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I buy more than I use, and I forget those I buy

Interesting discussion. I have one rule that governs any purchase: Will I have an immediate use for the library? That's pretty much it. If it represents a massive time saver and I can match the sounds to upcoming or ongoing work, I'm OK with the purchase.

I'll also add that it's not so much the emails and marketing that adds to the buying. It's this place, especially those threads which appear around Black Friday where everyone details their shopping carts. Crazy stuff.

I'm not sure the right approach is to spend, spend, spend. But I'm also sure the right approach isn't to limit yourself too much and create extra work for yourself. Always tricky finding that line.
 
It must be a human trait, it affects most of us.

I have and use both Ableton and Logic. I also own the Elements version of Cubase 9, but I've never really got on with Cubase, the workflow and interface doesn't suit me. So I have no interest in Cubase Pro, especially with it needing a USB dongle. Yet this hasn't stopped me suffering occasional pangs of regret for not taking up the recent very low price upgrade offer for their 30th anniversary thing. For a product I don't even want, need, or would ever use in anger!

I have similar issues with owning (but no longer using) version 9 of Reason, every time they have a sale on upgrades to 10. Currently I'm resisting the "final few days" to get Arturia V7 update from 6. Knowing full well there will be better priced sales to come, yet still anxious to click that button before it's "too late".

Regular readers may know i was the lucky one who won the Spitfire "Everything" bundle in the tombola last year. This in itself presents another problem... do I keep buying every new library to maintain the fact that I have all their stuff, despite the fact I've barely had time to use most of what I have? (Guesses on a postcard as to how I've answered that in the past 6 months...).

Oh what's that...another voucher dropped into my UAD basket? The bastards! Now, what do I "need"....(other than to learn common sense and self control)?
 
Downsizing has made a big difference in my productivity, both in terms of template and libraries. The key for me personally was reorganising all of my libraries into folders by mood, theme, genre, country, instrument etc.

1. It forced me to compose within the confines of the libraries i had designated to a given mood/genre.
2. It forced me to compare a smaller selection of libraries against each other for that particular folder i had assigned them.
3. It highlighted the superior libraries and gave me confirmation the other(s) would never get used.
4. After decluttering, on top of saving HD space, It has helped give me more focus on future purchasing decisions.
5. Same thing goes with Plugins and Mixing.

I find Windirstat a handy companion tool whilst doing all this downsizing :)
 
I have this problem, only I don't have the credit card bills, since I am able to keep within my disposable income. But mine is more that I travel for work. Because they give per diem and I never eat that much, I have even more extra money. But, when I buy on the road, I sometimes forget what I got. It can be a problem.

I used to just buy a lot during BF and Christmas only. But it seems in the last few years, the sales are more year round. Or maybe it's because I didn't used to buy so many orchestral instruments. But I am feeling done so maybe not so much any more? It definitely is a problem.
 
I've had this happen a couple of times, but when I dug a little deeper I discovered that the libraries in question just didn't suit my tastes. Neither was re-sellable, so I simply removed them from the system, stuck them on a backup drive somewhere because you never know? Nah, I know, but they don't take up a lot of space.

Now one of the reasons why I haven't been bitten by this more frequently is that I am amazingly cheap! Like Alex I almost always have a reason to purchase a library, I seldom purchase on a whim just because it is on sale.

Before you go cheering me on, this has it's consequences too. Many times I've purchased a library for a project only to discover that I needed many hours to really understand how the library works. And that can be painful! So painful!

Fortunately that was several years ago. These days I have libraries to cover most instruments and styles. If a new string library appears on the market (I'm talking to you Paolo, you and your lovely Venice) I will put it on the list. And I will wait until (a) a paying gig comes in where it will be a really good fit - albeit one with a painful learning curve) or (b) it goes on sale for a price I can't refuse.

The only way (b) happens though, is if it is something I am highly confident I can use. And not five years from now<G>!

Even if you limit the discussion to the four main food groups (strings, winds, brass, percussion) the advances in tech are getting smaller - not yet incremental, but smaller. The difference between whatever I was using when I started and CineBrass Core and CineWind Core was mind blowing. The differences between CineBrass Core and Cinematic Studio Brass are significantly less, and more about application that capability.

Where I do fall down the rabbit hole is specialty libraries - SoundIron just updated Bowed Bucket - I've probably used Bowed Bucket twice since the original release, but in both cases it made a difference. I probably have too many of these, they don't get frequent use, but I am sucker for them anyway. Especially for prepared pianos - I'll pretty much buy any (reasonably priced) prepared piano!

And that's the last issue I guess? If I spend $1000 on a string library I better get significant use (or at least significant ROI) from the purchase. If I spend $50 on a strange little library, and I can use it once to great effect, even on a freebie project, then I am happy. I used to sample these strange little sounds myself (think Mirage, maybe EPS) but since then I've discovered that I much prefer making music to making samples.

Buying things twice (only did that once) or forgetting you bought something entirely are probably going to become more common as the sheer volume of libraries of all ilk continues to increase. As a guess it will affect the smaller libraries more (how could I forget I paid $1K for GOS???)
 
Are you a fulltime composer or do you have a non-music day-job that lately is either taking up more of your time or makes you feel more exhausted than it used to?

