Confession

Let me be real: I used to be — and kind of still am — a plugin and drumkit hoarder.

Every week I’d download some new synth, effect, or kit I saw on YouTube, telling myself this one’s gonna make my beats better. The truth? Most of them just collected dust and wasted space on my drive.

Now, after years of making beats, I stick to a specific toolkit — things I actually know, actually use, and actually finish beats with.

So instead of giving you a giant list of every plugin under the sun, here’s my honest, go-to setup — the stuff I reach for every time I make a beat.

My Toolkit

🎹 VST Instruments

I mainly use three plugins to make melodies — they cover pretty much every genre I work in:

  • Serum The industry standard for electronic sounds.

  • Spire Harsh leads and plucks — especially when soaked in reverb and delay.

  • Zenology A solid mix of synthetic and realistic sounds.

Plugins like Omnisphere and Analog Lab are amazing — no hate — but I get lost browsing presets for hours. I’d rather just pick a sound I know and get going.

🎛 VST Effects

  • Fruity Parametric EQ 2: Stock EQ — gets the job done. What more do you need?

  • Fruity Delay 3: Stock delay with tons of tweakability.

  • Fruity Convolver (Blur Pink & Blur White presets): Great for turning anything into a pad.

  • Gross Beat: Time and volume-based effects — think stutter, half-speed, and glitch.

That’s it. You don’t need super expensive plugins to make clean, creative beats. These just work.

🥁 Drumkits

  • Timeless & Winternite kits by Nightiger: Perfect for anything digicore or hyperpop-adjacent.

  • My personal kit: A custom set I built from favorite sounds across other kits + some I’ve designed myself.

Why I Ignore the Rest

Most plugins are either distractions or cash grabs.

It’s tempting to believe a new plugin will make your beats better. But limiting your tools forces you to actually get better. You learn:

  • Sound design
  • Layering
  • EQ and dynamics
  • Creative problem-solving

I’d rather master 5 tools than barely use 50. The more familiar I am with my tools, the faster I move — and the more music I actually make.

Final Thoughts

If you’re just starting out (or even years in), here’s my advice:

  • 🎯 Figure out what tools you use the most
  • 🧠 Learn them deeply
  • 🎵 Focus on making music — not collecting plugins

Your best beats won’t come from the newest plugin. They’ll come from locking in with the tools you trust and just creating.