MusicMan

Yep, I think they noticed it was broken... I refreshed the page again to see and it now says unauthorized for me too. This was the URL https://customer.focusritegroup.com/en/software/plug-collectivesound-collective-3-months-ni-komplete-now-subscription

Strange.. it shows up in my account, but I get an error if I try and claim it. I might raise a support ticket, but I'll probably just wait and see if it irons itself out for now.. I'm not in a huge rush to get this one.

Dirk... is that... you... ? ?

Exactly this. If people stop paying and buying their plugins, WUP would be gone in a few years. Not exactly rocket science. It's a crap practice and given the plethora of alternative companies that provide ongoing updates for the life of plugins, it's a bit comical people pay it so willingly. That's why I very reluctantly buy anything Waves any more. Instead of paying WUP, I just look to replace it with something from another developer.

Given WUP is their gravy train, there's really very little incentive for Waves to care about getting the plugins right the first time around.. quite the opposite... They can hurry to release and sell and then care about bug fixes a few years later, essentially double dipping and getting people to pay more than once. I like all the devs that provide bug fixes at least for as long as they're selling it and that is a very long list of developers with excellent plugins.

That's a lot of bug fixes... Now I see why they need WUP.. they make really buggy software ??

The GAS side of me is disappointed I missed out on this one, as it's a killer deal! But I have been a little on the fence lately about iZotope and I'd mainly only be wanting it for a few things, so I don't feel too bad. That said, I think I would've found it pretty hard to resist at that price, even for those couple of items. Great score to those that got it ?

Underwhelm installed ? This is almost as exciting as the rare Waves $29.99 sale.. incidentally it's even a dollar more expensive than a Waves sale... They should bottle this for Insomnia.. Definitely put me to sleep ?

I will keep my underwhelm ready and on standby, but happy to be surprised ?

Nailed it ? Loopcloud is sub, but you can stop your subscription at any time and still use it for any packs, or samples you've bought, even packs you paid for, or got free on Loopmasters. You can also use it for local samples and loops without a sub too. But I think you need at least one month sub to be able to add and scan all your local libraries initially. You're right too.. Loopcloud does actually have a lot of built in effects! Loopcloud seems like the clear winner between the two so far.

I think you're right on it being a different beast to Kontakt. Even though they're both samplers. Kontakt isn't as loop focused at all. Many libraries are loop focused for it, but I never really consider it for that. Loops I'd just use Cubase personally. I'm terms of online library, I don't see any issues with that and I think the more options the better ? They do already have a number of synths that include some of the PA plugins in the same rack type interface, so I'm not sure that's it, as you can just buy them. Decoupling should be easy, at least it's no trouble at all for Loopcloud. That supports both local samples/loops and online library. I think you're on the money with the last point. Maybe they don't care about sales, or adoption of it, it's just a marketing / advertising thing to get people over the line with subs. All good food for thought ?

NI is indirectly fine regardless now due to the merger ? I'd agree, that positioning might make some sense. Even Waves CR8 can be used without a subscription though (I think, I didn't bother trying it) and I can't believe I'm going to say this .. but that might give Waves the edge ? I'm terms of the DJ side, the digital mixers, DDJs and digital turntables generally come with built in samplers and looping and connect to DJ pools, or downloaded content. Ableton Live seems to be common for those that want more outside of that, so my thoughts are they won't be big there. I'm sure they'll get quite a few people though, both indirectly that have the sub for other reasons and those where it may sweeten the subscriptions to get them over the line, but they're going to miss out on a huge market unnecessarily, which makes their road harder.

Very solid points Grem and I would definitely not at all be surprised if they played a big part.

I think all their plugins might only be VST2 for now, which was dropped by Steinberg for Mac in the latest version of Cubase and will be deprecated for Windows and no doubt other DAWs will start to follow. Something to keep in mind when buying unless there's been any progress on updates from them.

Great freebie, although I haven't used the old one in a bit. I did look at buying some of theirs, but they only provide 1 license by default. Not sure if that's changed, but it put me off so I didn't buy anything from them. Will check out this upgraded freebie though ?

Me three ? I'm not at all disappointed they made it subscription only. It means I have no need to install it, it check it out. I can't see it ever getting the widespread adoption that Kontakt has with 3rd party libraries, especially as a sub. The inbuilt effects look handy, but I have the ones I like to use from them and I can't see it really competing any time soon with the likes of Loopcloud, or Splice, etc. They would've been smarter to release it non sub to get adoption. Not installed ?

These are really cool and experimental sound manglers... I like them so far!

Maybe drop them an email. I wouldn't at all be surprised if they let you have them ?

Wow.. yeah I can't see that being fixed, especially after airing it all on there.. even if they do, the brand will definitely take a massive hit, as people will be reluctant to buy knowing it could just flair up again. Luckily I don't own any of their plugins, but I do know the name and they sound like they're at least somewhat half decent, so it's a shame.

I have quite a few (lot of limiters!) and still find myself liking and reaching for this one quite a bit. PSP definitely make some decent plugins and some very reasonable sale prices for that level of quality.

Exactly that and I forgot to add as well, that some probably notice, but then don't hurry to fix it, as it creates a buzz and generates a storm of sales. Then once they've killed the codes, it still generates advertising. I wouldn't be surprised if it's also used by some companies to offer deeper discounts that might otherwise upset people who paid more, as it's viewed as a pricing error. So I think there could be a mix of everything from simple mistakes, to a highly effective sales generation tool and anything in between. Either way, it seems to be win/win for almost everyone in many cases ?

I wouldn't be surprised if it's a mix of some being sloppy and for some, guerrilla marketing tricks and driving some sales as well. With downloadable software and plugins, it's not like they lose money, it's more that people buy them that might not have, because they're such a great buy at those crazy reduced prices. I love the Eventide products, but the discounts made them a complete no brainer, otherwise I wouldn't have picked them up right at this moment... Or upgraded to Anthology as a result as well ?

I wouldn't be certain that's what it is and I'm not sure they would include that in the bundle as it's a different store, but that did come to mind as it is H9. I did read somewhere also about something with people having all the products in Anthology still seeing an upgrade price too, so it might get not even be related to that. Nice set of plugins though ?

Edit: Did you also get the ones that weren't on sale? There's the iOS one (QVox) and Undulator.

The modular stuff is really cool... outside of VM and PSP, I think I've just discovered my new favourite crazy tweakable modular plugin.. the Eventide H3000 Factory.. If you enjoy VM/PSP, I'd highly recommend giving it a go.. very fun to program and you can come up with some crazy out there results ?