Culling my plugins ... pruning subs and direct debits .. it adds up

[Toffo]

6 hours ago, chris.r said:

That's like removing all the other 15 grand pianos from a concert hall leaving just one! Huh..

Right, 1 piano in 1 concert hall is okay… but what about all the other pianos in all the other concert halls? Gotta have them too!

[Magic Russ]

5 hours ago, Starship Krupa said:

See my quiz on "desert island" FX.

I wrote out my list, then looked at it, all 15 of them, and asked myself why I have 20X that many. Yeah, some of those are one-of-a-kind sound design-y things from the likes of Glitchmachines, Freakshow Industries, and Unfiltered Audio, but the list in my "compressors" category is huge.

Same here, although I don't think I've ever bought a compressor outside a bundle.  Sonar comes with Blue Tubes bundle, cool!  Joined IKM group buy to get Amplitube products, may as well go with TRacks components!  Oh look, Komplete has kompressors too!    Cheaper to buy the bundle from Arturia than the one FX I want, guess I have even more compressors than I will actually use.  I'm pretty much the same way with EQs for the same reasons.

[Fleer]

4 hours ago, kitekrazy said:

Those are the bloated ones if you have sample based REs.  Mine are over 15gb and can't be moved since Reason is still in the dark ages where you can't separate the RE from the samples.

Worse even, still not Apple Silicon native. I’m this close to writing them. Wut, wut, I just did. 
Luckily I didn’t jump for those sample based REs, but I did get 11 Suite (and 12) , which brought me some wonderful synths/instruments like Scenic, Algoritm, and particularly Friktion. 

[Fleer]

1 hour ago, Magic Russ said:

Same here, although I don't think I've ever bought a compressor outside a bundle.  Sonar comes with Blue Tubes bundle, cool!  Joined IKM group buy to get Amplitube products, may as well go with TRacks components!  Oh look, Komplete has kompressors too!    Cheaper to buy the bundle from Arturia than the one FX I want, guess I have even more compressors than I will actually use.  I'm pretty much the same way with EQs for the same reasons.

TBH, two of the best plug-in bundles around, especially on sale, are Arturia’s V Collection and FX Collection. Sheer sources of joy. 

[abacab]

13 hours ago, Starship Krupa said:

the list in my "compressors" category is huge

I scratch my head wondering how I ended up with so many compressors. And EQs...

Assume that they are often freebies, or many different models of them are included in some plugin bundles.

[abacab]

9 hours ago, kitekrazy said:

Most of them are in Komplete

I still have about 30 products in Komplete that are NOT installed here...

[Magic Russ]

1 hour ago, pwalpwal said:

it's like your wardrobe, if you haven't worn it for more than a year...

..and you have to photoshop or discard all the pictures where you are wearing that old clothing.

[kitekrazy1]

1 hour ago, abacab said:

I still have about 30 products in Komplete that are NOT installed here...

List some of those. This would make a great separate thread.

I think removed some of the drum libraries, a few pianos and strings.

[chris.r]

11 hours ago, Toffo said:

18 hours ago, chris.r said:

That's like removing all the other 15 grand pianos from a concert hall leaving just one! Huh..

Right, 1 piano in 1 concert hall is okay… but what about all the other pianos in all the other concert halls? Gotta have them too!

I'm gonna keep all my 15 grands in my own hall  

[abacab]

4 hours ago, kitekrazy said:

List some of those. This would make a great separate thread.

I think removed some of the drum libraries, a few pianos and strings.

Easy. Omitted the NI drums (except for Battery), the pianos (except for Noire, Una Corda, & the Giant), the Scarbees, Retro Machines, and a few other miscellaneous titles. I think if I had bought Komplete much earlier before I had collected a bunch of other instruments, I would be less picky.

I bought the crossgrade from Kontakt mainly to pickup the NI synths that I didn't have (Absynth, FM8, Massive, Massive X, Reaktor). The bonus was a few nice pianos and Battery.

