Are We Entering The Age Of Bullshit Plugins? 🤔

[cclarry]

https://www.production-expert.com/production-expert-1/are-we-entering-the-age-of-bullshit-plugins

[TheSteven]

I think we've been there for a while...

<RANT ON>

FOMO is probably the biggest culprit (damn his hide). 

You can lead a man to plugins and if they're on sale he'll buy them whether he needs them or not.

I'm guilty, I admit it (of buying, not selling).
I don't want to count the number of amp sims that I've purchased (yeah some were $5 maybe less, but some unfortunately cost me quite a bit more) that are pure garbage. My guitar would sound better plugged into my cat than some of these.

</RANT OFF>

 

Edited September 1, 2023 by TheSteven

[Eusebio Rufian-Zilbermann]

Actually, if you get past the tongue-in-cheek part, this article also includes links to other articles on "not BS" that I found it quite interesting (10 Plugins That Have Become Legends, 5 Plugins Which Just Make Mixes Better, and We Name Our 10 Audio Plugins Of The Decade)

[Starship Krupa]

On 9/1/2023 at 2:43 AM, TheSteven said:

I think we've been there for a while...

This.

A combination of most things having been done to death, greater ease of creating plug-ins, and people seeking quick fix magic beans.

[chris.r]

Meh. It only concerns MacOS plugins 😂

 

None of my over 2k plugins (half of them one-knoobs) is BS here on Windows, not even my precious Soundspots!

[Carl Ewing]

On 9/1/2023 at 4:43 PM, TheSteven said:

I think we've been there for a while...

<RANT ON>

FOMO is probably the biggest culprit (damn his hide). 

You can lead a man to plugins and if they're on sale he'll buy them whether he needs them or not.

I'm guilty, I admit it (of buying, not selling).
I don't want to count the number of amp sims that I've purchased (yeah some were $5 maybe less, but some unfortunately cost me quite a bit more) that are pure garbage. My guitar would sound better plugged into my cat than some of these.

</RANT OFF>

 

I think this is a cost / benefit type situation. I own an Axe FX III, and I have Amplitube 5 Max.  One is for heavy duty work, the other is for in the box on mobile rig, or when I don't have to time to deal with external effects.  I have some other sims that came with bundles (Plugin Alliance, Guitar Rig via Komplete), and these do get used occasionally. I like having them around.

Now - those two purchases were well over $4K (with other Fractal hardware accessories.) I'll likely never need another guitar related effects or cabinet or amp sim for the rest of my life. But I could have also picked up dozens of amp sims plugins for a fraction of that price, and likely get along just fine. Sure, some will be ****, some will be average, some will great - but I'd still be saving thousands just picking up a bunch of much less expensive plugins. 

I think this applies to a lot of things in the plugin world. Is it better to buy a $10K mastering comp....where you'll never need another again, or a $5000 Lexicon reverb unit, where you'll never need another one again, or is it more cost effective to buy 20 different reverb plugins and 20 different mastering comp plugins, for a fraction of the cost of hardware, and get along just fine?

I think there has to be a realization that many of these plugins are trying to emulation extremely expensive hardware. It's going to be a lot of buy & try till you get something that does the job well. I don't think there's anything wrong with buying a bunch of plugins you don't really need, if you're goal is to have the ultimate effects for your workflow...or to have a lot of different options to cover all your bases. And even shitty sounding plugins can have their uses. I have quite a few crappy distortion plugins that come in handy once in a while.

[mettelus]

Audio DSP has been saturated for quite some time, so many things are like painting a sheep and trying to sell it as a different animal. People still buy them though.

Even 8 years later, Rack Spacer is still around and still free. Can't get more accurate hardware emulation than that one!

[Carl Ewing]

8 minutes ago, mettelus said:

Audio DSP has been saturated for quite some time, so many things are like painting a sheep and trying to sell it as a different animal. People still buy them though.

Even 8 years later, Rack Spacer is still around and still free. Can't get more accurate hardware emulation than that one!

There are some premium rack spacers around that are better I think. The GUI really does effect vibrations / resonance through the entire rack. Specifically - the free Rack Spacer causes weird buzzing noises on my kick drums when it's placed below certain compressors. I think the problem is the bullet holes. Not sure why they added those, it weakens the face plate UI.

My favorite rack spacer cost $399 (flash sale) and solved all of these issues, and also improved the imaging in my mixes...almost as well as my hardware rack spacers.

