Why Stealing Plugins Makes Your Mixes Worse

Joe Gilder | April 2, 2012

How about a bit of controversy to start off your week?

Got this email a few days ago:

I’m not rich, and I don’t have money for plugins. Me and my friend are working on a project…the plugins we need are about $2,000 each. What would happen if we torrented the plugins and made a song? Would we get sent to jail?

Sigh…

Here’s my response:

—

It’s really a moral question. I personally don’t use pirated plugins because it’s morally wrong.

But there’s a bigger issue here than the question you’re asking. You’re assuming you “need” these $2,000 plugins. I’d be willing to bet you don’t need them at all.

I just finished up a song, and all I used were the free plugins that came with my software. I didn’t use any “extra” plugins at all…and it sounds amazing.

Why? Because I know what I’m doing. I learned the technique of mixing and making songs sound good. Plugins won’t help you do that.

You can buy fancy plugins (or steal them), and your mixes will still sound bad if you don’t know how to USE them.

Hope that helps.

—

Rather than debating the morality of pirating plugins, ask this question instead:

Will these plugins make ME better?

The answer is a big fat NO.

In fact, I propose that the more plugins you have, the WORSE your mixes will get…IF you don’t have a proper understanding of the basic concepts of audio.

For me, it all begins and ends with EQ:

www.UnderstandingEQ.com

Joe Gilder

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  • Mr Flodgycolonjgarvey

    Sigh.
    Wrong or not, it’s still not stealing. Here’s a lawyer’s take on it:
    http://jackofkent.blogspot.co.uk/2009/10/copyright-infringement-is-not-theft.html?m=1
    Though you do make a compelling point. Gear acquisition syndrome is potentially even more pernicious if you can just grab whatever the hell you want for free.
    Personally I do use pirated software; I will use stock plugins and freeware/stuff I can actually afford, but sometimes the best solution is a hugely expensive plugin that I will never be able to buy on my pitiful budget. So for me, “stealing” plugins hasn’t made my mixes worse. It’s made them better.

    • http://www.homestudiocorner.com Joe Gilder

      Stealing, copyright infringement. Call it what you want. I see it all the same.

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  • AQ

    Understandable sentiments on the morality of the issue, but the conclusion “stealing plugins makes your mixes worse” is nowhere established. Cheap rhetorical excess. If a plugin has any practical utility at all, then it’s possible for one to “steal” it, learn to use it properly and judiciously, and have it enhance one’s mixes. Denying that is like denying that cocaine feels good… because it’s illegal! Anyway, the moral debate is fraught with rhetorical excess too. IP sharing is problematic, but it’s not really accurate to call it “theft”. Traditionally theft requires someone to be deprived of the stolen item. That’s why stealing a car is such a dirty rotten thing – cuz you’ve deprived an innocent person of a car. IP sharing just isn’t like that, at all. In a sense, it’s almost the opposite. Yes, it’s still a problematic issue and needs to be addressed, but if we are to honor our IQ’s, we should use more sober and realistic language to talk about it.

    • http://www.reverbnation.com/beltane Xan

      I think the theory that this is based on is that if you “steal” a copy ov something rather than “purchasing” it, then the author ov that package is deprived ov the (fair!) profit that he would have otherwise got.

      So by taking a copy without paying for it you are effectively stealing his *potential* income for that sale. This works the same for if you download a bands music instead ov buying it (unless they offer it for free, but then they are fools).

      However this is in some ways flawed logic because it is assuming that the person who “stole” the copy would have indeed “purchased” it if they couldn’t have taken it for free. But usually this is not the case on the internet. Nowadays if someone can’t get it free (either legitimately or not), then they simply don’t want it. Essentially it was a sale that would have NEVER been anyway.

  • Roger

    On the technical side, there are a lot of free plugins that will get you there.

    On the moral side, I would say that no one should make money on someone else’s work. This means that if you’re selling a song that you’ve recorded with pirated plugins, it’s just plain wrong!

