VSTi overload

[suzumebachi]

OK, this probably sounds like an unusual problem to have for some of you but... I have way too god damn many VSTi's. I have spent a couple of weeks downloading nearly every free VSTi in existence. But I think all it's done is cramp my style. I have so much crap now, I don't even know where to begin when deciding I want to add a new synth or something. Hell I don't even know what half these damn things do. It's pure chaos. Mass confusion.

So basically, do any of you guys have any tips on organizing synths and shit, so that my head doesn't explode the next time I open FLStudio?

Seriously, I thought having 120+ VSTis would be a good idea and allow more creative freedom.

I was wrong.

[lazygecko]

This is a common problem. Just remove the ones you don't really use and stick to a handful of favourites. It's a well known fact that limitations tend to force out creativity.

[OverCoat]

I usually only collect one or two VSTi at once. Then I play with them and end up making a song with them. But it seems like you got them all in one sitting, so I dunno - make a song using as many of them as you can?

I have way more than 120 VSTi btw, but I know what each of them does or is as I look down the list, because I've used them all in songs.

[zircon]

GY is right. But there's something else you can do, also. Open up a VST you have, go to the upper left to the plug icon and then go to "Save Preset As". You can drag and drop the named preset from the browser to load the synth. So, you can create an organized folder of all your synths in this fashion. EG.

VST Plugins

- Synths

-- Subtractive Synths

--- Pro 53

--- MinimogueVA

-- FM Synths

--- FM8

--- Ganymed

- Samplers

-- Kontakt 2

- Effects

-- Distortion

-- Reverb

-- Delay

-- EQ

Something like that.

[klm09]

What I usually do when I download a bunch of VSTs at once is I give each a quick spin. I try out some presets and generally muck about with them to see if I can get a good sound out of them with relatively little effort. If the panel is indecipherable or all the presets sound like ass, I usually just delete the VST within a minute or two. There are so many synths, effects, whatever, that even if you "accidentally" delete a few of the good ones, you're still going to end up with a dozen great VSTs for each missed one.

Then, when you've narrowed it down to the ones that you really like or think sound good, pick out the ones out of those that do something that the others can't or do it better than the others. Like if you have 2 distortion units, the other covers all the same ground as the other one.. why keep that other one? At least chuck it in some archive folder so it doesn't clutter up your VST menu in your DAW. My opinion is that, if you have truly good VSTs, you don't really need more than maybe 2-3 units of each type, like maybe 2 subtractive style synths, 2 compressors, 2 choruses, 2 reverbs and so on. Hell, if they're really good and versatile, one of each might suffice, but free units like that are rare.

[suzumebachi]

GY is right. But there's something else you can do, also. Open up a VST you have, go to the upper left to the plug icon and then go to "Save Preset As". You can drag and drop the named preset from the browser to load the synth. So, you can create an organized folder of all your synths in this fashion. EG.

VST Plugins

- Synths

-- Subtractive Synths

--- Pro 53

--- MinimogueVA

-- FM Synths

--- FM8

--- Ganymed

- Samplers

-- Kontakt 2

- Effects

-- Distortion

-- Reverb

-- Delay

-- EQ

Something like that.

Ahhhhh that sounds like it would ease the pain quite a bit. At least then I'd have a general idea of what each one does.

Thanks for the tips guys.

Scott, more than 120? Egads.

[zircon]

It really gets bad when you hit the 300 mark. I have at least that many in my FLStudio 5 folder alone (I'm up to 6.4b now so every plugin I've got since 6 has been installed elsewhere). I'm a virtual packrat.

There is, of course, another philosophy... which is that the more plugins you have, the easier it may be to get the sound you want. If you have a ridiculous amount of stuff, you might not have to spend hours tweaking a less-than-perfect sample or preset to fit your needs. You might just be able to get that sound out of the box.

[suzumebachi]

geez. i can't possibly imagine downloading 300 VSTis on 56k. though i imagine you probably bought some of them, but still. that's a lot of musical voodoo my friend.

[sgx]

This is one reason I am so glad I started with Reason. Knowing a few synths very well made things so much faster and actually a bit more creative for me. I'm starting to get too much vsti junk now, but I'm doing ok. Too many options can be bad. I've been thinking about deleting some, but I'm afraid that it might break older projects of mine that included those.

Ableton Live is able to read vsti's by pointing it to windows shortcuts you made to the .dll's, so I'm thinking about making a new folder as my default vst folder for Live and just making shortcuts to a pared-down group of vsts.

One thing I'm finding is that in whatever host you are using trying to stick with the included effects instead of trying out all kinds of vst effects can be good, as long as the included ones are generally good (which I believe FL's are, Live, Reason, etc).

[suzumebachi]

One thing I'm finding is that in whatever host you are using trying to stick with the included effects instead of trying out all kinds of vst effects can be good, as long as the included ones are generally good (which I believe FL's are, Live, Reason, etc).

FL's included synths are musical blasphemy and will pretty much get you instant rejected. It's not that they're bad in themselves, but that there's been 6 trillion songs made with them, and they sound the same 99% of the time (and can be spotted a mile away). There's only so much one can do with 3 crappy oscillators and an ADSR envelope.

[Splunkle]

One thing I'm finding is that in whatever host you are using trying to stick with the included effects instead of trying out all kinds of vst effects can be good, as long as the included ones are generally good (which I believe FL's are, Live, Reason, etc).

FL's included synths are musical blasphemy and will pretty much get you instant rejected. It's not that they're bad in themselves, but that there's been 6 trillion songs made with them, and they sound the same 99% of the time (and can be spotted a mile away). There's only so much one can do with 3 crappy oscillators and an ADSR envelope.

I assume you mean just the synths you don't have to pay extra for (unless you got XXL), right? Because Sytrus is the Bomb, and Wasp can make some preety awesome sounds sometimes.

Though I do use 3xOsc occasionally, largely for tasks any old subtractive synth can do.

[The Vagrance]

Hey, don't count off the 3xOsc completely, I've gotten some massive bass sounds out of it.

[sgx]

One thing I'm finding is that in whatever host you are using trying to stick with the included effects instead of trying out all kinds of vst effects can be good, as long as the included ones are generally good (which I believe FL's are, Live, Reason, etc).

FL's included synths are musical blasphemy and will pretty much get you instant rejected. It's not that they're bad in themselves, but that there's been 6 trillion songs made with them, and they sound the same 99% of the time (and can be spotted a mile away). There's only so much one can do with 3 crappy oscillators and an ADSR envelope.

I said effects. WAY 2 REED!

[Splunkle]

Hey, don't count off the 3xOsc completely, I've gotten some massive bass sounds out of it.

Yeah, but you could probably do that with most subtractive synths. I'm not hating on 3xOsc, its a great little synth at what it does, and a lot nicer to my CPU than most VSTs or Sytrus. But it is overused, and I can't really reccomend it for leads, especially if they are rather exposed in the mix.

Also, FL's effects are quite good, though sometimes I miss Scream from Reason. That thing was awesome for screwing with signals. Mind you, I can probably duplicate most of the things it does, but only by using multiple plugins... Scream just made everything more convinient.

[Legion303]

Make a song with all presets, on default synths.

-steve