antler

Thanks - I had the link copied and ready but forgot to actually paste!

From here, it looks like they're going to add Ireland and Scotland too. I did receive an email with a survey asking what instruments we might like next. Maybe they'll be part of Musio 2?

Personally, I think their previous deal was better where they had a MIDI pack for €10. Still, there's more choice with this deal.

If it helps you decide, Softube needs iLok (don't know if a dongle is required; I don't use it), whereas Arturia doesn't.

Thinking about it, this might be a clever move on their part. Lots of composers talk about blending various libraries to get their final sound. And to blend, one of the techniques is to use some reverb. What better reverb to add to other libraries than one that was captured in exactly the same room that some other Spitfire libraries were recorded in? Either that, or it's just Spitfire's aura tilting the price upwards. Either way, it's priced (way) out of my budget and (dare I say) I have more reverbs than I use now.

A slight warning: it looks like the iZotope Everything Bundle v15 doesn't include the newer stuff. According to the description, it contains MPS 5 and Ozone/RX 10 (and of course the other titles).

Probably just a slip-up in the website upgrade process. Chances are the new website was in a different folder on the server and a typo in the configuration ended up pointing to something that wasn't available (i.e. 'forbidden') to the public.

Eligible for US residents only

My wild guess is the initial text came from AI.

They're annoying, but they're better than their predecessor where you had to guess what some mangled letters and numbers were. I'm guessing you already know. But for everyone else, they help* with preventing brute-force password hacking attempts by adding an additional layer so you can't just write a script to send a series of login requests with different passwords until one succeeds. If someone is visually impaired, I suspect the headphones icon gives an audio alternative; I've tried it with the mangled character ones (where I couldn't recognise the characters), but not this generation of reCaptcha. It looks like its possible to set the language for reCaptcha tests as a Website author; I suspect this is/should be part of website localisation. * apparently AI can do these reCaptcha now, so there may be even more annoying challenges in the future.

Not many details on the Tracktion/JRR pages. This YouTube playlist has a few videos detailing various aspects of the plugin https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtFL5PQ0tgk&list=PLCd-dH8pNYcp0JapgyZtIhDQ3lbIDqXLt&index=1

Bassroom's great. I can't quite convince myself to buy Mixroom though. I'm sure it's a great EQ, it's just that it's a full-spectrum EQ, which to me seems like adding to the other full-spectrum EQs I have. Please do correct me if I'm wrong on this though. And I know this deal's for the both of them; it's just that I have one them already.

That's strange. Maybe there are people with similar names that are now deceased? If so, it's not too surprising given how ChatGPT is essentially a statistically weighted (partially) random word generator (an interesting insight of how it works can be found here: https://writings.stephenwolfram.com/2023/02/what-is-chatgpt-doing-and-why-does-it-work/). Maybe I'm a bit too privacy-conscious, but I sometimes feel a little awkward using AI. In the back of my mind, I'm thinking that my input is just being used to train a model that someone else is profiting from when they sell their service.

That said, it's not too hard to just go to the instrument folder and zip it up if someone really wanted a local backup; I've done it a few times. You lose the structure (e.g. a zip for instrument files, a zip for samples, etc), but the overall content is the same.

Personally, I think AI's a funny thing: it seems everybody wants an AI assistant to help them do things, e.g. automatically write and respond to emails; but nobody likes being on the receiving end of an email that wasn't written by a person. That said (and this is a music-related comment), the one product that's actually made me go 'wow' is Synthesizer V (not currently on sale). https://dreamtonics.com/synthesizerv/

I've played with SWAM. For best results, you need a breath controller or something similar. At first, it's a bit strange co-ordinating between that and a MIDI controller for the notes. You might want some other devices/controller knobs for the other real-time parameters too. Sounds great, but I found it a bit tricky to play properly. But then again, I'm not a particularly skilled musician, so YMMV.

Possibly GeoShred?

The sax looks like SWAM Saxophones by Audio Modeling (more specifically, it looks like the Alto from the video). It's modelled, rather than sampled. But to get best results you really need some kind of breath controller. https://audiomodeling.com/swam-engine/solo-woodwinds/swam-saxophones/

For a tiny moment, I thought it said 75% off. Oh well, my wallet's safe.

Wow. Not sure what I'm more surprised at - that Vue has ceased development, or that Bentley would want to buy a company that makes 3D landscape modelling software; doesn't look like much overlap in business to me. I used to love the idea of creating 3D landscapes, though at some point couldn't justifying the cost for what was essentially just me playing around.

My understanding is as follows. If you have an eLicenser product and it supports Steinberg licensing (as indicated by the table in your second link), you can switch it over. If you have a license for a product which is no longer the latest (i.e. supported) version and it is on an eLicenser, you can continue to use it (as long as you have activated the license on your eLicenser). However, you also have the option to upgrade products that aren't the latest version to the latest (via your first link). This will let you buy the latest version (presumably at a discount), which supports Steinberg Licensing. To summarise: all of your products will continue working, but you must activated any unactivated licenses on your eLicenser. Alternatively, you can upgrade to the lastest version (again presumably with a discount); you will then have the latest version/s, which use Steinberg licensing.

Bear in mind existing licences aren't being revoked. Products will continue to work as long as they're activated to the eLicenser. Here's some other text from the FAQ: Will I still be able to use products with the eLicenser-based licensing service? Yes, eLicenser-based products can still be used without limitations as long as the licenses are available on the USB-eLicenser or Soft-eLicenser. They even hint they might help you out if your USB-eLicenser breaks: What happens if my USB-eLicenser gets broken or is lost after the eLicenser service is shut down? Please contact support for an individual solution. Please note that we can only offer a solution for eLicensers registered in MySteinberg.

They're stopping it. The text below (in italics) comes from the link above (lightly re-formatted). What does end-of-service mean? With the end-of-service of the eLicenser license management system, we are completing the transition to our new Steinberg Licensing system. Since its introduction in January 2022 we have integrated Steinberg Licensing in our products step-by-step and offered various options to upgrade your eLicenser-based products to the new system. If you are still using eLicenser-based products the end of the service will have several important implications: You won't be able to activate or reactivate an eLicenser-based product. If you still have an activation code for an eLicenser-based product you need to activate it before the end-of-service. You won't be able to move a license from one USB eLicenser to another. If you have multiple USB-eLicensers and you want to consolidate the licenses onto a single USB-eLicenser you will need to do it before the end-of-service. Similarly, if you want to move a Soft-eLicenser license to a USB-eLicenser, you need to do it before the end-of-service. Lost licenses cannot be recovered. If you have lost an eLicenser license, please get in contact with us before the end-of-service. It won't be possible to recover lost licenses after the end-of-service.

Thanks for the reminder about using saturation to tame highs.

It's a replacement (I got the impression it's a complete rewrite, but could be wrong on that). Existing libraries will have to be re-encoded for the new player. As I understand, all libraries will eventually move to Engine. Some have already been ported over, others will be available when they're ready (I've got some of their accordion libraries, and was recently issued a new Engine key for them).