Zolton

Looks like the original Reaktor ensemble is still available, for five bucks: https://www.adsrsounds.com/product/software/hexcel/ Interesting that the URL in Brian's post above specifies just "hexcel", but the equivalent URL for the VST/AU version under software/ is hexcel-2: https://www.adsrsounds.com/product/software/hexcel-2/ The new one's definitely prettier, though they don't otherwise seem to be calling it "version 2", so I wonder if there are any functional differences.

For anyone considering, several (though not all) of the 4-5 plugin bundles are also $29 during the sale - including the Percussion Bundle, which includes Skaka. EDIT: Apologies -- see below, as this may not be the case. Notes on some of the bundle pages suggest that the bundles are also $29, but that's not showing up in cart. Sorry for the false alarm. EDIT to the EDIT: Not sure whether the text on the site was clarified or if I originally misinterpreted, but it seems the bundle prices have been adjusted during the sale so that each individual plugin "counts" as $29. Makes sense now. Ah well.

Yeah, absolutely. I'd just prefer that the roadmap was a little clearer by now.

That would be fantastic, if it's now the case. I bought Gypsy last October after cancelling a CC subscription and lost access to Opus in the process; the lib only runs in Play for me. (As a refresher for me on what the behavior here is, I just found that I could download and install the latest Opus version from the EW Installation Center, where I see my Gypsy license. Trying to open Opus got me a message to update my iLok Manager and after doing that, trying to open/activate Opus led to an iLok message that "You don't have any licenses in your account, or none of the licenses there have activations available." ) At least for me, and for a purchase nearly a year ago, the lib license doesn't also appear to come with an Opus license or confer Opus access. I'm not sure whether the verbiage is in the product docs because they work with Opus in the context of Composer Cloud (which they do) or if something's changed more recently and Opus access now comes along for the ride. I'm pretty sure I saw that EW planned to charge for Opus access for "legacy" lib purchases someday, though, so I suspect my situation is still the status quo.

Out of curiosity, am I correct that this is the only EW product outside of the full orchestra (and Composer Cloud) that qualifies a user for the Opus engine? I have one older library and am considering a couple of others, but I'm stuck on Play and (from previous CC experience) prefer Opus and got better performance with it on my machine. EastWest mentioned a while back that there would eventually be a (paid) option to upgrade to Opus with "legacy" products, but if they've peeped further about it since, I've missed it. I'm not really in the market for the full-blown HOOPUS, so this could be a cheaper way to get Opus access and presumably open up access for other libs of interest. Not a "cheap" way -- or probably "cheap enough" way at this point -- but I'm trying to keep the viable options in mind, if EW's non-CC Opus availability is further years in the offing.

If you're in Europe (at least), the deal could be potentially quite a bit sweeter. With the "E-paper" annual subscription at 72 euro, there's a choice of reward including: UVI PX V8 (as above) Kilohearts Phase Plant Heavyocity Novo Essentials Acoustic Samples AS Piano Collection Ample Sound Ample Guitar Vintage Cherry Rob Papen SubBoomBass 2 Impact Soundworks Shreddage 3 Hydra MusicLab RealEight 5 There's a thread over at VI-Control discussing whether it's possible to purchase the virtual subscription in the US (the country doesn't show up in the available list when entering billing info, but at least one intrepid explorer in the thread has given it a go, nevertheless). So far, it's unclear and fairly dubious. But in the supported countries, this would be the lowest effective price for Phase Plant I've seen (plus access to a year's worth of Beat, which is awfully handy), and perhaps true for some of the other options.

Ah, that makes sense. Unless PB was the middle man on the previous sale, they don't acknowledge ownership for crossgrades and such. I think I ran into that during a Glitchmachines upgrade promo.

Nice. Can you see the specific PB deal on Novum for Abyss owners? I'm curious how much more than the 30% they're prepared to lop off.

From what I understand, Abyss is a favorite of quite a few folks around the usual circles, with a unique approach to synthyness. Plugin Boutique has it for $49 until October 2: https://www.pluginboutique.com/deals/show?sale_id=11379 So far as I (and also the wayback pricing history gnomes at Music Software Deals) can remember, that's the best price to date. Edited to add: There's also a 30% deal on Novum, plus some sort of crossgrade deal to Novum if you have Abyss, but I don't (yet?) have Abyss, so I can't see the latter.