[PhonoBrainer]

Has Acustica run out of colors yet?

[El Diablo]

I'm still waiting on a plugin that calculates PDC for plugins like Reaktor.

[Starship Krupa]

9 hours ago, Carl Ewing said:

the free Rack Spacer causes weird buzzing noises on my kick drums

This one might get you in the ballpark:

https://www.wavesfactory.com/free-audio-plugins/snarebuzz/

[TerraSin]

It's over saturation (no pun intended). In the past decade, more and more people have gotten into the plugin market and there's only so much "new" we can do. Everything has been done to death at this point so we keep rehashing the same ideas over and over while companies fight for position in the market.

[PavlovsCat]

We've Been In the Age of BS Plugins and BS Reviewers a Long Time, I Call BS on the Source

[People who target me for hate posts and PMs, please skip this --it's literally that easy! Try it.] 

We reached the age of BS plugins quite a long time ago and I find it ironic that in the age of BS reviewers AKA influencers, we have an influencer calling out anyone else for BS.  Let me be more specific. I think this influencer does nice, thorough, but highly biased reviews -- and they're provably biased (I'll show it below) -- and doesn't even bother to comply with UK, US or other country legal disclosures for compensated influencer reviews. They do developer-funded promotional write-ups pitched as reviews and don't clearly disclose that upfront as they're required to do (yes, you can figure it out if you look deep enough on their site, but they're counting on the vast majority of readers / watchers not looking that far --  they won't). There are lots of questionable or BS plugins, but I wouldn't look for a BS reviewer to be the beacon of truth to find who's doing BS plugins. I'm pretty sure that their client list contains a number of developers that some experts would say make some BS plugins. 

FOR THOSE WHO WANT TO FIGURE OUT THE CLUES THAT A "REVIEWER"/INFLUENCER IS FINANCIALLY COMPENSATED WHEN THEY'RE NOT UPFRONT ABOUT IT

One easy way that you can tell that a "reviewer" is unbiased is that they pitch developers to contact them. They do this to discuss their price to promote the developer's products in their "reviews." Legitimate reviewers NEVER do this. It would be a violation of journalist integrity in the journalism world and a violation of ethical standards in the testing world (consider Consumer Reports reviewers asking for money before they review a brand's products). Real reviewers are never considered partners by brands whose products they review. That would though up an ethical question with regards to bias. So here's Production Expert's pitch to developers who want their products reviewed: 

• "Our success in helping brands engage is built on a unique model that partners with you rather than simply sells you ads. We work to get you and your products in front of the right audience and then help them discover them in our own unique style.
• Over 6 million visits per year, with over 40% of our visitors spending over 5 minutes per visit.
• Our YouTube channel features more than 6500 videos, watched over a staggering 30 million times by more than 140,000 subscribers.
• Social Media reflects our influence with: 
• Over 289,000 Facebook fans across our Facebook fan pages.
• Over 40,000 Twitter fans.
• Over 6,800 LinkedIn members in our professional group.
• A Production Expert podcast with over 20,000 listeners per week.
• Our Email news has over 90,000 subscribers with an average open rate of 22.3% compared to an industry average of 12.6%. Clicks are equally impressive with a list rate of 3.5% compared to an industry average of 1.4%.
• We generate interesting content that leads to a regular response....If you want to know more about working with us to get your high quality products and services to our loyal fans then click here. "

Now take a look at the testimonials and what they state (yes, these are companies that compensate the "unbiased review site to 'review' their plugins and sample libraries" (emphasis added to call out telltale statement): 

“Production Expert proved to be an invaluable partner to us when we launched our Fresh Air plugin last year. Their detailed, hands-on product reviews and reach helped introduce our products to thousands of music producers.”
Sagar Jethani, VP Marketing, Slate

“It's always a pleasure to work with Pro Tools Expert. Their proactivity and inclination to always produce quality content has made it very easy for Arturia to communicate efficiently to producers on a wide array of products and updates.” 
Arnaud Dalier-Lamon, Marketing & Press Relations Coordinator, Arturia

“The highly knowledgeable and experienced Pro Tools Expert team did a fantastic job helping us to launch VocAlign Ultra. Their understanding of the product and ability to clearly communicate its benefits significantly contributed to our most successful product release ever.”
Joel Heatley, Marketing Director, SynchroArts

“LiquidSonics has worked successfully with Production Expert for over five years now. Initially in a limited capacity around product releases to quickly pull eyes onto products during launch, but in the last few years we have been able to expand the breadth of our work with the Experts to cover many more opportunities to connect with musicians throughout the yearly cycle. This has become possible as our portfolio has widened and our understanding of what the Experts can do with us has matured.

