Vastman
 
It all bucks up against the perpetual growth model which the rich/wannaberich continue to prop up to extract "profit" from stuff. 

Yes, IK I know subscribes to this Model 

John,
 
Thanks for the sanity check.  I think if anyone's been around a bit here on the forum there have been terrific deals with terrific discoveries and tools.  But, absolutely, most of us could just go cold turkey now and not acquire another thing and we'd never use all of the stuff we already have. 
 
Like many have expressed here, I've slowed way down.
 

clintmartin
No more Eqs, comps, reverbs, delays or limiters...for now! Hahaha!

Agreed.  I fully believe that I will never, ever, ever, ever, buy another compressor (or EQ, or reverb)
 
I'm also at that point with synth sounds.  I'm dizzy with the options already at my disposal.
 
And yet, when something unusual or new, with a capability that I didn't have previously comes along, it gets intriguing.

I have been collecting these for a while.  I have a bunch of synths, and sample libraries, etc.  It is going to take a lot to get me excited to spend any more money at this point.  At least until Black Friday.

I've basically locked my system down. No need to buy anything now. If you look at what you have I suspect you can make every noise under the sun. The odd fun tool may come up or something may go ridiculously cheap but I felt they ran out of ideas long ago. Things get a little bigger, slightly easier to use and may be closer to the 'real' thing but it's becoming marginal.

Of all the music ever created none of them used the latest plugins, which basically only set out to recreate the past anyway.

I feel like I've been GAS'd into inactivity.

I too am (mostly) at the want vs need stage of buying. And my funds are limited too.

The consensus seems to be that everyone is slowing down with their software acquisitions. That could merely reflect the average experience level on these forums - most of us here have been at this digital audio game for at least a decade. Eventually you accumulate all the essential tools you really need, and over time you experience enough disappointments to realize that the promise of a new plugin is rarely fulfilled. If, after a decade or more, you're still burdened by GAS, the reasons are emotional rather than logical.
 
I think it's like gambling.
 
Everybody gets a thrill when they win some money gambling. Everybody's bummed when they lose. Whether or not you become a problem gambler (or a non-gambler) depends on how big the thrill of winning is for you relative to the downer of losing. Some people get such a high from the win that they forget about all the losses and illogically pursue that win rush, improbable as it may be.
 
My weakness is virtual instruments. One in ten will become standbys and the source of creative inspiration. The other nine will mostly just take up disk space. (1:10 is still better odds than a slot machine, though.)
 
The trick is learning to identify that one in ten in advance. I haven't mastered that yet, and maybe never will. I'm such a sucker for great demo songs, which really only demonstrate that a good composer/arranger/mixer can make something good out of anything.
 

I can't keep up with the urge to buy stuff. I used to be able to have toys but not today. My self medication was to start building stuff. It's much harder and takes a lot longer, but when it's done I get a good feeling that I have control over something in my life. Most of the regulars on the forums seem to be onto their fallback careers after doing something much bigger. There seems to be a lot of unemployed engineers that had their companies dissolve from beneath them in their 50's. I used to be a QA manager at the biggest steel company in Canada. It's gone now and I'm an over qualified and unemployable geezer. A tough pill to swallow.
 
Recording, and its related tech has given me something to tinker with that requires a bit of brain power. It passes the time, plain and simple. Too bad we can't all kick in and open a business because I sense a lot of under utilized folks around here. 

We've all been in this infinite loop, and some of us still are......
 
 
 

I always gas but do a reality check. I never buy gear/software on credit so with my limited budget I ask myself: Can I afford it? Do I already have something that can accomplish this? Is it worth it? Do I have higher priorities on my wish list? That keeps thing in check for me.
 
Rocky