Ooh, thanks - I was mistaken and not sure why I had the idea Engine was involved. That changes the calculus (for me, at least).

I'm sorely tempted, as I love using traditional instruments of various kinds in all sorts of ways, but I'm not sure either World Suite 2 (with a fair bit of older data) or Ethno World 6 (which I hear the BS Engine does no favors) will nudge me away from hoarding instruments I can use all in Kontakt. If the difference in sale price Reid mentioned is a factor for anyone, though, there's a $20 off code active at UVI until the 30th: ANANAS. I checked, against my wallet's better judgement, and it indeed lowers the WS2 sale price in cart to $159. Hrmmmmmm.

I think the concurrent 70% off everything (or most everything) sale must have ended last night or this morning, based on various posts I've seen. So the code reduces the prices of the two listed VSTs by 70%, but there's no glitchy discount goodness on top of that. Evidently, we have to be quicker!

It's a worthy repost -- especially if it wasn't free for a while, and because it's been 2 1/2 months anyway -- but man, Minimal isn't bothering to change up their ad copy at *all*:

Based on the image for the instrument, the sound, the possible options (and the helpful and descriptive preset names!), my first guess would be Cinematic Percussion: Compared to the video, the routing under the hood looks fairly different, though, so I'm not sure. Either some of the modules have been swapped out, maybe to make it more flexible, or maybe it's a different beast entirely.

Huge second to that. Anything I've learned about MSF tinkering (limited by my free time and functional brain cells) is thanks to the Chandler video library.

Yeah, each one has a custom GUI and -- based on a quick scroll through the browser -- between 4 and 129 instrument presets each, for a total (at least in my instance, with the factory instruments, freebies and MDrummer content installed) of 3690 presets. The interface for each instrument is customized and generally nicer than the stereotypical "Melda look" bemoaned by many -- though you still get a heavy dose of those knobs and sliders in the FX sections (and the editor, if you have the full MSF). The presets do a pretty good job of exploring each instrument's capabilities, with their own Melda-ish quirks -- some are quite usefully named ("Trombone" and "Growler" in Bones, e.g.), while the character and utility of others is... less clear. (If you grok at a glance the distinction between Hotel 536's "Fortunate clocks" and "Rewarding mist", you're better off than I.) You mentioned elsewhere that "full" MSF allows for new instrument creation. It also opens access to the editor, so any of the factory instruments can be thoroughly mangled and tweaked in pretty much infinite ways. Without the editor, you still get access to the usual parameters you'd expect -- filters and formants and oscs, oh my. With the editor... sheesh, I dunno. You can probably build Skynet. I've only dipped a toe into that level of customization, but it's ludicrous. Just wig-out bonkers.

The info on the Melda site isn't great in this regard -- most of the packages listed are MDrummer content, and I've never found an official list of the pre-made instruments that ship with MSoundFactory. But I'm a stubborn cuss with mild OCD, so I made one myself -- in case it helps, see the attached snippet of spreadsheet. The last column is my own way of cataloging plugins / components / patch sets, and I won't swear it's entirely accurate, but that should give a fair idea of the scope and content of the included instruments.

It looks like Melda Production has gotten the ball rolling with their plan for "premium instruments" to be run in MSoundFactory -- the first is called: DreamMachines From the site: If you own MSoundFactory or MSoundFactoryLE, you can download DreamMachines (and any future Melda premium instruments) for free. Otherwise, it costs €69 to buy and run in the free MSoundFactory Player, but is on sale for €19 until October 15th. There's also a 15-day free trial. Not mentioned there, but in MSoundFactory, there's also a Meldway Grand piano that (a) also appears to be free to install, (2) is still in beta, (C) is a 40GB(!) download and (iv) is separate from the free-to-all Monastery Grand piano released a while back.

ZAK Sound has a new free VST on their product page today (plus four others for free, if you haven't seen them previously): In addition, the deals page on the site lists a code for $10 of any product -- it's single-use, but looks like it applies to already-discounted items on the deals page as well as the $9 "Lofi Stack" drum loops product (i.e., with $10 off, also free).

