MusicMan

I think Masterdesk has a place for people who don't want to get too involved in the mastering process, but still don't want it left at just the mix stage. Some of the elements in it can actually be used separately quite nicely on tracks and busses as well. Bass-Mint is good. I tried it ages ago and really didn't think much of it.. they had reset the trial statuses since then (I love and hate them doing that! Hate because there's more chance of me demoing something again and buying.. like I did ?) and I gave it another shot and I get it now, so that's what I went with.. so far ?

Nothing wrong with subs in my opinion.. but only ever as an option. I don't go for them personally, but they work well for many people, so why not ? I am against the aggressive sales tactics of some companies that limit certain features, or new features only to the subs version when there's a perpetual equivalent of that product. If they only have subs and no perpetual, I'd either not start using them, or stop using them too.

Oh they're not working on it .. Cubase 12, including 12 Artist and 12 Pro are dongle free ? I hate wasting USB ports on stupid copy protection devices personally and had not upgraded to Pro for that reason as well. So no dongle for me and C12Pro is miles in front of any DAW I've ever used for my tastes/requirements. Agreed on learning another DAW though.. Cubase was too slow to move when all the competition didn't have a requirement for a dongle and I think it hurt them and people like you may never either go back, or consider them now as they have a DAW they like. Will be interesting seeing a wave of new users that can now demo them without having to buy a dongle.. that was the crazy part.. who wants to buy a dongle to even demo something?! So glad they're gone ?

To this day, I still think Cubase has the strongest MIDI offering. That was also a huge reason why I never bothered with Protools when it was holding a huge market share. Cubase just covered both Audio and MIDI so well. I think that most of the DAWs have some very cool unique features, but when I think about what is most complete for what I do, Cubase sits on top and Cubase 12 in particular I think they've just got so many things right. N.B.. not the grace period license conversion process... But the DAW ?

I really don't need this, but I am a bit intrigued about the analogue emulation as he does alright with that side sometimes and the constant volume I do like too. I also like his reasonable pricing and he tries to be helpful, so I don't mind supporting him by buying his products and at that price, it's barely a cup of coffee ?

If I was looking for a new DAW I'd definitely be considering Studio One as an option. But after upgrading to Cubase 12 Pro.. I'm really loving it, so there's 0% chance of me jumping to it right now!

For mastering, Alpha is quite possibly my favourite compressor ? I thought the same about PQ, but then it's likely another 9 to 12 months for a reasonable price. So I might still pickup Passeq. I do already have Acustica Audio's: Coral which is the SPL PQ in the interim. I was all set to get Passeq, but picked up UA Bass-Mint instead for $14.99. I didn't like it the first time I tested it, but I tested it again after watching a video on it and understanding it a bit more and it added a more unique offering than another EQ for right now. Tried it on some kicks, synth bass and 808s to get a feel for it and it was really nice. It can change the sound a lot if pushed and sometime I liked that more and sometimes I didn't. But the times I didn't, I backed off the intensity and even tried some other algorithms and it generally enhanced/sweetened the sound ? Bass tools are always handy as sometimes one EQ and saturation might work for one instrument, but not another, so having options doesn't hurt ?

TE100 is very good ?

Very good call. Love that one ?

Hard to say, but all I can be sure of, is that I needed one more than I had yesterday it seems ?

Looking forward to seeing SPL PQ as I quite like PA's SPL Passeq.

This is really helpful! The forum in particular makes it really easy to see what versions there have been previously and what's current. I'll save/remember that page as well. Thanks ?

Haha... thanks Lars and seems there haven't been any point releases since I bought it, which is why I haven't seen anything from them. I currently have Mixbus 32C 7.2.0.

Do these guys ever do updates/patches/improvements etc, or only major versions? I own 32C V7, but since I've owned it, I've never seen, or known how to get updates...

I've thought about these ones a few times, but they just don't seem to update them..

I paid for Plus to support the dev as well as he's open sourced and made free things in addition to Vital, like the Helm synth. It's good to support these type of people ?

From memory, more wavetables as well as presets. But otherwise not limited in functionality.

SurgeXT synth is quite a good free synth and pretty cool seeing some of the Air Windows effects built into it. Before Vital it was probably the best, now it's still good, but Vital might just have the edge. Definitely good to have though and it still sees use here ?

I've generally considered them to have reasonable products, although I'm not sure if I've bought any as of yet. Without getting into the politics side, is it possible to get a summary of what these "interesting" views/comments were seeing how they're now deleted? I can somewhat guess, but I'd like to not assume. If not PM is fine too ?

IZotope tools are very capable, so you'll be fine ? With EQ, the best thing I learnt was making space for each sound and dynamic EQ with sidechain, so when a vocal for example plays at the same time as some keys, or whatever, that may share some of the same space, you can duck the keys just in those clashing frequencies to allow space for the vocals. Also comes into programming and trying to avoid that collision, but otherwise try and bring out the main essence of each sound and not have two clashing. A number of EQs like you would likely have with IZotope allow you to overlay them visually so you can see where they're fighting. Can make a much clearer track. EQ is also just highlighting what you like about a sound/instruments, so that's a good place to start ?

I haven't personally used Mixroom, but for some weird reason Bassroom is really good at sculpturing the bass, so it wouldn't surprise me if Mixroom was good too. You don't really need any of them, but they're just tools that can help. It's worthwhile spending the time learning the theory and being able to use any EQ. Lots of good free resources to point you in the right direction. It's easy to get stuck in the loop of thinking we need another plugin to solve something, when we've all probably got more than we need and it would be better to spend the time learning and practicing with what we've got ?

Well.. if you haven't seen it, then it's safe to say it hasn't been on sale ? The upgrade price direct through them isn't far off just buying the full versy on sale too.. it's a shame though, they would actually sell a lot more of them.. I don't think they get the whole loyalty pricing thing.. Don't overlook Bassroom.. it's a surprisingly good EQ for lower frequencies ?

It would be nice to see the upgrade for Expose 2 go on sale at some stage. I don't think I've ever seen it discounted...

But don't they even warn you of that when you're checking out? ?

The price you posted was right ? I saw it before they fixed it. Not 100% certain it said "Collection", but it was definitely the compressor at the lower price either way.