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Interesting... I have VA3 and Chromaphone 3, but have never seen the Ableton versions is use. Only have Live 10 Standard. So that's one less excuse to upgrade to Suite, LOL!!

Which are made by AAS?

If you're into VCV Rack (the free Eurorack simulator) https://vcvrack.com/, there are 22 Surge FX modules available for VCV. https://library.vcvrack.com/SurgeRack

On Windows , the Download Manager downloads the installer files to a dedicated folder (on my PC, "C:\Users\username\Downloads\IK Product Manager"), and unzips them, and then installs them from there. When IK DM is all done installing, I empty that folder out and move the zipped installers to my archive drive. That frees up the folder on the SSD that the Download Manager uses for downloading, installing.

That $295USD upgrade deal was what Ableton offered to me directly when logged into my account. I assume that may have included the 20% off, because there was a notice to that effect on the same page. My price to upgrade directly at release to Live 11 Standard is $159, or to Live 11 Suite is $379. I really don't need most of what Suite offers, and would only consider that if I really wanted the extra instruments + effects. Otherwise Live 10/11 Standard is good enough for me. As with the other DAWs I use, I mainly stick with 3rd party instruments and effects. I don't like to be locked into one system.

Hmmm... Upgrade from Live 10 Standard to Live 10 Suite for $295. Then get free upgrade to Live 11.

The 50% off deal is for individual instruments, effects, and sound banks only. Not for collections.

Don't feel bad! There are certain workflows that Live does well that not many other DAWs can come close to. Nothing says you have to stick to one DAW. Craig Anderton used to work for Gibson/Cakewalk, and was very active on the old Cakewalk forums. He described how he used Live and Studio One, as well as Cakewalk. He recommended using the best tool for any particular job at hand. In his case he preferred Live for live use, and Studio One for it's mastering features. Use what works for you!

I wouldn't say awful, but there is a lot of room for improvement! At least ST4 is resizable now! And the sounds... The ST3 UI was awful...

ST4 CS will show icons for all of the IK sample libraries available, but they may not all be unlocked. It can include the ST3 core libraries and add-ons, as well as Syntronik and Miroslav instruments if you already have them. The locked items will show a padlock icon overlay in the ST4 UI, and those owned, but not yet downloaded, will have a down arrow overlay.

I have heard that the best cure for that problem is to just create a small palette (collection) of usable sounds in various categories such as synths, basses, drums, piano, etc., and just work with them at the beginning. Save the sound design for the final stage after you are done composing and arranging.

If you go here, you will see an "Upgrades" link, right below the "Add to Cart" button. https://www.waves.com/bundles/abbey-road-collection#legendary-analog-sound-abbey-road-collection Then on the next page, click "Upgrade now". You will see a list of recommended bundle upgrades. If you click on "Customize upgrade" on any available upgrade, you will see all the discount details for that one. Down at the bottom, there is a link for "Buying from your local dealer?" that you can click on to have Waves email a dealer code for the bundle discount that you can use at a reseller.

Yup, exactly!!! ?

With ST4 Max, you also get all of the ST3 stuff included, so that's a pretty full palette of sounds to begin with, and they all utilize the new ST4 UI. Although there are two versions of the editor UI embedded, while very similar, some new editor UI features only work with the ST4 library. The samples for the new ST4 instruments are excellent, and have become my new go-to. However, some are rather large in size, so plan on buying an SSD for your samples to speed up loading times. They didn't replace all of the ST3 instruments, however, the new ST4 instruments augment them. Agree that it's now quite a useful bread and butter workstation!

Both plugins are included in the Abbey Road Collection, for $185 get 'em all! https://www.bestservice.com/abbey_road_collection.html Or if you have some of them already, get an upgrade to the full collection at Waves based on what you already own. Or Waves will provide an upgrade code that you can use at a reseller.

I took this Deluxe upgrade a few days ago. Since I already had two copies of Syntronik standard, I'm not sure which one got upgraded. Why did I have 2 copies of Syntronik? Because buying another Syntronik crossgrade last year got me into the IK 4 for free group buy, that's why!

And I will add that if you ever do use notation, that the Notion 6 integration into S1 v5 works well. You can send your song data either way now, no need to use rewire. And S1 now has the score view built in as an option to the piano roll, similar to Cakewalk's staff view, but based on a cut down version of Notion.

In the same boat as a Cakewalk user for 20 years and a paid Sonar Platinum for lifer, except when it died I jumped to Studio One Pro 3 (they offered a cheap "crossgrade" deal at the time). Also upgraded an ancient v5 copy of Ableton Live to v9 just in case while it was still eligible...the nice folks at Ableton still willing to grandfather my old license! There is a learning curve to S1, but I am learning it bit by bit. I've kept up with the upgrades to v4 and v5, I like what PreSonus has added in the newer versions, but I always wait for a sale. Thanks Larry! But since Cakewalk was reborn, it's been hard to leave it behind. When I want to do something quickly, without reaching for a manual, I turn to Cakewalk. Muscle memory I guess, LOL. The bakers have done a remarkable job in cleaning up and improving it!

Well, that was just an ironic coincidence that the score I tested with only had 18 tracks/staves. I wasn't aware that 18 was the apparent limit. So, I just grabbed another score, this time with 24 staves. Opened the .mid in Cakewalk, viewed all 24 staves in staff view, and then exported the .xml with all 24 staves accounted for. This was using the latest 2021.01 version of Cakewalk. So I assume that limit was regarding an older version of Cakewalk?

Ample is well known around here. They make quality stuff. Their free P-Bass is really good too, and I bought their 5-string bass. Don't have any of their electrics yet.

I just tested the MusicXML export from Cakewalk with 18 tracks, and it got them all. I had first opened up a classical MIDI score in Notion 6.8, "Haydn - Symphony 104 - I Allegro.mid", that I had obtained from Notion's score library - complete pieces, and exported it as a .mid file. Then after opening it up in Cakewalk and saving as a .cwp file, I did a select all in track view, opened the staff view, and exported as MusicXML. All 18 selected tracks were included in the MusicXML export file. Opened that up in Notion and tested the playback. All of the expression was gone. I'm not an expert in this, but it was obvious that while the note and instrument info was still there on the tracks, all the tempo, dynamics, ties, and many other important marking features in the score were lost in the round trip. And if you open up Cakewalk's MusicXML export in a text editor, you can see that it's still on v2.0, and not the latest. I also suppose that much of that score info was lost in the MIDI export translation. Out of curiosity, I exported the same score from Notion as a MusicXML file, and then imported it into Overture 5. At first glance side by side, the score appears to have remained mostly intact with MusicXML > MusicXML.

The VCF3 aka EMS VCS3 from 1969, is really kewl. "Dark side of the Moon", and "Dr Who", etc. Of course, Arturia has the Synthi/VCS3 model in Analog Lab and the V Collection.

That new font is free and available to be used in any notation product that wants it.

Sibelius may be in treble...

The product lead for MuseScore (with a background in typography and iconography) describes how he created the new default music font style for MuseScore 3.6. Very interesting... Gives a short history of the DOS program Score, that inspired the new font, and also mentions hand engraving of the past.