(tl/dr, free VSTs are cool, but way too many choices can limit productivity.)
(from an email thread I wrote to a friend in Austria):
Got a new faster computer this week. After it was all set up, I spent 3 nights going through EVERY VST I had, listening to them, and deleting a bunch.
Had about 500 when I started, have 200 now.
Since there are 2 or 3 long-running VST creation kits that don’t require real programming, there are thousands of free VST synths and effects from between about 2005 and now. For some of them the websites are gone, but there are 3 websites that have copies off them (plugins4free.com, etc.). They all have the ones I make too.
But here’s the thing…when I was about 14 to 25, I wanted NOTHING more than a real synthesizer. I played some in music stores, all my favorite albums had them, I NEEDED one. But they cost what a house cost when I was a kid.
Free VSTs are often emulators of real-life hardware synths, often pretty good. Plus ones that are unique. Plus ones that aren’t unique but have cool presets.
Often they sound similar except the presets. Some bedroom music makers won’t use presets, they consider it a sin. I consider it a shortcut and make unique music with the presets.
Kind of like how there are only a few sounds a guitar makes and many unique guitarists and songwriters. Like that but with synth presets on a few hundred VSTs, you can find thousands of unique sounds. Some only have one good preset. Some have 5 or so. A few have 50 to 100.
Most people don’t use those old VSTs from the golden age of free ones, they’re all 32 bit and crash most DAWs.
BUT NOT REAPER. Reaper plays them fine. A few crash if poorly made, many I tossed this week were like that.
But many I tossed just didn’t bring anything to the table for me except way to many choices. I still have a lot of choices with the ones I have left, but not an overwhelming number of choices.