What's on your BLACK FRIDAY Wish List? (Not a Deal)

[PavlovsCat]

MY BLACK FRIDAY WISH LIST: A GREAT SCRIPTED KONTAKT SOLO CELLO LIBRARY

I've been picking up some of the pre-Black Friday deep discounted deals that have been going on, like 8Dio's drum libraries (I bought all three of them, even though I literally need to buy a new hard drive to install them) and I'm a sucker for beautiful or quirky/character piano libraries. I jumped on the rarely discounted deal on Spitfire's $49 USD and under deal to get $10 back -- and someone posted an additional discount code here that I also used (thanks). But  what I really want for BLACK FRIDAY is a well scripted solo cello library. How badly do I want it? Well, enough that I PMed the developer of NORDIC Cello to ask if he would be doing a Black Friday sale on his cello, and breaking news, he will be and he told me the amount, and it's significant. I don't know that developer, I just bought one of his other libraries and thought the NORDIC Cello demos sounded really good. I also think Sonixenima's Solo Cello sounds really good. I own Fluffy Audio's Trio Broz Viola and it's a super well scripted library and I would buy their cello in the series, but I don't think that the libraries in the series can be played with polyphony. At least, I can't figure out a way (I contacted the developer, but he never responded; from watching videos, it seems that polyphony -- not legato polyphony, but non-legato polyphony -- isn't an option). 

So, I'm interested in what my fellow forum members are looking for? I think it would be kind of cool if maybe we could list what we're looking for in this thread and, perhaps, other forum members, might be able to chime in with advice and maybe even make us aware of deals we were previously unaware of. 

[simon]

NI komplete upgrade at half price 

I'm a sucker for cellos (and drum libraries)

The Cremona/Strad one from NI is good. Other recommended ones are BS Emotional Cello - and the Embertone Blakus

Also try the FREE blakus cello (pocketblakus) - it's surprisingly good and great value for money

[PavlovsCat]

2 minutes ago, simon said:

NI komplete upgrade at half price 

I'm a sucker for cellos (and drum libraries)

The Cremona/Strad one from NI is good. Other recommended ones are BS Emotional Cello - and the Embertone Blakus

Also try the FREE blakus cello (pocketblakus) - it's surprisingly good and great value for money

I agree on everything you wrote @simon.

I do use PocketBlakus all the time and I own two 8Dio solo libraries (I find the 8dio's Deep Solo Cello and Intimate Strings solo cello disappointing from a scripting standpoint and even the character of the samples; they're not intuitively scripted; they're huge dumps of articulations like the early days of sampling). If NI KOMPLETE upgrade has a half price deal, I'm definitely going to bite on that.  I thought the NI Strad demos and Emotional Cello demos sound really good -- and I've seen a lot of musicians who really know their stuff recommending Emotional Cello over at VI Control. But those libraries both regularly sell for a lot more than the ones I'm considering, so that's the only reason I've counted them out. I'll share that the developer of Nordic Cello PMed me back at VI Control what he's going to be selling his cello for over Black Friday and it's a killer deal. That said, I haven't heard from anyone who has that and would love to hear some user feedback. I only know the demos. 

[jeffdrawscomics]

I just bought Sunset Studios Reverb.  Over Black Friday, looking to upgrade to Kontakt 7 and looking to see if Insanity Samples’ New Orleans Brass will be on sale.  I’m sure there will be several other shiny things that I’ll grab along the way. 

[TheSteven]

NI Ultimate if price is reasonable enough, otherwise possibly Komplete
Heavocity Fury if price hits 50% or cheaper
Novum by Tracktion if price is right

[Jeremy Oakes]

A decent Izotope Music Suite 5 loyalty upgrade price for once.

299$ forget it.

J

[cclarry]

4 minutes ago, Jeremy Oakes said:

A decent Izotope Music Suite 5 loyalty upgrade price for once.

299$ forget it.

J

$209.16 with code GROUP at JRR
https://www.jrrshop.com/izotope-music-production-suite-upgrade-ozone-neutron-advanced

Edited November 6, 2022 by cclarry

[topaz]

EZDrummer 3 upgrade form 2.

[simon]

6 minutes ago, cclarry said:

$209.16 with code GROUP at JRR
https://www.jrrshop.com/izotope-music-production-suite-upgrade-ozone-neutron-advanced

weren't they doing the everything bundle at $199 the other day (I only skimmed that thread  )

[chris.r]

When it's best time to look for best prices on Toontrack's EZ Drums and EZ Basses in the year, Black Friday, Christmas or yet another time, like summer sale etc?

Edited November 6, 2022 by chris.r

[PavlovsCat]

Man, what's scary is that everyone posted stuff that I would also end up grabbing if there were a killer Black Friday deal, Every single post above this one with the minor note that I own SD2 and ezDrummer and have been uncertain about pulling the trigger on an upgrade to ezDrummer3  or just wait until SD4 comes out (SD2 runs great on my PC and they pulled their upgrade deal for SD2 owners long ago -- really terrible customer loyalty, IMO, but nonetheless, I find Toontrack makes the best acoustic drum sample player plugin there is). 

Edited November 6, 2022 by PavlovsCat

[simon]

1 minute ago, chris.r said:

When it's best time to look the best prices on Toontrack's EZ Drums and EZ Basses in the year, Black Friday, Christmas or yet another time, like summer sale etc?

all of the above and there is a sale at the moment.

Generally the cheapest way is to get their bundle packs - available for EZX and EZB

Most of the resellers seem to have dropped, or had removed, Toontrack stuff  but Best Service, Thomann and  Inta-audio still are usually cheaper than TT direct.

