I bought too many soft synths

[Uncle E]

I categorize synths for specific purposes: Model 84 for that 90's unison sub bass sound, Model 82 for subs and bleep-bloop patterns, OB-X for pads, OsTIrus for animated hifi sounds, etc. I rarely stray from those categories and can usually get a sound in my head in just a few seconds. If I'm ever aimlessly searching for a sound to liven things up, I find it faster to dig through samples than synths.

[osiris]

I think this is most people. I have a lot of VSTs, but there's a point where you'll notice you're using maybe three all the time.

[kritikon]

Has GAS and obsessively collects synths but won't use hw...sorry mate, but the door to the weirdo waiting room at the psychiatrist's is that way over on the left behind the asylum. You're missing a golden opportunity.

Be a real man and waste your money and time on real synths. It's the only way. If you don't know that already, you will one day when you grow up.

[Trensharo]

Solution:

Delete the Vendor Account along with the licenses. If you cannot delete the vendor account...

1. Create a new Microsoft or Google Account.
2. Change the Account Email of the products you don't use often to that account.
3. After 3 months, change the password to a strong password that you immediately delete from your Keychain/Browser Cookies and Delete the Microsoft or Google Account.

You can also use an Alias at Outlook.com or iCloud that way you don't have to create whole new accounts.

I find that just keeping them "available" is like putting a cigarette in front of someone who is trying to quit smoking.

Many people can resist that urge, but some people cannot. Better to just eliminate it altogether.

4. After you've pruned, stop buying stuff you don't need.

iLok is a special case, unfortunately you cannot get rid of those licenses unless you want to pay a transfer fee. Otherwise, they'll remain in your iLok account tempting you to install and waste time on those products.

I think this is most people. I have a lot of VSTs, but there's a point where you'll notice you're using maybe three all the time.

This is especially true for virtual instruments. A lot of people have ridiculous amounts of money invested in redundancy there.

I think social media has made this way worse than it used to be, because people are constantly seeing others talk about how good XYZ is and they don't want to miss out on something, so they just buy everything they can "just in case."

I have deleted well over $2K in software licenses in the past 12-18 months and stopped buying new stuff completely. I definitely don't even entertain freebies, as they're absolutely a gateway drug to GAS (and why so many companies love to have one or two... getting you to create that account and inherit that automatic newletter subscription is the hardest part for them ).

[cryophonik]

Like many here, I've been doing this for a loooooong time and have acquired a pretty massive inventory of soft synths. Hell, with some of the huge bundles I own, I have some synths that I don't think I've ever even instantiated let alone use in any songs. A large part of that is due to my preference for hardware, but it's also due to my preference for a handful of go-to soft synths. The only advice I can offer is to start by finding the ones that you like the most and use them until you feel like you're completely comfortable with them, then pick another one or two to focus on working into your typical workflow. Rinse and repeat...

[Jac459]

I certainly don't intend to be rude in any way, just a bit direct but I need to say it.

"There is no such thing as too many soft synths or (most of if the case) not enough soft synths."
Period.

These are just excuses to prevent doing music.
Stop thinking that your gears are the problem. You need to change your workflow or your attitude / time toward music.

Just take out your gears or studio of the equation. It is all about you/us.

When you look at fat of the land from prodigy and the gears it has been created on, most of us would say it was amateurish or non-pro gears. Yet one of the defining electronic album of the last century was made.
The conclusion is not that less is better. The conclusion is that it is not about the gears but the workflow you find on these gears.

On my case, I also bought way more softsynth than a reasonable person would need. But I have my favourite, tier one synths that I use daily, and the others, I use to play and discover, sometimes I find a totally unexpected new stuffs thanks to them.

[VOODOO U]

I feel most here are being insensitive to the OP. Too many soft synths isn't a joke or something to be taken lightly and some of you are treating it like it's no big deal.
Ghostwhistler, I know what you are going through is not easy and I'll be more than happy to offer you help.
Go ahead and transfer all the licenses to the soft synths you don't want over to me so I can relieve you from the stress and pressure.

[Michael L]

I'm so proud to be posting in such an important thread with such caring people

[BONES]

Delete the ones you use least, reinstall if you want to use them later.

I feel that I'd rather not own them. I'd be tempted to reinstall!

