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Still too spensiv...

Since I am not much on drum triggers or drum pads, I think my main interest with the pads would be for triggering scenes and clips in Ableton. Here is a tutorial video I found that shows you how to select rows of clips in multiple banks.

You are correct. An alternative to the instrument browser or Analog Lab for auditioning the V Collection presets is with Komplete Kontrol. The Arturia presets are NKS ready, so you can listen to the short previews of the presets without loading them first. And the search & tagging system works well to narrow down the list.

The full tour by Colt:

Did you read the "Fixed" items list?

It's hard to justify a purchase with that doubt in mind. There are plenty of well supported alternatives available.

Everything Bundle FTW!

I believe that the VST3 install path is a fixed standard location in Native Access, and many other installers.

I use the Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 (gen 3) and have very low latency with their factory ASIO. Highly recommend!

Here's the Eight Voice playing a preset from the Retro Wave Expansion by Xenos, "Cheerful Minor 2". Nothing fancy, just a sound demo. The sequencer and delay/reverb FX are all on-board the plugin. I just played 3 notes and let the delay play out between them. Eight Voice Retro Wave Sequence.mp3

The Arturia is a weak option, because it's only one SEM module. In this case I would have to say that Cherry Audio has a big edge with 8 modules in one rack!

And while this hot deal is still cooking, you may be interested in an Eight Voice Expansion by Xenos Soundworks, 'Retrowave' for Eight-Voice for $12. https://www.adsrsounds.com/product/presets/xenos-soundworks-retrowave-for-eight-voice-presets/ ‘Retrowave’ contains 90 brand new presets for Cherry Audio’s Eight-Voice synthesizer, with generous use of Eight-Voice’s interesting voicing capabilities to produce fat analog leads, thick layered sounds, wide polyphonic synths and more. Take your sound back to the 70s and 80s with the ‘Retrowave’ patch library. Pack Contents: 17 Basses 17 Leads 14 Keys and Polysynths 12 Pads 12 Plucks 6 Bells and Mallets 4 FX 3 Arps 3 Chord Hits 2 Brass Total Number Of Files: 90 221 KB Software Requirements: Cherry Audio Eight Voice 1.0+

The Cherry Audio Eight Voice is a great sounding synth! Very FAT!!! For $19 it's a definite no-brainer! I picked it up at release, plus the Cherry Audio Synthesizer Expander Module (SEM) bundle for their Voltage Modular synth. https://cherryaudio.com/news/synthesizer-expander-modules-for-voltage-modular-released It's a single module based on the Oberheim SEM that Cherry provides in mono and poly versions that you can mix or match as many modules as you can stuff into the virtual rack synth. That way you can build your own 2-voice, 4-voice, 8-voice. or whatever. Then you have access to any of the modules in Voltage Modular so that you can make a virtual super Oberheim like none that ever existed! Not that you really need to do all that. Just drop $19 as @bitflippersuggested and you are good to go!

Or you could upgrade to the Everything Bundle from SynthMaster 2 for $139, or from SynthMaster One for $149. Everything literally gets you everything: both synths, all expansions, any new expansions that are released, plus a free upgrade to SynthMaster 3 when it is released. Just something to consider... https://www.kv331audio.com/synthmastereverythingbundle.aspx You can probably find these Everything upgrades at JRRshop for slightly cheaper.

I'm seeing the Kontakt 6.7.1 VST3 here in Cakewalk and Studio One.

That marks just slightly over 4 years that I purchased Sonar Platinum for Life! 🙄

This looks really interesting ...

EZ Pay in 4 installments with PayPal.

ACT, ugh! I gave up on trying to control my DAW with a keyboard. I have a Roland/Cakewalk A-300PRO with integrated ACT for Cakewalk and Sonar. That was a bit too fiddly for my taste, but it worked. I haven't used it in ages. I think if I was doing a lot of intensive recording/mixing I would want an actual control surface with motorized faders. So for now I have focused mainly on commanding virtual instruments with my MIDI controllers, minimizing mouse use for them. Makes using soft synths a bit more like actual hardware, twiddling knobs, etc. The KeyLab 61 Mk II is the best of the bunch for that IMO, especially with the seamless integration for Arturia Analog Lab and V Collection instruments. But it's also a breeze to just MIDI learn your knobs and faders using MIDI CC for any other soft synths with learn capabilities. As far as DAW integration goes, the KeyLab Mk II comes out of the box with magnetic keyboard button overlays and integrated mapping modes for specific DAWs such as: Live, Logic, Pro Tools, Cubase, Studio One, and Reaper. It also offers MCU and HUI mapping for other DAWs that may be compatible with those modes. That's probably where Cakewalk would fit in, but haven't tried to set that up. Studio One, Reaper, and Ableton Live are DAWs which I have in addition to Cakewalk. Live is the only one that I have attempted to control with KeyLab so far, and the transport controls work plug and play, as well as track select, solo, mute, record, volume and pan. But I've only scratched the surface of that. Be interesting to see what the pads can do.

VST3 is probably only a real concern for Cubase users. VST2 only is just fine by me. 😉

That's probably what bothers me the most. The wasted potential that could have been. If they had just been a bit more aggressive with GUI facelifts, bug fixes, and customer support, they likely could have remained a leading brand. But the management clearly had no vision for that. I cringe every time I read their marketing blurbs these days... Relying on P.T. Barnum's wisdom isn't the ideal way to run a business: Many people are gullible, and we can expect this to continue. You can fool most of the people most of the time.

I picked this up on sale a while back because it seemed like something that would be very handy to have. Like Grem, I almost forgot that I had it, and need to spend some time with it.

At one time, AIR Music Tech was an exclusive instrument bundle for Pro Tools. You know, THAT industry standard! So under the hood it was leading tech, at one time. But since the inMusic acquisition, they have apparently been squeezing every dime out of the intellectual property, while keeping any new development investment low. Not my idea of a grand business model except to corporate MBA's with their eyes focused strictly on the bottom line, rather than the customer. As an AIR, SONiVOX, and AKAI customer for many years, I feel that inMusic could have done much more with what they acquired. I feel that I got some good value from their products for a while, but from a loyalty perspective I'm not likely to buy into their new stuff.

That Hype synth is the only one out of the bunch that seemed halfway interesting to me, as sort of a new take on Hybrid 3. I've always thought that Hybrid would be a great synth with a facelift. It sounds great, but the GUI is horrible. "Cover everything from hard-hitting plucks to sultry melodic leads with this preset and macro-based synth combining multiple synth engines (wavetable, FM, virtual analogue, multi-sample) all in one easy to use interface. Hype builds on a legacy of over 20 years of excellence in Synthesis brought to you by the same world-class team who made the highly acclaimed Synth Engines inside Hybrid 3, the Riser and Loom 2 to name a few!" I'd say that maybe AIR is arriving late to the game with this. There are too many other good premium and even free synths like Vital out there today.