sarine

You may be interested to know that a charitable fellow that goes by the name Ceecee Lawrence has put together a group called Anonymous Gear Acquirers that follows a very efficient twelve step program to combat GAS. All you have to do is follow these steps: Admit that you're powerless over GAS and your life is unmanageable. Admit that you're powerless over GAS and your life is unmanageable. Admit that you're powerless over GAS and your life is unmanageable. Admit that you're powerless over GAS and your life is unmanageable. Admit that you're powerless over GAS and your life is unmanageable. Admit that you're powerless over GAS and your life is unmanageable. Admit that you're powerless over GAS and your life is unmanageable. Admit that you're powerless over GAS and your life is unmanageable. Admit that you're powerless over GAS and your life is unmanageable. Admit that you're powerless over GAS and your life is unmanageable. Admit that you're powerless over GAS and your life is unmanageable. Admit that you're powerless over GAS and your life is unmanageable. As you can see they're doing just fine.

iZotope mixing tools sales have been on for how many months now? I can't even tell when one sale ends and another starts, it all just blends together.

Acid would be a nice tool indeed, if only it didn't lag and crash so much. I actually had less issues with v8 than with v9, then again my projects grew by the time v9 was released. On yet another hand, v9 now crashes occasionally just from loading a minuscule project with three VI tracks and pressing play. If I'm using ASIO, some projects don't load at all. It also crashes if I change sample rate to anything but 44.1kHz, except when 1 out of 10 times doesn't, for no obvious reason. I actually used Acid as my main DAW for almost two months, but currently it's just so slow, quirky and unstable (YMMV...) that I had to bin it. Conceptually it's great (though not perfect, and the workflow could be improved more) and efficient for many of the most repetitive tasks in certain styles of music production, it's just that in implementation it's not reliable, and that's a big no-no in any long haul production.

But you save 1240.75€, you'll feel like a winner even if it's enriched uranium.

I'll be the contrarian here as in my opinion the MIDI editing facilities in Mixbus (i.e. Ardour) have come a long way, and in fact I think it's quite competitive in that department at this point. It is awkward, but if anyone really wants to give it a try, you need to sit down with the manual and google and do some tedious reading, trial & error and reconditioning to learn how the panning, zooming, scrolling, note editing etc. work in Mixbus, but if you do persist through, it's not bad. I certainly like the Ardour way more than Reaper or Bitwig (1.3, 2.x) for instance. As a VST host (which MIDI editing usually implies) though, Mixbus was a nightmare. Graphic glitches (GUI cropped), abysmal performance, generally extremely sluggish UI... I can only assume it was the 3rd party plugins as so many people tout Mixbus to excel at working with audio tracks. Judging only by what I've experienced first-hand, I wouldn't bet on it though. But the lag, unresponsiveness and crashes made me abandon Mixbus altogether - it just wasn't worth it to involve Mixbus in any project any longer. Now, the sound, I did like. I don't think it's any more special than the plethora of other analog emulations that exist in form of separate plugins, and I certainly am highly skeptic of the claim that somehow the advantage is the "integration" of the processors into Mixbus - I think technically that's a bullshit sleight of hand. What Harrison does have however is control over the most crucial parts of the processing chain and their architecture and a vision of where they want to go with it, a vision that seems to satisfy many. You also get the "analog" sound and relatively high quality channel strips at an unbeatable price, especially on sale. I also like Harrison's symbiosis with an opensource project (the actual underlying DAW; Ardour) as they also contribute to free software, so that might be a reason to support them if that's your thing. It's just that for me the tool was unusable, which kind of trumps any idealism. YMMV...

I just needed something to play SFZ and this gets rubbed in my face, $14 for Wusik Station v9 and the upgrade to v10, is practically in the same price range as the free alternatives. Doesn't really make me have high expectations but even if it turns my violins into orc farts it can't possibly come close to being the stupidest $14 I've spent, and yes, the developer seems like a guy I like to support. 🌈With my $14.

AIEP3 is the new bitcoin. I bought 150 licenses after the subscription announcement. See you at the golf course.

