antler

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.

Thanks Bapu. I actually went with Studio One when Sonar started to sink. Didn't know that Reaper/Mixbus had good support too; the workflow in SO suits me though so it's all good from my point of view.

Me too. Well... that and the fact that I fancied the look of a FaderPort and wanted the DAW with the best support.

Anyone know if the Vertigo VSM-3 is worth considering if I've already got FabFilter Saturn?

I've been looking at some of their EQs - what does it mean for an EQ to be 'musical' (e,g. Bax EQ is described as One of the most musical EQs on the planet)?

I know there are many ways of looking at things, but in the grand scheme of things, I don't think time spent doing something enjoyable can/should be considered 'wasted'; 'non-productive' maybe, but not wasted.

The lesson of the day - Larry is the King of deals... and cartoons 😁

Maybe, but you'd still need to understand how the instrument works and is played in order to recreate a convincing lead/solo. Also, sometimes it's just easier to record a live part if you've mastered an instrument, rather than drag in notes and tweak velocities/lots of CC parameters all day long.