Zolton

It depends. 

The cheapest expansions I saw on Audiomodern's site were 5 Euro, and for Playbeat. In the cart with coupon, that's 3 Euro to get Freezr, and if you have Playbeat, a new expansion. If you don't, just Freezr.

On Loot Audio, I see Playbeat expansions as low as $2.86 US. A note there says they're eligible to also get Freezr, and Loot is currently giving away Mntra UDW LE, Waveshaper KR-55 and a Xenos Soundworks Serum pack with any purchase. You may also have credits accumulated there to make it cheaper.

On JRR Shop, the Playbeat expansions are $6.99, the FORUM/GROUP codes don't apply and there's no verbiage about free Freezr, though the answer above suggests anything registered with Audiomodern will qualify. Clearly not the best option for the low-low-lowest option, however -- for actual Audiomodern apps, JRR Shop has the cheapest prices I see. For Riffer, for example, it's $26..99 US (JRR blowout, no additional codes work) vs. $28.05 US (Loot) vs. $32 US (PB) vs. 32 Euro (Audiomodern, after discount).

Plugin Boutique says, as above, only apps qualify for Freezr, which may or may not be the case. Their Playbeat expansions start at $5 US, but you can choose one of three freebies and may have credits accumulated there to make it cheaper.

For dead-lowest penny pinching, Loot Audio could be the way to go. If you're interested in an app, JRR Shop may be better. If you have PB cash and/or value their freebies more, that's another option. If you're dealing natively in Euros, Audiomodern might wind up cheaper than anywhere else; I can only see the currency I'm working with here.

Also, if you are buying one of their apps, the price may be cheaper (depending on currency and accumulated reward points) on Loot Audio or Plugin Boutique, both of which also offer Freezr free with purchase of selected Audiomodern plugins. (Which is to say, not expansions, so far as I can tell.)

The JRR Shop blowout section has the best prices I can find for the apps, but it's unclear whether Freezr is included. I left a question about that for Uncle E, but haven't seen a response yet.

Edited to add: Evidently, Freezr is provided by Audiomodern when you register a serial. So apps bought from any third party (including JRR Shop) should qualify for the freebie, per Uncle E's response:

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Uncle E, in the Audiomodern sale, is Freezr included with purchase of one of their other plugins?

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Yes, that's on their site. Buy a plugin and you'll get Freezr for free.

 

Edited again to add: Only Plugin Boutique seems to specifically exclude expansions from Freezr freebie qualification, with this text:

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Also, for a very limited time only grab Chordjam, Loopmix, Riffer, Playbeat, or the Random Generators pack and receive the brand new Freezr plugin FREE with your purchase - don't miss out!

So maybe everywhere else, an expansion would also get you Freezr? And maybe a little cheaper -- and/or with an extra with-any-purchase freebie -- than from Audiomodern directly, in some cases?

Nah. I'd tried that. For the products that require the code "BLACK" or "BLACK2" to get the discount, the extra 10% code doesn't appear to work.

It's possible it works on the select few items labeled as "NO CODE NEEDED", though. Those appear to be mostly bundles or recent releases marked back to their intro prices.

Edited to add: If you're interested in a lib that doesn't offer the additional discount, Plugin Boutique appears to be matching the sale for most or all items (and will have new freebies-with-purchase to mull over tomorrow):

https://www.pluginboutique.com/manufacturers/280-Have-Audio

Intriguing -- though like you, I hope the video is a little tongue in cheek. Might be worth a look for under a tenner.

It's a similar price ($8.47 at the moment) over at Loot Audio, where it comes with freebies.

Currently Mntra UDW LE and a Xenos Serum soundset -- but I don't think they've geared up their Black Friday engines yet, so those may change/expand/mutate in the next few days.

16 minutes ago, Kirean said:

Diamond was around 250 USD a year ago at JRR with a code, if I remember correctly.

Yeah, that's what I'm hoping for again. It's somewhat lower than their usual 50-60% off everything, and I think it was only for a few days at the end of last year.

The biggest problem with a late-December sale is keeping the powder dry until then to take the shot.

I'm personally hoping for an historical low (or a leeeetle better) price for either EW Hollywood Opus or Strezov BEO (and then a similar deal on the other next year, ideally). 

I've yet to pull the trigger on a full-blown all-in-one package, and for what I like to (try to) do, I think these two would collectively cover all the bases I'd need in that area.

