Friends,
 
A couple neat articles from Music Radar. One on creating a pro endpoint while using freebies. Obviously missing so many many candidates, but the intent in the article is valid. 20 years ago, there were many vst plugs, but nothing of any quality until you paid hundreds of dollars for something that is surpassed today and free.
 
Assuming as time goes by, many here are too young to have put up with the hell of analog tape machines and all the bliss of that era. As much time as is put into developing software to emulate the patriarchs, a reminder that the good old days were not too good. I remember when the first digital systems came out, brittle, too unforgiving, something not right in the sound we were used to.
 
Warm saturation etc was there at the expense of problems and dead ends that we have fortunately left behind. Can recreate the good old days quite closely when needed, at a safe distance from the old celluloid nightmare.
 
http://www.musicradar.com...amp;utm_content=245522
 
http://www.musicradar.com...amp;utm_content=245522
 
Best to all of you,
John

Oh no

I hate freebies myself.

I don't hate 'em, but once you've built up a decent collections that handles your workflow, I've rarely come across a freebie that does something better than what I already have. If you are just starting out, freebies are great to get started, though they become a time sink installing, testing and uninstalling the bloopers.
 
With so many good sales throughout the year, I'd just as soon get into a decent suite that is well supported and for which good tutorials exist. Not only do the tutorials teach the plugins, but they are also useful for teaching technique, IMO.
 
Regards,
Dan

I have been moving more towards Dans position for a while. I don't even notice them anymore. If something really good does come along there is enough buzz on this forum that I become aware of it. Having said all that, the iZotope delay from a few months ago is really nice. And I use Audio Damage Rough Rider and Azurite chorus all the time. System stability and general order is more important now. Besides, if I want to have a bunch of stuff I don't use on my system I would just as soon pay for it.   What!!??  As to OP, yup the free stuff is often better that what you paid way too much for not that long ago. Do I miss my Roland VS-2480 and VM mixer and the expansion cards and FX software and cheap outboard gear? Nothing was free and no I don't. See See Lars has the best outlook on freebies. They might get you something cheaper from a crossgrade or upgrade latter on.

dcumpian
I don't hate 'em, but once you've built up a decent collections that handles your workflow, I've rarely come across a freebie that does something better than what I already have. If you are just starting out, freebies are great to get started, though they become a time sink installing, testing and uninstalling the bloopers.
 
With so many good sales throughout the year, I'd just as soon get into a decent suite that is well supported and for which good tutorials exist. Not only do the tutorials teach the plugins, but they are also useful for teaching technique, IMO.
 
Regards,
Dan

+1

I am not qualified to judge about quality of FXes, but from my hobby project I came to one general (surprising for me) conclusion: most people think that free or cheap staff is by definition in "low" up to "ok, when you have no money" range. Without even checking WHY it is free or cheap. Something can be better than anything else for particular purpose, but even that does not change common standard opinion. Especially in music, where subjective "that does not sound right" is acceptable argument.
That is a consequence of "consumer society", but that is too politic related for this forum.

Azslow3,
 
With you on this one. Fully understand arguments for the benefits of a $500 reverb over an obscure free offering by some unknown renegade. But maybe we are too quick to piss off a free device as inferior because we have just dumped $500 on a pro Ilock plug. Human nature.
 
Broken record **** on my part, but after breaking the bank for decades on every conceivable state of the art increment, realized that it wasn't enhancing my musicianship. Wasn't enhancing creativity. Ended up with another week's groceries invested in a new echo unit that was forgotten a week after the thrill wore off. May be needed for external clients, but ultimately did nothing for me other than add to the hoard pile.
 
Doing an evaluation of my accumulated wasteland. Rain's advice about treating the DAW as hardware much appreciated. If it works and does what is needed, carve it in stone and move forward. Only so much technology can do to polish a...
 
John

I have a smallish collection of paid-for, 3rd party plugs that I just added over the last 12 months.  Great stuff that I'm glad I have.  I am trying apply my observations about thermometers to my plug-in collection.
 
Thermometers?  Have you noticed the variety of thermometers healthcare professionals have been spending your money on?  Everything from the most basic to the most insanely tech advanced contraptions imaginable.  The results from each are the same; an adequately accurate readout of body temp.  The oil cooled model with wheels and a 3" thick operating manual may deliver temps to 7 decimal places, but only 1 is req'd for accurate diagnosis.
 
Diminishing returns ...

To me it depends on your ear and your background. I'm an old radio guy who does some AV work to keep a bit of food on the table. A buddy recently suggested that a room was too boomy and to drop the EQ around 125. I went to all the EQs (way too many) that the engineer had set up and dropped them all just a touch at 125. It became less boomy and much better sounding. I couldn't care less what brand or make the EQs were as long as I could make the room sound better.
 
I'm the same with EQs, Compressors, etc... on my DAW. The ones that came with it, the Melda freebies and the NI ones from KU are perfectly fine by me. If I want to mess with convo reverb, the stuff in GR (Reflektor?) is fine by me. But I know a lot of you guys have great ears and great background in music and might want to recreate a certain Beatles sound with recreations of everything in Abbey Road Studios.
 
On the other hand I love listening to Pianos and the difference between Steinway, Yamaha, Baldwin, Bosendorfer, et all is huge to me. I love kicking up some old midis I found of Berlin / Porter / Gershwin medleys and listening to them with different pianos in my DAW just for my own pleasure. I downloaded all the PianoTeq old freebies of 1700s and 1800s pianos just for this reason. So is it any less different for me wanting lots of pianos and someone else wanting every EQ and Reverb he can find. Not really. He can hear each exquisite shade of difference in that expensive EQ, while I can fall in love with a digital recreation of a pianoforte or harpsichord that I could never afford in real life.