Craig Fowler

I caved and got the LA-2a. I was kinda hoping for the $25 extra coupon so I could get the 1176s for $25, but that was asking too much!

Part of me is pretty tempted to jump on this (for 1176 or LA-2) simply because *really* good UAD deals are so few and far between. But...I have the legacy UAD versions, the IK versions, and PSP's and Softube's FET compressors. I'm pretty happy with all of these, honestly - does anyone want to persuade me that there is some kind of pixie-dust that the v2 UAD offerings would sprinkle that I'd be a muppet not to go for? FOMO is a real thing, apparently.

IIRC, there was a pretty decent deal on the bundle last BF!

I don't have Atomic Big Band from SAS (nor do I have the two newer releases - the flute and the flugelhorn) - but I've got the earlier 4. I'm going to be jumping on this. The smart delay can be finicky to work with, and setting up articulation maps for these instruments in Cakewalk is an absolute must - but they sound amazing. The trumpet and trombone are my top two so far...I'm hoping the Alto shakes things up a bit!

I think the original IK tapes were really subtle, but it's easier for my ears to hear the difference made by the teac/tascam ones . You do need to drive the input a bit to hear what's going on IMO. I find that I don't notice much when I add tape, but miss it when I take it off!

T-Verb for $19 or bust!!

Seems inevitable, doesn't it ?

Just throwing this out there (and being mindful that resources our more finite for some of us than others), but something that hasn't been mentioned here is the fun factor. @PavlovsCat, your chops might never do PiB justice - mine won't either - but you can sit down and just get lost playing PiB in a way that isn't the case with most other piano VIs. @dumbquestions I haven't listened to those demos, but PiB and Noire are actually about as far apart as two piano VIs can get :-). Noire is very modern and malleable, whereas PiB is the best one-trick-pony you could hope for.

Infinitely

They sound pretty. But they'd sound much pretty if there was a viola to go with 'em...

BFD3 always sounded great, but I absolutely hated working with it and using the groove editor always felt like a chore. I was prepping my license to resell and somehow it managed to completely disappear from the registration system...I never even bothered to chase it up.

It works out pretty good if you want a couple of the high priced plugs. E.g., the new(ish) noise reduction plugins haven't gone below $175 each yet. For more run of the mill buys, it's ok but nowhere near no-brainer territory. Relatively few of their plugins hit $99 on sale, and it's usually the same ones over and over (e.g., Fender Tweed, Vocoder).

Seems like a good deal; I got VSM-3, Knifonium, and Soma. All things I probably don't need and wouldn't punt for at $29 a pop, but can justify at <$17 each as they might offer something a bit different from what I already have. Great time to pick up the Amek console if you don't have it.

Holding the line, eh @paulo? ?

Very helpful - thank you! I really like the sound of the C3 in the Xperimenta library, so I'm sure I'd love Chroma. Sigh!

Fair question, but the 224 is quite different in character from other reverbs! I prefer it over the Relab and UAD 480 releases.

Do you have Hammers & Waves as well? I've been interested in Chroma, but I can't justify it when I have Noire, Ascend, and Hammers & Waves that all play in the same sandbox!

"At the end of each trip, shoes and clothes were thrown away or thoroughly washed out taking into account the radiation contamination of the soil, asphalt and dust particles in the air. Unfortunately, radiation accumulates in the human body, summing up to the dose that has already been received and will not be removed from the body throughout life, some isotopes will be active for thousands of years, i.e. much later than our death. We shortened our lives to create a truly unique instrument." Yikes!!

That's a bummer...I've only heard good things about it before now! Fortunately, Skybox are also doing a piano day sale ?

Not helping!

Me too, @Christian Jones...it's still in my cart at the glitch price. But even though I'd save $600USD on it, I'm not sure I'd get my $80 worth given how rarely I'd find a use for it!

Fleer is right about Modern U being ideal for what you want. Given your 'vintage' tastes, though, I don't think Piano in Blue would be out of place in 60s rock sort of stuff or anything that's on the rawer side. It's one of my absolute favourite virtual instruments and I'd hate to be without it - I have objectively 'better' virtual pianos, but nothing that sounds or feels like PiB.

There's very little you can screw up with kits of this kind. Beyond a screwdriver, drill, and soldering iron, you shouldn't need much. I've put together probably a dozen kit guitars with parts from Warmoth, USACG (before they were bought out), and Musikraft. Apart from one, they've all turned out great - and the one that didn't was because I made poor choices in parts.

This is the first time I remember where you can use it on items priced on sale at $99. I toyed with getting Ravel for $49, but...I just don't like it! I'm curious about the C-Suite noise reducer though...could be a single-coil lover's dream!

His story's pretty tragic 'other Craig' IIRC...he'd been very mentally ill for decades. Based on his wiki entry I suspect had he been tried ten years later, it would have been for involuntary manslaughter rather than murder.