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Voltage Modular is a good first dip, and $19 is a no-brainer for starters. I bit on the upgrade to VM Core + Electro Drums from that one a while back, so buckle up! Cherry offers a discounted upgrade path to bundles based on products you already have. True loyalty, unlike some other companies we know and love! ? Voltage Modular Bundle Comparison https://cherryaudio.com/products/voltage-modular-bundle-comparison Here's a video from Venus Theory as he explains the basics of patching in VM. Have no fear! VM Ignite comes with over 265 presets to play, so no need to stare at a blank canvas for the first dip, LOL!

That's a good plan to get the sample content off your main drive. I also have a 500GB SSD "C:" system drive, and I try to keep it lean as possible with just Windows, my documents, my applications, & plugin VST files. All downloaded libraries and content folders get installed to my secondary internal 2TB SSD "D:" drive. Then I use 2 external HDD drives to make backups, one for daily system drive images, and another for weekly content drive images. These auto backup jobs run at night while I am sleeping. All safe and secure.

*.pak are the sample files, and *.st3i and *.st4i files are the instrument preset files.

The IK plugin downloads NEVER expire in your account. Always available. The sound content is the part that does expire. A lot of the companies that you list do not specialize in large sample libraries. So that is a big difference. Besides, paying one time $10 (or less with Jam Points) is cheaper than me buying another hard drive to archive hundreds of GB's of sample downloads on, in the rare event that I would ever need to recover them.

The individual Syntronik 2 instruments all fully work with the free Syntronik CS version. I have two of them already! No need to buy anything except 1 instrument! Let the games begin! And I took a look at the Syntronik 2 V-80 today in Syntronik 2 CS. The Edit panel show numerous available wavesets!

They also have a chat widget on their website to interact with support.

@Reid RosefeltThat's just the way KORG Software Pass works. It's a license manager and downloader, but not an installer. You need to run the downloaded installers yourself. On my computer it drops the installers into a folder named "KORG Software Pass".

Yes, indeed! Good choice!

+1 what David said ^^^

If you don't have Serum, you could probably follow along with the tutorial using the free Vital synth.

Probably not a coincidence. Competition in the 70's maybe? Moog Co released the first Minimoog in 1970. 3 VCO monophonic analog synthesizer. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimoog The miniKORG is a two VCO monophonic analog synthesizer that was released in 1972 from Korg. It featured 37 keys, three ring modulators and built in analogue effects. It has wooden side panels and all the controls for the unit are not on the front panel but on the side facing the player. It was considered to be stable, affordable and sounded great. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korg_miniKORG

Just join the Group Buy and be happy!

KORG are a bit similar to IK. You are better off with their bundles. Upgrades for them are regularly forthcoming. But if you own a few singles, not as much love for their customers...

Phase Plant is probably the best non-vintage synth available. But with the "Hardwire" preset expansion bank, it even does vintage analog well!

Yep, got the first email to verify my email. That took overnight. Replied to that one. Now I'm waiting for a second email with the code. Since it took a good while to get the first, I'm expecting more of the same. Maybe their servers are getting hammered due to the Humble deal and/or this giveaway? Tip: check you spam folder. I use gmail and the first one ended up in there.

I see a sort of functional parallel between MNTRA and Soundpaint. Sound sculpture instruments vs. Soundpaint instruments. Morphing. Hmmm... ? Both are fun to play! Maybe the two should join forces? Soundpaint had some bugs during their initial launch, but eventually got that under control. Bet they could up MNTRA's game a bit. In any case the samples sound great!

Ditto! How many compressors and EQ's and channel strips am I realistically going to need? Seriously! Scheps Omni is my usual go-to for the above, and the results are usually decent. If I need a quick master, I just slap on either Ozone 9 Advanced, or IK Lurssen. Instant goodness. For outboard FX on a synth track, I always reach for IK MixBox first. I know, I'm lazy, and should really spend more time learning how to engineer, mix and master properly... ?

Same here. Ditto! I have the Waves Abbey Road collection, and the H-Series, as well as the instrument collection. Plus a few one-offs that I got either for free, or for $29. Scheps Omni Channel is killer! But I don't see adding much more Waves in the future, or upgrading WUP. Because with all the IK stuff that I now have, such as MixBox, T-RackS 5, and Amplitube 5, don't really need many more effects! Oh, yeah, forgot to mention that I also have the iZotope Music Production Suite. So I'm pretty well set, and it's time to be just like Bapu and collect Toontrack MIDI packs!!! ?

Don't overthink it.

320/ 5 Free!

That's good to know that it works in Affinity Photo. I have that, but really haven't used it much. I've mostly used Photoshop Elements. I had the full version of Photoshop years ago, but gave it up when Adobe went subscription only. Elements (perpetual license) gets me a quick edit when I need it!

Pete's cool, but the Italians (IK) seem to be having difficulty keeping up with the French (Arturia) and Germans (Native Instruments)!!! IMO, they all make great products, but there is always room for improvement in treating the loyal customers well!

I noticed that the new plugin version seemed to have trouble recalling the paths to the samples folders, even after I reconnected them, and reloaded the plugin. When I uninstalled and rolled back to the previous version, I still had to reconnect them, but the paths were remembered after. All good now!