Then the problem lies within your own head, doesn't it? All it takes is the tiniest bit of self-discipline. Decide what you want to use for a particular project and make yourself stick to that. If you can't, maybe try psychotherapy?

I can relate, I also have too many soft synths. But I love owning the Arturia V Collection. Analog Lab has become my go-to synth because it contains all the presets from all their synths and the preset browser is the very best. Therefore, if I had to give up some of my synths, it would be anything but the Arturia synths.

That's interesting because Arturia was the first company's synths I stopped installing. I bought the V Collection when it was stupidly cheap a few years ago, installed them all and in 6 months I never used any of them. I never had any trouble at all finding something that sounded better. I haven't had them installed for the last couple of years or so and I don't miss them at all. I should probably sell them on but who can be arsed doing shit like that?

Which brings up an interesting question for ghostwhistler - don't you have favourites, aren't there some synths you just want to use all the time? Instruments you just love the sound of or that are great to work with? I have a handful of synths that I love using and I almost have to force myself to look beyond them sometimes, to the hundred or so other VSTi I have but rarely use. If all I had was Union, Thorn, Olga and bx-oberhausen, plus the stuff in Studio One, I'd be perfectly happy making music for the rest of my days.

I'll be honest here, I always read these posts as indications of writers block, which isn't the fault of the equipment.

I see it more as a lack of commitment from someone who thought it would be easy but is finding out it takes more effort than perhaps he/she is willing to put in. Because if it meant as much to them as it means to you and me, they wouldn't be having these kinds of problems, would they? I had a long period of what you'd call writer's block, probably 6 years or maybe longer, but it never felt to me like it was anything but my own lack of motivation to make it happen. I got it back eventually, it was just one of those things.

The next step is getting rid of everything you don't need and stop using forums. None of us achieved that.

I think I did. I was away from this place for something like 10 years. Didn't miss it at all. I only came back when we decided to move away from Orion, just to see what was going on out there.

[machinesworking]

Which brings up an interesting question for ghostwhistler - don't you have favourites, aren't there some synths you just want to use all the time? Instruments you just love the sound of or that are great to work with? I have a handful of synths that I love using and I almost have to force myself to look beyond them sometimes, to the hundred or so other VSTi I have but rarely use. If all I had was Union, Thorn, Olga and bx-oberhausen, plus the stuff in Studio One, I'd be perfectly happy making music for the rest of my days.

I think sometimes this is a superpower of having lived through the hardware only days, you realize it's productive to find a few synths you like and concentrate on them simply by experience. Personally it doesn't mean I don't mix it up, or use randomly any number of the dozens and dozens of synths and samplers I own, but I went for years and years using mostly Absynth, Zebra, the Memorymoog, Kontakt, and a few free synths and FX. I could use a few Reaktor instruments alone and be happy.

I see it more as a lack of commitment from someone who thought it would be easy but is finding out it takes more effort than perhaps he/she is willing to put in. Because if it meant as much to them as it means to you and me, they wouldn't be having these kinds of problems, would they? I had a long period of what you'd call writer's block, probably 6 years or maybe longer, but it never felt to me like it was anything but my own lack of motivation to make it happen. I got it back eventually, it was just one of those things.

My routine with writers block is to go back to research, study how to use your DAW, synth, or just basic songwriting, do the technical annoying work that gets in the way when you don't have writers block. Keeps you doing something creative.

I really do not know about the commitment thing, I think you're right to a degree, but some people just think they want to write music, but they don't have any idea how creative ideas happen, and to a degree the fact that writers block happens to people who can write says there's something there that's not really quantifiable, some sort of ability to subjectively focus on randomly filtering all your musical taste into a melody etc. and it's not inherent in everyone, or at least it seams a really buried trait at best in most people.

In other words I heard music in my head that was close to what I ended up writing years before I had the equipment to write. I don't think that's true of everyone, some people are more like sponges that love a certain style of music, but they don't know what they could contribute to it, they just want to. Sometimes the answer is to find a partner that can write, and sometimes it's to realize there are all kinds of things you can do to contribute to music in general besides write, session musician, folly, sound designer, mixer, mastering engineer, manager etc.

