Loading free plugins - good or bad

[d the s]

Dear guys

Using , learning and loving reaper very much

i am learning and using reaper recently. then i heared the availability of free plugins vst and dx in the net.

i started downloading plugins and now i have loaded my pc with more or less 100 plugins some good and some bad.
Wheather i am using it or not is a big question?

is this (the habit of downloading and loading the daw with free and paid plugins ) good or bad?

kindly advice
or shall we delet the plugins which is uncomfortable and unsatisfactory?

[Ollie]

This habit is bad because you clutter up your plugin folder and sooner or later you will stumble upon a faulty plugin or a combination of plugins that don't play nice with each other, causing you some headaches.

BUT:

You have to go through that phase. Trying them all (with some caution) is the only thing you can do to find out which plugins you like and which not. It's also the only way to find a set of your favourite plugins that prove to be stable on your computer.

If you do have particular needs for instruments or effects, asking for some known free plugins or browsing this thread

http://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=563

and this one

http://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=698

may help to avoid some bad plugins though.

[d the s]

thankyou very much dork.

i will browse the site you mentioned soon.

many thanks

[EvilDragon]

Originally Posted by d the s

thankyou very much dork.

Priceless!


Police Academy 5, anyone?

[Sheppola]

I think we all go through the free VST downloading phase and then end up using around 4 or 5 that suit our needs.Remove those you don't use.

[kindafishy]

Originally Posted by d the s

thankyou very much dork.

I LOL'd.

[EricM]

Originally Posted by EvilDragon

Priceless!

hahah x2

[g8torcliff]

Originally Posted by d the s

thankyou very much dork.

Now, that is freakin' funny.....

I'm still laughin'

cliff

[TonyL]

I was passing by and saw this thread....thanks all for the pointers to those good free plugin threads.

In a related topic (not meant to be a hijack) when I do come across a bad plugin and Reaper barfs I usually have to restart XP to avoid Reaper giving audio driver errors. This is a pain when it happens in the white heat of creativity Any way to avoid it ?

[EvilDragon]

Yeah, run the plugin in a separate process.

[Sheppola]

Originally Posted by TonyL

I was passing by and saw this thread....thanks all for the pointers to those good free plugin threads.

In a related topic (not meant to be a hijack) when I do come across a bad plugin and Reaper barfs I usually have to restart XP to avoid Reaper giving audio driver errors. This is a pain when it happens in the white heat of creativity Any way to avoid it ?

Preferences/VST/ Run 32 bit VSTs section and choose to run in separate process or in dedicated process per VST however this may cause a performance hit.If the VST is no good on your system look for an alternative as there usually is one

[Ollie]

Originally Posted by kindafishy

I LOL'd.

Originally Posted by EricM

hahah x2

LOL x3

Originally Posted by TonyL

This is a pain when it happens in the white heat of creativity Any way to avoid it ?

Kill the hanging Reaper.exe process in Task Manager->Processes tab.

[TimOBrien]

You're paste/posting this same question on every audio board on the net.

Do I smell a spam offer coming????

[d the s]

Originally Posted by g8torcliff

Now, that is freakin' funny.....

I'm still laughin'

cliff

am i did anything wrong ? why guys this much.........?

[d the s]

Originally Posted by EvilDragon

Priceless!


Police Academy 5, anyone?

am i did anything wrong dear boss.........?

[j79]

no you did nothing wrong...at least not on purpose

but dork means something along the lines of moron in english...and penis too i think?...but im sure steindork didnt get mad...dont worry

[g8torcliff]

Nope...nothing wrong. Sometimes cultural/lingual differences are good for a laugh....

To your question... most people on audio websites have tried all of the free plug-ins, so, if you look through the threads posted you will find which plug-ins are favored and which aren't. I started with the Kjaerhaus ones because they have so many presets. But, like everyone else, I have since downloaded and tried a bunch of others. That is the phase you are about to enter. Welcome to the search for the holy grail of plug-ins....you have lots of company.

