
Enigma
Paz Psychoacoustic Analyzer
UAD Plugins (so far)
* 1176LN Plug-In
* 1176SE Plug-In
* CS-1 Plug-In
* EMT 140 Plug-In
* Fairchild Plug-In
* LA-3A Audio Leveler Plug-In
* LA2A Plug-In
* Manley Massive Passive Plug-In
* Neve 1073 EQ & 1073SE EQ Plug-In
* Pultec EQP-1A Plug-In
* Pultec-Pro Plug-In
* RealVerb-Pro Plug-In
So, yes, that's been a nice little chunk of change for an investment. But I don't think I as consumed as some of these guys on the UAD board. I don't have a problem. I can stop any time I want.
Ooops.....Melodyne.....dirty little secret.