PavlovsCat Posted November 22, 2023 Share Posted November 22, 2023 (edited) REVISED POST: Whats the best Black Friday deal you've seen or taken advantage of in 2023? THE BELOW IDEA DIDN'T TAKE OFF. SO I'VE ONLY LEFT IT HERE FOR REFERENCE: A Best Deals of Black Friday poll could make us aware of deals we missed before they disappear and also be entertaining. A separate poll for Best Black Friday Freebies would also be useful, as there's been a lot of really good freebies from sample libraries to plugins and many of them are time-limited deals. I'd do it but my threads have been a magnet for trolls and it would especially be disappointing for a poll thread if people invested the time to vote and watch and someone comes along who gets a thrill by making attacks on others, and there are a very small, but still very aggressive group of those folks in this forum that appear from time to time and I'm the current target of their venom. Consequently, if someone is game to do these polls, I think it'd be useful and fun and I'll happily participate. Edited November 23, 2023 by PavlovsCat Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magic Russ Posted November 22, 2023 Share Posted November 22, 2023 I don't know how you would do a straight poll on this, it would be hard to implement. However, if you are concerned with catching deals before you miss them, you can filter deals by expiration date on the KVR site. https://www.kvraudio.com/deals.php 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheSteven Posted November 22, 2023 Share Posted November 22, 2023 (edited) Not a bad idea but if it was going to be it probably should have launched on Nov 1st... I'm thinking that many if not most of the better deals have already landed or even passed as developers/retailers scramble to bleed our wallets before we run out of cash. Some of the items I had considered investing in (lol wrong phrase for $ spent on plugins) spending on during this BF season such as Liquid Sonics are pretty much off my menu due to such tactics. Edited November 22, 2023 by TheSteven 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carl Ewing Posted November 22, 2023 Share Posted November 22, 2023 (edited) It's kinda funny though. Black Friday isn't till Friday, and I'm basically done with purchases except 1, which I'm waiting for, because one developer has a product launching on Friday that I'm waiting to check out. However - I do still think some of the best deals will start on Friday. I actually should have waited on a few things. For example, although I got a good deal on Hammer + Waves yesterday, there are now Black Friday coupons launched today that would taken off an additional 10% (or more). Tons of discounts are now being released through the usual "influencers" on Youtube that stack on some existing sales. This happened last year too. I got impatient. Got a lot of what I wanted through Audio Imperia, however, I still think additional discounts are going to come from somewhere starting Friday. This has happened before with other developers who launched sales early, and then incentivized further on the actual sales weekend. Seriously, I need more patience lol. While we're on the subject: Best Deal: getting 8Dio Silka for $30 because I already owned Insolidus. Worst deal: Probably Audio Imperia (and I bought A LOT). I know it wasn't a good deal, because some of this stuff was bundled for cheaper over 2 years ago! But I had a budget, and it came slightly under (with the crossgrade discounts) and just went with it. And will be using these libraries on a project starting Friday, so whatever. Edited November 22, 2023 by Carl Ewing 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PavlovsCat Posted November 22, 2023 Author Share Posted November 22, 2023 (edited) 1 hour ago, Magic Russ said: I don't know how you would do a straight poll on this, it would be hard to implement. However, if you are concerned with catching deals before you miss them, you can filter deals by expiration date on the KVR site. https://www.kvraudio.com/deals.php I was actually thinking about a poll in deals group on Facebook that cclarry and are in. At the end of every week or month (or some period of time) the group administrator does a poll where everyone votes on the best deals during that period. Everyone gets to add a deal in case the admin missed something. But it's interesting, entertaining and it can also be really useful. Of course, it also would take some time to compile (again though, as long as you allow the community to add to the list and change their votes, it's not a big deal if it's not perfect when you start it and people add a lot to it). But I enjoy those lists and often rely on them. They've been responsible for me noticing deals and freebies before they expired that I otherwise would have missed. Anyhow, it's just a small idea I wanted to put out there and see if anyone was interested in it. Edited November 22, 2023 by PavlovsCat Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magic Russ Posted November 22, 2023 Share Posted November 22, 2023 The other problem is sometimes you just need to make a decision first thing in the morning. How many times have we seen deals that weren't supposed to be there, but got fixed later that day? Case in point: Last week Plugin Boutique offered a $45 upgrade to Guitar Rig 7. They weren't supposed to do that, and by the next day it was updated to the same $72 that was on the NI site. By the time a vote would have gone out, the sale was gone. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PavlovsCat Posted November 22, 2023 Author Share Posted November 22, 2023 My poll idea is dying a very savage death! 🤣 Well, how about this, Carl shared his Best Deal (he also shared his worst deal, but I thought sharing the best would be fun and useful), since my poll idea has died a quick death, I'll revise the title and ask people that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bapu Posted November 22, 2023 Share Posted November 22, 2023 (edited) 1. Normal $79 for Unify was not something I ever seriously considered. I'm not a synth guy by any stretch. Although $59 was not 'great' but enough to put me over the line. 2. 50% off STL Tones Control Hub expansions got me three more that I had my eye on. 3. TBD Edited November 22, 2023 by Bapu 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magic Russ Posted November 22, 2023 Share Posted November 22, 2023 23 minutes ago, PavlovsCat said: My poll idea is dying a very savage death! 🤣 Well, how about this, Carl shared his Best Deal (he also shared his worst deal, but I thought sharing the best would be fun and useful), since my poll idea has died a quick death, I'll revise the title and ask people that. At least the trolls haven't ruined your thread (yet)! So far, the best deal I have taken advantage of is the aforementioned NI GR upgrade. ImpOSCar 2 for the price of a CM issue seems to be a good deal, if not specifically for BF. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Craig Fowler Posted November 22, 2023 Share Posted November 22, 2023 So far, I've been very cautious with my spending - no really big buys planned or completed. I've got some deals I'm really happy with, though: I had a 10Euro credit at Melda for signing up for their newsletter, so I was able to get SoundFactoryLE for $14 - having heard so much said about Meldaway Grand, I'm looking forward to trying it out. I've got several ToneX capture packs with ToneJunkie's flash sales. Usually $30, but have been able to jump in time to get some of the limited number 94% off codes. Klevgrand! I'd been waiting on Borsta, and then also got the Black Friday bundle. I think Borsta was half price, and the bundle had about 2/3 off. I feel like I haven't spent a great deal but have got a lot for my money! The only other thing I'd really like is the Fields of Rock SDX, but I can't see that getting discounted - at least not to the point where I can justify springing for it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jngnz Posted November 22, 2023 Share Posted November 22, 2023 (edited) I'll take this one step further and rate everything I've purchased. Unless there's more glitches, the only thing left to buy for me is everything Liquidsonics, which I imagine will be a very easy 10/10. If you want a more detailed opinion on anything, ask away. 10/10 BFD Dark Farm Cinesamples Industry Brass Relab LX480 Relab QuantX Relab Sonsig Rev-A Savant QRS TC Electronic VSS4 TC Electronic MD4 Tone Projects Michelangelo 9/10 Audio Ollie Nashville Scoring Strings Inlet Audio Viola Drama Textures Kazrog KClip3 Sonible smartDeess 8/10 ARVerb Room BFD Wooden Snares Klevgrand Korvpressor PluginBoutique Scaler EQ 7/10 BFD Modern Drummer Snares Kilohearts Phase Plant Sonuscore Originals 1-5 UAD Signature Bundle (sorry) 6/10 Polkasound IA-P Master Sound Dust Engine #2 5/10 Splash Sound Epic Percussion 4/10 Ink Audio Sticks Kit Ink Audio P-Bass Edited November 22, 2023 by jngnz 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PavlovsCat Posted November 22, 2023 Author Share Posted November 22, 2023 2 minutes ago, jngnz said: I'll take this one step further and rate everything I've purchased. Unless there's more glitches, the only thing left to buy for me is everything Liquidsonics, which I imagine will be a very easy 10/10. If you want a more detailed opinion on anything, ask away. 10/10 BFD Dark Farm Relab LX480 Relab QuantX Relab Sonsig Rev-A Savant QRS TC Electronic VSS4 TC Electronic MD4 Tone Projects Michelangelo 9/10 Audio Ollie Nashville Scoring Strings Inlet Audio Viola Drama Textures Kazrog KClip3 Sonible smartDeess 8/10 ARVerb Room BFD Wooden Snares Klevgrand Korvpressor PluginBoutique Scaler EQ 7/10 BFD Modern Drummer Snares Kilohearts Phase Plant Sonuscore Originals 1-5 UAD Signature Bundle (sorry) 6/10 Polkasound IA-P Master Sound Dust Engine #2 5/10 Splash Sound Epic Percussion 4/10 Ink Audio Sticks Kit Ink Audio P-Bass Holy cow, once again, you've impressed me with how honest and thorough you are, jngnz! Relab stuff ranking high, no surprise there. I had the sense that Audio Ollie is super talented and I should have grabbed that strings deal when it came around; I think it was $49 USD for a week and now it's $99 . That Polka Sound dev is my pal over at another forum that shall not be named. He's a really good guy. Although I'm not big into accordions. Sonible De-Ess or whatever the name is is something I should pick up. I can't say that I'm surprised about the Splash Sound ranking. The dev is a really nice guy, but yeah, I deleted his piano library from my hard drive. Fortunately, it only cost 5 bucks (USD). I absolutely love Pendle's stuff, but I couldn't get myself to buy a sample library without hearing at least something, so I passed on it. Even though a number of our regulars have praised Phase Plant, it doesn't really sound that special to my ears; I probably wouldn't buy it unless it was ridiculously cheap. I suppose the Inlet Audio Viola is the surprise for me. I didn't love the developer's demos for his cello library and didn't listen to his other library demos after that, but I know that Fleer posted good things about one of his libraries too. I'll have to pay more attention and check out if the deal is still on. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fleer Posted November 22, 2023 Share Posted November 22, 2023 StringWERK and Chord Sequencer for Reason, free with loyalty credits. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PavlovsCat Posted November 22, 2023 Author Share Posted November 22, 2023 (edited) 1 hour ago, Magic Russ said: At least the trolls haven't ruined your thread (yet)! That yet gave me the biggest laugh of the day! I appreciate and share your pragmatic outlook! So good, so far. 😀 Edited November 22, 2023 by PavlovsCat 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kitekrazy Posted November 23, 2023 Share Posted November 23, 2023 Usually the good deals for me is with Sweetwater financing. I got the Cubase upgrade, Studio One upgrade for $3 each for 36 months. If my internet went out there wouldn't be more hoarding. Then you could work with what you but most likely you'll find out how much software needs to be connected. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PavlovsCat Posted November 23, 2023 Author Share Posted November 23, 2023 (edited) 39 minutes ago, kitekrazy said: Usually the good deals for me is with Sweetwater financing. I got the Cubase upgrade, Studio One upgrade for $3 each for 36 months. If my internet went out there wouldn't be more hoarding. Then you could work with what you but most likely you'll find out how much software needs to be connected. If Sonar goes subscription only, I'll be updating my Studio One Pro 3 (or whatever the order of those words are) license and joining you using that DAW. I hope BandLab makes a pricing announcement soon. If Presonus does a 50% off upgrade deal before Bandlab makes their pricing announcement I'm going to be quite perplexed. I have probably 50 unfinished projects in Cakewalk, so switching over to another DAW would be a major headache I would not look forward to. I can't rate anything I've bought because I still need to install a SD I have sitting around -- by three current drives are filled with little space to spare. - I bought United Plugins Quick Muse and got the UJAM acoustic bass freebie (I really am not a fan of the UJAM approach, but I wanted to see what it would be like to work with a bass library with their more automated approach). - I've bought IK's Fractured Piano. I don't love Sampletank pianos, but I thought a prepared piano will be a different story and I liked the demos. With my jam points, I think it was only 7 bucks. - I picked up 8Dio's String Quintet and got their free 1928 Scoring Piano, I'm still contemplating picking up some the EZx Custom Shop from Toontrack and some drum libraries from a small dev out of New Zealand -- maybe my favorite place on the planet -- called Analogue Drums. I did a thread for their BF sale and you can pick up a detailed drum kits that sound they were legitimately recording on analog tape for $14.50 USD starting Friday. I was heartbroken to have seen these guys close their doors during the pandemic -- they own a recording studio and this is a side project. However, they recently re-opened and I am pretty darned happy to see that. I recommend checking them out and let's make sure that they don't close again. Their libraries sound awesome and they're dirt cheap, even at regular price and crazy cheap as of Friday. I do not personally know the dev, besides being a fan who follows them on Facebook and thinks they're excellent at what they do. Edited November 23, 2023 by PavlovsCat Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patrick Wichrowski Posted November 23, 2023 Share Posted November 23, 2023 IK Multimedia really got me in this black friday. Hammond and Mellotron. Need to finish some Progressive Rock songs 4 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PavlovsCat Posted November 23, 2023 Author Share Posted November 23, 2023 (edited) 1 hour ago, Patrick Wichrowski said: IK Multimedia really got me in this black friday. Hammond and Mellotron. Need to finish some Progressive Rock songs Do share your songs when you finish them! I like what I've heard from you in the past and I'm a huge prog rock fan from way back (I grew up on Yes, Genesis and King Crimson). Edited November 23, 2023 by PavlovsCat 1 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magic Russ Posted November 23, 2023 Share Posted November 23, 2023 What I like about SampleTron is that you can tron-ify just about anything (even Tron samples). There also is some nice unique original content like the lost symphony and grunge sets. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wallace Ng Posted November 23, 2023 Share Posted November 23, 2023 (edited) Few things picked up this BF: Baby Audio Industry Pro Bundle Polyverse Comet J3PO Preset Packs UAD Signature Bundle (at $150, hopefully my license doesn't get revoked) Minimal Audio $1 packs Cableguys ReverbShaper Upgrade (tbh we should be entitled for the upgrade having owning Shaperbox, but whatever) D16 Bundle (Repeater, Spacerek, Godfazer) ROLI Seaboard M ROLI Equator2 Some ROLI Sound packs Serrano Vintage 87 Woah, after listing them all they're not 'few' anymore. Some more I'm still contemplating: Soundtoys 5.4 bundle Oeksound Spiff FabFilter Bundle Hammers + Waves bundle Joshua Bell violin Edited November 23, 2023 by Wallace Ng 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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