Marc Cormier

I can't wait to dig into Total Studio 2 Max.

The Mr. Ed post came right after mine and I had NO idea what it meant except maybe "I'm going to break out the popcorn." After that thought left me, I tried putting together a search string that would help me find out what it meant but I had no idea where to start.... Hey, look! We made the topic "Hot!"

Thanks, Peter. Truth is, I understand some of Fitzroy's frustration but I'd be more angry about my government calling ANY tax "Value Added!!!"

Even though I haven't benefited directly, Peter's been more helpful to a handful of folks on this forum with one post than all 7 of yours. I'm saying that as an IK customer that is not at all happy with them for other reasons but your posturing is totally whack.

I agree on all counts about letting us know what's going on but also imagine you're limited in what you can say here, Drew. As I tell my team: "better to underpromise and overdeliver." I'm impatient, too. I've had SD3, Slate, AD2, all the Studio Drummers, etc. and I either sold them or don't use them. If BFD3 remained (relatively) stable, I'd be a happy to carry on using it exclusively....but I could really do without the temptation to jump ship when there's innovation and future-proofing happening with other platforms...and a spam filter full of their promotions saying so. In summary: I'm thrilled to hear you've landed on your feet. Without the quality of the drums/samples, I'd have moved to SD3 permanently-ish. I will start a BFD3 upgrade quarter jar as soon as my pay cut goes away. Congrats on the news, Drew.

Still prefer BFD samples to SD3. Shame if this means the end of further development but we'll see. I was initially encouraged by the recent beta release but unless it was to support some larger coding initiative it basically told me that there is little new in terms of redesign coming.

Thanks, Larry and Christian. No worries - if I like it enough I might just "forget" to cancel on purpose.

Do you have to give your credit card info or is there another way to get access? I can't see any option to sign up or create an account otherwise.

The arranger track alone makes me think about coming back to Cakewalk.

Thanks for the comments! I've used OwnHammer and Redwirez IRs to modify the sound with varying degrees of success like you outline in your post, Piotr. I find it helps smooth some of the harshness in presets I've made and in others it takes too much energy out of the sound so I keep the original cab in the Rig. Like you mention, Soundwise, I'm just not sure if there's a better version of the Rigs for use with IRs since they're creating amp-only presets but maybe we'll get more clarity from Overloud along the way... It's all about the sound and I find something good in each of the libraries thus far - but rarely as they're designed in the presets, especially for higher-gain sounds.

I've been hearing various comments about having true separation between the amp and cab part of the modeling. Some of the new Rigs come as "amp only" where you add your own IR to the signal chain. I can only assume doing this purposefully is better/more accurate than disabling part of the pre-baked signal chain in rigs that are not natively separate?

I'm tapped out for Rigs. Just picked up the Mesa Petrucci pack and then more show up. Not sustainable. At least with groups like STL, the presets for their ToneHub are named and known. I'm also annoyed that the earlier Rig Libraries didn't include amp-only models that worked better with 3rd party IRs.

Got it. Downloaded. Thanks, Larry!

Just heard from Enrique...they're days away: "Hi Marc, GM3 is a project that involves more work than the two we just released, and improvements are being implemented to achieve a greater realism, we are a few days away from releasing its final version, thank you for your patience. " In the mean time, they've released something free and something new. I'll quit my griping.

Would be nice if they finished up Grind Machine III since they offered a pre-release offer.

I reported a couple of issues 2 months ago, and haven't gotten a response from ROLI other than the initial "we're really busy and will set back as soon as we can" message. Anyone heard anything about why the installer was updated? I'm not going to bother unless there's a reason to.

I downloaded the free version as well and I kinda like it. Won't replace BFD3 but I finally can map kits a bit easier and use the Chris Lord Alge kit without having to wait 10 minutes for it to load. I didn't think it would allow me to do that, but its working. Yeah, free is good and this is an improvement over Platinum 4...but I don't think I'll upgrade. Aaaaand there's the BFD3 50% off sale at JRR. That's what I'll spend the $50 on.

That Tundra sale got me hooked. Bad.

From the Izotope site: NIMBUS by Exponential Audio NIMBUS offers even more precise control over the pristine, natural reverb first introduced by PhoenixVerb. Authentic, classic tone meets filter mechanics, compression, overdrive, tempo-syncing, and warp effects, so you’re sure to have the perfect reverb for your music.

It does work! Thanks, Kite!

We have our own health issues every Black Friday...or when Larry disappears for too long.

Great prices on those Frozen Plains plugs. Nabbed a couple.

Those XChange packs have come in handy at times. I got the Producer Pack late last year for $60 which included Groove 3 annual pass and S1 2 Pro which I promptly sold. If they do it again at the same time next year I may jump on it again for another year of Grrove 3 and something else to sell to recoup the cost. Glad to hear they came through for you.

I got my ATH-M50X cans on Groupon, of all places. $99 w/free shipping.