Quote Originally Posted by massplanck
Also.. how efficient are free plugs? I take it they do cause some problems?
There's no hard and fast rule.

Arguably, you get what you pay for when you do pay, but there are some very talented "hobbyist" programmers out there who have put together some outstanding plugins in their spare time. Many of which are freely available, interesting, good quality and rock solid - as well as processor efficient.

Good examples are (off the top of my head): DestoryFX, DigitalFishPhones.

Though, obvoiusly, some free plugins are less well put together.

I think it's generally a case of trial and error!