PavlovsCat

Same and I will share the reason why. On 9/11, I was a strategy director for one of the companies with the highest number of employee deaths in the World Trade Center. I was alone in a room with our CEO just days after that day with a very long silence and he shared how Michael Dell had called him and offered to add another shift and stop all normal production and focus it exclusively on making laptops for our surviving WTC employees. Michael never tried to get publicity for doing that. Having advised, worked with and on partnerships and execs with some very well known brands (Apple, Google, Nike, etc), Michael Dell's going out of his way just out of decency is something I will always remember. Plus I don't have an NDA on that one and I don't think Michael would mind that story getting out. And that's the end of positive stories about billionaires from me! Hahaha.

Larry even beats developers to posting their own deals. Don't take it personally. We all have something of value to add to the mix, but Larry is surely the GOAT when it comes to posting deals. He's the Michael Jordan of posting deals. Whenever I post a thread with a deal I do a search and check the first and second pages and even then I get this sense that in the time it took me to do that Larry probably posted the same deal and some snarky newbie here is going to troll my thread! But DamienF, us long time forum members have empathy for anyone who posts a duplicate deal that Larry already posted. Just check first and then check again before posting! But getting beat by the best is nothing to be ashamed of. There's only one Michael Jordan who played in the NBA and only one cclarry in the Cakewalk Forum. At least you can say you were beat by the best!

Haha! During the period where it looked like Cakewalk was going to be history on jumped on the Studio One Professional -- or whatever their flagship version is called -- bought it -- although I didn't actually try it until a couple of years ago, and then I decided to stick with Cakewalk because I was already so familiar with Sonar -- going back to the first version and never used Studio One again (not because it isn't very good, it is, I am just more familiar with Cakewalk). As far as companies acquiring others, it is a huge question mark, but there's not much we, as consumers can do, especially when we're heavily invested in a certain ecosystem like I am with NI/KONTAKT. If NI decided to pitch KONTAKT, that would be huge for me. There are some excellent UVI libraries, but I am not in love with the user experience, so I am not as heavily invested. But my hope is that because the DAW and related market is pretty attractive, that this new company will invest in UVI beyond what the previous owners were doing and that it will result in better and additional UVI products. I would only see it as a positive if UVI continues to get better and has more libraries. And competition with NI benefits users greatly -- as it results in increased innovation and lower prices. So, I'm going to stay pragmatically hopeful that this will be good for UVI. I agree that InMusic is not a company that has a good track record with buying software companies, but isn't their leadership from the hardware side of the industry? At least that was what most of their early acquisitions were (music hardware brands). But Image Line is a software company with a good track record from what I understand, so that alone gives me more hope that they'll do a good job with UVI in terms of managing the software products.

I used FL Studio many, many years ago -- a couple of decades ago, actually -- and really liked the product, but when I stopped playing music for a time, I ended up staying with Sonar/Cakewalk and haven't followed Image Line in recent years. Hopefully, this will be good news for UVI. I own several UVI libraries, and while I don't love the user experience, it is a solid platform with some decent libraries, and I would very much like to see them continue to grow and improve it. I know that every post I've ever seen on this forum about Falcon has been very positive, so I'm definitely open to getting that at some point in the future.

Even considering our shared contempt for WUP, it's a great deal. I have most of these. They're very good plugins and that's a ridiculously low price.

Cool, Larry. I just checked out the photos. Now we need the stories!

Simone/Chocolate Audio is a top notch KONTAKT sample developer who has been making excellent KONTAKT libraries since KONTAKT's early days. I am a sucker for celestes/celestas and already own several celeste libraries, including a couple of Dulcitones (for anyone into Dulcitones, be sure to check out Sound Dust), so as much as this is a great deal from an excellent developer, I'm not sure if I'm going to pull the trigger, as I have this area fairly well covered. But to those not familiar with Chocolate Audio and contemplating getting this, CA makes excellent sample libraries as Fleer has stated above.

I love the sound of the effects and tone of his guitar and tongue drum. It truly sounds beautiful to my ears!

As this thread has turned into a discussion on spring reverb effects, I realized that I forgot one that is, at least for now, free. I've only used it on my Wurli libraries, but it sounds very good on them. It's from a new developer that goes by the name OSC Audio and will normally sell for $1 USD. I have no idea when the free offer will end, but this spring reverb sounds pretty good on my electric piano libraries and I'd happily have paid a buck for it. Note that this effect doesn't have any presets. https://oscaudio.gumroad.com/l/springVerb/IntroPrice

Welcome back, Larry. I'm looking forward to hearing about your adventures.

Welcome aboard. I think you'll find that this forum, while a smaller community, is a much more friendly and civil place than VI-CONTROL. The main moderator here, Wookiee, is very friendly and helpful. There's a zero percent chance of him lashing out or banning someone for a ridiculous reason. He's a regular community member, a volunteer, and a really kind and decent person who keeps everything running smoothly. You won't see shilling, personality cults and hanger ons, censorship related to advertising dollars and competitor resentment, vendetta threads filled with bullying and toxic culture dominating here like you do at VI-CONTROL. It's a very friendly, helpful forum culture. Hans Zimmer may not be here, but many super helpful and friendly musicians are. That's why I am so fond of this forum.

I didn't even remember that they had a spring reverb. Everything I have and know of from Arturia is excellent. Great recommendation! The demo on that landing page featuring the spring reverb on the drums -- labelled "dirty drive" -- sounds really cool!