Any opinions on these? I rarely shop for samples, but I would appreciate a respectable collection of ethnic instruments. It's just that I don't care for loops/phrases at all, and often "these" (or similar to "these") things give me the impression that loops/phrases are the main selling point. I don't trust the sound demos. Yes, I listened to them, and they sound the "regular kind of fine". How [over]processed are they in their rawest form? It's also kind of difficult for me to tell whether the demos consist of MIDI patterns of "one-shots" or longer sampled audio segments. It's also difficult to assess the quality of samples through all the reverb. 😑

I can't tell the difference between this 24h Secret Sale and the 24/7/365 In Your Face Sale.

Instead of skimming over a post and guessing what was in it, I would rather you actually read and think about it. Because you never know, it could have been something interesting.

Let him have it. Maybe he has a point? Not that what he said is absolute truth. I mean, it's a pretty ridiculous notion that musicians "back then" had "actual skill and talent", as if the opposite was never true back then, and is generally true now. It's a nonsensical proposition, and it's only fair to assume that's not exactly what he meant. Instead of straight-out telling him to get off the high horse, maybe you should think where your inner elitist resides on this matter? Is there a method and means of music production which you'd look down on, and criticize for lack of human involvement in the creative process?

How it looks, sure. How it works, not so much... Although some of the shortcuts and the workflow really are nice. I like simple, and Acid could have excelled at that, if it weren't for the flaws that race to cancel out the conveniences.

This is an even better deal than buying a full DAW and getting a plug-in for free.

Maybe so, but I think that with a couple simple enhancements and optimization it could be made into a brilliant music sketchpad, at the very least. Too bad in its current state it's a misery to use, doesn't work too well with my interface's ASIO, crashes, lags as hell... That's under heavy VST usage. I liked many aspects of it, but in the end it had a negative effect on my productivity anywhere beyond a couple loops utilizing a few VI's.

So symphonic noise is a genre now.

Now that that's sorted, can we discuss the Notepad++ spellchecker?

Not nefarious beyond the standard levels of exploitativeness, i.e. business as usual. You're not standing out in particular, and none of my comments were aimed at IK specifically - I was simply responding to some murmuring about perceived injustice because I had something to say about what I consider low-brow marketing tactics (which, again, is business as usual). You're not trying to do dirty any more than you could expect from the next guy on average. It's not that you are EVIL, you're just active proponents of culture and practices that I find dishonest, distasteful and exploitative, whether you TRY to be those things, and whether you would employ the same tactics in your personal relationships, but in the context of and excused by the business, the low-brow crap is business as usual. I don't doubt that you guys make quality stuff, indeed regardless of how you sell them, because the two facets are unconnected. I didn't bring it up myself because it isn't a very interesting point in this discussion. It is of course worth bringing up from your defensive stance, in a thread about a promotional sale of your products. So let me say it again: I don't doubt that you guys at least do some decent DSP. Your (you, Peter) presence online is also highly valuable to IK, and I hope they give you enough credit. Judging by everything I've seen, you do fine PR. Which is why it'll be easy for me to also forgive some of your rhetoric. Honest truth: I forgot this was "your thread" (i.e. relating to your group buy) when I wrote the rant. But here's a thought: Maybe instead of just defending your business (and/or your honor), you might as well think about the aforementioned murmuring that arises from people's subjective experience of getting "F'ed in the A" (as South Park eloquently put it) by a company whom they support, due to perceived injustice in rewarding (or rather not) customer "loyalty" in pricing. I said think about it. That's all. Not deliberately and unashamedly openly anyway. You'd be surprised that I'm not surprised because I know people in the industry, THIS industry AND other technology industries, and I have a pretty realistic viewpoint on reality, which on average isn't ill-meaning and evil. But my perception has also been that especially the software entertainment industry is suffering from the same dumb consumer culture and low-brow marketing tactics - the former enabling the latter, and the latter motivating the former. Again it's not about malice, but the gold rush culture, exploitative marketing, and quite frankly; snake oil. Mountains upon mountains of snake oil, running from the highest peak all the way to bottom of the ocean. The snake oil element in the marketing of tools of production for the creative industry alone would be worth writing books about, and falls under the umbrella of "exploitative" in my criticism. It is so elusive that it has managed to become a proper product in the consumer's eyes - or many products rather, with its endless shapeshifting abilities - and comes with many names, one of the most successful being "inspiration". Again, I wasn't referring to your group buy specifically, neither overtly nor covertly - you just happened to stand where I was firing. Not by pure accident obviously, because the discussion took place here, but it could have happened in many other places, so don't read too much into it. Other than that, your criticism is well received.

