Canopus

Welcome home, Larry! Hm, haven’t I said that once before?

The voucher amount doesn’t seem to be as large as it used to only a few years ago. I also got a €40/$40 voucher yesterday, but considering my purchases last year, I had honestly expected more. Well, it’s valid until January 31. Maybe some interesting deal will show up until then. Otherwise, it will at least cover the purchase of a UVI Falcon expansion.

The first thing for you to do, would be to install the UVI Portal from here. That’s the software that manages the installation of all UVI plugins and libraries. You can read more in the pdf document here. Skip everything that’s said about about SonicPass, as that’s UVI’s all-encompassing subscription program. Instead, look at the parts that talks about permanent licenses, as I assume that would be the route for you to go in order to get World Suite 3. As you haven’t got UVI Workstation already installed, you need to install that one on your PC first. Once UVI Portal is installed and started, you can download and install UVI Workstation from there. If you’re using Cakewalk by BandLab, you might choose to install UVI Workstation to C:\Program Files\Cakewalk\VST Plugins\UVI. Read more about UVI Worktation in this pdf. As you don’t have an iLok account, you can create that as well from inside UVI Portal. Look at the instructions on page 6 in the UVI Portal pdf. If you then would like to buy, say, UVI World Suite 3, you do that at https://www.uvi.net/en/world/world-suite-3.html, or possibly some third-party vendor. Of course, you would need to create your own account at UVI, as this would be the first time. Once purchased, you would then refresh UVI Portal, and that library would turn up, ready to be installed. Once everything is installed, when you start Cakewalk by BandLab (CbB) the next time, it would by default scan your specified plugin paths. If you have chosen my recommended path above, everything should work automatically and UVI Workstation would turn up among your installed plugins. Then you can simply create a new instrument track inside a new Cakewalk project, select UVI Workstation as your instrument, and UVI World Suite 3 would be available among your soundbanks inside. Double-click your library/soundbank and the GUI would open. And, hey presto.

UVI Workstation has a very long history and is a well-established VST3 plugin. World Suite 3 is a library that runs inside the free UVI Workstation, much like Native Instruments Kontakt is a VST3 plugin where Kontakt libraries can be loaded and run. Indeed, UVI Workstation requires iLok, just as all commercial plugins have some sort of copy protection, but iLok nowadays doesn’t require a USB dongle. I’ve personally used both UVI Workstation and iLok for ten years without ever running into any sort of trouble. Also, iLok is in no way specifically related to Apple; it works on both PC and Mac computers.

Yes, the Control Surface Status field hieroglyphics seem to be a never-ending issue. I think I’ve mentioned the problem when using the Nektar Impact Control Surface on multiple occasions, but I’ve never got any reaction. There’s probably a null character missing or ignored somewhere, either located in the DLL or in the Cakewalk code. Today it looks like this on my computer; from left to right: Sonar, CbB, and SONAR Platinum: Nice, and it’s always good to know when the Control Surface Status is "0□,0¨↑+□□□□,©0□□+□□□□7<□□□”, but I really don’t know what to do with that information. And every time it's different. The good thing is that it doesn’t have any impact (no pun intended) on the functionality. And, for sure, it does add a bit of crunch and character to the Control Bar.

Yesterday both Sonar and CbB crashed on me. Sonar 2024.12 didn’t even start (I tried three times), while CbB 2024.12 did start but crashed as soon as I pressed Ctrl+N to create a new project. So, I updated my Visual C++ Redistributable package from here, and everything just started to work again. I don’t know if it was the 2024-12 Cumulative Update for Windows 10, or the BandLab installers, or a combination of those, that wreaked havoc on my system, but regardless; the redist update certainly fixed the problems on my computer.

While waiting for that, you could always create your own Plug-In Menu Layout and call it something like "My Coolest Instruments". That way, even drag-and-drop will work. Something like this:

I try to only update every fourth version or so of Komplete, like going from K10U to K14U. True, that way I won’t get a megazillion of new Expansions each year, but I couldn't care less. It saves me a lot of money. The only exception was back in 2019 when I purchased an upgrade from K10U to K12CE. The reason being there were indications at that time NI was considering going subscription. As software subscriptions are a definite no-no for me, I decided to get the latest and greatest as a perpetual license while it was still possible. Thankfully, I was later proved wrong; NI came to their senses.

The Complete Collection appears to be the only thing excluded from that deal. As for me, I would normally have paid €9.97 for that one missing MIDI Pak, but when upgrading to the Complete Collection, I got it for €6.84. I don’t know why I got that offer, but probably because there was so little remaining.

... and the final deals, covering all the way from EDM through Country to Metal. As previously stated, all offers in this thread are available until December 2, 2024.

Additional items have been added to the sale. Today's highlights:

Additional items have been added to the sale. Today's highlights:

To me it seems like 8dio have gone for really big bundles this year. Sure, they are selling them at low prices, but if you already have a couple of 8dio choirs, the incentive to fill up with two or three more, even at a good price, might not be immediately obvious. Well, at least not to me. You're basically paying for something you partially already have. Same with strings, brass, woodwinds, hybrid, cinematic, or whatever, mega bundles. The only thing I’ve bought from 8dio recently is Clocks, lots of them, for $7. You can’t get that many clocks for such a low price even if you walk along the beach promenade of some tourist resort.

And for all those of us that haven't got overworldly self control, here's today's additional deals:

Thanks Reginald! I was travelling all day today so I'm glad that you helped spread the word.