Carl Ewing

Kontakt 7's new browser & preview makes it a must use. I can't imagine going back to K6, especially when having tons of boutique libraries. That preview feature is a god send especially when having most of collector's edition installed and almost 4TB of 3rd party libraries. I've found so many incredible sounds I would never have found or used (without literally loading every single preset in every library and auditioning everything). Now I can just type "female vocal staccato" or "taurus bass pedal" or "taiko" or whatever, and the browser will show me every articulation / preset in every library (3rd party or Komplete) that matches that description and an instant audio preview before loading it (for most libraries), and just double click and it loads. Also great for quickly comparing similar instruments across multiple libraries before making a decision to load something. Going back to Kontakt 6? Not a chance. The UI changes are hardly interesting. I still use Kontakt 6 for legacy projects and there is no way those UI differences are a deal breaker unless you're absurdly *****. They are basically identical except the browser. (FYI, just adjust preferences in K7 to look and behave exactly like K6) - except K7 blows K6 out of the water on a 4K monitor.

FYI: RX11 pre-sale just announced. https://www.izotope.com/en/products.html/ https://www.pluginboutique.com/deals/show?sale_id=16039 Since Plugin Boutique is also offering the pre-sale, that should mean that purchasing of RX 10 Elements now SHOULD theoretically allow the free upgrade to RX11 Elements when it's released. Edit: Just realized the Elements sale is over and it's back to $50. So I'm curious if someone registers their earlier purchase today / tomorrow, etc. if the grace period will apply. Hmm.

Have used them as well - for Win Pro 10, which then upgraded to Win 11 Pro without issue. I think these guys just have bulk unused OEM licenses that they sell as single licenses for dirt cheap. I haven't tried yet, but since it's OEM I'm guessing that if I changed my computer hardware or upgraded my main computer it would stop working.

Depends what you're after. I keep an extremely large library of SFX for post work. Something like a high-end CineTools library can cost upward of $120+, with 10-20GB of content and thousands of sounds. I don't like sifting through things from the cloud - it's way too slow. So, I just wait for Loopcloud sales, grab Professional subscription for 50% off (usually around $120), and get 7200 points. With that I can usually grab a full Cinetools library for around 2500 points, or 3 libraries for 7500 points, and save A LOT of money. This is also much cheaper than their own Cloud service. And then I have the entire library downloaded and scan through it an hour instead of 10 hours in the cloud. I'd say I've saved thousands doing this over the last few years - and have multiple accounts to take advantage of 'new customer' promos, which LoopCloud people don't seem to mind, because they often help me merge my accounts / points. Maybe some developers will catch on to this little racket I have running. Hopefully not! Shhhhhhhh everyone.

Been subscribed to Studio & Pro for years. Didn't even know this was a thing. Then again, I have 14,000 unused points. Ready for any emrgency.

Damn - thought it would be a free RME UFX with purchase of Silk 2. Sad.

I've used the subscription specifically so I can cover almost everything mixing / mastering related with one company without having to buy from others. So I use Plugin Alliance stuff extensively. I also switched to a PA sub because of a mobile rig I often use where I didn't have access to Universal Audio stuff prior to Connect. It helped cover some redundancies (BX amp sims, Shadow Hills, etc.) across all systems. I really like many of PA's workhorse "does-one-job-well" plugins like Neold U2A, Maag EQ4, Townhouse Bus Comp, etc.. PA excels in that department. Top plugins for me are: All Neold, especially U2A (i love this thing more than my family), Maag EQ4 & 2, Townhouse Bus Comp, Vertigo VSM-3, SA2RATE2, HGM-MS, Unfiltered Audio (various), Amek 9099 / 200 strips, SPL (various transient stuff), Elysia (various), Kiiv XStressor (now replaced by UA Native Distressor), Lindell SBC, DS Tantra 2, , analyzer plugins like Metric A/B, and a couple of their synths like Knifonium. I like PA. They make many fantastic plugins, especially in the workhorse department. Brainworx, Lindell, Neold, Kiive and Unfiltered Audio are excellent developers. I don't mind spending $200 a year (grandfathered into an old plan), to have access to all their stuff...and get to own 10 a year of my choosing. Agreed. I also bought an Axe FX III, so I'm done for the amp sim stuff for 10 years hopefully!

I prefer this, as I use both templates and external hardware FX. Just by taking a split second look at the channel-send section tells me what's being used & the level of each, without having to look at the names. If send 1, 3 & 7 are being used, I know what they are, and if 2, 4 & 8 are blank I know what's not being used. This applies to console view and channel view. This would be a mess if only used sends were stacked on top of one another regardless of Send #. This is also helpful from UI perspective when looking at 100 tracks in the mixer...since all send #s are on a horizontal line. I can just scan that line in the mixer and see everything going to Send #7 on a horizontal line. Same as a hardware mixer. If this wasn't the case it would be a nightmare for solving gain staging issues, especially with complex side-chaining setups. So there are features from hardware that I like having replicated in software. But having it as a simple preference setting would be cool too.

Weird! I've never even notice this, and I've been mixing 150+ track scoring projects for 2 decades. Now that you've mentioned it, I want this feature!! Although I usually do all my track arranging in the timeline, which then auto updates ordering in the mix console...but would be very handy to be able to do this from console view. Having said that - $600 is a steal for a software of this complexity / feature set, regardless of a few strangely missing features.

As a multi-decade Cubase Pro user (and Nuendo), I find it funny they always offer these essentially hobbyist products for free, when they have an enormous catalog of professional instruments made by themselves that would be appealing to high end users. Especially incentivizing other professionals that are coming from Logic or DP, etc. So here we have a mixed bag of mostly crap products, or lite versions (i.e. useless) of decent products, or products that routinely go on sale for dirt cheap. And I don't know any pro Cubase users who don't already have Melodyne, Guitar Rig (or a better / full guitar ecosystem), or better synths / effects already. Is it really that much of a revenue / profit loss to offer something of real value - from their own catalog - to incentivize higher end users? Say, something that will get people into the Halion ecosystem. It seems all these companies cater to one crowd with these bloated freebie packages of mostly useless crap, with nonsensical combinations of "whatever we could get for pennies on the dollar from our partners", instead of trying to build their higher end userbase. That "Pop Guitar 2" sample pack and 1-Month Splice coupon must have taken weeks of executive level negotiations to secure, I'm sure. /rant

After getting heavily into the Orchestral Tools ecosystem I rarely even touch my Spitfire stuff anymore. The quality difference - and more importantly, the usability difference - is absolutely enormous. Then again, the prices are quite a bit steeper.

Just checked for fun - but the $19.99 plugins do not qualify. (Has worked before with the $0.01 difference, but not this time!) Luckily my Mix & Master subscription renews this month (grandfathered in) and they sent me a voucher to get the XXL sub for the same price. Niiiiiiiiice.

Hoping they do the same for Absynth - or perhaps hand the source code over to Rhizomatic / Brian Clevinger if he's interested in evolving it. Although Plasmonic seems to be the focus now.

Ya- $200 for a plugin. Lol. I just spent $200 for Salu, which is close to 100 GB of some of the most beautiful instrument recordings I've ever heard in a virtual instrument. And it required a couple hours of walkthrough videos to convince me it was worth it. The price vs. value in this market is totally out of whack. And people advocating $200 for a plugin that just hit the market.......I have words for these people. 😡

Promised not to buy anything new till the summer. Promised. Myself. This has been on my list forever. Can't reneg on promise, especially to self. Will not buy. No buying anything till summ--- Bought it.