Brother, we've got a nice little thread going here. Please don't get this one moved elsewhere, too.

Best of luck on your search for a cello.

I've just seen my first "straight-face" Black Friday deal of 2023 (i.e., one that doesn't hedge with "early" or "sneak peek" or "insansely premature"):

https://www.pluginboutique.com/product/1-Instruments/58-Instrument-Bundles/11485-Sampleson-Black-Friday-Bundle-Exclusive-

I guess that's it, then. Plugin Black Friday season started this year around 9pm local time on October 29th. (If not before.)

Strap in until early January. The tsunami approaches.

If you go a similar route (as I've done; I only used Cakewalk since 2020, but have been testing out Reaper for a few months), the Echolot_FTC mod is even a little slicker, I think:

https://forums.cockos.com/showthread.php?p=2546076

33 minutes ago, MrFigg said:

Just wondered...are you basing that on the theoretical conversation Audioschmaudio posted earlier in this thread? Directly after you posted something about people eventually getting their codes.

Not sure whether MusicMan saw the below (on Reddit, originally from a user on KVR sharing an email from Patrick at TAL), but it corresponds with what he suggested (see "Edit 2" in the first post):

It seems to be a bit of a mess. This KVR thread from early 2020 picked up more info as Composer was removed (and returned, without the ability to buy?) from the company's website:

https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=540874

From around the same time, a post by a user with experience with both says a few posts into a thread here that "(Orb Producer is) not really like Orb Composer at all except in the MIDI generation nature":

And another extended discussion on the topic on VI-Control, I think from the same person who reviewed Composer Pro S 1.5 to start the KVR thread above:

https://vi-control.net/community/threads/orb-composer-pro-s-1-5-a-i-composing-software-review.86092/

In summary (of my impression from what I've read): the reviews by users don't seem great, Composer and Producer seem to definitely be different and at least some of the threads wind up with people suggesting other tools for similar jobs. YMMV.

As someone who really hasn't taken advantage of Mixbox SE since... whenever it was that we all got that, I'm convincing myself this is a "gonna be this low again" sale and slowly venting my GAS.

Also, it feels a bit wrong to pick up a new FX suite when I've barely started exploring the new Guitar Rig that came with the recent MPS update (and also trying to sell NI/bx suites from the same, along with 831 other people, apparently).

Looks like this is actually two libraries (both available on Larry's linked page):

There's this:

EASY THEREMIN 

Super easy to play, highly realistic, and wonderfully expressive!
Voice menu with 22 Theremin voices
3 main patches and 18 sound presets
240 samples (mono and stereo WAV, 24bit, 48kHz)
13 custom IRs (spring reverbs, concert hall IRs, real room IRs…)
Total size uncompressed: 122MB
full Kontakt 5.8+ required!!!
list price: €32,- (+VAT for EU customers)

But also this:

Based on the same audio engine and programming as Easy Theremin, PETITE SOPRAN is an intuitive and straightforward instrument that replicates the lyrical singing of an opera diva. The instrument can be added to EASY THEREMIN or purchased and used on its own.

PETITE SOPRAN

One single ‘opera diva’ voice
One custom IR reverb
The mod wheel controls volume swells
Aftertouch controls the vibrato intensity
One ‘monolith’ Kontakt instrument (full Kontakt 5.8+ required)
list price: €8,- (+VAT for EU customers)
'no-brainer' intro offer: €2 or more (ends Sept 30th

For anyone interested in Artefact or Sonorous (the two Dark Intervals libs on sale at Best Service):

Both are also on sale at Loot Audio until the 15th at the same prices, and Loot's offering the DI Udu free with either, plus assorted other freebie goodies as part of their 3rd birthday sale.

+2 for Sononym. 

For the past 3-4 years, they've had a 50% off sale for Black Friday, and also tend to release updates (free for existing users) just before.

If you feel like a double-up on the Audiomodern vibe -- and assuming PB stocks Beat #213 soon, which just came out -- that issue gets you Chordjam Lite, plus the usual Beat samples and freebies and doodads.

It looks like what happened to me was initially the same as others -- NI login info auto-filling into the iZotope/NI login page. Apparently, I was stubborn enough to trigger a "too many failed login attempts" before trying my iZotope password -- a status the website didn't share, but which I saw when I (bravely) logged out of iZotope Product Portal and tried to log back in.

