Vst Piracy

Used to… but now I don’t really have the need for any. The only thing I can think of that I need to pay for is a good limiter (hello Voxengo!).

Warez collecting combined with gui lust ruined my progression and enjoyment for quite a while - I’m so glad I’m over it :)

I’m with Datasette, VV and Dufey on this one. Own Sampletank/Sonik Synth/Amplitube, have pirated a bit of stuff to try them out but hardly ever made any money on my stuff. I buy what I need when I can afford it, but musicall I don’t really “need” anything more than samples. Like it better that way.

Oh yeah, I own Amplitube too!

It came with Sampletank though ;)

i was talking to an old guy about favors & bartering months ago.
he told me how back then everything was favors and basically money wasn’t exchanged much. this guy needs a roof that guy needs a door, you got a hammer and i got someone who owes me a favor…

Indeed… :blink: I’m portable and rarely have time to work in my studio these days, and I appreciate being able to track anywhere when I have the time. All I need is my flash drive.

The new plugins that come with renoise have largely diminished my need for VSTs as well, with a few exceptions.

If I bought the vst’i I use I’d be sure that what I got was what I needed. My friend which don’t steel as he puts it knows every vst he’s got to the bottom, and it pays off, guess its karma.

the funny thing is when I hear of peoble using Renoise with out paying I get pissed off like a little girl.

I actually use more and more freeware VSTs lately … For example Freeamp is the best guitaramp-sim around, I don’t want guitar rig or those other ones. And alot of freeware-VSTs think outside the box and produce sounds that are really fresh and crazy (for example those insertpiz-plugs, amazing stuff).

apart from that there are a few commercial plugs I have been using for quite a while now and I plan to actually buy some of them when I have cash, which will probably take some while.
But I can’t f.e. by battery2 because NI has released Battery3 (which I don’t like) and Battery2 is simply not avaiable legally anymore. Sucks.

But I paid for Glitch for example.

And I actually rent most of my movies, I have a DVD-Rental-Store just around the corner which charges 50 C or 1 € per day. Only sometimes I get downloaded movies from friends, but thats mainly obscure stuff not even released in germany (=asian movies mostly or tv-series from the UK).

Yeah, its totally true. If you have access to all of those pirated vst-s, you just download a shitload of plugs, maybe browse through presets, play with them for like 5 minutes and then start to download new warez. But if you actually pay for one, then you have much more motivation to read the manual from cover to cover, learn the damn synth inside out and make most out of your investment. It totally expands your creativity and teatches you a lot in sound synthesis and processing in general. I suggest you to pick some synths and effects that you like and then stick with them for some time, learn how to use them properly and try to make sounds that you want with those selected plugs. you dont need 15 EQs, 10 compressors, 30 synts etc in your vst folder. All the avalability of powerful tools nowadays and easyness in general actually killes creativity.

I pirateed many VSTs.

but if I use them to a very very high extent I definantly go out, save the money for it, and purchase it.

I used to be one of those people who would just do a whole day of VST downloading, but now im down to just around five main VSTs I currently use.

Totally, if the VST is freeware… thanks.

If its not, and its a great VST, ill go out and pay for it.

I use try before buy as a rule.
I don’t try the sharware/gimped/whatever version, how funny is it that the sound drops to zero after 2-3 seconds. Then up, then down…wtf!

Though I’ve found that alot of good stuff (as already mentioned) is available as freeware and most of the time the commercial alternative have so many features that you need to be a rocket scientist to understand it :D
E.g. downloaded Waves Diamond package (or whatever it was called), some 20-30 plugs but never tried more than one or two, haven’t used one plug since that trial.
On the other hand I don’t need the “best” sounding/featured plugs until I’m doing something worth selling.
Which most likely will never be the case :)

Indeed, i rather like Rob Papen’s approach in his Linplug software to add some kind of non-irritating whoosh sound into the mix every few minutes.
If you don’t mind having that in your songs, you could even do well with that sound. (or just rerender the pattern and hoping the sound does not play.

I started going clean a while a go, i managed to replace most of my pirated VST’s with freebies. There’s still one or two VST’s i can’t live without, but i’ll be paying for those soon. My boss gave me a nice big raise this year :D

It felt really good paying for Renoise, especially since it’s so cheap. And i do feel bad about the pirated VST’s i’m using, so it’ll be nice to be 100% legal.

