antler

Me too. And like you, I've started using Affinity stuff. I originally learned CorelDRAW because they gave a free copy away with a printer

IIRC that was ReValver (1) SE. I think it's at version 4 now.

Maybe it's to ease potential support issues: if they only install 64 bit you could end up in a situation where you have e.g. v2.8 64-bit and v2.4 32-bit. People might then get confused as to why something works in one host (that's using 64-bit), but doesn't in another host (that uses the 32-bit). Another reason might be that the installer does an exact file-directory sync. All just guesses on my part though.

Depends if you're a first-time buyer. It's currently a 60% sale, meaning that you're paying 40% price. Use someone's referral code and you get 20% off 40%, meaning that you're only paying 32% of the original price. Paying 32% original price means that it's effectively a 68% discount. If you have any credit (e.g. new account signup credit), you can drive the price down even lower.

I've not followed their sales for that long, but I don't think I've seen a 60% sale before; 50% has been the max that I can remember.

@PavlovsCat As Larry mentioned, SD3's kits (and expansions) are huge so if you're looking to upgrade you might also need to factor in a new drive for the samples. (You can still use SD2 expansions in SD3 though)

The cat, or the HD? 😜

When the sale does eventually come up, and if anyone spins a good discount, some very nice sounding products to consider include anything from the Ethera series the whoosh/smash/riser designer bundle (might not be the exact name) anything from Silence+ Other Sounds (though Maleventum does sound gorgeous)

Probably because you receive emails from the future (the only reason I can see for you being able to post deals so quickly), and they've not put the sale up yet 😁

Hope so. I remember reading about NI being mostly bought out a little while ago, and IIRC the announcement said that the overall changes wouldn't be complete until after a year or so.

I thought that too, especially when iZotope already had a rent-to-own model through Splice; also the rumours about NI doing a sub too. Probably the good news is that iZotope have already said that they're not planning to go sub-only, so NI probably won't go sub-only either.

I wonder if that would somehow 'downgrade' you though.

That's nice to know - I wasn't aware of this and assumed that eLCC was just Steinberg's similarly coded version of iLok. That said, I'm still perfectly happy with the dongle-free software that I'm using: I have good alternatives to Cubase, Wavelab, HALion, Spectral Layers, VSL libraries, and there's nothing currently in my wishlist that uses eLCC.

It might be related to the survey they sent out earlier in the year, asking how they can improve as a business. My tip: if a deal doesn't immediately trigger a GAS impulse, delete the email and try to not think about it for much longer. Slightly more serious tip: if it does trigger a GAS impulse, put it down in a spreadsheet along with the price. Wait for the last few days of the deal - the GAS might wane by then, or the cumulative cost of other things on the list might dissuade you.

If you use Chrome/(new) Edge you can pin the tab and it'll open again the next time you open the browser.

Could be that they ramped up their server capacity, especially with the extra load that Sphere in general might generate (e.g. people downloading subscription products, online shared space, etc)?

The update is free for all paid (sub or otherwise) users. The only thing that seems to have been sub-only was an announcement explicitly stating that 5.2 was on its way; there was a more vague announcement on Twitter saying something big was coming.

Their new website/redesigned artwork looks really good

I'm sure that's mostly true. There was an issue some people talked about a little while ago when they bought some AIR product (I think) on a cheap deal; it bundled an older version of the iLok driver, and then blue screened their computer when it conflicted with the newer version. Certainly a rare exception rather than the norm, but I'm just saying it can happen. I'm very glad you and others here are happy with your dongles; may they continue to function flawlessly. I'm happy to use the plugins that I do that don't use a dongle. We all choose the software that suits our purposes and workflows best.

Oh boy; you mean they'll put in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? (sorry - stupid joke)

Fair point. I hadn't followed the pricing for the DSM upgrade. I was thinking of the Shadow Hills green/red models; this wasn't so much an 'upgrade' as a different model though.

My (uninformed) guess is $249 regular price, $129 intro price, $99 loyalty/upgrade price

To me, I can see it suggesting one of three things: They are going subscription only (very bad). It's not going subscription only, but you get perpetual licence updates a bit later, e.g. Ozone 10 is available on sub a few months earlier. This wouldn't be so bad - there's time to iron out the bugs. It's a WUP-style subscription: as long as you pay you get free updates. When you stop, you get to continue using what you already have. This style of subscription a guess wouldn't be too bad as it's essentially the same as jumping to upgrade whenever a new version comes out.

My upgrade to SO4 cost ~£100; my upgrade to SO5 around two years later also cost ~£100. Sphere membership currently costs £146.75/year. If not being notified a few days early explicitly that a new minor version is being released (there was a something-big-is-coming-on-9th-march announcement on Twitter) is the difference, I'm OK with that. (Yes, I know that's not the only difference - you also get Notion, expansion packs, exclusive videos/demos/tutorials, etc. with a Sphere membership. Subs are great in some circumstances; not so great in others. I personally prefer full licences; YMMV)

Personally my take on it is if I buy some software, I shouldn't need to buy an additional piece of hardware too. I shouldn't need to install low-level drivers that might impact my PC's performance, or potentially give it additional reasons to blue screen. If the dongle stops functioning one day, I shouldn't need the inconvenience and cost of sending it off somewhere to recover the licenses and buying a new dongle. I shouldn't need to upgrade the dongle (e.g. there are three generations of iLok dongle). I shouldn't need a different dongle for different software, e.g. iLok/e-licencer. I shouldn't need the have USB ports taken up by this. If I lose the dongle, I shouldn't lose my software licenses. I understand the advantages of a dongle, e.g. transferring to a new machine is simple. They're just not something I want to deal with at the moment. Not trying to convince anyone else of anything; just explaining my take on the dongle thing.