Craig Fowler

5 hours ago, Grem said:

Excellent sounding verbs.

 

No they don't.

When the CSR were released they were very good quality reverb for a decent price. And not bad on the CPU of the time. 

Yeah, IK have a good thing going when it comes to reverbs. The Sunset Sound pack is up there with the best, and the CSRs still hold up pretty well. I need to get around to actually trying out FAME and Stone room properly!

2 hours ago, PavlovsCat said:

I don't know if it's possible,  but I would think it would be great if there were Evolution add-on rhythm guitar strumming packs. I know that I'd use them and I suspect many others would too. 

 @Greg Schlaepfer is it possible to make additional rhythm guitar patterns for Evolution guitars? I mean, could it be similar to the process for a user to download and install KONTAKT snapshots in KONTAKT or would it be much more involved than that?

My dream would be for Toontrack-midi style draggable strumming grooves.

Prob only an afternoon's work, right @Greg Schlaepfer? j/k

@Greg Schlaepfer I think the sound of the evolution libraries is fantastic. I do find it hard to get to grips with the complexity of the strumming engine, though. It's cool that you can do so much with it (e.g., stroke direction as well as articulation; how many strings are played etc) - but presets that represent 'bog standard' and basic strumming patterns that are ready to roll without much editing would be very welcome over in this corner, too!

The samples in BFD really are terrific. But, if you're used to (or rely on) the user-friendliness of Toontrack products, and value the sheer range/editability of midi grooves, I don't think you'll have the patience for BFD3. I didn't get on with the gui at all, and trying to make it do what I wanted to just sucked the fun out of making music for me.

Obviously, others may have very different views. In particular, I recall folks who hook up electric drum kits to VSTs being pretty stoked about the playability of BFD3 (esp cymbals, I think).

19 minutes ago, chris.r said:

Shacks... I knew I will have to compromise comfort going for their sound  

I read it's possible to authorize offline once plugins are installed but obviously UA Connect is being used for this, not sure what's the philosophy behind it though since you need to go online for the installation.

UADx should allow you to install only the Dimension D chorus via UAConnect without installing any other plugins.

With that said, I *thought* that the only two ways you could have the native plugins were (a) by having a piece of UA hardware associated with your account, or (b) subscribing to UA Spark. Happy to be corrected on this, though.

43 minutes ago, MarcL said:

I am quite irritated about some comments here! Why do some defend such developers that are doing shady marketing?

Are such scam strategies by the developers ethical? Aren't their prices probably too high for today's market? Andrew's logic that prices have not increased and thus they're good is foolish IMO! Everybody in this forum knows that prices on music software/samples have dropped significantly in the last 10 years! The market has changed remarkably, don't they understand this?

I don't think it's fair to suggest that Andrew is scamming anyone (though maybe your comment wasn't directed at ISW). 

With that said, you're right that the way the music software market works has shifted. I feel bad (a bit anyway) for 'taking advantage' of the ISW coupon. Unfortunately, it's become very difficult to tell whether a 'glitch' is a pricing/tech error versus something hidden as an Easter egg to drum up quick business (or that might have initially been inadvertent but then is allowed to run for so long that the company is at least tacitly endorsing it). .

Cinesamples and AudioOllie are the audio software devs that most recently come to mind as having had 80% off (or thereabouts) 'glitches' that were allowed to run for several days after people had checked with them whether it was legit. And, with the way coupons are stacking at UAD at the moment, I've bought several of their plugins (including sampled instruments) this month at 90% off. When even UAD have started playing in PA pricing territory (I got Ravel and Waterfall for $24 each!), it's easy to start thinking that this really is the new 'norm' for everyone...even if it isn't, as was clearly the case for ISW. 

What I do appreciate from Andrew's comments here is some insight into the impact NI licensing could have and the way those costs are based on full price rather than a discounted one. 

That's...a pretty douchey move. If go into partnership with PA, you *know* that your product is going to get massively discounted. I don't own it, but I'd be pissed if I did!

The Eden bass sim is one of the best out there and I use it alot. But I've got most of the Kuassa stuff as well and it's absolutely top notch.

The bummer for me is that the TGX-85 is out of stock. I still have a hardware SY85 synth (well, my daughter has it), but I'd love a software version.

40 minutes ago, DeeringAmps said:

It’s the Fourier Transform Equation 

 

Thanks Tom! And now comes lots of reading and beating my head against a wall to try and understand it 🙂

2 hours ago, bitflipper said:

I agree that it's underhanded when a company slyly sells a product that's about to be discontinued or deprecated, but only if they're being deliberately deceptive. Even then, I've gotten some good deals that way. 

