MusicMan

3 hours ago, kitekrazy said:

You come off really butthurt over this not much of a deal.  I'm like that a lot with so much stuff.  It's a synth and there's not a logical reason to go in this big tirade over it. Either buy it or don't.   We can't change how people do business. I like it for dance genres and had to buy a second license for a 3rd machine,  

 I don't always evaluate a product by its updates.  I've had updates ever since I've had a license.

That's pretty hilarious if it comes across that way, as it really couldn't be further from the truth and I've been laughing the whole time ?

I could easily buy the synth if I chose too, so there's nothing to get hurt about. I'm only commenting on principle and pointing out to anyone considering it, that there are alternatives with all of those additional benefits I mentioned.

Audio tech and pricing has evolved, so what once was good value, may not be today, so hopefully that helps someone who is looking at buying a synth when weighing up options.

In terms of how people do business, we absolutely can though. Customers choices to an extent can dictate businesses in many ways.

Like Steven said though, it's all been covered and I've got a bunch of new synths and plugins I've bought to  have fun with so all good ?

Just now, cclarry said:

This video is Private is all this says

The screen was showing before, so I wonder if they changed it to private. I didn't watch it, but the preview imagine in this thread showed the picture.

It doesn't actually sound terrible.. I've heard worse from Waves for sure ?

13 minutes ago, Niky Serrano said:

I think the same

Just came through via email 

1 minute ago, Niky Serrano said:

Review your user profile too, there you should find the product and serial (in the My Products section)
Something like Lil Tube V14.0.0

I just checked that too figuring the email might be slow! No go for me... no real hurry though.. it will get there soon enough I'm sure.

In case it helps anyone else, after testing,  I ended up going with:

• Novatron
  • I actually didn't test this now, as I'd given it a demo previously and decided to buy it. Very versatile as it covers different compressor types.
• Blyss
  • Wasn't on my list at all. But I love the saturation, and the EQ is quite capable with some light glue from the compressor for good mix.
• Omega 4 Pack
  • I'd heard great things and I do like these. It made sense to just get them all at that price.
• Clariphonic
  • I have Maag from PA but this is just nice and add some clarity to the top end effortlessly and opens up a mix.

I skipped these:

• AR-1
  • I actually quite liked this, but it didn't wow me as much. Nice on some material though and if I hadn't bought the others, I may have considered it. It just wasn't unique enough, or add to what I already had.
• UBK-1
  • I like this one! But it's tiny on screen and no VST3. It's a bit of a shame and maybe an update is in the pipeline, but I had to look at now.
• Pusher
  • This thing could be fun! But much like UBK-1 it's tiny and no VST3.
• Goldplate
  • It's a nice plate reverb and I get the praise. It's just too heavy on the CPU and I've got plenty of reverbs. LX480 essentials also had some nice plates and I think I'd upgrade to LX480 full instead. Given Relab is more versatile and they coded it, I think that could be a better option.
• Silika
  • Oddball compressor, but I can see how this would have some good uses. I just preferred the others I got.
• Electra DSP and Hammer DSP
  • They're fine.. they just didn't wow me, or be unique enough, so they didn't make the cut.

If you're thinking of any of these, sign up for the newsletter if you haven't purchased them before and you get an extra 20% off. My welcome newsletter didn't include it, but I waited and the next day I got the discount offer ?

On 11/24/2022 at 10:14 AM, Zo said:

The ik is exellent , if i had to keep on distressor nativelay , i would go arousor , i m fast on it and it never dissapoint , the uad one is imho the closes to hw ..

Elysia mpressor is the same still of beast and higly capable , anyway the ik is enougth imho ... it solid.  Sounds great and the intereface is way easier on the eyes than kush until greg proposes resize ... in a lot of it s plugins you have big gui small knobs , i do think bliss was the exeption with novatron..

For the eq ...mmm this might be a whole video subject ... the reall question is more what eq for what scenario 

several actegories like chirugical , dynamic , color ect. ...

That's funny you mention mpressor. I always love that and it's like an unsung hero! Although I did go through a project disabling all my plugins trying to track down noise floor and it ended up being that one.. but I normally turn off that in the plugin mostly now and happy days.

I did end up testing the Deflector and it's pretty decent. Definitely not as versatile as the IK, but still quite nice and if I didn't have the IK I'd consider it.

1 hour ago, TheSteven said:

I'll agree to disagree and retract my claws (or at least switch to decaf for now).
Though the horse is dead the audience would probably appreciate that we'd stop beating on it.

Thanks Steven and I didn't mind the claws being out. I'm always open to hearing and appreciate other perspectives.

Please don't decaf on my account though.. nothing compares to real coffee for analogue warmth! ?

8 minutes ago, TheSteven said:

So ... you're saying your ears like the sound but that's not good enough?   
Lol - 1/2 joking though it does remind me of the guitar player saying his pedal sounds better because it has more knobs.

Sylenth has a warmth/presence/pizzaz that I find missing in so many synths.  

Haha... My ears like the sound of lots of great synths, that have all of the pros that I mentioned and Sylenth only ticks one of them ?

