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That's a little harsh, dontcha think? I think of mine more as an aging musician's electric train layout. 😂

I think the moment things turned around for me was when I started thinking of the software as a craftsman's tools, not shiny lifestyle products. It helped a lot to watch Mixing with Mike, particularly the older videos. He just uses Waves all the time, because he knows the plugins in and out and is used to reach for them. Just a matter of thinking. The DAW environment is a workbench, not a plugin exhibition for hipsters.

I'm slowing down my plugin purchases of late. Not because of the economy but my tool chest is approaching overflow and some of the tools still have the shrink wrap on them. Why can't I be both? Copy that.

In the end, you gotta ask yourself: are you a plugin user or a plugin owner?

Amp 5 to 5.7.0 and ToneX updated to 1.2.0 Amp changes: Changes from version 5.6.0: Enhanced TONEX compatibility AmpliTube now allows sharing, uploading and downloading of presets containing TONEX tone models via ToneNET. TONEX inside AmpliTube now supports the latest TONEX skins. Addressed a CPU load issue that occurred at startup. Fixed an issue that could cause a "not owned" error when loading cabinets from the "Other" category. Fixed an issue with the Oil Can Delay model that caused undesired delay changes when altering the sample rate. General reliability improvements. T oneX Changes: TONEX Collections Introducing over 100 Partner Collections available for purchase. Added the new "Vintage & Lo-Fi" Factory Collection, which is free for all TONEX MAX users. This collection features the Fender Bassman '53 and the Maestro Fuzz Tone. TONEX Player Implemented drag & drop for importing Presets. Added two new Tone Model skins. Tone Model skins can now be updated via edit window. Added 10 new DIs. Run the IK Product Manager to update

This suite of 4 plugins will be offered for $49 instead of the normal $249 from today until August 2nd, 2023. https://audioplugin.deals/product/sonic-sweet-by-bbe-sound/

I have a large budget for purchases if I need them. Most of it goes to hardware. But I think I probably buy less than most amateur / semi-pro peeps I see on forums, which is always funny to me. Although I've ran into a lot of amateur musicians, especially guitarists, who have better equipment than the pros I know. Most of my colleagues, and myself included, use subscriptions where possible. $1000 / year for instrument / plugin subscriptions would give you almost anything you need to do excellent work. That's about $100 a month. Composer Cloud, PA Annual plans, etc. are the smartest way to a) have fixed annual costs, no update costs and b) try out expensive software for long periods of time to see if you even use them. Same goes for bundles like Komplete. These are no brainers, especially on sale. You can tell someone doesn't run a business when they complain about fixed costs like subscriptions provide. Audio / music work doesn't have to be expensive. There are excellent, absolutely excellent free plugins and instruments. There are excellent subscription options. And routinely excellent sales across the industry. This applies to software and hardware. I tend to do 90% of my purchases during Black Friday sales, and follow sales (to see what something should actually cost) and releases over the year to create a large list of what I want. And then wait (usually). 20 years ago, software budgets could go well into $10s of thousands per year. A single string library could be $1000+, and rarely ever go on sale. For that same price, you could get 5 years of composer cloud today - and 5 years is about the lifetime of a competitive sample library. Libraries will either be discontinued, lose compatibility, or require paid upgrades in that time. Economic downturn or not, this is the THE cheapest time in history to get into music / audio production. There are way too many cheap paths to excellent quality stuff. Unless you pirate, then every year is the cheapest year I guess. Haha. But I think people really have to become more disciplined. There is no need to have 10 tape emulations. 14 reverbs and 8 LA-2A emulations. Imagine running any other business where you're constantly just buying more and more shit because it's on sale. Like a construction company that has 80 types of a hammers because of "flash sales". Haha. Excessive software also creates legacy / compatibility nightmares over time, and just adds tons of logistical headaches (i.e. total wastes of time) trying to keep track of it all, or doing new system installs or troubleshooting.

FYI to be a plugin user one must be a plugin owner. That's child's knowledge.

MEssentialsFX gets my vote for the best bang for the buck (providing you already have the upgraded FreeFX bundle). With the discount, I guess it would be about $80. MTurboReverble alone is worth that, throw in MTurboDelay and it's crazy, add MAutoDynamicEQ, MAutoAlign, MLimiterX, MCompare, and MSpectralDynamicsle and it's the proverbial no-brainer, and then there's MTurboComple, MAutoVolume, and MSaturatorMB. This isn't a "starter kit" of their stuff (the FreeFX bundle is that), it contains their heaviest hitters. For anyone concerned about what they're missing with the "le" part of any of them, I don't believe I've done anything with the hidden features except to open them to see what they looked like. Which was "a set of parameters way over my head."

Discount code: SS8024JUL23 https://www.hornetplugins.com/

That really is a great analogy. I've never thought about it that way before.

Use the coupon CYM8 to get this package free (royalty free) Bonus Pack: Fractals Midi Expansion https://cymatics.fm/collections/melody-loops/products/fractals-synth-melodies

"Approaching"? How big is your frickin' tool chest?