I mean I have a musician I've worked with for dozens of years, fantastic drummer, very creative with percussion, but I don't think I've ever heard a single thing he's done on bass that blew me away or did more than fill in a slot in a song already written, he's a great contributor, but not a solid composer of melodies. It's not weird or a failure somehow to know your limitations. I'm certainly not beating him on a live kit, but I would much rather let him help with the arrangements, not the melodic parts.

[Jac459]

I don't know if reading the 2 previous comments... Generally machinesworking comments are very interesting but here he is answering to Bones....

[machinesworking]

I don't know if reading the 2 previous comments... Generally machinesworking comments are very interesting but here he is answering to Bones....

No ones forcing you to do anything, IMO it's one of the times that Bones is being honest and not just taking the piss.

It's an interesting subject to me, because I'm not the best at anything, but I'm very creative, it's easy for me to join a band and end up being the main songwriter, but there are these types of posts on music forums all the time, (too many synths really means writers block, let's be honest here) and I run into musicians all the time that are either incapable of writing, or want to figure out how to write. I think sometimes it's just best to know what you're good at. I'm decent with technical issues, at guitar, and coming up with songs. I pluck at keyboards and can fix that shit in the piano roll! I would be a mediocre or worse session musician, it takes me forever to master a track, and I suck at acoustic drumkits.

I would argue that if you're not happy with a home studio and DAW with decent gear then go f**king join a band, this whole solo artist thing is really over the top these days. There are very few truly amazing solo artists, most collaborate, they have foils that push them in a decent direction.

[Jac459]

I don't know if reading the 2 previous comments... Generally machinesworking comments are very interesting but here he is answering to Bones....

No ones forcing you to do anything, IMO it's one of the times that Bones is being honest and not just taking the piss.

It's an interesting subject to me, because I'm not the best at anything, but I'm very creative, it's easy for me to join a band and end up being the main songwriter, but there are these types of posts on music forums all the time, (too many synths really means writers block, let's be honest here) and I run into musicians all the time that are either incapable of writing, or want to figure out how to write. I think sometimes it's just best to know what you're good at. I'm decent with technical issues, at guitar, and coming up with songs. I pluck at keyboards and can fix that shit in the piano roll! I would be a mediocre or worse session musician, it takes me forever to master a track, and I suck at acoustic drumkits.

I would argue that if you're not happy with a home studio and DAW with decent gear then go f**king join a band, this whole solo artist thing is really over the top these days. There are very few truly amazing solo artists, most collaborate, they have foils that push them in a decent direction.

You are lucky to be creative... On my side I use most of my strong skills in my day job. My main skills as musician are only to be freaking tenacious and hardworking lol.
So I am constantly trying to find ways to be creative....
I am in a middle of a writter block. I did the beginning of a song which is awesome (by my standards) and I don't manage to move forward.... I have been blocked since 2 months already. Normally I produce one track a month... .

Your idea of a band is very good actually ... But difficult for me in practice.

[Uncle E]

When I was in college, I heard that film composers have to write 3 minutes of music per day to finish on schedule. So I did that for a year. A lot of what came out was fairly mediocre and unimaginative but it was good training in pushing forward no matter what.

Personally, I don't like arranging or programming drums, so my trick now is to open complete Maschine projects, strip them down to nothing but drums, and then write around them. The projects almost always have changes and breakdowns in them, and it's almost magical how easily things fall into place.

[machinesworking]

You are lucky to be creative... On my side I use most of my strong skills in my day job. My main skills as musician are only to be freaking tenacious and hardworking lol.
So I am constantly trying to find ways to be creative....
I am in a middle of a writter block. I did the beginning of a song which is awesome (by my standards) and I don't manage to move forward.... I have been blocked since 2 months already. Normally I produce one track a month... .

Your idea of a band is very good actually ... But difficult for me in practice.

Tenacious and hard working help for sure.
Honestly I never judge or count my output. I'm 100% someone with 25 incomplete songs to every complete one, but it doesn't bother me at all. Old ideas if they were good can be recycled at any time.

I'll respectfully disagree on the band thing. We're in a modern time you don't even have to live in the same city. Autechre for instance use like 4 DAWs and live in different cities, and that article is from 2008 where they mention this. You just have to find someone with similar taste who isn't easily distracted.