[aidan o driscoll]

BTW for the record. I am not at all against the idea of buying plugs and instruments and this section + @cclarry is great for that and alerting of real nice stuff thats available at great prices.

All I am on about here is CONSIDER what you are buying and will you use it. To eventually have a nice selection of decent plugs that get used regularly.

Its similar to the idea of - for your next project decide on a small limited selection of plugs and just use those for a project, resist temptation to go off on 100s of others and end up getting nothing done, being overwhelmed.

Also try an gather a select few decent plugs and LEARN them well. Surely this enhances productivity

 

[paulo]

43 minutes ago, aidan o driscoll said:

BTW for the record. I am not at all against the idea of buying plugs and instruments and this section + @cclarry is great for that and alerting of real nice stuff thats available at great prices.

All I am on about here is CONSIDER what you are buying and will you use it. To eventually have a nice selection of decent plugs that get used regularly.

Its similar to the idea of - for your next project decide on a small limited selection of plugs and just use those for a project, resist temptation to go off on 100s of others and end up getting nothing done, being overwhelmed.

Also try an gather a select few decent plugs and LEARN them well. Surely this enhances productivity

 

Please stop talking sense. I'm trying to get a buzz going here.

[kitekrazy1]

I've numb to PA offerings.   Something worthy @ $29 just doesn't do it for me as you have to look from something of a lower price to add to use the voucher.

[aidan o driscoll]

Yes I have been a Loopcloud evangelist. I really like the concept and its integration into DAWs like cakewalk.

I have been paying annual sub for it last few years, many of those years getting a reduced sub offer. However this year I got no email reminder my sub was up and it got renewed. I have sent a cancel sub / refund request. they are usually good with this stuff. No doubt they will offer a reduced sub BUT this time I wont be renewing at any price.

Especially in the last year I have just not been using it at all and for the next year I cannot justify paying any amount for it for this reason.

So another cull victim, but makes sense.

Another reason is cost of living here in Ireland - generally getting very expensive here. I am noting even via biz that people have less disposable and are cutting things out and choosing what to spend on and what not to spend on. 

As an aside it is getting rather eye watering when you look at your DDs every month, the number of subs for various things going out across your software, TV, motor cars, comms etc really does add up to a large amount these days. Psychologically all relatively "small" amounts - but the €15 here, €30 there, €50 etc etc all does add up

Edited September 21, 2023 by aidan o driscoll

[marcL]

16 minutes ago, aidan o driscoll said:

Another reason is cost of living here in Ireland - generally getting very expensive here.

Not only in Ireland, I think it is all over Europe! Definitely in Sweden, the value of the Swedish Crown has decreased a lot!

[aidan o driscoll]

14 minutes ago, MarcL said:

Not only in Ireland, I think it is all over Europe! Definitely in Sweden, the value of the Swedish Crown has decreased a lot!

Yip @MarcL .. here its also the huge cost hikes in energy - Electricity, Gas, Fuel for cars - we are nearly back at €2 per litre of petrol / diesel here in Ireland now ( went to this at start of war in Ukraine in feb 2022 ). Electricity, Gas has not really fallen yet here, its beginning - slowly.

All this is driving food costs etc up through roof. House prices and rents are just gone crazy all together. 

So knock on is discretionary extra cash that was around is now diverted to above. Having impact on small biz also, especially if not in a essential biz

Another side cost is the big push to EVs .. the new mortgage at the price of them. Money monthly being channeled into these also via likes of PCP ( Personal contract Plans ) .. 56k EV on PCP near €1000pm over 3 years with 5k deposit

Edited September 21, 2023 by aidan o driscoll

[MusicMan]

46 minutes ago, aidan o driscoll said:

Yes I have been a Loopcloud evangelist. I really like the concept and its integration into DAWs like cakewalk.

I have been paying annual sub for it last few years, many of those years getting a reduced sub offer. However this year I got no email reminder my sub was up and it got renewed. I have sent a cancel sub / refund request. they are usually good with this stuff. No doubt they will offer a reduced sub BUT this time I wont be renewing at any price.