Nah. Opposite. I’m buying more stuff. Had so many friends and family die the last year or two, some younger than me, I’ve just thought ***** it…and in the words of the song …”enjoy yourself, it’s later than you think”.

I have definitely slowed down a lot because of money. I had a profession and now I'm retired, living on a limited income. So I'm trying to be very strategic about what I really want to buy and try not to be distracted by sales and the completist desire to acquire everything in a series. I recently wrote @Simeon Amburgey that I am afraid to watch his videos because he is such an amazing salesman. 😀 I'm working on a video now about how I'm trying to cope with my VST addiction.

IK Multimedia releases new TONEX Tone Partner Collections with over 100 collections on offer now representing nearly 2,000 new Tone Models to play and record across the entire TONEX ecosystem including TONEX Pedal, and bringing the total of available Tone Models on ToneNET to over 15,000. Each collection is meticulously captured to each Tone Partner’s specifications with their preferred settings, mics, outboard gear and cabinets using TONEX’s award-winning AI Machine Modeling technology. https://www.tone.net/tonex/collections/

Lush - Nothing Natural

shpongle - Nothing Is Something Worth Doing (Cosmic Trigger Remix)

Hold ALT while selecting a bus. All tracks that are routed to that bus will also be selected.

Back in 2012 I decided to once again pick up my dormant interest in music creation. Here’s a bar chart showing the number of purchases I’ve made for the last ten years. It includes DAWs, plugins, Kontakt libraries and synth expansions. I seem to slowly be on the mend, but that's probably more caused by plugin saturation and diminishing interest than by economics. I’ll keep the related bar chart showing the purchase amounts to myself and my bad conscience.

Still requires a special pickup, but appears to track well and built "Ford tough" for live performance. Sounds engine is ZenCore, with natural and synthetic sounds. MIDI In/Out/USB. 4 parts and 1 Rhythm part. Each part can receive on a separate MIDI channel and has its own effects. Part editing is limited. Not sure about polyphony.

OBCD My daughters condition. Obsessive Bio-Chemistry Disorder 😆 She coined it herself

Thanks Lars, UPDATED!!! 👍

Or do they both hang out with The Chemical Brothers?

Maybe RTFM? This all sounds like user error. I can't recall ever having any issues like you allude to. Sounds like you really don't want help. You just want to bitch and moan and stay pissed off.

$49.50 - works in the Kontakt Player https://www.bestservice.com/en/the_orchestra_essentials.html

Dang!

Best mag in da biz!

I tried Smart Gate on Kick In, Kick Sub, Snare Top, Snare Bottom, Hats & 8"/10"/12"/14"/16" toms. In my case all of these were "fixed" right out of the gate (see what i did there?) except the hats. In this track there two sets of hats. They both required just a tad of tweaking. I'm pleased with the results of this plugin.

Despite what some might believe, putting drumsticks on your dashboard does not allow you to park in the handicap zone! 😁😜

Oingo Boingo - Nothing To Fear (But Fear Itself)

BTO - You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet!

Yep. FabFilter. Simply fab.

$75 https://www.samplelogic.com/products/cinematic-guitars-organic-atmospheres/ Pd: I wanted to know what it feels like when you beat @cclarry :D

I did exactly that, on sale of course. Plus u-he and TAL. It was not too expensive compared to my unstructured purchases on the carnival ground of the plugin industry. Add Komplete, and you are 100% covered and have very manageable cost structures. Also, everyone should try to earn the money for the plugins solely by making music. This can be very irritating, I tell you.

I've definitely cut back, but it's not necessarily about finances. It's more or less about seeing the embarrassing amount of tools I own that I haven't fully explored yet. I'll see a nice new instrument come out, get on all the forums to see what people are saying, check out all the YouTube videos and just savor that sweet, sweet dopamine rush.... and then realize I probably have something that's "close enough" in my library and I tell myself just can't justify it. But man, the thrill of the hunt (and places like this that are just enabling out addiction) makes it difficult. LOL.

To answer the OP: yes, slowed way down. Feeling the boa constrictor of inflation. It seems the common path to buy literally hundreds of effects, on sale of course, just to figure out the 12 you like to use. To that end, wish I had just gone with Fabfilter first, instead of later on. So that's effects. A different story are the instruments and sound sources. I can justify a new color in the palette. What??? Wave-o-matic has faithfully recreated the vuvuzuela bagpipe of East Borneo? In 9GB Kontakt instrument? Gotta have it. On sale, of course.

As an answer to the topicstarter, no finances are not really an issue for me per se. I consider myself very lucky to have an incredibly stable job, low pressure/stress and a very decent pay. Combine that with very low living costs (I got very lucky with the market to buy my house when I did) and I have a pretty sweet setup. So, all is well? No. Costs of living are rising, that's a concern. I make a conscious choie to avoid going to bars every weekend. I don't eat out / order in. I go out to lunch once a week. I walk around in clothes that are years old. Etc. But I'm cutting back on software purchases and focussing more on the hardware side. I have no interest anymore in the next vari-mu emulation. I'm not saying I won't ever buy another plugin (I just bought the Sonible gate because I only have the Kilohearts one). I do however would like to own a Prophet at some point. And I won't get there by buying 7 EQ's a month.