Sometimes, an unexpectedly good deal, e.g. finding out later that I qualified for a cheap upgrade because I already owned the retired product. For example, I bought Kontakt 2 a month before it was superseded by Kontakt 3 and was briefly miffed about it. But it turned out that I'd bought K2 at a discount that was nearly equal to the upgrade price to K3. Native Instruments was more customer oriented back then, I think.

 

 

Bit, I've wanted to ask this for a while. What does your sig mean? 🙂 What is this truth?

20 minutes ago, tom said:

Prices doubled from last month, shame

That's what I thought, too - kinda of a bizarre thing to run the 'same' promo at twice the price. Certainly doesn't look like much of a deal anymore.

I like the UAD Helios but I'm pretty sure I don't need another channel strip, even though I like the Lindell-made ones!

1 hour ago, El Diablo said:

Subscription plans are for professionals whom make money doing this... For us hobbyist, it isn't worth the money.

Not worth 99 cents per month?

1 hour ago, TheSteven said:

99 cents I can afford.

It's the monthly subscriptions to UAD Spark for $19.99 (USD), billed monthly
(annual subscriptions $149.99 (USD), billed yearly)
that hits you after 3 months that hurts.

I really wish UAD had come out with their native versions 5 to 10 years ago - I'd probably own all of it.
At this point I'm too invested with other brands to consider reinvesting in stuff that does what stuff I already have does either equally well or well enough that no one listening to my music can tell the difference.

At least UAD bother to email you to tell you that you've got a payment coming (at least, they *did* IIRC).

They seem to have just decided to start competing with PA and others. In the last couple of weeks I got their API console for $39, LA2 collection for $49, and Waterfall B3 for $24. Am about to demo the Hitsville reverb chambers, which (with coupons) I can get for $39 after stacking coupons.

Incidentally, UALurker4life should take $10 of your order without a min spend. 

But this is for us Windows-based plebs, Fleer!

34 minutes ago, Old Joad said:

Extreme was a killer band🤘

One of the best!

7 hours ago, Yan Filiatrault said:

I can’t get it, since it’s not native.

The channel strip is native, I believe. The bundle must have been mispriced...it was $74 when I posted and was at $479 when I reopened my browser! Shame on me for waiting! (Just confirmed the channel strip collection is native...but the bundle is now priced at $329!). Some funky pricing going on, but I decided not to pass on the channel strip.

14 minutes ago, Fleer said:

Is there a minimum spend limit?

It doesn't say so, but mine did arrive and you can't stack it with the classics-for-49 (or whatever it's called) coupon.

I caved and got the LA-2a.

I was kinda hoping for the $25 extra coupon so I could get the 1176s for $25, but that was asking too much!

Part of me is pretty tempted to jump on this (for 1176 or LA-2) simply because *really* good UAD deals are so few and far between. 

But...I have the legacy UAD versions, the IK versions, and PSP's and Softube's FET compressors. I'm pretty happy with all of these, honestly - does anyone want to persuade me that there is some kind of pixie-dust that the v2 UAD offerings would sprinkle that I'd be a muppet not to go for?

FOMO is a real thing, apparently. 

2 hours ago, jngnz said:

Looks like I will finally have to buy the complete bundle this Black Friday. RIP wallet.

IIRC, there was a pretty decent deal on the bundle last BF!

I don't have Atomic Big Band from SAS (nor do I have the two newer releases - the flute and the flugelhorn) - but I've got the earlier 4. I'm going to be jumping on this. The smart delay can be finicky to work with, and setting up articulation maps for these instruments in Cakewalk is an absolute must - but they sound amazing. The trumpet and trombone are my top two so far...I'm hoping the Alto shakes things up a bit!

2 hours ago, Magic Russ said:

Other than the PortaStudio model sounds a little harsh and tinny on the cymbals and hats, I am not hearing a huge difference between the dry and processed sounds.  Am I missing something or are these really that subtle?

I think the original IK tapes were really subtle, but it's easier for my ears to hear the difference made by the teac/tascam ones . You do need to drive the input a bit to hear what's going on IMO. I find that I don't notice much when I add tape, but miss it when I take it off!

T-Verb for $19 or bust!!

4 hours ago, craigb said:

Ah!  So, they're smarter than the older members then! 😂

Seems inevitable, doesn't it 🙂