Today this guy, Graham Cochrane, who runs a website called The Recording Revolution posted a blogpost about uninstalling plugins which you don’t need:
‘The Studio Detox: Uninstalling Plugins You Don’t Need’. For example several types of EQ, or compression. Ask yourself: how much types of EQ or compression do I really need?

Although I am a minimalist by nature even I have spend way too much money on software which I rarely ever use. According to Graham:

You need an EQ, a compressor, a reverb, a delay, and a saturation/distortion plugin. That’s it.

If you and I can’t get a great mix with just those 5 plugins, then we don’t have a plugin problem. We have a skill problem.

Since EQ and compression are by default available on every channel of the Reason mixer we don’t need additional devices for these tasks. For saturation/distortion I would pick the Pulveriser. For reverb I would pick the RV7000 and for delay, The Echo. But I would like to take it one step further by taking out the reverb. Tchad Blake doesn’t need a reverb, but it would be a challenge for me to do without one. Without reverb I have to find new creative ways to add depth to my mixes.

So there you go: I need the Pulveriser and The Echo in my rack. Nothing else. Let’s make it my new year’s challenge.

Update: in the first version of this post I mistakenly mentioned Tchad doesn’t use a delay, but he does.