Run the Steinberg Download Manager to update

Give support a yell - support@cakewalk.com They've managed to restore old accounts. You should be able to get the latest version of Cakewalk Command Center and download all of your old purchased items from there. Bear in mind that because everything is being shifted around a bit to cater for the new product line coming, some domain names have changed so if you have the old CCC then you'll need to grab the new one from HERE for it to work. But yeah, if you can't log in to that, shoot support a message.

Here's some food for thought (which made me feel kinda uncomfortable when it occurred to me): We all talk about "getting to really know the (friggin' excellent, in most cases) FX we already have," and nobody reading this would disagree that it's the best thing to be doing. So....how much time (online or elsewhere) do I spend sharing that information with other people vs. how much time I still spend sharing deals information (even though I've decided that I already have enough/too much)? The answer for me, is "waaaay less." I know more about forum friends' tastes in plug-ins and manufacturers than I do about their tastes in EQ, compression, and reverb settings. Yes, we do talk a bit about what this or that plug-in is good for (all hail the almighty MCompressor dynamics display). And it is the Deals sub after all. Still, if what I want to be doing is honing my skills (which I'll probably never be "finished" honing), why am I not spending at least as much time sharing about that in a forum that's not about deals? Not entirely rhetorical question, there may be some logical reasons, like wanting to find my own path through it, reluctance to admit what I don't already know, etc. It's more fun to be an "authority" about something than it is to be someone asking for information. And for sure, there's a camaraderie in this sub, the value of which isn't to be underestimated. We joke, but topics like this one do act as an opportunity for mutual support around the idea that some bit of software or other is going to "save" me. 😄

Yeah, I'm really thinking of getting off the supported OS treadmill and riding Win10 into the ground far beyond 2025 EOL. I'll get a separate (cheap) machine for banking and secure financial transactions, and dip the DAW machine in amber, harden it, DMZ it, virtualize it. Shoot, I bet in 10 years neo-hipsters will be pestering me for my collection of vintage plugins, and I'll be bragging in forums about that classic VST2 32 bit "warmth," and character!

I don't always listen to Kenny ! But when I do , I'm always glad I listened ! I learned that lesson the hard way . Kenny ! told me not pick the first drawstring photo and I didn't listen . I loosened the drawstrings to let down the pants and there was a banana behind the curtain . Lesson Learned ! Listen to Kenny ! Kenny

Not financial as such, but for other reasons, mostly that I've "topped up" my collection. I exceeded my desire/need to own any more FX when I leveraged up to MComplete in the last Melda 65% off bundles sale. Prior to that I had gotten the iZotope MPS5 in the glitch, and at that point was confident that I was not going to be slowed down from anything I wanted to do for want of tools to do it with. The way I am with tools and instruments and so forth is that once I'm confident that money can take me no further, I pretty much stop (and move on to the next project that involves shopping!). I know it's a truism that if you know what you're doing, you can do a great mix with one good each compressor, EQ, delay, and reverb, but it's nice to have a wide variety to choose from (as long as it doesn't lead to being frozen due to too much choice). Virtual instruments are the more slip'ry slope, but even with those, I'm beyond my own capacity to make use of the ones I have. I have MASSIVE, Chromaphone, MSoundFactory, MDrummer, and MPowerSynth. I think my bas(s)es are adequately covered. I'm not going to be sitting thinking "I just can't find an appropriate sound." Every once in a while some trinket or other will catch my eye, and I'm usually up for checking out interesting freeware. I'll confess: I do crave the dopamine squirt that I get from acquiring some new trinket or other. But I do get to the "enough" point (when there is one).

This.

TONEX rules. Low CPU usage and amazing sound and feel (with select captures) and my favorite stuff isn't what IKM captured. The only problem with the deal is you will want to get the pedal which will in turn make this purchase redundant.

I agree with you on everything except the reverbs. And I have no excuses. For everything else, yes, I've slowed down but am taking a more tactical approach and actually thinking of use cases before buying vs. collecting. This is the first year in a while I haven't upgraded to Komplete Ultimate or CE. I was talking myself into it based on the Stresov choir and Playbox. Then I realized I have FOUR choirs from 8Dio that I haven't used and LCO Contemporary Orchestra that does a lot of what the new NI multi-layer instruments do. And Playbox - it was intriguing as a fire starter. BOOM! Got Playbox and a bunch of PA plugins for a little more than a tenner a couple of days ago. I'm good for a while.

That and its at the point of how many console, Pultec, 1176 and Minimoog emulations do I really need....

$1.99 to get it... $1.67 with the code GROUP https://www.jrrshop.com/jrr-sounds-supernatural-kits-vol-20 Or other products for $1.99 https://www.jrrshop.com/sale-specials?dir=asc&order=price