MusicMan

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Definitely some great options in there Cookie and also some of my favorites, with one notable exception! Well actually two really, as I don't think much of Avid either, but they are popular.. But the rest each have some that I really like and are favorites. Cubase / Wavelab are still my most preferred in their respective areas. I don't use Presonus, or much HOFA either, but I'd still regard them as a decent. That said, I'd still rate DMG Audio and Tone Projects over all of these when it comes to sound quality. Actually when it comes to features and functionality as well. Plus with no online activation component they get a further edge. The rest I could happily replace with something from my list with better licensing anyway, apart from EastWest. Orchestral in general, it's pretty hard to avoid online activation, or iLok for most of the better ones from what I've seen. I'm somewhat the same with that view and don't normally have any issues with licensing, but as soon as you can't activate and use something, then it's quality is directly impacted as it no longer works.. at all! Glad Win11 is running well for you as well. My new build is Win 11 Pro too and it's a beast. It can run a VM in the background (for internet and testing audio software instead of installing them in the DAW itself until I know I definitely want it), all while running a Cubase project, with multiple Acustica Audio plugins and no noticeable latency/drop outs when recording. That OS update thing is a bit of a worry the more software we have... again a plus for better / no DRM, but that ship has already sailed for me. My preference is avoidance and use other options where I can though.

Top tier as in audio quality, not size of company Some examples: DMG Audio Tone Projects TDR - Tokyo Dawn Records Valhalla Audio Damage apulSoft Kazrog Klanghelm u-he WavesFactory DDMF Acon Digital Audiority Boz Fabfilter SugarBytes TAL United Plugins I'm mostly sure all these are one of either A) No DRM at all, B) Serial, C) KeyFile D) RegFile and I'd rate at least something from each of them highly. It's possible that one or two of these might still query an online service (for the most part I don't think any of them do), but I'd always recommend checking before anyone buys. There are plenty of others as well. All of these have some top / best of breed plugins in their areas, with a number of them, quite a few. Things like DMG, Tone Projects, etc. are high end and more commonly used for mastering, so surprising, but great to see them also have no stupid online requirement.

Completely agreed. Not having an upgrade path (that is reasonable in price) hurts sales. A great example is Softube. They only ever gave you a credit for the single most expensive plugin you own in their "Volume" bundles, even if you owned all but a couple of the plugins from Volume. I wasn't in that scenario, but still owned a number of them. But with them giving next to no credit for that and now even removing upgrades based on owning any of the plugins altogether, I'll never buy Volume on principle. Re-buying plugins over and over to get them in a bundle price for the ones you're missing with no credit just doesn't sit right. In that time I've bought bundles from Arturia, UA (ignored UA since Signature 1 for the same reason) and a number of others. It actually put me off Softube quite a bit in general too, so I don't buy that much from them at all these days. Same with UA really..

I thought they didn't offer proper upgrade paths even to the bundles before Signature 1 though. I ended up with duplicates right out the gate early on and now have triplicates of some of them. I suspect it's just a they don't care thing as they can get people to buy again, more than trauma of bug sales.

Agreed. Great freebie and no, I doubt anyone on this forum for the most part needs another delay! But it's always nice having other options. Sometimes even just for the creative ideas they could inspire. Supermassive is brilliant. As are (I think?) all of Valhalla's plugins. Simple offline key file activation for the paid ones that doesn't require a server to be online, so as long as the software can run on future systems, then you can always activate.. Fair prices all year round with no sales tricks. No subscription BS. Great developer. Will give that vid you shared a watch too 🙂

I only gave it a very quick test and found it pretty decent sounding too,, especially for a freebie. I don't necessarily think it's all that unusual a choice either. He's probably just testing the waters and looking at expanding their offerings. Their prices are often on the higher side and they have no runs on the board when it comes to creative effects really, so a free one out of the gates might help them. I tend to skip most of their stuff as their pricing is hardly ever competitive. The stuff is OK I just never feel it quite warrants the higher prices over the competition in today's market.