The only recourse was to reset my iZotope password, which I did -- so, fine.

Now, of course, autofill prevents me from logging into the NI site, because despite both companies using the same auth code/page, the passwords are different. I don't especially mind choosing between two passwords, but I'm not sure my browser (Chrome) will automatically store multiple passwords for the same username and site, now that all the login auth is under the NI umbrella.

Not the end of the world. But fairly annoying, for those of us who lean on saved passwords and autocomplete for convenience. If the companies are all going to Frankenstein together under one skin, it'd be nice if they supported a single sign-on as well.

(slightly edited for clarity)

2 minutes ago, kitekrazy said:

Not gonna happen.  I'd expect NI to do the same but it aint happening.  I've decided to blow off any Izotope sales.   I give Hornet, Waves, and PA sales far more attention.

Yeah, I'd normally agree that companies like iZotope (or NI) are going to be really slow with fixing things affecting users. And the bigger they get, the slower they move.

But in this particular case, (some) users can't log into their website. Which means they can't buy anything new, but can still happily use their old plugins in the meantime. So it costs the company potential cash, and doesn't really put the users out much at all.

So I expect this one will be looked into post-haste. If it's enough users to affect the bottom line, they'll probably form a committee to investigate.

Thanks for the info, guys. If I'm not the only one, I'll wait it out and see if they de-FUBAR things for others all at once.

Even if not everyone is affected -- pwalpwal, did you get everybody's loyalty offers at once, because you're the only iZotope user allowed to log in now?

3 hours ago, antler said:

I just accept it as you win some; you lose some...

Yeah, that's definitely my attitude, too. It's a hobby for me (where "it" means "making music" some days, and "collecting shiny plugins" on others), and I set and keep a strict budget on the madness each month. So if I pay a little more than the absolute basement floor for something interesting, it just means sitting out an impulse buy or two later. Or at least until the next sale.

Back to the iZotope topic, maybe it's just me, but I can't log into the iZotope website today. When I try, the auth page forwards to an iZotope-branded login page on the Native Instruments site -- I know they're joined at the subwoofers now, but I think that's the first time I've seen the logins connected.

But neither my (old, now, I guess) iZotope account password nor my NI password work. If I say on that page I forgot my password, I get a link to reset my NI password, which I don't really need, since my NI password works when I go directly to the NI site.

Meanwhile, the iZotope Product Portal works on my computer (though I haven't tried re-logging in fresh), and all the plugins work, including the ones I just installed this week. Anybody else having a similar issue with their account on the website?

8 minutes ago, TheSteven said:

That code isn't working for me but ETHERALOYALTY is...
"If you have purchased an Ethera product from Zero-G, use discount code ETHERALOYALTY in the checkout and a 20% discount will automatically be applied."

For the moment -- which in this case means "through Monday" -- the ETHERALOYALTY code actually should knock off 30% rather than 20%, according to Zero-G (via VIC):

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Our Summer Sale is coming to an end on Monday 4th September, so for the final weekend we are launching some boost codes! Use the code SUMMERBOOST20 for an extra 20% off sale prices (excluding Ethera & Elements titles, Vocaloids and titles released this year). We have also increased the ETHERALOYALTY and ELEMENTS-LOYALTY codes to 30% until Monday for all of our Ethera and Elements loyalty customers!

Well, poo. I jumped on a (pretty nice, admittedly) upgrade deal earlier this week direct from iZotope, because I didn't remember the vendor prices matching the best "loyalty" offers.

But Uncle E's price is exactly the same, pre-cart, so I would've saved a few bucks. 

Seems like every time a tempting deal comes up, I get stuck between "click it before it goes away!" and "be patient and some store will have it for less!", and wind up choosing unwisely.

Also among the Rigid horde available for five bucks each at Plugin Boutique until the end of the month:

https://www.pluginboutique.com/manufacturers/258-Rigid-Audio

10 minutes ago, fret_man said:

Looks like they've only developed Android and iOS apps so far. No vsti.

Try the "VSTI Shortcut" link at top right. They have a single VSTi, but I'm not sure whether it includes all instruments.

I opted for the 23(!) Kontakt 5 instruments, also on the VSTi page. Pretty nice. 

Edited to add: The plugin is VST3 only, I think, and includes samples in WAV format. The Kontakt libs have no separate samples, but links for EXS24 and Live Sampler are included next to the Kontakt links.