...

cliff

[d the s]

Originally Posted by j79

no you did nothing wrong...at least not on purpose

but dork means something along the lines of moron in english...and penis too i think?...but im sure steindork didnt get mad...dont worry

Dear stein

if anything i typed wrongly kindly bear...i regret sincerely

i donot know the meaning of dork and i never heard it at my place.

Sorry , Sorry, Sorry

[EvilDragon]

...or you could've just typed his full nickname and no regret there.

[manning1]

d/s.
some people collect plug ins like my mother collects shoes ..lol.
really you have to be selective.
the other aspect is with too many plug ins you spend loads of time
trying to decide the best one to use n tweaking etc.
so one can get into "paralysis by analysis" mode n never get the song done.
cos there is always just one more plug in to try.
my advice starting out is to just focus n experimenting with reaps own plugs for a few weeks cos there are sooo many features in em.
after going thru this then selectively add a few third party plug ins.
my rule for plug ins is...if they consume too much computer resource
they are gone. cos i dont want cpu n memory hogs.
in summary , respectfully i would suggest be selective.
plugs are like women..lol. find the right one and youll get great happiness.
but the wrong one can bring grief n crashes in your life.
to quote ma granpappy "everything in moderation.."
good luck.

[Ollie]

Originally Posted by d the s

Dear stein

if anything i typed wrongly kindly bear...i regret sincerely

i donot know the meaning of dork and i never heard it at my place.

Sorry , Sorry, Sorry

Hey, no problem, no offense taken, I found it quite funny.

[HailCorduroy]

Originally Posted by manning1

plugs are like women..lol. find the right one and youll get great happiness.

And you have to try a lot of different ones to make sure you aren't missing out on something better.

[pattonfreak1]

I can save the OP some time. Google any/all of the following terms followed by "vst":
TbT
Kjaerhus
Variety of sound
Terry west
Buzzmaxi
Slim slow slider
Lepou
AcmeBarGig
Electri-q
Pushtec
CamelCrusher
And
Digitalfishphones


All of those are more or less the best freeware going

[EvilDragon]

Acmebargig!

[Ollie]

Elektrostudio http://elektrostudio.ovh.org/index2.php
MDA http://mda.smartelectronix.com/
SQ8L http://www.buchty.net/ensoniq/#sq8l

[JohnnyMcFly]

Patton's pissed cause we haven't released Catharsis or ISX Yet...LOL

KM

[EvilDragon]

Or HeadCase >:

[Bezmotivnik]

Originally Posted by d the s

Using , learning and loving reaper very much

Me too, slowly but surely.

is this (the habit of downloading and loading the daw with free and paid plugins ) good or bad?

kindly advice
or shall we delet the plugins which is uncomfortable and unsatisfactory?

I'd blow them off for now. They're small, save them in a different folder and you can always install them later when you need them.

My suggestion for new users (and one I try to stick to myself) is to avoid getting obsessed with downloading and using plugins and 731 dubious VSTi's until you need them and confidently know what you're doing with basic recording and can use them sparingly and intelligently. Get good tracks and you can always treat them later.

The thing for new users to do is simplify. Make digital recording as uncomplicated as you can or one of two things happens: 1) You get overwhelmed with all the secondary fiddly stuff and get discouraged, or 2) you get get obsessed with secondary fiddly stuff and lose your way in what I call "seductive process," chasing the ideal X plugin and becoming a plugin geek rather than a productive music maker. I see this happen all the time.

Maintain perspective and remember you're trying to make great music. The rest is just greasy machinery.

[pattonfreak1]

Originally Posted by JohnnyMcFly

Patton's pissed cause we haven't released Catharsis or ISX Yet...LOL

KM

LOL
You saw right thru me Ken!

Edited my post. And release those amps only when they are worthy to be released.

[Artbay]

Originally Posted by manning1

the other aspect is with too many plug ins you spend loads of time trying to decide the best one to use n tweaking etc. so one can get into "paralysis by analysis" mode n never get the song done...

You mean i'm not the only one who has this problem?

Originally Posted by manning1

my rule for plug ins is...if they consume too much computer resource they are gone. cos i dont want cpu n memory hogs.

