Is the plug-in industry dead? I don't think it is dead, but I do think it is dying. After years of buying audio plug-ins almost constantly, I now struggle to remember the last time I bought one. That alone tells me something has changed.
Four years ago, if you had asked when I last bought a plug-in, the answer might genuinely have been yesterday. I was always finding something interesting to try. Today, I'm far more selective. Part of that is because I already own the tools I need for mixing and mastering, but there's another reason: very few new releases excite me.
My concern isn't that good plug-ins no longer exist. Plenty of them are brilliant. It's that the market is saturated with variations of tools we've already seen countless times, while genuine advances seem increasingly difficult to find.
This is my personal experience as a working mixing and mastering engineer, not a claim based on industry-wide sales figures. But I suspect I'm not the only engineer asking where the excitement has gone.
Watch: Is the Plug-In Industry Dead?
It Isn't Dead. But Something Has Changed.
I used to buy plug-ins all the time. These days, I can go months without finding one I want, let alone need. That doesn't prove the whole industry is shrinking, but from where I sit, enthusiasm for new releases feels very different from a few years ago.
It also isn't simply because I've stopped being curious. I'm still looking for new ways to improve my work. The problem is that so many products offer another version of something I already own.
Hundreds of Plug-Ins, Very Little That Feels New
I get approached about reviewing plug-ins constantly. It can be ten a week, sometimes more, and my list of requested reviews has grown to somewhere around 500. I do look at what companies send me, even if I can't review everything.
What frustrates me is how often I open something and immediately recognise the idea. Another EQ. Another compressor. Another saturation processor. Perhaps it has a different interface and a new name, but what does it actually allow me to do that I couldn't do yesterday?
When I eventually work through more of these products on the channel, I'll be critical. I would rather give an honest opinion than praise a plug-in simply because a company supplied it for review. If a product doesn't bring anything useful to my workflow, I'll say so.
We don't need another hundred versions of the same tool with a different skin. We need something that gives engineers a genuinely new capability.
Has AI Made the Problem Worse?
I think AI-assisted coding has helped make it easier for more people to build and release software. That can be a positive thing, but it also means there is a lower barrier to producing another plug-in that follows an existing formula.
My issue isn't with AI itself, or with small developers. It's with the idea that taking a familiar processor, wrapping it in a new graphical interface and marketing it as the next great innovation is enough. When every week brings another release with essentially the same proposition, it's hard to get excited.
That doesn't mean every AI-assisted product is poor, and I can't know how individual products were coded merely by looking at them. What matters is whether the finished tool sounds good, works reliably and does something worthwhile.
Most Engineers Already Have What They Need
I've said for a long time that if you own the FabFilter Pro bundle, you already have an outstanding foundation for professional mixing and mastering. It doesn't contain every specialist tool, but it covers so many essential jobs that buying endless alternatives can quickly become unnecessary.
There are exceptions that stand out because they approach problems differently. Soothe and Gullfoss are examples of plug-ins that offer something distinctive. Those are the releases I appreciate: products that solve an issue in a clever way rather than duplicating another familiar set of controls.
FabFilter Pro Bundle
A comprehensive set of professional mixing and mastering tools that covers most everyday processing needs.
Soothe
A specialist processor that addresses resonance control in a way I find genuinely useful.
Gullfoss
An example of a distinctive approach to intelligent tonal balancing rather than another conventional EQ.
Ozone's Stem EQ Is the Sort of Innovation I Want
One recent development that did catch my attention was the stem-based EQ capability introduced in iZotope Ozone. It addressed a real mastering situation: sometimes you're sent a stereo mix and need to adjust the vocal slightly, but you don't have the separate vocal stem.
Being able to make a targeted adjustment within a stereo mix can help rescue an otherwise difficult situation. It isn't as good as having access to the actual stems, and it shouldn't be presented as a perfect replacement. But it gives engineers a useful option they didn't previously have in the same form.
That's what I mean by progress. Don't just sell me another EQ; give me a new way to solve a problem.
Have Plug-In Prices Lost Their Meaning?
I recently saw a plug-in launched at around £300 and genuinely wondered who would pay that for it. Years ago, a premium plug-in could command that sort of price because there were fewer choices and certain tools offered something really special.
I paid £349.99 for the UAD Ampex ATR-102. I still use it, and in terms of how much value I've had from it over the years, I consider it one of my best-ever plug-in purchases. So I'm not against expensive software. I just want the price to reflect the usefulness of the product.
What I find increasingly strange is the discount strategy. A plug-in can launch at £200 and appear on sale for around £29.99 a couple of months later. When that becomes familiar, why would customers rush to pay the original price?
I understand why brands want to position a product as premium and then use a sale to create urgency. But repeated dramatic discounts can make the normal price feel less credible and encourage customers to wait rather than buy.
A £350 plug-in can be outstanding value if you use it for years. A £30 plug-in can be a waste of money if it does nothing you couldn't already do.
Lasting Value
My Ampex ATR-102 purchase still feels justified because I continue to use it.
Launch Pricing
A high initial price can be difficult to justify when similar tools are everywhere.
Discount Culture
Regular deep sales train customers to question the original price and wait.
What Could Make Plug-Ins Exciting Again?
I'd love to be proved wrong about where the industry is heading. Nothing would make me happier than a wave of brilliant new plug-ins that genuinely improve the way we mix and master.
More convincing hardware emulations would certainly interest me. If a plug-in could deliver the sound and behaviour I get from some of my favourite outboard processors, with the ability to open multiple instances inside a session, that would be incredibly useful.
Perhaps increased computing power and more advanced processing techniques will help make those demanding models more practical. Perhaps the next breakthrough will be something entirely different. I don't have the answer, but I know I'd like to see developers take more risks and think beyond the familiar formula.
So, Is the Plug-In Industry Dead?
No. But from my perspective, it's lost a lot of its excitement, and I worry that the market is heading in the wrong direction. I'm buying far fewer plug-ins than I used to because I already have the tools I need and too many new products feel interchangeable.
There are still excellent developers and occasional innovations. I want to see more of those, not just another familiar processor with a different interface and an enormous introductory discount.
I'd be genuinely interested to hear what has impressed you over the last couple of years. Which mixing or mastering plug-in has made you stop and think, 'That's something new'?