    It’s basically the same principle as someone selling music that belongs to someone else, or selling software that was freeware on the first place. For me, there’s a distinct difference between something used for personal use or for public/business – and that applies to anything, from music to software.

  • http://www.reverbnation.com/beltane Xan

    When someone one day releases the “Make Everything Instantly Sound Awesome (M.E.I.S.A)” plugin I’ll buy it, even if it costs $666 dollars. ;)

    Until then I’ll not pay a cent for any plugin. Why bother? A lot ov free ones work really well. I don’t need many cause I have EARS! hehe

    Lately though however, the only digital functionality I have been using during a major mastering project (100 band mp3 comp disc) is Normalise & volume adjustment. Those aren’t plugins at all. All my mastering has been through an analogue signal chain consisting ov the preamp in a Foxtex R8, a Yamaha EQ (with spectrum analyzer), a Kvltronics Mangler & a little Alesis Nano-Compressor.

    This chain has gotten pretty much all the tracks on the comp to within 1-2db ov each other in terms ov perceived volume and has made them phat sounding (pro sounding) as hell to boot..! :)

  • Smurf

    You can get the Classic series from the Acoustica site…

    http://www.acoustica.com/plugins/vst-directx.htm

    I could list a ton of free ones that are well worth the downloads (and my site, which is getting re-done at the moment lists them + others) but the bottom line is that an EQ EQ’s, a Compressor Compresses, and a Reverb, well, verbs!

    There are a LOT of different ones that have different tones & ways of working, but the bottom line is if you do not know how to use them, they are all useless & will drown you in a sea of presets that teach ya nothing.

    Take it from me, at one point last year I had over 600 VST-VSTi’s on my system, and tho I had fun running thru the sounds, I never finished a track all the way…I have a ton of “demos”, but nothing finished. But there have been a few keepers, like Ambiance, GlaceVerb and SIR reverbs with the free Bricasti M7 IR’s, PushTec 5+1 A EQ, and the entire TbT collection. Grease Tube & ToW compressor’s are the bomb on bass, and the TLs Maximizer is a great Master Limiter…..and The Price Is Right for all of them!

    I have also recently purchased the Don’t Crack (now Plug & Mix) collection of effects. Simple to use, sounds good, and are different enough to add to the native S1 effects. And I saved for over 6 months to get this $299 collection, but in the end I will get free effects as they come out, so it is worth the investment.

  • Andrew

    I use mostly stock plugins as well; however, there are some great freeware plugins floating around that I do use ALOT on my projects, but I personally don’t think the average consumer can hear the difference between a little higher quality plugin over my stocked ones LOL (I know engineers can! which is why I use some freeware plugins on my projects that are WORTH adding to my arsenal.

    Overall, DON’T STEAL! (Doesn’t anyone have morals anymore…*sigh*)

    And if you want to try the freeware plugin route try to avoid being a freeware junkie (basically someone swept into downloading as many free stuff as possible and forgetting the purpose of making music. That was me a couple months ago, but I am now rehabilitated LOL).

  • Bob Sorace

    I used to download stuff all the time, or just get a copy from someone else until Microsoft caught me! I have since had a moment of clarity, where it IS stealing, and this notion that people feel they’re “entitled” to things drives me crazy! I continue having this arguement with a friend of mine that wants my password to my Netflix account so he can get it without paying!

    However, I agree with Jason that they need to come up with something else to protect their product… I’m scared to death something’s going to happen to my ilok, and I’m going to have to pay through the nose just access stuff I’ve already bought!

