How Many Plug-ins Do You Need?

A debate that I've seen come up more frequently is how many plug-ins are too much?  For the past few years, I have been nearly obsessed with expanding my plug-in and sample collection.  It has recently come to my attention that I have been nowhere near as productive I once was when I had so little.  How could one possibly do so much less with an endless supply of dynamics processors, reverbs, instruments, modulators, filters, and samples?

I had to take some time to reflect on my creative past.  While my knowledge in the technicalities of music has grown drastically, the connection with my creative and natural musical ability have diminished.  Sometimes I feel like knowing the tricks behind the most popular music has destroyed my drive for this industry.  Other times I have to use those same techniques because it's the sound a client wants.  Getting caught up in the 'owning of things' has really made me lose touch with the music world.

When you have every plug-in under the sun, you can't pinpoint what your favorite EQ or compressor are because you haven't spent a ton of time with just one.  If you spend all of your time trying new plug-ins, you'll never get good at the excellent ones you already have in your arsenal.  To be quite honest, I still haven't found an RTAS EQ that sounds better than the EQ-7 band that already comes with Pro Tools.  That is simply because I haven't spent enough time with any other EQ.

Lately, I've been forcing myself to mess around with a few plug-ins for a period of time.  If I like how one of them works, I specifically use that one every time until I get comfortable with it.  If I feel I can't run a session without it, it becomes a piece of my permanent arsenal.  If I feel it needs more features, I'll try another one.  The point is to get familiar with a set group, so your efficiency and quality are continuously allowed to improve.

Now that I have narrowed down my plug-ins list, I feel a little more comfortable in front of performers.  For a while, I began picking plug-ins at random to see if I could find some sort of 'wow' effect.  That really slows down your mix time, and gives your performer a chance to step in and suggest some crap plug-in you accidentally left installed on your computer.  Work with what you know, get great at it, expand if it's necessary, and experiment with free time.

The following list are some of the plug-ins I've made permanent members of my family:

Waves L3 Multimaximizer - Mastering Suite

Stock 7-Band EQ in Pro Tools - EQ

Native Instruments' Kontakt - Library Sampler

iZotope Iris - Sampler

Rob Papen Albino - Synthesizer