[simon]

2 minutes ago, PavlovsCat said:

Man, what's scary is that everyone posted stuff that I would also end up grabbing if there were a killer Black Friday deal, Every single post above this one with the minor note that I own SD2 and ezDrummer and have been uncertain about pulling the trigger on an upgrade to ezDrummer3  or just wait until SD4 comes out (SD2 runs great on my PC and they pulled their upgrade deal for SD2 owners long ago -- really terrible customer loyalty, IMO, but nonetheless, I find Toontrack makes the best acoustic drum sample player plugin there is). 

if you like drum samples then EZD3 is a no brainer (IMO) and if you an stretch to it SD3 too.    SD3 can do more or less everything that EZD3 can do but sometimes EZD is exactly what you want.   Mere speculation but I think SD3 is a way off - they make plenty of $$$ on the expansions so no rush to put out another engine, especially as SD3 is so solid.   Hope to be proven wrong though.

[chris.r]

7 minutes ago, simon said:

all of the above and there is a sale at the moment.

Generally the cheapest way is to get their bundle packs - available for EZX and EZB

Most of the resellers seem to have dropped, or had removed, Toontrack stuff  but Best Service, Thomann and  Inta-audio still are usually cheaper than TT direct.

Thanks simon, I'm only looking to have just one of their libraries, and it's quite a recent one, the Gospel EZX and EBX. Obviously that would require buying the base EZ Drummer and EZ Bass version. I'm in no hurry so knowing when the cheapest price is most possible over the year would give me more comfort in making my wallet ready, these are not the cheapest purchases for me.

Edited November 6, 2022 by chris.r

[PavlovsCat]

2 minutes ago, simon said:

if you like drum samples then EZD3 is a no brainer (IMO) and if you an stretch to it SD3 too.    SD3 can do more or less everything that EZD3 can do but sometimes EZD is exactly what you want.   Mere speculation but I think SD3 is a way off - they make plenty of $$$ on the expansions so no rush to put out another engine, especially as SD3 is so solid.   Hope to be proven wrong though.

That's my dilemma. I own SD2 and I love it. If Toontrack re-introduced upgrade pricing from SD2 to SD3, I would jump on it. I own a bunch of SD libraries, which won't work in ezDrummer, so I haven't pulled the trigger on buying ezDrummer 3. But I have been thinking, if the upgrade pricing for ezDrummer gets heavily discounted, I'm just going to buy that, even for the additional drum sample libraries that it comes with alone. But the non-upgrade pricing for SD3 is too high for me. Plus, I am pretty bothered that Toontrack doesn't offer upgrade pricing for SD3 for SD2 but still offers ezDrummer upgrade pricing. They had a limited window where they tried to force previous owners to upgrade and I really found that promotional tactic problematic and didn't bite on principle, expecting that if they had a reasonable person in charge of marketing, they would eventually reverse course on that bad tactic. Of course, that never occurred. So, sorry for the long version. Considering all that, do you think it's worth picking up ezDrummer for the upgrade pricing just for the new kits that come with it? 

[simon]

8 minutes ago, PavlovsCat said:

 Considering all that, do you think it's worth picking up ezDrummer for the upgrade pricing just for the new kits that come with it? 

I did - but I got it at the original intro upgrade price.  If you are using SD2/EZD2 then it's a huge improvement (IMO).  Not sure how much it is at the moment but sometimes it's better to just take the hit, rather than buy lots of $20 libraries that never quite get you there. (that's the story of my life - buy cheap, buy twice)

[Craig Fowler]

I'm hoping for a nice discount on Fluffy Audio's jazz drums and/or Soniccouture's Moonkits. I'd really like to update EZD2 to EZD3, but would get more use at the moment out of more targeted libraries that are great for swirls and brushes.

 

I'm not optimistic, but a 3 for 2 deal on Indiginus libraries would be sweet!

[TheSteven]

Black Friday deals are hitting earlier than ever.
Looks like developers are afraid that someone else may bleed your BF funds from your wallet before they can.  
The actual BF this year may be a yawn because the best deals have already hit by then.

Still, I'm hoping we see some juicy offerings.

Edited November 6, 2022 by TheSteven

[PavlovsCat]

4 minutes ago, TheSteven said:

Black Friday deals are hitting earlier than ever.
Looks like developers are afraid that someone else may bleed your BF funds from your wallet before they can.  
The actual BF this year may be a yawn because the best deals have already hit by then.

I agree with your analysis that developers are in a race to grab our BF funds. The recent 8Dio flash sales coming every week are a prime example (and they've hooked me). But my instincts -- and some inside knowledge from a few developers  -- leads me to believe that there are going to be plenty of great Black Friday deals this year.  Even more, with Larry back, everything is in line for killer Black Friday deals. My wallet and bank account are very afraid of what is ahead. 

Edited November 6, 2022 by PavlovsCat

[PavlovsCat]

BTW, if 8Dio puts their piano sample libraries on sale for the same kind of price as their drum libraries ($20 USD), that would be impossible for me to resist. I think I only I've only bought two of their piano libraries in their SoundPaint format, and they're nice. As they don't require sophisticated KONTAKT scripting -- which, IMO, 8Dio isn't very good at; it simply doesn't invest the effort in creating intuitive scripts for the string libraries  -- it's less of a concern for piano libraries, so I wouldn't hesitate. I'd love to pick up their upright piano library. So, I suppose, that would be on my BF wish list, as would Toontrack libraries that I can use in SD2 and the solo cell library I already mentioned.  There are still 4 or 5 AD2 drum libraries I don't own, so possibly those too. Yeah, I'm one of the sample/plugin hoarders for sure. Larry is my Sam from Cheers or Walter White, you pick the preferred analogy!