I downloaded a few dozen of the free VSTis that had better ratings at http://www.kvraudio.com/get.php . Maybe I had better luck, but I only found 10% were bad - either resource hogs or crashers. Then another third of them weren't anything that I'd use, most often because there was already a better VSTi that does the same thing and more.

For me it's now less than ten VSTis that I usually use, but I haven't uninstalled any that didn't cause problems.

If you have problems getting bogged down in that "paralysis by analysis" mode, you might invest a little time tagging/renaming your plugins - just type "GOOD" or "AAA" or something in front of the ones you really like & use regularly. Then later when you're working you can just type that word in in the "filter results" blank; that will hide the "distractions".

[d the s]

yes artbay ofcourse it should be followed

[d the s]

Originally Posted by manning1

d/s.
some people collect plug ins like my mother collects shoes ..lol.
really you have to be selective.
the other aspect is with too many plug ins you spend loads of time
trying to decide the best one to use n tweaking etc.
so one can get into "paralysis by analysis" mode n never get the song done.
cos there is always just one more plug in to try.
my advice starting out is to just focus n experimenting with reaps own plugs for a few weeks cos there are sooo many features in em.
after going thru this then selectively add a few third party plug ins.
my rule for plug ins is...if they consume too much computer resource
they are gone. cos i dont want cpu n memory hogs.
in summary , respectfully i would suggest be selective.
plugs are like women..lol. find the right one and youll get great happiness.
but the wrong one can bring grief n crashes in your life.
to quote ma granpappy "everything in moderation.."
good luck.

just consider, if i am using a fx chain which contains 6 plugins for a track. the cpu usage is 8%, and the track has not been rendered to stem. if i am analyse and adjusting the track for some 15 minutes will it affect my pc.

[JohnnyMcFly]

d the S..
Watch for memory leaks, a lot of People just look to see if a plug crashes and then decide its bad...It can equally be just as bad if there are memory leaks..
km

[d the s]

so the only way to save the cpu and to prevent the excess cpu usage is to render the tracks to stem . am i right?

awaiting

[manning1]

d the s
yes to save cpu cycles >> render.
frankly if your new at this and recording in general..
before installing any plug ins i would spend 6 months
with reaper and its own plug ins.
and most importantly record every darn source instrument //artist you can find.
when i started out i was pulling people in and artists from anywhere i could get my hands on em. flutists, piano players, groups, even
mezzo sopranos. so i could get a feel for the whole process.
its a great way to learn and a tip given me decades ago by a pro AE.
one can read all the forums and all the recording books ,
but nothing beats recording lots of different acts live off the floor.
frankly its a life long learning process and plug ins alone
are not a magic fairy dust solution to learning recording quickly..imho.
recording real artists is where its at.
i was always upfront with the people that i was learning.
and my honesty was often repaid with a lot of friendship and understanding.
so i would encourage you to record real artists mate if you can rather than worrying bout plug ins. its a great way to learn .

[d the s]

thanks for your valuable advices mr manning

sure i will follow

[onewayout]

Originally Posted by Sheppola

Preferences/VST/ Run 32 bit VSTs section and choose to run in separate process or in dedicated process per VST however this may cause a performance hit.If the VST is no good on your system look for an alternative as there usually is one

Where do I go to do this on my computer? You'll need to go slowly cause I don't have a clue.....)-:

[Sheppola]

Originally Posted by onewayout

Where do I go to do this on my computer? You'll need to go slowly cause I don't have a clue.....)-:

You should NOT choose this option if you are new to Reaper unless you are having problems.Never change any Defaults until you hit a problem otherwise down the line you may not remember what setting you changed and it may cause problems elsewhere with other newly added VSTs.

Better to do one project to the end even if it's a small simple one to get the full idea of work-flow e.g recording,mixing and then rendering(Usually as an mp3).I have completed full songs some with vocals with less than 10 tracks and only a few VSTs.

Just to show you what can be done with minimal tracks and VSTs this last little instrumental I did used only 7 tracks and 13 VSTs most of which were native to Reaper.

http://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=45769



.