Canopus

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.

1 hour ago, Deidre Rodriguez said:

Good to know about iLok, thanks! So, I could run World Suite 3 in Cakewalk or do I need to run it in the UVI workstation and then transfer it to Cakewalk? Or is there a way to open the WS3 library within Cakewalk?

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.

15 minutes ago, Deidre Rodriguez said:

I was just concerned with the fact that the World Suite 3 required a UVI workstation and a iLok account (assuming this is an Apple thing?). I didn't want to download it and then run into issues. My band mate who produces all of our music on Cakewalk mentioned looking for things that are VST3 and PC native, which World Suite doesn't seem to be.

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.

7 hours ago, sjoens said:

And the strange status field hieroglyphics are back [...]

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.

2 hours ago, Sock Monkey said:

So far this month I've had about 12 crashes. Prior to that it was very very rare!  I really don't usually have any issues with Cakewalk or now Sonar. 

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.

6 hours ago, OliverKool said:

Yes, I do mean a list of favorites. But I also thought that drag and drop would be cool. We already drag effects. 

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.

1 hour ago, d-zone said:

where from? The 50% isn't off everything, as the Everything Bundle is showing full price for me.....

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:

1 hour ago, reginaldStjohn said:

Todays deals

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

Additional items added today to the sale.

Some might call me mad, but I just bought the Addictive Drums 2 Complete Collection. Yup, I went all in.

But, to be fair, I already had everything AD2 except  the "Dead Beats & Songs" MIDI pak, so the price was pretty reasonable.

47 minutes ago, ZincT said:

It probably goes without saying, but some of these might work out cheaper at 3rd parties such as JRR, Bestservice, AudioDeluxe etc.

Absolutely. But when the price difference between buying directly from the manufacturer, and buying from a third-party vendor, is very small, I prefer to buy directly from the manufacturer. After all, if I like their products and want more of the same kind, I’m dependent on the manufacturer being profitable enough to stay in business. As for third-party vendors, there are many of them, and if one folds up, there’s another one just around the corner. They normally don’t add any value, except for maybe some odd freebie you don’t really have any need for and soon will forget that you’ve installed. If you even install it.

Having said that, if there’s a significant price difference, I go for the lowest price. There’s a limit to my altruism.

Additional items added today to the sale.

14 minutes ago, Joya Ali said:

Cakewalk has great features for a free DAW, but it's known for being buggy and sometimes unintuitive.

It is? Wow, thanks for telling us. I’ve used it since its launch back in 2018 and never noticed that. Hadn’t it been for your valuable insights, I still wouldn’t have known. Gosh, what an eye-opener!

Toontrack has today announced Two Weeks of Deals. New deals launched Monday through Friday the first week and on selected days the week after. All offers available from day of launch through December 2, 2024.

Today's highlight: Four EZmix packs for 14€ each.

The sale at AudioDeluxe seems to be valid for less than 48 hours. Regular price is $59. This offer is currently not available at UVI. You also get AudioThing Valves for free with purchase at AudioDeluxe (regular price $59).

https://www.audiodeluxe.com/products/audio-plugins/uvi-dual-delay-x

Dual Delay X represents a unique approach to spatial delay, using unitary rotation and reflection matrices similar to those of the feedback delay networks found in reverbs, but tuned for longer discrete echoes.

12 hours ago, Alan Tubbs said:

Nobody I know likes the subscription model.  Yet the #1 DAW is sub based - Pro tools.

Avid offer two different licenses; subscription and perpetual.

And if that won’t be enough, you can loan half a mill from me as well.

Hard to say what’s right; high margins, few sales, or low margins, many sales. Well, the latter has worked pretty well for companies such as IKEA, so why not KORG? After all, they both have four-letter company names spelled in capital letters.

Still doesn’t work for me. Logging in through Korg ID, fetching the code from "Offers from Korg", but no.

But I was mostly interested to see if the price for me was still $199, having two Korg Collection instruments. It probably would be. At $99 it would be an instabuy, at $149 I might give it a serious thought, but at $199 it would simply be too much.