Pirated software? Paid software?

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Pirated software? Paid software?

Postby westjgames » 02 Feb 2016 07:31

It might be a little risky to ask "who pirates their software", so instead, here's the more tasteful question:

Who pays for their software?

Post below the list of software you paid for and use.

Bonus: list any free bits of software you use as well.

I'll go first:

PAID:
    FL Studio Producer Edition (lifetime updates free? HECK YEAH!)
    Ozone iZotope 5 (You don't need the latest and greatest, nor do you really need the Pro)
    Sylenth1 (Popular synth I just love the sound of. Used in all of my modern tracks!)
    Cthulu (I'm shit at chords. This software is my little shortcut. Yet to use on a track, but is nice for playing with)

FREE:
    Bluecat Free Plugins (MUST HAVE for ANYONE! They're nice and simple if you don't like the sound of your DAW's)
    Zebralette (Nice little synth. It's freeware, sounds alright and pretty useful if you don't have a good generator)
    Replika (OK, so not free now, obviously, but it was a free gift from NI back in 2014. Best delay/reverb plugin I've ever used.)
    Komplete Player (Probably the most useful free sampler, if the content packs weren't so expensive. Luckily, it comes with a lot of free content.)
    Mikro Prism (Never really used it much beyond opening it and going "cool", but it's in my licenses list, so I thought I'd mention it.)
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Re: Pirated software? Paid software?

Postby Mordecai Mapper » 04 Mar 2016 05:00

I use FL Studio 12's demo
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Re: Pirated software? Paid software?

Postby silenthoof1989 » 15 Apr 2016 04:12

Good question haha, some people do get funny about it, but if you're on a minimum wage job you can't exactly afford allot of it so:

Software i have paid for:
FXpansion Synth Squad (Thanks to black friday deals it was only £60)
Plugin Boutique Carbon Electra
Minimal Systems Twisted Energy
Nicky Romero Kickstart
Nicky Romero Kick
Cytomic The Drop
Ohm Studio Lifetime (Don't really use it because i can't get on with it)
Various Sample packs (Can't Remember which ones)
Crysonic Everything Bundle (Was on sale for $15 god only knows why)

Software I Haven't paid for but DO intend to
Native Instruments Massive
Native Instruments FM8
Native Instruments Kontakt 5
Izotope Ozone 7
Linplug CRX4
FabFilter Bundle
Spectrasonics Omnisphere 2
U-He Ace
U-He Hive
Xfer LFO Tool
Xfer Cthulu
Ableton Live 9

There You go :)
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Re: Pirated software? Paid software?

Postby ExoBassTix » 21 Jun 2016 10:37

I really don't have the money to spend on commercialware plugins. I've never bought any. Instead, I rely completely on freeware plugins, who even pirates! And boy do I support freeware plugins, because 1) they allow anyone to do stuff; 2) they're usually insane quality, often even better than commercialware plugins. Here's a list of people who make some of my absolute favorites that I use a lot:

  • Variety of Sound - https://varietyofsound.wordpress.com (if downloads are down, look it up on vst4free.com)
    (VST) These are the best plugins I got. All of them. Amazing compressors, chorus echo, reverb, tape simulators, saturators, exciter, have it all. No-bullshit, super powerful, CPU-efficient, what more do you want.
  • Shuttleplugs - http://www.shuttlebugrecords.com/Pages/shuttleplugs.htm
    (VST(i)) Usage samples included! Oriented towards the rough edges of Krautrock and Experimental shit, but applicable to everything.
  • Xoxos - http://www.xoxos.net/vst/vst.html
    (VST(i)) Holy shit.
  • DeLaMancha - https://delamanchavst.wordpress.com
    (VST(i)) Rugged yet solid plugins that offer a lot of convenience and creativity. Some very neat experimental effects (like a FSU that "mind melts" audio based on text input) and some very efficient synths (like the tiniest GUI I've ever seen that produces simple sub basses or kicks).
  • Antti (Smartelectronix) - http://antti.smartelectronix.com/
    (VST(i)) Usage samples included! Small collection, but very powerful and mindblowingly simple. I use Saro a lot. Be aware that ASynth has nagscreens. Taurus too if I'm not mistaken.
  • Magnus (Smartelectronix) - http://magnus.smartelectronix.com/
    (VST(i)/AU) Honestly I have only tried the Ambience plugin yet, but it is reason enough for this to be included, as it's the best reverb plugin in my possession. I think that's enough said.
  • mda (Smartelectronix) - http://mda.smartelectronix.com/
    (VST/AU) The most straight-forward, simple, basic and not-so-basic plugin package imaginable. Works really well. I especially use Dither (dither noise), Leslie (leslie speaker simulator) and Re-Psycho (pitch shifter) a lot.
  • DestroyFX (Smartelectronix) - http://destroyfx.smartelectronix.com/
    (VST/AU) Usage samples included! I don't use these all that much, but the things these plugins can do, you just don't see them anywhere else. Very impressive.
  • DarkWare - http://web.archive.org/web/201408191258 ... kware.html
    (VST(i)) You'll probably know DarkWare. If you don't, be aware that it's quite a big name in the freeware plugin world, and it's been dead for a while. That's why the link is to the WayBackMachine archive of it, which miraculously includes all plugins' downloads. Anyways, highly experimental plugs, not bug-free, but occasionally very effective. I love THE BENDS, and GlitchGirl occasionally works really well at the beginning of an FX chain mixed in on a very low percentage (on anything really). DarkWare, when it stopped, continued under the name NOVUZEIT with commercialware, but that too got discontinued and disappeared completely.
  • Xen-Arts - http://www.vst4free.com/index.php?dev=Xen-Arts (original site only has broken downloads)
    (VSTi) There's a lot wrong with these plugins, but for freeware, they're a great option if you really want to get microtonal!
  • dmi (Smartelectronix) - http://dmi.smartelectronix.com
    (VSTi) Two of the four plugins are unavailable, but the other two got some really neat timbres. Neat synths.
    EDIT - the other ones should be available elsewhere, on vst4free I believe.
  • mdsp (Smartelectronix) - http://mdsp.smartelectronix.com
    (VST/AU) Very confusing site, but if you bear with that, some really useful tools come up. I'll be honest and say I haven't tried any yet. I have no doubts however that they'd work really well. And frankly I'm amazed by the functionality of the offered plugins. Some simple things that you don't see every day that could prove extremely useful!
  • NoiseBud - http://www.noisebud.se/?page_id=66
    (VST(i)) Usage videos and music examples provided! Again, I haven't used these yet myself, but what I have heard so far from the video walkthroughs of every plugin sounded amazing. Some very innovative and high quality plugins there, for mastering/mixing purposes, psycho-acoustic meddling and some really nifty functionality. Note that the majority of plugins here are donationware, and while there are free versions which seem to be usually just as good, it also seems there are quite some features hidden for only the donating users. I am personally considering to pay $35 to get all their stuff, but yeah, see for yourself. I think it'd be worth it.

Some more plugins:


If I don't forget and ever come across more useful plugins (which I will, no doubt), I'll make sure to update this post. I'll try to at least have tried the plugins, but I'm not making promises :P
Last edited by ExoBassTix on 20 May 2017 09:11, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Pirated software? Paid software?

Postby PhonicBoom » 01 Aug 2016 15:50

Paid:
FLStudio Producer Edition (still using 11 mostly, I really hate the UI changes in 12, which sucks cuz I love the new features)
NI Guitar Rig 4 (tried 5 and it installed with no presets and wouldn't properly impsort from 4, so 4 it is)

Free:
Bitcrusher (there's no branding in the title or UI and I can't remember where I got it xD)
DFX Geometer -- interesting little distortion/bitcrusher-but-not-exactly effect. Unfortunately, it doesn't play nice with FL's wrapper (dunno if they've fixed that, it's been years since I updated xD)

I'm pretty sure there's more, but I so rarely use them lol. I mostly use stock FL plugins. It really just comes with about everything you'll ever need if you know what you're doing.
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Re: Pirated software? Paid software?

Postby pranjalraut » 22 Aug 2019 04:21

Great information.thanks for sharing :smile:
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Re: Pirated software? Paid software?

Postby Pulse Wave » 12 Oct 2019 02:55

I've never paid for or pirated computer software for making music, nor do I intend to.

My synthesisers, my samplers, my drum machine, my sequencers, my effects (at least non-vocal), even my mixers are all hardware.

My DAW (which is little more than a virtual digital multi-track audio recorder) is Qtractor, and that's free open-source software, as are a few more tools around it.

What non-free (free as in free beer, but not free as in freedom or free speech or GNU GPL) software I use is limited to editors or librarians for my hardware synths and samplers. That said, I might check out some of the FX that came with my new audio interface as long as I can get them to run on Wine.

All I've ever bought in this context were sample libraries for hardware samplers.
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