You have a point here! I do have another work besides music. But I keep buying stuff and I don't remember them. Haha!
I guess having too much libraries and packs is exploding your head with a lot of information and you even forget which libraries to use! At least for me. I feel so overloaded! Anyways! :D
 
There's other things I'd rather spend my money on than sample libraries (like guitars for example) so I really try to do my research before buying something, and then really use it to the fullest.
I feel like people go crazy on sample libraries as a crutch. I was like that with guitar pedals for the longest time. I had no inspiration or original ideas so I figured a new pedal would solve that! Much better to put your money towards orchestration courses, or mixing lessons, or something.
 
ok, I admit, I am far worse when it comes to buying guitars, stomp boxes, amplifiers, microphones and other hardware. Well, I was, I have reached a point of saturation for all but guitars and stomp boxes!
 
Every time you feel the desire to buy a new library - just watch some of the videos and walkthroughs on the libraries you already have.

They probably do more than you remember ...

This is such a great point and something I make a point of doing often. I have youtube playlists for the libraries that I own and I try to review them, often just the audio as I am walking around, to remind myself of things that I already have. I think doing this every few months builds up a better mental library of what I could reach for when I'm writing. It's also interesting how a year later certain things will stick out to me as useful in a completely different way.

I also have essentially blank template workshop projects (in Logic) for my big libraries where I workshop different articulations, patch combinations, and track stacks then save those as what I refer to as "template blocks" that I can easily save and recall in other projects later. I like that when I recall those Logic tracks later they are already color coded and have an icon and name scheme, which saves time and keeps things organized when working quickly. An example would be a track stack of a bunch of shorts, a quartet of legatos, or a pre organized/named/colored track stack of all the articulations for a spitfire studio woodwind, for example. It's some meticulous work up front but I like that I can quickly load in that saved track stack in a project I'm working on and then play around with a lot of sounds quickly, deleting the patches I don't need as I go. Writing that out it sounds a bit mental, but I have found that for my workflow it allows me to stay organized while working quickly and getting a lot out of my libraries.

I don't work like that all of the time but the reason I got there came from wanting to really go in and explore my Spitfire libraries and get the most out of them, and also save time by not having to rename/icon/color the same style tracks over and over.

I now do this when I get a new library as a way to explore how the libraries are organized and dig into the advanced folders etc., but it's also a good way to revisit older libraries.
 
It must be a human trait, it affects most of us.

I have and use both Ableton and Logic. I also own the Elements version of Cubase 9, but I've never really got on with Cubase, the workflow and interface doesn't suit me. So I have no interest in Cubase Pro, especially with it needing a USB dongle. Yet this hasn't stopped me suffering occasional pangs of regret for not taking up the recent very low price upgrade offer for their 30th anniversary thing. For a product I don't even want, need, or would ever use in anger!

I have similar issues with owning (but no longer using) version 9 of Reason, every time they have a sale on upgrades to 10. Currently I'm resisting the "final few days" to get Arturia V7 update from 6. Knowing full well there will be better priced sales to come, yet still anxious to click that button before it's "too late".

Regular readers may know i was the lucky one who won the Spitfire "Everything" bundle in the tombola last year. This in itself presents another problem... do I keep buying every new library to maintain the fact that I have all their stuff, despite the fact I've barely had time to use most of what I have? (Guesses on a postcard as to how I've answered that in the past 6 months...).

Oh what's that...another voucher dropped into my UAD basket? The bastards! Now, what do I "need"....(other than to learn common sense and self control)?

Holy S**tfire! I can see how that blessing could mess with your head a little too though. If I had won that I would have felt the need to disappear in the mountains and not come back down until I had something to prove my existence.

And I would probably feel guilty buying new libraries I really wanted because I had all that waiting to be used.
 
I did these things for one year:
1) Take a year off from buying new software

2) Unsubscribe from all marketing email

3) Frequent the forums here that are more about making music than buying products

4) Do a little soul searching to get to the bottom of why you feel compelled to buy more than you can keep track of

...and thought I'd do a lot of this:

5) Enjoy the software you have: make music with it

The desire to buy stuff went away after about 6 months, but I ended up making only one track that year.

When the year was over, I went back to buying stuff like crazy again. The problem is I don't think one year is enough, at least for me. I might have to commit to not buying anything more for the rest of my life if I want to get rid of GAS.
 
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I also have essentially blank template workshop projects (in Logic) for my big libraries where I workshop different articulations, patch combinations, and track stacks then save those as what I refer to as "template blocks" that I can easily save and recall in other projects later. I like that when I recall those Logic tracks later they are already color coded and have an icon and name scheme, which saves time and keeps things organized when working quickly. An example would be a track stack of a bunch of shorts, a quartet of legatos, or a pre organized/named/colored track stack of all the articulations for a spitfire studio woodwind, for example. It's some meticulous work up front but I like that I can quickly load in that saved track stack in a project I'm working on and then play around with a lot of sounds quickly, deleting the patches I don't need as I go. Writing that out it sounds a bit mental, but I have found that for my workflow it allows me to stay organized while working quickly and getting a lot out of my libraries.

I think this is pretty much what I'm going to try to do I think..A sort of a modular template..It'd be handy enough for strings brass and winds..have a few different percussion variations..I'll get around to it any day now I'm sure..
 
I find this thread so true! I’ve had to make do with Kontakt Player and libraries which work in it, due to lack of funds, and as I recently posted in the “Cheapest way to get Komplete 12?” thread, the time has come that I have to buy (full) Kontakt (on sale) as I have lost work due to not having it.

Even in my position, I find that I have one Kontakt Player library which was an impulsive sale purchase, and it has not had the use it should have had!

However, there have been far more libraries (Both Kontakt Player and Full Kontakt) which I could (and should) have bought on sale, with an eye on the future, and I really regret not buying them now.

As mentioned above, the time has come to have a template (or templates), so I really know what I have available.
 
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