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Yep, that would be the Intel AVX (Advanced Vector Extensions). Glad you are happy with the other two synths! "MASSIVE X requires an AVX compatible processor to provide increased performance. Its audio engine provides advanced wavetable oscillators, unison voicing, a flexible audio router, and other features which make the use of AVX necessary." The installation of MASSIVE X will be blocked on non-AVX-compatible systems." https://support.native-instruments.com/hc/en-us/articles/360001544678-MASSIVE-X-Requires-AVX-Compatible-Processor?_ga=2.175307490.1551320537.1655905680-1578022517.1647909391

Very nice! They do not install AAX if you deselect it now! Congrats to XLN, finally! *and thus no "Repair Needed" prompt if AAX is missing! Here are a couple screen grabs of the new customize options for plugin formats and install paths. The VST3 path is fixed by specs, but the other paths are customizable.

"Coupon codes are not available for this product (Tracktion Novum Granular and Cross Synthesizer Plugin)" In cart price at JRR is now $107.40.

Oh yeah, that too, and it's a fairly big deal! Forgot about that one...added to my post! NI will need a few more future updates to get the thing "finished". Maybe another year or two?

It appears that R4 and Nimbus have been removed from all current iZotope bundles, and are now exclusive to the Exponential Reverb bundles. Such as: https://www.izotope.com/en/products/exponential-audio/for-music.html

What I should say is that I have all 3 synths, and they MSRP for $199. However, all can all be had occasionally for $99, or less. I got Pigments and Phase Plant on sale. I really enjoy them, and those were no-brainer sales! I had tried the demo of Massive X when it was first released almost 3 years ago and had thought, "well maybe someday". But I recently got Massive X included with a discounted crossgrade to Komplete 13. I was excited at first, but then after a while it dawned on me that I enjoyed Pigments and Phase Plant much more! And while it has great sound producing ability, Massive X users still have some grievances with NI, as Massive X was perceived to have been released in a rather "unfinished" state. In fact, NI has only recently added a proper preset browser to it with an update this year! Other Massive X annoyances: No way to create custom user preset folders. All saves go to a main folder "User". Sound designers really hate this one. No wavetable or sample import. Limited visual feedback (real-time UI animations - this one is likely a personal preference, some love 'em, some hate 'em). No MIDI learn.

Phase Plant 2 was just on sale for $99 (half price) until June 13th ($89 at Every Plugin... although it's $176.87 now). Likewise, Arturia Pigments occasionally goes on sale for $99 (half price). Another very good one!

For the money, I would recommend Phase Plant over Massive X. I have both, and for me, Massive X is not nearly as fun or intuitive to program. YMMV!

I'm a relative newbie to Toontrack EZDrummer. I was happy with XLN AD2 that I've had for years, but acquired EZD only for the songwriting tools, not particularly for the sounds. There are way more discussions about which are the best sounding drums, and that usually revolves around ToonTrack Superior Drummer and BFD. I've never used either of them. I'm happy with XLN, and they sound good to me, but then I'm not a drum freak. Just need them to add rhythm and not sound BAD, and not show up drunk! I've also got MODO Drum, but I bore quickly with tweaking the details. I'd rather spend time tweaking my synths, LOL! That probably wasn't too helpful, but I'm not really the guy to be asking that question... Cheers!

I assume that your other instruments were responding to "any" channel, while bx_oberhausen was not. I'm sure that added to the confusion!

Yes, I am using 12, 13, and 14 at the same time.

I don't see a lot here that I need this year, other than FOMO. It's all high quality stuff, but... I picked up a couple of Evolution guitars and the Famous E during the OTS group buy last year when it went all the way to 60%.

Spitfire Audio has drum machines?

Right. And if you do pick up the "Custom" bundle you don't have to make all of your selections right away. You can always hang on to a few options for a "rainy day".

If you have the free MIDI-OX utility you can set it up to monitor what your controller is sending. The channel numbers are shown live in the monitor window as you press keys on the controller. http://www.midiox.com/index.htm

That would be too easy for Waves! They want you to check out the WUP "sale" first, LOL!!! Then you have to go looking for the free upgrades among your stuff...

I just updated my Cosmos and CR8 to v14 for free, as they were still covered by the free year 1 WUP.

Wait for a sale. Then if you want a really good deal, pick up an AD2 "Custom" pack at a reseller, that includes any 3 ADpaks (kits) + any 3 MIDIpaks (beats) + any 3 additional kit pieces (single drums). For some reason these bundles are not available to existing customers direct from XLN. Example of JRRshop's AD2 Custom (not on sale, currently $178): https://www.jrrshop.com/xln-audio-addictive-drums-2-custom I believe these can be had for 50% off on sale, so that's about $89 for the lot, which makes it less than $30 per ADpak.

Best comment so far on KVR: "So not an informative post then, just more Waves bashing from the same idiotic members. Hey ho".

Reaper has a nice VST3 preset implementation built into their plugin window. It strikes me as something Cakewalk should have added to their native VST3 window, as the presets are already located in the path: "C:\Users\{username}\Documents\VST3 Presets\Plugin Alliance". Here is an example showing them in the Reaper plugin window for bx_masterdesk.

I agree. Best fix for registry problems or other Windows weirdness is to do an in-place Windows repair install. Keeps your data and programs, but refreshes Windows. Much less work that a full OS clean install, but can fix up a lot under the hood. https://www.tomshardware.com/how-to/fix-windows-10-repair-install "Simply put, it replaces ALL of the OS files on a Windows 10 PC but leaves other files, installed applications, and most (but not all) settings and preferences alone."

If the plugin is installed on your PC and working there in other DAWs, then I would agree that seems to narrows it down to your Cakewalk setup. But that's a fairly basic plugin and works well in Cakewalk here, so that is definitely not normal. And Ober seems to be hard coded for MIDI channel 1, as is typical with many single timbre synths. When I try it on any MIDI channel other than omni (none) or ch 1, I get nothing. So if you forced it to ch 1, that should have been sufficient. And your video shows active MIDI data in the channel inspector, so Cakewalk is handling the MIDI. Just not getting it to that plugin for whatever reason...

That's the same thing that I see when I hit the bypass button inside the plugin.

Ober has few settings. Much simpler that a multi-timbral, multi-output synth like Kontakt. But there is a on/off bypass button at the top left of the Ober UI that must be enabled to hear it play. Did you check that?

If any of the plugins you bought last year are still within the initial 12 month coverage window, you can upgrade them to v14 for free. You would only need to WUP any that have expired in order to upgrade them.