I'm just some guy trying to learn and produce awkward tunes while dealing with a crippling case of collect-em-all-itis, but a few small devs whose stuff I've found interesting, impressive or at least intriguing for reasonable scratch (or free) include (in addition to the above): Fanan Team (some gems in the odder efforts, IMO) Folklorica (Lucie Treacher whimsy) Frozen Plain (moving from Kontakt to own sampler of late) Homegrown Sounds (mostly Kontakt, often wild) Klang (maybe not "small" [with CI roots], but unique & cheap) MNTRA (currently in a bit of flux, but fascinating sounds) Pettinhouse (guitars) Polkasound Productions (accordions 'n' more) Puremagnetik (padmaking / FSU gizmos) Quiet Music (ambient 'n' chill tools) Sampletekk (keyboard/piano faves) Wrongtools (instruments with a spin) Apologies if any of these are repeats, defunct, obvious, fronts for megacorps, known scoundrels or otherwise irrelevant.

Yeah, as far as I know, when they hit Drop 26 in April, they stopped the series. (Or at least stopped dropping drops to me, anyway.) It's a pretty neat and varied set of samples in total. Here's the full rundown, so far as I'm aware: MinimalAudio Drop 1 - Dark Metal Atmospheres MinimalAudio Drop 2 - Drum Elements MInimalAudio Drop 3 - Futuristic SFX MinimalAudio Drop 4 - Hybrid Cinematics MinimalAudio Drop 5 - Mutated Organic SFX MinimalAudio Drop 6 - Future Atmospheres MinimalAudio Drop 7 - Drum Elements MInimalAudio Drop 8 - Futuristic SFX MinimalAudio Drop 9 - Hybrid Cinematics MinimalAudio Drop 10 - Mutated Organic SFX MinimalAudio Drop 11 - Organic Atmospheres MinimalAudio Drop 12 - Drum Elements MinimalAudio Drop 13 - Futuristic FX MinimalAudio Drop 14 - Hybrid Cinematics MinimalAudio Drop 15 - Mutated Organic SFX MinimalAudio Drop 16 - Tonal Atmospheres MinimalAudio Drop 17 - Drum Elements MinimalAudio Drop 18 - Futuristic SFX MinimalAudio Drop 19 - Hybrid Cinematics MinimalAudio Drop 20 - Mutated Organic SFX MinimalAudio Drop 21 - Tonal Atmospheres MinimalAudio Drop 22 - Drum Elements MinimalAudio Drop 23 - Futuristic SFX MinimalAudio Drop 24 - Hybrid Cinematics MinimalAudio Drop 25 - Mutated Organic SFX MinimalAudio Drop 26 - Drum Elements

For fans of morphing modulators and granulating gizmos: https://puremagnetik.com/products/granular-suite-sound-experimentation-toolbox Currently on offer for $15 (80+% off the usual $80), through Sunday 8/7. From the site: I've found the Puremag stuff I have (which includes Vanisher from this set) a lot of fun to play with, if a little niche to employ (though the latter I chalk mainly up to my position low on the learning curve of most everything musical). They seem great to liven up pads, generate ambiences and the like, if that's your game.

Also, if you're specifically interested in the TDR Kotelnikov GE -- and your interest reaches up and grabs you by August 7th, as mine is threatening to do -- that's on double-sale (80% off) at Plugin Boutique for ten bucks: https://www.pluginboutique.com/product/3-Studio-Tools/71-Dynamic-Processor/4657-TDR-Kotelnikov-GE

For any lovers of independent developer free synths (and drum machines and SF players), there's a whole set of them developed by Ronan Fed available here: https://ronanfed.rf.gd/plugins.html I get the impression (from the developer's/artist's YT channel) that at least some of the synths have been out for a while, but only recently advertised more widely (e.g., a recent addition to the KVR plugin list). They're not the poofiest poodles at the dog show, but the price is right and they could be worth a look. I noodled around with the Pneuma sub synth for a bit, and it's fairly nifty, with nice options and on-board effects, etc. Looks like VST3 and Windows-only, though.

Fluffy Audio has dropped the latest in their "Rarities" series -- free forever, so far as I know: https://www.fluffyaudio.com/shop/khim/ From the description: Full Kontakt only, I'm afraid.