By working with a range of knowledgable content creators on the Experts staff we can show and explain how LiquidSonics reverbs are beneficial to producers working in all sectors of the industry and to any budget which is essential to our marketing strategy of connecting every producer with the reverb they need to deliver an outstanding mix.”
Matt Hill, Founder, LiquidSonics 

“Production Expert is a long-trusted media partner of ours whose popularity and credibility in the industry is evident in its rapid expansion through the years...For the past decade, PE has helped us share our stories and bring our products to market and we look forward to the next decade of news and insights.”
Melissa Misicka, Senior Director of Brand Marketing, iZotope

"...[Production Expert is] early adopters of new marketing practices and always striving to deliver maximum value and ROI to their partners. During the launch of our EVO by Audient brand and the subsequent interface range, PE played a vital role in helping us communicate our product proposition in a thoughtful and engaging way. They have been and will continue to be an important partner in our holistic marketing strategy going forward."
Andrew Allen, Marketing Director, Audient

“...I’m honored that Groove3 has been able to partner with PTE over the years...”
Asa Doyle, CEO Groove 3

“Pro Tools Expert has been an integral part of our annual marketing activities and a reliable business partner for several years now. Especially in pandemic times they established themselves as a valuable source of ideas. When we launched new products during those challenging times Pro Tools Expert helped to bring those to market and where an important and key partner to help to roll out the news properly.”
Kerstin Mischke, International Sales & Marketing, EVE Audio

“Launch has gone really well thanks. Best in our history! Your feature was a big part of that.”
Giles Farley, Sales & Marketing Director, Sonnox

Influencers make money through a variety of channels. If they're on YouTube, they make money through ad revenue. They often make it through affiliate marketing (sales) of the products they do videos about. And the most successful influencers trade on their influence to get money upfront either through direct payment for creating content about the brand's products or through asking them to buy advertising or sponsor a video. FTR, I'm certainly not anti-marketing, (I'm certainly going to take crap for this, but I think next time someone states that I don't know what I'm talking about, I should clarify that this is my area of professional expertise). I'm very pro-ethical marketing -- marketing is my career.  What I have a problem with is deceptive marketing practices -- practices designed to deceive its target audience -- and that is what the vast amount of influencer marketing is just and govt regulatory bodies don't have the resources to police it and there are not a lot of marketers complaining about that -- they just take advantage of using influencers reach as part of their promotional plans and budget. It's very often a confidence game where the influencer hides that they're getting compensated to promote a product, deceiving viewers into believing that they're unbiased -- it's a deception.  And complying with federal regulations is not in any way constricting or difficult for ethical marketers. I was pushing for regulating SPAM in the US back when, and a fair amount of marketers opposed it. The regulations passed but were far less than what they should have been -- which is almost always the reality due to lobbyist groups influencing politicians.  So yes, there are lots of BS plugins, but I wouldn't look to an influencer who doesn't disclose their financial relationships and paid reviews clearly to be a great source of truth on this subject. 

For anyone interested in learning more about regulations (this is for the US federal regulations, which are often not as thorough as many European country regulations): 

https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/advertising-marketing/endorsements-influencers-reviews

Edited September 6, 2023 by PavlovsCat

[El Diablo]

59 minutes ago, PavlovsCat said:

We've Been In the Age of BS Plugins and BS Reviewers a Long Time, I Call BS on the Source

[People who target me for hate posts and PMs, please skip this --it's literally that easy! Try it.] 

... ... ...

Wow!

Either you had an AI write that for you or you have a lot to say.  That's a lot to read and like... Sorry, but I'll have to read it later, if that's okay?

[El Diablo]

I thought about reviewing products I've already bought and upload to a YouTube channel.

I would hate to be influenced by a plugin developer's money because then I'll be forced to say mostly good things and have to ask if I can let others know about any bad things I find.  That kind of babysitting isn't worth it for me.