Especially in the last year I have just not been using it at all and for the next year I cannot justify paying any amount for it for this reason.

So another cull victim, but makes sense.

Another reason is cost of living here in Ireland - generally getting very expensive here. I am noting even via biz that people have less disposable and are cutting things out and choosing what to spend on and what not to spend on. 

As an aside it is getting rather eye watering when you look at your DDs every month, the number of subs for various things going out across your software, TV, motor cars, comms etc really does add up to a large amount these days. Psychologically all relatively "small" amounts - but the €15 here, €30 there, €50 etc etc all does add up

That is the risk with going subs and in particular cloud and creating your workflows around it. I actually think that the price for a LoopCloud sub is pretty reasonable to be fair. But they can increase that price massively any time and once you're locked in, it's harder to get out. They might also sell to one of the venture capitalists, etc and the new owners might double, or triple the yearly subscription price.

I have occasionally subscribed to LoopCloud (the last time was for $2 a month or something!) but I always download what I want locally and never use any of their plugins/tools in my projects. I might use their plugin to preview and then I'll rip the samples out into their own track.

For me, it's almost entirely for one shots and vocals. I use Atlas to search for samples on my drives and as a drum machine at times too.

So at any stage, if I don't have a LoopCloud subscription, nothing really changes. I did have to pay for Algonaut Atlas, which wouldn't be required if I went all in with LoopCloud, but that was a one off.. and it's awesome!

If I was to quit my job tomorrow and needed to watch my spend, music production wouldn't have to change in the slightest and I'm not reliant on a single subscription, so anything old should just open ?

Subscriptions are good for some people, but I prefer to not be reliant on them personally.

[aidan o driscoll]

20 minutes ago, MusicMan said:

Subscriptions are good for some people, but I prefer to not be reliant on them personally.

yeah @MusicMan, maybe. But year on year more and more software is going sub. The netflixisation of the software industry. I have no doubt Cakewalk next versions will be sub.

In my small biz my MICROSOFT 365 ( Office ) is now sub. My biz accounts software is cloud/sub. My mileage software is cloud/sub. Even my accountant is pushing another cloud/sub thing to do with accounts on me. 

Yes its conventient but boy do these subs of all sorts add up. Just add your phone "sub", your Netflix, prime etc, your broadband, your sat tv maybe .. All this on top of Energy monthly bills, car costs etc, its becoming endless and very costly

Re Loopcloud sub .. Im just not using it anymore so cannot justify it at any price .. one less sub to worry about

Edited September 21, 2023 by aidan o driscoll

[aidan o driscoll]

Got my full LOOPCLOUD Refund - €109 and cancelled. As predicted got an offer email afterwards for 30% off .. nope

[MusicMan]

On 9/21/2023 at 6:34 PM, aidan o driscoll said:

yeah @MusicMan, maybe. But year on year more and more software is going sub. The netflixisation of the software industry. I have no doubt Cakewalk next versions will be sub.

In my small biz my MICROSOFT 365 ( Office ) is now sub. My biz accounts software is cloud/sub. My mileage software is cloud/sub. Even my accountant is pushing another cloud/sub thing to do with accounts on me. 

Yes its conventient but boy do these subs of all sorts add up. Just add your phone "sub", your Netflix, prime etc, your broadband, your sat tv maybe .. All this on top of Energy monthly bills, car costs etc, its becoming endless and very costly

Re Loopcloud sub .. Im just not using it anymore so cannot justify it at any price .. one less sub to worry about

You're not wrong there.. they're coming at us from all angles.. Maybe perpetual licenses for audio software will become the analog of the digital world and go up in price and be highly sought after ??

In a business it's not quite as bad to an extent, but they definitely add up there as well.

I can't help but think that a lot of the people heavily using subscription services will be like a leaking ship when it comes to finances and struggling to make ends meet, but never really understanding why until they see what they all add up to each year.

I'll be holding out as long as possible and avoid subs at all costs.. apart from phone, internet and power ones you pointed out of course.. they've got me! ?