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Jumping off of the train!!


jesse g

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I didn't so much jump off the train as simply sit back and watch it leave the station without me.

That was about three years ago, when I realized that Black Friday had come and gone and I hadn't bought anything. Since then I've picked up a few too-cheap-to-ignore sample libraries and that's about it.

Although I have to admit to one relapse, having jumped back on very briefly to buy ProQ-4 on release day. But I don't regret it, and it'll likely be the only purchase I make over the coming year.

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9 hours ago, kitekrazy1 said:

It's also hypocrisy downloading every free plugin out there.

Then I guess I'm a hypocrite. 🤨

Or do you mean that behavior in people who have "sworn off" buying plug-ins?

I haven't sworn off, but it's rare for me to buy a plug-in. I have plenty of the standard mixing plug-ins. Compressor, precision EQ, character EQ, limiter, multiband compressor, reverb, delay, reverb, phaser, flanger, bitcrusher, pitch shift, harmonizer, doubler, stereoscope, LUF's meter. Covered multiple times over with top tier examples of each.

I don't buy new ones, and it's hard for me to be interested enough to try freebies. I like being able to recommend free plug-ins, so I'll sometimes try them for that purpose.

There are also plenty of "sound design" oddballs in my collection, so I haven't bought any of those in a long time, but I generally do at least try interesting freebies. I like to create sounds.

As for instruments, my cup also runneth over in that department, but will occasionally try a freebie/loss leader and be knocked out enough to keep it and maybe even upgrade. Sonuscore Orchestra Essentials was my most recent instrument purchase because it's just too easy to get useful orchestral sounds with it.

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2 hours ago, Starship Krupa said:

Then I guess I'm a hypocrite. 🤨

Or do you mean that behavior in people who have "sworn off" buying plug-ins?

I haven't sworn off, but it's rare for me to buy a plug-in. I have plenty of the standard mixing plug-ins. Compressor, precision EQ, character EQ, limiter, multiband compressor, reverb, delay, reverb, phaser, flanger, bitcrusher, pitch shift, harmonizer, doubler, stereoscope, LUF's meter. Covered multiple times over with top tier examples of each.

I don't buy new ones, and it's hard for me to be interested enough to try freebies. I like being able to recommend free plug-ins, so I'll sometimes try them for that purpose.

There are also plenty of "sound design" oddballs in my collection, so I haven't bought any of those in a long time, but I generally do at least try interesting freebies. I like to create sounds.

As for instruments, my cup also runneth over in that department, but will occasionally try a freebie/loss leader and be knocked out enough to keep it and maybe even upgrade. Sonuscore Orchestra Essentials was my most recent instrument purchase because it's just too easy to get useful orchestral sounds with it.

Aren't we all?  I still download free plugins.  It's still enlarging our acquisitions. 

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I mean - this is a business thing. If I walk into your studio as a client and your using 'Willy's Freebie Daduk', East West Orchestral Gold, and Cubase's stock guitar amp plugins, I'm going to walk out the door lol.

If you're a business then you're in competition with the best. That means constantly upgrading and improving what instruments & plugins you're using. You ain't getting Fab Filter quality for free. You ain't getting UVI or Liquidsonics quality without iLok. 

Also - buying stuff you don't need will put you out of business pretty quickly. It's pretty easy to avoid doing this by running a studio budget...which everyone should be doing if professional, or even amateur to get in the habit. But saying "i'm done with all this" is like a restaurant or factory saying "we ain't buying or upgrading anything anymore".  This will end up costing you more in the long run. Make a budget. Identify what you do / don't need. (Use inventory lists that are categorized.) Wait for sales if possible. Demo everything if possible. Don't impulse buy. Avoid free **** as much as possible, because it will just become bloat / clutter...and free **** gets abandoned regularly, is often of much lower quality than paid products, and and often has no technical support or is slow to upgrade to new standards (eg. VST3, Clap, etc.) 

But if you're buying a lot of stuff you don't need, and can't seem to stop...therapy might be the better option. Not even joking.

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I doubt there are very many people here making money off their music / studio.  

Or at least, not many actually doing studio work with it for other people as a regular company kind of thing, even if they're selling their own music.

I suspect most are like me, just doing it because they'd go nuts if they couldn't, even if no one else ever listens to any of it. ;)

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18 hours ago, bitflipper said:

I didn't so much jump off the train as simply sit back and watch it leave the station without me.

