Stay away from the Deals forum below.
My plugin count has tripled since checking in there the last few months.
Bjorn

Most of them now come in VST2 and 3.  I stopped installing free ones.

I've actually not upgraded a lot of my plugins this year, even though I've bought more this year than any other.

I've found that some clients are so well educated they sometimes ask you to use particular plugins. Have others found this? Especially Waves plugins, the name is so widely known that clients equate them with a well setup studio. Kind of like Pro Tools being perceived as the essential DAW. Especially for the younger guys that have grown up with computers and not seen the high end audio gear. For them Waves equate to the high end studio hardware. I admit that years ago when I got into digital, I had perceptions like that. I guess you get sucked up in the marketing hype.

Like a wise man once said;
"Maybe it's time to cut down on the VSTs"

MelodicJimmy
I literally use maybe about ..... ten plugins.  I'd rather record music than play around with plugins. 
 

I agree that it is a chore to have so many, but it is easy to setup a layout in plug in manager that only shows what you use.
 
The same cannot be said for Region Effects. In this case you have to look at Drum Replacer every time you go to Region Effects, even if you almost never record drums. Perhaps in a future release.

Maybe it will become an issue when there are more than three options.

I'm currently sitting at 554 total.   And I'm willing to bet anyone $20 that I use at least 10% of those.  
 
Seriously though, I do always seem to come back to a core group of plugins.  The others are more in "because I might need them someday" territory.
 
 
PS...  Looking forward to more CA-X amps, Craig.  Love 'em. 
 

Noel Borthwick [Cakewalk]
If you have the Waves suite you get around 600 plugins just from there :)
FWIW I've tested with over 1000 plugins and SONAR still does the startup scan in less than 5 seconds for me.

is this from a cold start (i.e., after a reboot of PC) or after Sonar has already been loaded previously with no PC restart?

Maybe I'm just poor and/or efficient, but I see some of you with your 1000+ plugins and look at my startup scan which only finds 158 and can't help but shake my head. :)

I have 190. I know my way around them fairly well.

There are some, like Melda wobbler that I always think will be fun when I finally get to it, but I never do.

NebRanger
Maybe I'm just poor and/or efficient, but I see some of you with your 1000+ plugins and look at my startup scan which only finds 158 and can't help but shake my head. :)