MusicMan

I have all those EQs you mentioned, apart from the Waves one.. I don't think I have that.. and I have Smart EQ 3, not 4. You definitely don't need it, but I do prefer it to all the ones you mentioned. I quite like Smart EQ, but it's heavier on CPU. I also have tended to prefer the sound of Kirchhoff over ProQ3. So many people say that's impossible, but to my ears, something makes it sound better to me.. not sure if it's the way they handle transients, or phase, or something.. In terms of missing out, generally with PA once they hit a price, it will normally hit that low again. But.. I think I'd wait and see if someone has a spare voucher or something to get it down lower. With everything you have, at $60 I could easily pass over it these days, but I'm like that with a lot of plugins.

The other option that occurred to me, was just use them all with the "Analog" button turned off and then on a separate track with no instruments, just add that EQ and enable analog and then you can simply raise the gain to blend as much as you like. With noise I'll often set the levels with a limiter enabled and getting the rough loudness I want it to end up at and then dial in the noise levels on those sort of plugs if required, so it doesn't build up to too much in the final mix.

If you engage the "Analog" button they can be a bit noisy, especially when using compression, or more so limiting on the stereo buss. I much prefer a dial, like Plugin Alliance has with a number of theirs instead where you can dial in the amount of noise to suit (from that same plugin itself and not adding other instances/plugins). Otherwise I tend to just disable noise instead.

I do agree with boycotting companies that don't listen to customers, so I agree there and that's the best way to get them to change. This type of software doesn't need to be running all the time. I have the UA Signature bundle, so I do have them installed in this case though. Instead of uninstalling Connect, I just rename the exe to "disConnect". That way nothing autostarts as the system doesn't find the file it's looking for and I can still easily run it if I want to.

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Savi is quite handy in that scenario. I have it installed still, but don't often think to use it. For playing guitar though, I just have a guitar stack project and so it loads with a bunch of amps, effects, clean channels, high gain channels and I can just hit monitor on any track to switch between all different tones and types of sounds. Probably takes an extra 15 to 30 seconds to load the project, as it's got to load Tonex, Neural, Amplitube, etc. but then it's all good to go and a massive timesaver when playing.

Interesting.. I didn't install the standalone version at all. I rarely do, as it's always easy to fire up a DAW instead and just run it inside if that, or a host like Gig Performer and then it saves installing all other applications through my computer. But I still would've expected it to be solid from them. The VST3 worked well for me and I was pleasantly surprised by it. Quite a nice freebie.

I had to sign into it first, then reopen the plugin and then it worked.

I didn't have any of their products previously, but I believe there was. Your products should all still be there. Hopefully this might help, or point you in the right direction. In failing that, just drop them an email. https://support.korg.co.uk/en-US/migrating-legacy-collection-licenses-to-new-korg-id-website-405747

Did you do the migration steps from their old system to the new one?

That's my point... They focus a lot on dongle sales which aren't even required and could be solved by non proprietary every day flash drives, or even abolishing them altogether in many cases by making some improvements to their other methodologies. They don't care to change, or evolve in any way, as they just want to keep selling dongles and the companion sale of insurance for the redundant dongles.

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Losing track of flash drives is probably common if they don't have licenses on them, but really if they do, they're no more likely to be lost than iLok. Just simply add a tag to it, or use a permanent marker. The dongle from PA (which I don't personally use), is good for offline and using other friends DAWs, for collabs, or getting mixing done, etc. But it's more the fact that if someone wants to use a dongle, they can pick up a cheap generic flash drive and not an overpriced iLok dongle. 3 is becoming more common. I do have a mix though and quite a lot with 2. 1 auth is strictly do not buy for me. Even ML Sound Lab who only provide a second if you contact them I opted to not buy from. I don't want to have to contact a vendor to plead my case for a second activation, even if it's not too difficult. 2+ auths out of the gate, or I'm out these days. I already have enough and what they're selling can probably be done with something else that does include 2+. Melda is really great with their licensing and yes, Waves somehow manage to further alienate even more people with that move which was quite an achievement given the majority of people's hate for WUP! You're not wrong on those bundles either... You do get a lot of bang for buck. Without those and the freebies, I'd imagine their sales would be much, much lower these days. It can be a false economy though.. if people do pay WUP, then for what they often spend, they could've just paid once for more premium plugins that are better than Waves and still be getting free updates. Lots of great devs out there.

It's one of the more surprising ones in quite a while. This seems very well regarded from everything I've seen / read so it could be good exposure for Steinberg. Making this a freebie (with purchase) along with their Cubase 14 release seems to indicate they are trying to be more widely appealing to the EDM / beats producers. Of course you could easily use Cubase for those before and it was great for it, but it seems like they have been copying some of the ideas and simplified workflows especially for drums from the more prominent competitors in that space (Live / FL).