That was about three years ago, when I realized that Black Friday had come and gone and I hadn't bought anything. Since then I've picked up a few too-cheap-to-ignore sample libraries and that's about it.

Although I have to admit to one relapse, having jumped back on very briefly to buy ProQ-4 on release day. But I don't regret it, and it'll likely be the only purchase I make over the coming year.

I'm a bit in the same situation. Haven't bought that much besides the some 'must have' (whatever that may be) things. Where as before I would buy every 'vintage emulation of this rare 60s pre-amp'. Making a lot of music (weekly jams and other projects) made me aware of things I acually use and the kind of thing  I use. As I found out, I don't use so called coloured EQ's that much. So, those are off my radar. As I found out, I keep coming back to the same (coloured) compessors I already have. So, those are off my radar. Etc.

I'm not off the train, I'm that loose wagon at the end that falls behind and catches up every so now and then.

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11 hours ago, Amberwolf said:

I doubt there are very many people here making money off their music / studio.  

Or at least, not many actually doing studio work with it for other people as a regular company kind of thing, even if they're selling their own music.

I suspect most are like me, just doing it because they'd go nuts if they couldn't, even if no one else ever listens to any of it. ;)

It's a big divide from those who make a living.  They have to follow bad ideas from clients who picked up a magazine.

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3 hours ago, kitekrazy1 said:

It's a big divide from those who make a living.  They have to follow bad ideas from clients who picked up a magazine.

Yeah...that's why I stopped building computers (or bikes or anything else) for people long ago--they usually thought they knew what they needed and wouldn't listen to me about it, then blamed me when it didn't do what they wanted.... 

I'd rather just deal with myself; I'm not as hard on me for my oopsies and any I have really are my own fault. :lol: 

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17 hours ago, Amberwolf said:

Yeah...that's why I stopped building computers (or bikes or anything else) for people long ago--they usually thought they knew what they needed and wouldn't listen to me about it, then blamed me when it didn't do what they wanted.... 

I'd rather just deal with myself; I'm not as hard on me for my oopsies and any I have really are my own fault. :lol: 

 I learned that working in the opticsl business when a person asked me about the "density" of lenses.  I said do you mean refractive index?  He said forget it. Marketing often tracks people with buzzwords.

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17 hours ago, Amberwolf said:

Yeah...that's why I stopped building computers (or bikes or anything else) for people long ago--they usually thought they knew what they needed and wouldn't listen to me about it, then blamed me when it didn't do what they wanted....

I've seen people who bring in their car wanting something "fixed" that is a design feature.

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8 minutes ago, Byron Dickens said:

I've seen people who bring in their car wanting something "fixed" that is a design feature.

I've had that experience too (more with computers and ebikes than anything else OTTOMH).   

 

Unfortunately there are many things in all sorts of hardware and software products called features that I'd personally class as bugs. ;) 

At best, bad design. :/

So, if I didn't already know that, I'd be one of those people. 

 

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1 hour ago, kitekrazy1 said:

 I learned that working in the opticsl business when a person asked me about the "density" of lenses.  I said do you mean refractive index?  He said forget it. Marketing often tracks people with buzzwords.

On the endless sphere ev forum, I deal with that all the time when people have battery/etc problems, where they use A and Ah and W and Wh interchangeably, when they are completely different terms.   Unfortunately many ads also use them interchangeably, and since it's "on the internet it must be right", many people won't trust anyone that says otherwise, so they can't be helped with whatever their problem is. 

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If this is a hobby, do whatever makes you happy.  Some people enjoy the process of exploring new plugins, watching videos about them, reading forums, etc.  If that helps you unwind from life and brings you enjoyment, there's nothing wrong with that.  If your hobby is making music, then dedicate more time to that.

Personally, I've tried to vastly cut back on keeping up with new plugins, because I'd rather make music.  I do still check some music forums, particularly when I'm not at my DAW, but I'm trying to limit that too.  The biggest reason I don't make more music is lack of free time, so I've got to cut back on time in some areas to make time for it.

Besides, I really don't need any more compressors, EQs, etc.  If there's a new plugin that does something new or will save me considerable time, then I'll still consider it.  But I don't need anything else.

Another perspective I've taken on this is getting older.  I thought about all the virtual instruments I have, and if I made one track that featured each primarily, how long would that take?  Years, since I have Komplete and V Collection and much more.  I don't want to accumulate more than I'll ever even get to use.  Our time on Earth is limited, so I want to do what matters.

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