    • Wayne Johnson

      I had my iLOK die on me and you have to buy a new one, or have a spare. You have to send in the old one to verify the licenses that are on it. I think a better system needs to be used as my Pro Tools was unusable for almost 3 weeks. I do have a spare one now but rarely use Pro Tools. I use mostly all the stock plugins because I have have come up with a lot of presets in The Pro Channel of Sonar X1 expanded. Studio One V2 is an awesome program and has some great plugins. Blue cat has some pretty good free plugins and you can find them At the bottom. I also have have several other plugins I bought and rarely use. Learn to master what you have and your mixes will go much quicker without having to search for 20 minutes. I know I’m guilty of it myself.

      http://www.bluecataudio.com/Main/Home/

      • http://www.reverbnation.com/beltane Xan

        So Wayne, you say you rarely use Pro-Tools now…just curious about what you usually use instead? :)

        • Wayne Johnson

          I usually use Sonar X1 expanded with all the additional comps and Fx. I have about 30 presets for what I want to use it for and the channel is already preset with the plugins for say vocal or drums. It’s like having a channel strip available on every audio, bus, and master fader. The workflow is very fast. I also use Studio One V2 it’s fast and easy to use. I like to master in studio one also. I refused to upgrade to 10 because it was over priced and it’s not yet 64 bit. The upgrades to clip gain etc. was not a major leap forward. No offline rendering and Sonar and Studio one both have clip gain. Pro Tools is a good program but my workflow in Sonar and Studio one is much faster as both are basically drag and drop with bi-directional drag and drop. I might upgrade to Pro Tools when they go 64 bit. That’s my reasons for not using it.

  • Jason

    Lol a studio owner I know told me about some kid on Craigslist selling thumb-drives packed with stolen plugins. The guy confronted him about it and, he swears, that the kid DID NOT think he was doing anything wrong….moral OR legal.

    On another note, I bought NI Reaktor 5′s Prism plugin and it was such a hassle to install due to all the “anti-piracy” protocol. If plugin companies wanna keep paying customers, they need to find a way to protect themselves while also keeping the verification process clean and somewhat hassle free IMO.

  • hillelKAPS

    I have my own story that is similar. (no I didnt rob anyone, keep reading)

    I bought EZdrummer and a few EZX’s off a guy on ebay, being slightly naive about these sort of things, I bought it at a “too good to be true” price because it seemed like the seller was trying to get rid of it. I received 1 CD followed by an email from the seller on how to get all of what I bought out of the 1 CD, if this wasn’t suspicious enough, he also gave me a link to a Key Generator to crack the software so I could use it.

    I went through an inner debate for a while being that I had actually spent money on this and I came to a final conclusion –

    -For all of us that are looking to “make it” in music, how can we possibly expect to get that far if we are using stolen/hacked materials to get there? If you slave away for hours just to come out with a single and then it gets passed around and no ones buys it, wouldn’t you be upset? I’m not saying by us being honorable and not stealing/torrenting/copying etc. we will stop people doing the same to us, but theres always the idea of Karma. We cant expect to become well known honest people trying to do what we love if we’re taking things that other people love from them

  • http://totallykeyboard.net Matt

    I completely agree! I use the stock Logic and Pro Tools plugins for almost everything (as well as a couple of freebies off the net) and I get decent results. One of my university lecturers actually warned us against what he called “plugin hoarding” because you often end up spending more time choosing a compressor than actually using it, which seems crazy to me!

    • Jason

      Yeah I think that’s called “plugin frenzy” or something LOL.

      It comes down to, not being the best engineer, but having the best studio, collecting a bunch of crazy plugins but barely even using them. Instead of taking the time to learn any of them, it becomes easier to hunt for and download a new one that might somehow magically transform their music into hits. If it doesn’t within a few clicks or after trying a couple presets, move on and download some more. Super sad IMO!!

      I think its also similar to the guy who polishes and supes up his ’67 Camaro or whatever and NEVER drives it…though that guys not breaking any laws.

  • Havard
    • Jason

      This guys stuff is commonly regarded as some of the better freeware plugins out there too:

      http://varietyofsound.wordpress.com/

    • dan

      The classic series by VJAERHUS AUDIO are pretty good. They’ve went out of business though so you will have to look around to find them. But they are still around.

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