I do think Sylenth sounds nice, but there are quite a few great warm sounding synths, some old, some new. u-he, Cherry Audio, Spire, Largo, but heaps more as well, those ones just came to mind in the 5 seconds I spent thinking about warm sounds and I'm sure I have better examples than them ?

2 minutes ago, TheSteven said:

Sorry I don't buy that at all.
If Steinberg weren't such @sshats about the VST3 rollout; if VST3 wasn't the buggy wonder it is; etc.  then I'd say you had a valid argument.
Many devs have resisted implementing it (or still refuse to) because they resent(ed) being strong armed into adopting it. 

Ease up turbo, I was still replying to your first message ?

I'm not saying that Steinberg is right in VST3, I'm saying once they announced it, it didn't take too much (/any!) foresight to see that it was going to mean VST2 being deprecated, like where we're at now. There's resisting I get, but to look after the best interests of your customers, not updating by now is pretty lack lustre and those resisting now are in the minority and are losing sales because of it. So that mentality isn't customer friendly and doesn't make business sense. Not much going for it really.

And yet people expect developers to update for every Apple OS release that breaks stuff, so 14 years to not move to the current spec of VST3 isn't much to ask for. The bar is low... real low!

7 minutes ago, kitekrazy said:

What constitutes enough updates?  Should I look at my archives to find out? 

I doubt Sylenth is really his full-time job.   He only makes one product and it is popular among pro producers. You could make the same argument for Spire and Xfer products.   

I'd say having updated to VST3 14 years after it was released might be a step in the right direction ?

That is interesting about it not being his fulltime job. I don't know a lot about him, so that could be possibly be true.

As for Spire, currently on their site, it's $99.00 and the list is $189.00. But I'm pretty sure Loot Audio had it for around $60/$70 the other day. So there's a big difference in discounting and price.

Serum isn't cheap and he's said from the start, he doesn't believe in discounting. But he has released VST3 and there's talk of Serum 2. Not sure if that will be a free update, or paid, but there are pretty frequent updates with Serum.

But it's not about finding others that aren't great in those regards, for me I'm comparing it to other developers that are competitive on pricing and actively develop and innovate, of which there are many.

If a company is either a lot more expensive (on street prices, not overly inflated RRPs) and barely discounts, then I expect more from them. I'm looking (and more importantly listening to how they sound) for why I would spend more money on them over the competitors. That's why I don't own Sylenth pure and simple. It lives off legacy and they haven't been competitive on pricing. They were a big fish in a small pond once, but now there are just too many great options available and they've been overtaken by equally as good and well priced options. We really are spoilt for choice these days ?

It gets cheaper, but still totally worth it even at this price. Great samples. And a lot of them for that price!

2 hours ago, kitekrazy said:

Rumor had it he wasn't going Vst3.   Serum came out with Vst3 this month as well.

If they're barely going to discount, then they should probably be at the forefront of updates and innovation.

In comparison to some of the others mentioned in the thread, Valhalla doesn't discount, but there are very regular updates and he releases new features for free.

Fuse is a small developer and has a sale of 78%+ for his plugins making them all $14.90 right now.

Massive is the same vintage and it's been in bundles for under $49.

I see no real reason to pay Sylenth's asking price even at 25% when there have been a heap of more innovative and feature rich synths made since.

I would say it's a competent synth and I do like the sound though ?

Are Slate still physical iLok key only for perpetual licenses?

13 minutes ago, Jan Schmitz said:

What makes Amek 9099 stand out?

Awesome sounding strip and swiss army knife, so very versatile. The built in clipper / limiter sounds great too. Up their with my favourite channel strips from them.

1 minute ago, ralfrobert said:

You may be right. It's just a fact that the business segment has become a lot harder. If you want a share of what people are willing to spend in total, what you can write on the price tag has become less and less. And in the economy right now... 

Two years ago, it's been 30 per pop. Now 15, looking at PA, Waves, others. U-he, Toontrack and other exceptions exist. 

Just some general observations. And now I will get back to actually make music

I would agree that it does seem like it might be a bit harder for them all at the moment too. Not necessarily across the board, some are barely discounting, but there are some exceptions to the rule where this BF has seen some of the deepest discounts yet.

And enjoy, that's what it's all about! ?

I need to get back to testing out the rest of the Kush plugins to decide which ones I'm going to buy. Gotta love this time of year.. so much new music stuff to paly with ?

1 hour ago, fitzroy said:

This is the first 'wow' sale for me this BF. I'm in. ?

Very pleasantly surprised seeing this pricing!

15 minutes ago, ralfrobert said:

They had 66 percent discount. And as far as Soundwide is concerned, we'll see. I am ok with using the small number of plugins I own from Fuse as is. 

Yes, but this goes at least up to 78% off and I think higher for some plugins, which I've never seen from Fuse, ever. Not in a Black Friday sale, or any other sale that I've seen. Entirely possible I've missed it, but I don't recall anything.