I would love getting free plugins or newly developed plugins from plugin makers I've already vested money into, but personally I wouldn't trust any new plugin developers, because they could be mischievous and create a virus or malware product to harm my computer.  You do know that plugins CAN harm your computer just like any other program.  Even though they are a "plugin", they execute like a program (other than another program is executing them), they have all the functions and abilities just like a regular program.  There's no sandbox or anything.  I've written my own plugins using Delphi, but others mainly use C++.  Since my programming sucks, I wouldn't recommend anyone use my plugins or buy them for now.  Plugins are as hazardous as a normal program is and you shouldn't just download any plugin as if it was safe.  That's another reason I don't use free plugins!

[PavlovsCat]

20 minutes ago, El Diablo said:

Wow!

Either you had an AI write that for you or you have a lot to say.  That's a lot to read and like... Sorry, but I'll have to read it later, if that's okay?

I found it ironic that an influencer who makes money buy doing BS reviews (that is, paid reviews posing as unbiased when the developer is financially compensated) is calling out developers who don't pay them to do reviews for making BS plugins.  I'm a businessperson and a writer. So I can fire off something on the topic very quickly. But it's not possible to make this kind of case in 50 words or less and I think it's important to make others aware that influencers like this one are getting financial compensation to write their "reviews."

Clearly,  you're not one of the people who's interested,  so you always have the option to skip it.  

Edited September 6, 2023 by PavlovsCat

[El Diablo]

5 minutes ago, PavlovsCat said:

I found it ironic that an influencer who makes money buy doing BS reviews is calling out developers who don't pay them to do reviews for making BS plugins.  I'm a businessperson and a writer. So I can fire off something on the topic very quickly. But it's not possible to make this kind of case in 50 words or less and I think it's important to make others aware that influencers like this one are getting financial compensation to write their "reviews."

Clearly,  you're not one of the people who's interested,  so you always have the option to skip it.  

After I wrote that, I shouldn't have, as curiosity got the best of me and I read it anyhow..lol!

[El Diablo]

White Noise Studio is clearly a paid influencer, right?

[PavlovsCat]

20 minutes ago, El Diablo said:

White Noise Studio is clearly a paid influencer, right?

Absolutely.  No question about that one. A number of developers use his videos as a part of their promotions.

Influencers work by creating followers that trust them. They then monetize that relationship in various ways. The most basic form of monetizing their influence in the DAW, plugin and sample development world is by using their influence -- basically, their ability to persuade people to buy things they talk about -- to get free products from developers (commonly NFRs). Even marginally successful influencers can do this to some degree. The other means is through affiliate marketing (sales) through links to the products they feature.  Successful influencers, like Pro Tools Expert  / Production Expert are able to require developers to pay them in order to "review" their products. Of course, if you're only reviewing products that you're paid to review, you're not doing unbiased reviews and you're excluding competitive developers who don't fork over the money for you to "review" their products.

Now my expertise is marketing, and the reality is, marketing people in this industry are happy to pay folks like Pro Tools Expert / Production Expert to help them sell more product and are not going to have any ethics problems with an influencer happy to promote their products. The fact that this influencer charges them and doesn't do an explicit disclosure on the page where they have their "reviews" is legally problematic (it violates the regulation that they have to disclose such relationships clearly where they do the review), but no marketer who's using them will ever complain about that. I believe it's important to tell consumers about how things work so that they understand it and don't get conned. My career has been leading marketing at brands and then starting my own company that grew out of my success as a writer and speaker on marketing strategy (writing for marketing professionals). But this is an area where I want to educate my fellow consumers about some very problematic marketing practices that are only focused on deceiving them and profiting from that deception.  

Edited September 6, 2023 by PavlovsCat

[PavlovsCat]

@El Diablo There is one influencer in this space I've gotten to know (personally) that I think is a very straight shooter. Cory Pelizzari. Unsurprisingly, when Cory started doing reviews that were completely honest, he has been taken through the wringer by developers. Including threats of being sued to intimidate him and, of course,  pressure to take down critical reviews and being shut out of getting additional products to review. I've recommended to him that he do videos sharing his experience with these developers so that sample buyers can understand the way the system works.  

Anyhow, the below video was one of the first ones I ever saw from Cory and it blew me away. He's the most honest influencer I've ever known of.  If any influencer "reviewer" deserves funding, IMO, it's this guy.  That kind of integrity is basically unheard of among influencers. But even if you couldn't care less about Cory and his story, it should make clear what happens to an honest influencer for doing honest reviews.

 

 

Edited September 6, 2023 by PavlovsCat