I once read in a forum of someone asking what plugins by a company they should buy, and one of the comments stuck with me. They said "if you don't know exactly what you are looking for, you probably shouldn't buy anything." I think this great advice.
It makes more sense to try out various types of free plugin options and see what you like, what you need for whatever music you are working on, and then over time, purchasing whatever is most lacking from your setup.
Over the past 10 years, I have spent entirely too much money on plugins, equipment and guides that I never used. It's taught me a lot, but most of all, it taught me that I don't need to spend as much as I thought I did. I used to think you had to "pay to play" when it came to everything, but I was mistaken.
If I knew what I know now, from years of working with producers, engineers and musicians in a bunch of different studios and home setups, I've seen a few consistencies, one being that most top engineers only use a handful or two of plugins on most of the things they work on. This makes sense.
Instead of having a toolbox of 10,000 different tools, having 10 that I actually use and know well has helped me immensely. Same thing applies to instruments, gear, equipment, and even other areas of life. Variety is great and fun for experimentation and playing around, which is important and holds value at certain times. But to be objective, less is more, limitations sometimes breed creation more than an infinite palette of options.
But if it's free, why not have a lot of options to try out, experiment with, learn from, etc.? If you have the extra space on your computer, why not download a few new plugins or sample packs and mess around with them? Who knows where it will take you!
With this comes the opportunity to create with new tools, learning what works for you, what fits your music creation workflow, and what you can later decide you may want to upgrade. Learn a free multiband compressor or certain type of delay/reverb before you pay for one. Figure out how a specific type of compressor works and when it works. Get familiar with what you need before you go spend money on things that you just forget are on your computer's hard drive. Thank me later.
So from this mindset, I created a database of thousands of instrument plugins, thousands of effect plugins and a bunch of utility plugins, too. I also have a vault of millions of samples available all over the internet, reaching every possible reason you could need them, as well as tons of different types, genres, styles and vibes.
Best part is, it is all FREE!
Just sign up for the Audio Freqs Community and you will get access to all of it, no strings attached. Find the link under Audio Freqs on the store page and get to it!
Cheers,
Clayton @ Audio Freqs