 For me Soundwide wasn't a judgment... if Plugin Alliance, NI, iZotope, Three Body Tech, or Fuse if they were to join, make good products and the price is right, I'll still buy from them. It's more just wondering if there's anything else behind these sale prices which are a little more out of character and like I mentioned, they're already responsible for a truckload of plugins being sold in Soundwide now, so there's potential dots to be joined. 

37 minutes ago, ralfrobert said:

They had deep discounts in the past, and the market has changed a lot. I think Fuse doesn't bring additional diversity to the Soundwide portfolio. The scenario is highly unlikely I think. 

Deep to $14.90 levels? The link to Soundwide is that Fuse is the developer that coded a lot of the Plugin Alliance plugins including Brainworx, Elysia, Neold and more, so he's already responsible for a plethora of products in Soundwide. It's not much of a jump to enter Soundwide from there.

1 hour ago, ralfrobert said:

DrumSSSX is pretty unique. VCS 1 is a good channel strip with zero latency. If you are in need of tools like this, just take a look.

That does seem pretty unique! VCS I demoed a while ago and like it, but it's very clean. I think I would use my SSL strips over that one for clean and I have too many channel strips, but it is a nice option if I didn't have them.

I've been giving some of them a test run and so far VCL-864U is the front runner.. it seems to handle a LOT of gain reduction.

Flywheel I've heard lots of great things about. On the default settings it doesn't wow me, but I just got Overloud Tapedesk, which I do really rate so I'm A->B testing against that. When you start pushing Flywheel though, dial in some hysteresis and enable crosstalk it starts getting a bit more of a vibe. It's not an instabuy for me yet, but I'm going to spend a bit more time with it.. price is definitely right!

I'm kind of wondering if this is a last hurrah sale and they might get gobbled up by Soundwide with PA/NI/iZo.. these prices aren't common for Fuse at all..  

I just saw the email and was actually surprised! The majority of sale prices are boringly predictable... they're real sale prices!

What are everyone's favourites?

1 minute ago, Niky Serrano said:

Well,... it seems that is part of the new Magma collection and I suppose that is a promotional plugin about the collection

Unless their new Magma collection doesn't involve WUP it's unlikely that I'll buy any of their collection, but I'm onboard for this freebie so far ?

36 minutes ago, Niky Serrano said:

Someone revealed the plugin... ?

 

I expected to much more underwhelmed... I'm somewhat intrigued by this now ?

4 minutes ago, Sergio said:

I always wanted Thesys. It's a simple sequencer but I can imagine many ways to use it, specially with external hardware synths.

It was sold years ago for $12 at Musiciansfriend (I think) but only in physical media and only in the USA.

I have a rule that I always register the lowest sale price I find for a plugin and I set that as the top price I'm willing to pay for it in the future (if I cannot get the plugin during that sale, of course).

But in this case I'll break that rule because I never saw this plugin for so low before. And I'm waiting that for some years now.

Thanks for MusicMan  and Doug Rintol for mentioning this JRR sale. If it ccame before I didn't noticed and would let it Lars... I mean... pass!!!

Glad it helped and I'm a little the same with the lowest price like that too!

I had thought I might get Effectrix at some stage, but I find using this is a little more creative and likely to come up with things that might not come to mind in Effectrix. This has all of the main effects that I wanted for that anyway and in some senses I prefer this as it's easier to hold an effect on for a longer amount of time.

57 minutes ago, Zo said:

Fleer is right ... while i love AR-1 , novatron is imho conjuging saturation and compression styles like a chief !!

AR- 1 is superior in compression , but sat sweat spot is narrowerer ...novatron has this ability to fatten things (thks to it's transient smashin with saturation and sidechain) that is great .

Clariphonic is smooth but very limited and does one things , i do think the HW makes sens but for digital made production , this isn't a tool in the "must have " team ....

Electra eq is imho a better all arounder , but eq wise i would go elsewhere ... if you really need an all around eq .

Goldplate is the one i didn't get , don't know if i even demoed it , already have too many reverbs ...

UBK1 is the precursor and still exellent ( i think novatron was the modern take on it) , Bliss is superb also but limited to one type of job .(it does it well ) 

Don't undersestimate the distressor emulation it has also (Deflector) , if you don't own the IK , check this one out !!!

Thanks Zo, awesome points and very useful!

I do have the IK Distressor, but I had been hearing a few things around their version too. But it seems like everyone is jumping on that bandwagon at the moment, so it might be good to see  some of the newer Distressor clones as well before jumping in. Out of curiosity, how would you rate the IK against this one?

Electra I haven't tried at all, but I'm going to give it a demo just in case.

Out of all your EQ plugins, what would be your top 3 and why? Looking Clariphonic for mastering duties, so in that same kind of area.

4 hours ago, mibby said:

This is the one subscription where I've actually considered because it's so low. Their prices are generally pretty steep so I have never really bought much, but I do have all of the Omegas (now) and the REDDI which is also great.  Now if they had a rent-to-own subscription, it would be pretty much a no-brainer for me.

I'm pretty anti subscription, as I like to know that if I want to stop paying, or open a project years down the track I don't need to re subscribe, or pay extra, but their subscription does get some praise.