IMO, more companies should offer a downpayment plan for buying the more expensive VST’s. Let’s say, a 20$ per month downpayment plan for 10 months, since most “Expensive” VST’s cost around 200$. Some companies are doing this right now, can’t remember which, but i think it’s a good idea.

For the record, I’ve paid a pretty penny for the commercial VST’s I use (hundreds of dollars multiplied), but I go out of my way to find open source / freeware stuff and usually ignore commercial development all together.

Open source is a valid answer to the problem of digital distribution. I’ll gladly take a mediocre open source // freeware plug-in over a pirated commercial one, no compromise.

I agree.

There are folks who think they “need” every high-end VST out there. So, they pirate everything. But, their music still sucks and sounds like crap.

Here’s a concept:
Learn on the freeware/cheap gear. Start saving for the “pro” software.

By the time you know how to use the cheap/free stuff, you’ll have saved enough money.

I’m hard pressed to come up with any legit reasons to pirate software.

We usually define this as “affordable” as you get a lot more than you would get with a “cheap” application.

If you say so, Mr. Semantics :D

But you are right, “cheap” does have a negative ring to it.

so muych amazing freeware outthere …smartelectronix stuff …‘a synt’ by anti, …taurus by anti …‘Augur’ by anti …3 pieces opf amazing quality for nada …rien …zero euro 's …
Only commercial synths worth buying …zebra from urs heckman and surge =vember audio …and the fabfilter stuff …Strange thing is al these are from independant developers …support them

Renoise is definitely affordable, which is why I had NO problem purchasing it. Most pay-for VST’s are NOT affordable. I’m sorry, but paying $500-$3000 for some software instruments just seems like some serious price gouging.

I have a ton of freeware VST’s, but I must admit that I do have some non-free ones as well that didn’t cost me anything.

The real question being, once you have 600 bucks to spend, would you rather spend it on 2 software synths that sound nearly the same, or spending it on some hardware synth ?

I admit it, I think I dld’ed and tried 90% of the well known commercial VSTi available around. When I had money I spent it on hardware, decent monitors, soundcard and midi keyb.

But, of those bazillion products, I only used a few. Until I recently bought a real synth (for the price of 1,5 big commercial VST synth) and erased nearly all the virtual synth I had.

The often laughed at “A vst synth is a vst synth is a vst synth…” argument is quiet true.

Only a few VSTi product outside are really worth price, and most of them aren’t the most expensives ones. Most of the commercial VST synth out there, are the same, the same usual “analog emulation VST” for 300 bucks. I mean, what the f****, we’re on PC, some company are innovative or trying to be.

Seriously, we would have thought that having completely computer based synths would get rid of the usual limitations of physical synths, would give us plenty of free routing/modular synths, and what do we have mostly?

The same 2/3 osc vsts with the same options for nearly the price of a second handed real hardware, the kind of VST that you can find exactly the same in freeware, sometimes, with better options.

So don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying “warez everythig cuz its shit lulz”, what I say is that most of those products aren’t worth their prices, and a lot of freeware are doing exactly the same, sometimes better. So that when you have some money, be sure to have tried enough what you’re about to buy, because you may spend it on hardware for a better result.

Now since it’s not nice to point at people trying to do their job, I will give an example of a VSTi synth, really WORTH its price and not overpriced for what it offers : zebra 2.2. Reaktor also, even if more pricey, compared to what it offers, is really worth it.

I hear a lot of good stuff about zebra, but i haven’t checked that yet… I personally like StringStudio regarding a synth that really performs some good string instrument emulation, though Albino sounds pretty swell as well, specially the extra’s that come with it to decorate or extend your instrument.

[deja-vú]
I agree that a virtual instrument does not replace the real thing, but buying a decent piano or a good guitar or a good cello costs you a lot too and they take up a lot more space than a piece of software.
[/deja-vú]

I usually bought my software from the stores, but online downloads and registrations i did:
Renoise
Symphonic Orchestra Gold
VSampler 3
StringStudio

I did licenced more software but regarding VST software that is actually about it.
The rest is filled up with free vst’s or i use samples. (lots of good soundfonts online for use in VSampler)

There is so much good stuff around you can get for a low price or for free, if you have some bucks to spend on a commercial VST plugin, be sure that it really adds up to your needs and has things that you can’t get freely elsewhere or can achieve by combining trickery (because with that you can also achieve a whole lot of things)