pseudopop

I appreciate the sentiment, but does anyone else want me to actually continue? Because all the cans I have are labeled "99% pure worms".

Direct links: Hurdy Gurdy Largo

This actually makes the most sense to me. When you use an emulation plugin you know what you will get and you will likely get it consistently. I could still continue about this topic but I feel I've been too confrontational lately, questioning everyone and everything, so I think I'll simmer down now. Thank you, @antler and @Tommy Byrnes, for indulging me. The deal is over and the price is now back to $119.

Which is basically what any saturation plugin does, right? I understand and agree that if you're trying to get that LA2A sound then getting the hardware or emulation plugin is the fastest way to get there. That is the smart thing to do. What I don't understand is that why are you trying to get that sound in the first place? Why is that the most desirable sound? Why do you find that sound more pleasing than anything that modern plugins can provide? Are non-saturating plugins simply too clean for people who prefer "vintage" emulations? I don't know, I haven't used one in years.

Oh yeah. Get on my list, big guy. Sale ends Dec 28th at Midnight PST. https://soundiron.com/products/hyperion-strings-oktobass

Considering that DMG Tracklimit costs (over) twice as much, would you say it's twice as good? Edit: Interesting that they say that you specifically don't need to tweak a lot and your impression is the opposite. I need to watch some demos.

I'm not usually into instruments of this type, but I remember being slightly intrigued by these at some point. I guess I need to watch the walkthroughs again.

I tried true:balance real quick. I have Tonal Balance Control 2 (I think) and true:balance is basically doing the same thing but gives more detailed information, though it has only three frequency ranges compared to the four in TBC. Also the sweet spot for the frequencies seemd to be smaller, which I thought was interesting. I liked true:balance better because of the additional information and suggestions. I'm not sure if the information is actually useful because you're probably just shooting for the ballpark (meaning: it doesn't matter if you're 1 db too loud or quiet) and can do the same with TBC, but it somehow made me feel more confident about the adjustments. But if you have something similar and are an experienced mixer than true:balance probably doesn't add much value to your workflow. I don't have iZotope Insight so I can't say how that compares. I also didn't try using any reference tracks of my own. The offer expired a few hours too early and Sonible promised me a voucher code to get the bundle for the intro price, and I'm leaning towards getting it. I'm still learning the ropes and this seems like a good pair of training wheels.

Demos are for people who lack the confidence to make decisions on a whim. 😉 Here's a quote from Sonible's FAQ: I hate to admit it but this might be a plugin for me. 😅

Just got an email from them, and the books are now available here: https://www.routledge.com/go/access-your-audio-engineering-free-books-bundle-2022 They are not downloadable, unfortunately.

Regular price €49. Prices may be lower if you don't need to pay VAT. https://www.sonible.com/purelimit/ From Sonible's FAQ: Now the question is: if I plan to get smart:limit, do I still need this?

I was procrastinating so I compiled a list of all the Luminar addons (or whatever these are) that are included in the bundle: https://skylum.com/marketplace/signature-presets/neon-portraits https://skylum.com/marketplace/signature-presets/analog-film https://skylum.com/marketplace/signature-presets/movie-color-grading https://skylum.com/marketplace/signature-presets/urban-jungle https://skylum.com/marketplace/signature-presets/van-gogh-artistic-collection https://skylum.com/marketplace/textures/film-grain https://skylum.com/marketplace/textures/motion-blur https://skylum.com/marketplace/textures/light-reflections https://skylum.com/marketplace/textures/film-burn https://skylum.com/marketplace/skies/freedom-skies https://skylum.com/marketplace/skies/soulful-panoramas https://skylum.com/marketplace/skies/anime-clouds (Anime Skies) https://skylum.com/marketplace/luts/street-vibe-luts-Сollection I couldn't find the page for Cinematic Color texture. Hopefully looking at the product pages will give you and others a better understanding if the addons are worth the price or not.

Isn't the full version Luminar Neo?

No, I don't have it. I was just googling to find out what I can actually do with Luminar AI when I stumbled upon it.

I too had forgotten who these guys are, but then I remembered that they actually have a pretty famous product line:

I am so glad to hear this. Please keep us posted how her recovery goes.

Related: https://www.humblebundle.com/software/photo-editing-cyber-bundle-with-luminar-ai-software

I checked out the demo for Affinity Photo 2. There are still the same small annoyances that are in v1: No way to close all open files without a) closing the app and b) getting a confirmation dialog for each modified file. I often have more than a dozen files open at the same time. Cropping an image when zoomed in really close is annoying, because you can resize the area only from certain points and if they are out of view you need to do a lot of panning. I often need to crop transparent PNG images where the widest or tallest part of the image is not conveniently either in the middle or in the top or bottom. (And no, I can't automatically trim off the transparency in this case.) In Gimp each side has big grabbable areas (see image below), which is so incredibly nice that I don't understand why that feature hasn't been copied to every other image editing program. There is no way to resize a rectangular selection without drawing new rectangulars. I never get my selection right the first time and either end up doing it multiple times or getting weirdly shaped selections. Gimp's selection tool works like the crop tool. I struggle with these three so often that if they had fixed them I would have coughed up the money right away. One annoyance that they seem to have fixed is crop tool aspect ratio amnesia. In v1 if I want to to crop multiple images using the same aspect ratio, I need to set it again for each image when I select the crop tool. In v2 it remembers the previous setting. Below: When you use the crop or selection tool in Gimp and move the pointer (not shown) close to the edge of your selection, an area is highlighted that you can click and drag to resize the selection. It's worth noting that this area is pretty big (the image is actual size), so you can easily hit it even if you have poor motor control.

I suppose enrolling on a Udemy course is not enough to qualify?

Now that's a novel idea. Anyhow, there are two things I don't understand about vintage hardware emulation plugins: I can rarely hear that "buttery warm smoothness" or whatever it is that vintage gear supposedly adds to the sound. I'm not saying it's not there, just that my ears are either too far gone or not there yet. I can usually hear that it sounds different than other plugins doing the same thing, but I wouldn't say it actually sounds better. Sometimes I hear this additional noise that I'm not sure I want. I find it very hard to believe that half a century (or more) of progress in software and hardware has not been able to improve the sound quality and other features, and that these are somehow better than current plugins that are not trying to emulate hardware. I mean, if you're trying to go for the specific sound that these plugins provide then sure. But if you're trying to get the best possible sound, then are units from the 60s really the best there is? That said, most people here have more experience with mixing than me and I get empathetically excited whenever you guys do, so I'm demoing it. So far I'm not convinced but I might just buy it because FOMO.

Ah, sorry. I forgot it was you. Still, my suspicion is that the sales are not what they were expecting and that's why they're extending it. There were lots of annoyed posts about the pricing on Affinity forums back then.

Yup, but that was for new users. Now they're selling the upgrade for the same price as new licenses.

I don't know what an LA2A is or if if I already have one, so I think I'll better pass buy this just in case.

Are there other good synthetic (string) orchestras besides Solid State Symphony and AAS Analog Orchestra? I'm looking for something with a little bit of oomph and rumbling low end in it. I'm not sure if it's just the demos, but Analog Orchestra especially sounds almost delicate.

My thoughts exactly. I for one am still waiting for a better price.