You're welcome - I'm on your side. But you and I both know that was just scratching the surface. If you really, truly care, and want to understand, there is some good literature: Akerlof & Shiller: Animal Spirits Freud: Group psychology and the analysis of the ego

The only developers I know who won't take you from behind (without consent) are: Melda Production ValhallaDSP Xfer Records Either they don't run sales at all (Valhalla, Xfer) designed to deteriorate your judgement by abusing some evolution-programmed animal instinct hell-bent on reserving resources (real or imaginary), that in this absurd modern setting translates to toys for adults, that you can only not call toys because you're an adult and you can simply proclaim your toys as tools of production to elevate their symbolic status above what they actually are - or they do run a more predictable sale campaign by the schedule AND they reward you for all the money you spend on their stuff (Melda). Want to not get F'ed in the A? Buy from these folks. They're also quite nice and competitive at what they do. Know more? Feel free to give them some deserved rep and differentiate them from the cheapskates with their "sales", "offers" and "coupons". 👻 These are NOT great bargains and you're NOT winning - the whole system is purpose-built for milking you. Not only are YOU losing in the big picture because chasing these unnecessary "bargains" (whose whole motive and justification is that they expand the customer segment and sales beyond those who ACTUALLY NEED the crap 🐙) occupies a gigantic space in your mind in a world and era where every peaceful minute of your time that you could take to slow down and enjoy life is increasingly a rarity (and more precious than the fleeting euphoria from "grabbing a bargain"), but the small independent software developers are also being elbowed out of the industry by the determined devaluating of the fruits of their labor. You think the $29 is sweet? You'll get sweeter until your teeth rot!

Yep, in fact I've never seen the upgrade being sold for as low as the full version right now. I was interested in Loom II, but I've given up on AIR because: 1. No scalable GUI. 2. The plugins don't make a sound after reloading session. There was some workaround for issue 2, like closing the UI and reopening it in some host, or reloading a preset in another, or this or that, but apparently even the workaround didn't seem to always work everywhere. Had this same problem in Mixbus, Acid and Cubase, probably Reaper too. I don't think AIR's offerings are bad per se, but their not-badness didn't impact me so deeply that I'd cry after them when I throw them in the bin.

SONiVOX Strings, Woodwinds and Brass are alright sound quality -wise. It's just that the UI's are lazy, sloppy and reportedly glitchy. For instance they don't display the audible key range on the graphical keyboard when you load a new sound patch, and they copy-pasted the same UI on all their separate VI plugins (check out the ones I mentioned and the Singles bundle on PluginBoutique) and did a cheap reskin. I think the recorded sounds themselves are alright, and I certainly still use them, but it's a bit stupid that they come as separate plugins instead of sound packs for an honest sampler.

So is MODO DRUM crashing anyone's not-Cakewalk?

Anyone tried other hosts?

Plenty of plugins had their price lowered. Not that it means anything, because it's all just a series of sloppy sleight of hand. The primary purpose of the perpetual licenses in the new scheme is to make the subscription look more appealing by contrast. It's like the chick who invites her unattractive friend to a party with her, to increase her own market value.

Not so fantastic after paying $100 for Trash 2, Iris 2, Stutter Edit and BeatTwerker not-so-long-ago, thinking I was getting a good deal. 😂 You know the other two will be up for devaluation next. I had just been considering selling some of this stuff for a fair price but it's hard to compete with the prices of these soft shops. Before you know it, you'll be charging them for the privilege of allowing their plugins onto your computer.