First comment! LOL - finally got one

I love and respect your level of honesty and transparency about this and everything else you speak on! Cheers, brother!

I admire you Matt! You are not afraid to speak your mind with truth and honesty of how you feel. You make me think of that quote from Bruce Lee, “To express oneself honestly, not lying to oneself-that, my friend, is very hard to do.” Thanks for keeping things real!

I would like to hear your top 10 'Don't buy plugins' list though🙂

Perfect video and timing Matt, I'll re-watch it before buying a bunch of stuff I don't need haha!

Great, GREAT video. most importantly Do not trust ANYONE's opinion of a plugin except yours. Yes, I know it sucks but do the work. Download the demo and use it on your material in your studio. Don't be lazy and watch a yt vid and let someone decide for you. (inside tip: most of these youtubers don't have much more experience than you! Matt excluded of course) Stop looking for a shortcut and do the damn work. You're own mixes will improve because of it.

Excellent video Matt

Great advice. I've even started becoming selective when it comes to freebies.

So true! thanks for the making this video, sometimes we just want to grab something because is "on sale" but I might be something we're not really going to use

I get the feeling that plugin companies sponsoring/giving NFRs is giving people the impression that pro engineers actually need/use that many plugins. It's also a vicious cycle because name dropping new plugins is great for SEO. People just don't get enough exposure to engineers working day in, day out getting 90% of their work done with a handful of plugins they're super comfortable with. That's something I appreciate about your channel, you're comfortable with your tools and they feel like a means to an end. Do you have any plugins that you think don't really have alternatives or atleast you'd be quite inconvenienced without?

Thanks for the video Matt:)

I understand it’s a personal preference for not reviewing things you don’t like. But at the same time, as long as you are clear and honest about where you are coming from, that’s how integrity is developed and maintained. Something else to keep in mind is that most of the reviews that come out are when the product is launched. So they all have that honeymoon vibe in varying degrees because it’s the latest thing whatever that may be. It would be interesting to see what is still used after that initial product launch or when all of these plugins are accrued.

spitting facts, appreciate your honesty

Ok now I’m sub’d.. thanks for always “sound” thoughts dude …

Fantastic video !! I use Slate digital all pass and the Sonible bundle, and some Cubase stock plugins sometimes. As a regular, enthusiastic, somewhat talented home hobby bedroom 'engineer', more plugins only confuse me. I use the Sonible stuff to give me a rough idea of a starting point, turn off Sonible, put on Slate and start fresh with that starting point in mind. I usually end up with something quite different from that starting point, and that's exactly how it should be. because once Sonible is off and Slate is on, it's the ears doing the listening and my mind doing the non-artificial sort-of intelligence. And I see the Black Friday deals, wonder 'how is this amazing new plugin going to make my life better' and hmmm... you know, I like what I am doing. Are there must haves? Would Fabfilter or Soundtoys of Izotope really make a huge difference, being some of the industry standards? Do I have the knowledge or experience to really make the most of having more eq's and more compressors to choose from? Or are the 5 eq's and 6 compressors that I regularly use and have become familiar with enough? So once again, coming black friday, I'll keep my money and buy the next round in my local cafe. cheers and bottoms up :)

Thanks a lot🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾🔥🔥

Matt,i'm a huge fan .

Good advice

I dig this video.

I get everything you're saying and think your channel is a real hidden gem, but I do NOT appreciate click bait titles. From ANYONE. You are better than that.

im definitely racking up on plugin Alliance black Friday 🥰

Nice one. I have to say I'm guilty for buying into nice GUI's! 😂 But yes, Soundtoys bundle is goated for sure, as you say. Some plugins simple have become classics, not to even say must-haves.

bro can u explain how to get that buzzy sound in all of young dolphs vocals, its like a neve 1073 saturation type sound but someone said its just a 10khz boost or a 16khz boost, not sure how to explain it but his vocals sound real 'electric' which i love, like a electric buzz

I would say that stock plugins are good enought for a beginer and once you learn to use them you have a better idea what you really need.

I have quite a few UAD plugins, 1176, la2a, Pulltec, Studer, Maag eq…which are really great and recently bought me Ocean Way reverb and Capitol Chambers (completely different technology is behind those plugs). I also have PA plugins, many more of course. But I really enjoy using Analog Obsession plugins which are for free!!! …and I would live to hear some opinion on those plugins. Haven’t found yet any well known pro talking about these plugins.

Have you given the Black Rooster Audio plug-ins a hoon Matt? I stumbled across them over lock down looking for a good Pultec (I’m not on on UAD) really dig em & if the halloween version of their 1073 is still up for sale (only sold over halloween) is a beast. Interested to know your thoughts. Love your mixing & tutorials thank you bro. -Luke B

Is Weiss DS1-MK3, Soothe2 and Gullfoss worth it?

20 million people buying plugins world wide! Wow! I wonder which individual plug in most of those people own? What is the most downloaded plugin irrespective of if it is any good I wonder? I mean I bought Sausage Fattener but I've never actually used it on a mix! I'm pleased to say that I have reached a point where I know I have enough plugins already! The challenge is to use the ones I have effectively, not go on forever buying more.

but i just want them all 🤣 I have the same problem with microphones...

The plugin market is accumulating more wealth than we know.

hey what happened to philosophy phriday? :(

here's my thing, if you can go out and buy a $20 or $30 meal then you should invest some of that into plugins. you are gonna shit that meal out tomorrow but at least you can have fun with the plugins forever 😁😁😁 heck plugins alliance plugins is like $14.99 for a decent plugin during their sale. thats like mcdonalds money. Even the classic plugins prices are dropping to compete with whats going on out there. soundtoys gave away little radiator for free. plugins are cheap these days, enjoy them.

Michael Brauer uses so many different plugins that I’ve heard people say are garbage.

I think you should do a snake oil video. ✌🏽

From the title of the video I was expecting - don't buy anything from these guys =D The best plugins are those that are thoroughly studied and fit the workflow. Each plugin needs to be demoed for at least a couple of weeks to make sure it's really needed.

It's funny you mention how people focus too much on the GUI. I'm on the beta team for several big plugin developers. I am working on one right now with a company and there are pages and pages of comments all about the GUI of the plugin and most of the comments say absolutely nothing about the SOUND of the plugin. Even after the developers said ok, we get you guys don't like the GUI, please give us some feedback on the sound, it was still pages and pages of comments about the GUI. To me, it's pretty obvious that's what most people care about. By the way, said plugin does SOUND fantastic and I'm looking forward to the release when it gets here. Just thought it was funny how you mentioned that and I had this experience very recently lol. Great video Matt, thanks!