Just got hit with this a few days ago migrating to a new DAW and what's worse, the company still exists. I can't activate/use Novation V-Station or Bass Station as they took the activation server down and it requires challenge/response. These guys are now dead to me when it comes to buying ANY software from them, even down the track if they come up with anything new.. The EU or someone should really mandate that if a company decides to use a crappy activation method like that and wants to take their online activation server down, then they should be forced to issue a DRM free version of their software to the owners of the software. Really companies should be forced to maintain two versions of their software to cover that situation in the event that the company hits financial issues, so the dev work is already done. This is going to happen more and more, especially with subscription services as they 100% rely on the online validation component. It's just another case where those of us buying the software legally are penalized. Also a good reminder to first buy all the software from companies that provide simple non online, non challenge/response and only then consider filling the gaps after that with anything that doesn't. So many top tier companies still provide a simple serial/key file. Let's reward them and as a bonus, it makes our lives easier too.

Much better price at JRR for only $41.16 with code GROUP. But the activation / licensing is lightyears better with D16. I do think the Roland Cloud one would also sound decent from some examples I've heard, but I'm not totally convinced about the bloat / cloud requirement for it. I did buy it the other day as well, but I haven't activated it just yet until I decide if I like their system. That said it's a cheap way to test out their cloud beyond the free sounds. https://www.jrrshop.com/roland-tr-808-plugin-lifetime-key.html

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Really? I did it barely a few hours ago and it was fine, apart from bundles. They might have changed it. I can't check any more, as it says that you need to be logged in to use the coupon and when I'm logged in, it says it's already used. It's possible they changed it after the code was widely shared I guess.

All working fine now for the ones I tried yesterday. I was probably a little too quick off the mark after their email and it hadn't fully gone live yet. I think that the 50% off combined with the sales is an all time low for quite a few of those.

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Need... I highly doubt it 🤣 But I quite like it, especially for $19. Sometimes the different workflows trigger different ideas. It's also interesting to see how they got the sounds with the processing used. It's quite eye opening disabling the entire FX chain for each sound and seeing what the raw samples sound like and then how much each FX alters it. From a learning perspective and from being able to more finely customize the sound it's handy and not something you get with drum samples. Some of the hits sound great out of the box though. I always init the patterns and create from scratch, but I wouldn't be surprised if some of those patterns are decent too. But I've been programming some patterns and then just dragging the MIDI from it, directly into its own track in Cubase and then disable Nepheton's internal sequencer and have Cubase trigger it. It's already inspired the basis for a new track, so for $19 I've already got enough fun out of it 🙂

Any good? And this, or D16 Nepheton 2?

I have the PA version, but the "upgrade" pricing and how the exit was handled by them when they left Plugin Alliance didn't inspire me to invest in the product, or the company. Interesting that they charge you extra to use it on both Mac and Windows. I somewhat understand that, as it's a lot more development to keep up with each OS upgrade on Mac breaking compatibility. Bit uncommon to see the separate charge though. The product itself isn't too bad and for some use cases I can see it making sense. I just fire up a DAW instead and some of those are free, or cheaper and fully fledged. But I'm not playing guitar to large crowds, or touring, or anything, so it's never mission critical.

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Sonixinema Celestial Voices (Free) Works in Kontakt 8 Player https://www.sonixinema.com/pages/celestial-voices

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OCELOT Limiter - True Peak Limiter $15 (78% Off) (Other Fuse Audio Labs plugins $15 each) at Plugin Boutique https://www.pluginboutique.com/product/2-Effects/9-Limiter/14144-OCELOT-Limiter-True-Peak-Limiter https://www.pluginboutique.com/manufacturers/433-Fuse-Audio-Labs Also get GainStage Pro Utility by Hertz Instruments free with purchase

Thanks heaps for confirming

Sometimes it depends on the developer and whether they encrypt the actual sounds, or expose the raw sounds. You do lose any of their customization and sound design that way though. I'm trying to only buy VST3 stuff these days. VST2 is definitely on the way out. Even though it could be continued really. But I'm just trying to avoid as many hoops to jump through down the track with compatibility issues. Seems like a pretty reasonable price otherwise 🙂

Are these all VST2 only, so no VST3 apart from maybe CollaB3 Pro? The developer doesn't mention which spec of VST they are on their site and KVR says VST2 only for all apart from that one.

Pretty amazing that it took them that long to add such simple functionality, but good to see it finally there. Not sure how long it will be though.. seeing how it seems that the intent is to move everything from iZotope, Native Instruments and PA to Native Access.. I guess we'll have to wait and see.

Holy cr@p, they finally show updates for installed plugins! I ended up writing a script that would check the site and compare, but nobody should ever need to do that!