I'm pretty happy with the spring reverb in Guitar Rig and now Softube's Spring Reverb, but I have found that there are some other very good spring reverbs out there (all of which cost more than $11 USD). Specifically, I've heard good things about Eventide Spring, AudioThing Springs and u-he Twangstrom. Hopefully someone who owns one of these -- or another one they find worth recommending -- will chime in. I have tried a number of free spring reverbs and didn't like most of them, but do like Lost in the 70s Devil Spring and Fuse Audio Labs' VREV-666, although the latter doesn't have any presets. https://lostin70s.com/plugins/DevilSpring https://fuseaudiolabs.com/#/pages/product?id=301009892 AudioThing Springs is currently on sale for $39 USD. https://www.audiothing.net/effects/springs/ u-he Twangstrom 69 € https://u-he.com/products/twangstrom/ Eventide Spring $99 USD https://www.eventideaudio.com/plug-ins/spring/

No, Mike Greene, the owner, absolutely didn't want the thread to disappear, he was very actively participating in the thread attacking 8Dio and a poster whose post Greene kept only to use him as example that Greeene mocked, bullied and asserted was an 8Dio shill. If you made a post to attack 8Dio, Troels or Tawnia, Greene kept it up. If you made a legitimate point counter to Greene's agenda, the post was deleted. He very quickly deleted posts of people objecting to the unfairness of what was going on -- presenting one-sided stories, each from people with very questionable backgrounds (they weren't disclosing they worked for a competitor -- and creating an angry mob that was completely disinterested in civility. He manipulated the conversation; he stacked the deck. It's ironic that they painted themselves so self-righteously as defenders of truth and objectors to bullying when the mob bullied anyone who disagreed or asked questions and Greene deleted virtually every post who made a post calling that out, poking holes in stories or criticizing him for allowing that thread to go on and then making it even uglier with his posts. I was getting PMed by two developers aghast at Greene doing this, concerned what would happen if they pulled their advertising from VI Control. Might Greene allow and even egg on a vicious attack against them and their business like that one? You could see posts people made objecting to the pitchforks and torches nature of the thread, objecting to the angry mob being egged on by the site owner, being very quickly deleted. I was chatting with two developers over the course of the thread and even made a series of posts where Mario and I had an intelligent dialogue. I brought up facts about the situation and how people were deliberately withholding some critical facts in the stories being told; that the thread wasn't seeking truth, but seeking to merely destroy 8Dio/Troels/Tawnia, just weeks after they pulled their advertising from VI Control due to an objection to Greene's censoring LGBTQ community members from criticizing a VI Control advertiser. It was incredibly disingenuous, with all of the main posters deliberately withholding very critical facts and Mike egging on a very hostile environment that wasn't looking for facts but to vilify 8Dio based on one sided, very spun stories. Mike deleted my three posts and PMed me that he didn't want side drama. I saw at least a dozen legitimate posts get deleted, all having one thing in common, they objected to the narrative/bias/sidedness of the thread. Greene himself posted that he deleted around 200 posts. It was, very much, his personal vendetta thread at 8Dio for pulling their advertising from the site and potentially inspiring other advertisers to leave in protest for Greene censoring discussion of Spitfire's co founder's controversial sharing of anti-trans disinformation and his own negative views on trans people. I'm surprised Mike didn't ban me for criticizing him. And, FTR, search my 8Dio/SoundPaint related posts here. I'm hardly what anyone would call a fanboy. In fact, I've been hyper critical. But that doesn't justify people being dishonest to attack the business and its owners or creating a hostile, toxic and bullying environment where people are encouraged to disparage, bully and libel 8Dio, Troels and Tawnia. That disgusts me. That thread wasn't seeking facts or a simple apology for alleged wrongs -- it was a vicious attack on a business and the individuals who run and own that business. It was a vendetta. Mike was very active in that VI-CONTROL vendetta thread, along with two Impact Soundworks contractors and the company's founder, which has a long history of unfriendly competition with 8Dio (I'm a customer of both companies, BTW). Although the OP withheld that information throughout the thread until Troels posted and brought it up -- and was then bullied by the angry mob. Mario was working for Impact Soundworks more than a decade ago when he made a post comparing / criticizing 8Dio's sample library ISW just created a competitor library -- it was, of course, pitching ISW's product as superior to 8Dio's and Troels became upset about it and apparently told Mario it was unethical for him to do a comparison thread considering that he was working for the competitor that made one of the libraries. And allegedly Troels told Mario that he could sue him for doing that (which is ridiculous, but Mario was worried about being sued). The original poster, who now works for ISW too, was furious that Troels rejected her pitch to buy her KONTAKT scripts for an old, retired 8Dio library that she made as a fan project and wanted more than $10,000 for. When Troels counteroffered that he couldn't justify her asking price and pitched her working on upcoming 8Dio libraries, Sarah was upset and thought they didn't offer her what she was worth and changed her thread from praising 8Dio and their sample libraries to attacking the company and making their libraries out to be hot garbage. The thread wasn't a quest for truth. It was a very deliberate effort to misrepresent stories in a very one sided manner, even excluding the fact that the OP works for an 8Dio competitor or Mike Greene disclosing what really happened with 8Dio just weeks before -- that they protested his censorship of an open discussion about his advertiser Spitfire and their co-founder Christian Henson. Greene posted that he deleted around 200 posts -- and I saw a bunch of them and one of the developers I was chatting with when the thread was active (a VI Control advertiser) saw a bunch of comments I didn't see, many that were civil and made good points. They all shared one element in common. They were critical of the one-sided attack and bullying nature of the thread. When people did voice disagreement or even question the one-sided nature of the thread, the crowd would bully them -- and in a couple of cases, Greene bullied a couple of people, quoting and mocking them. I've been managing and writing about managing digital marketing and social media for decades and that was easily the ugliest, most unethical abuse of a "legitimate" forum I've ever seen by a forum owner. Really disappointing. While every forum has bad actors -- as I would consider the person who started the thread -- it's a different story when one of the worst of the bad actors is the owner of the forum who runs the forum like an authoritarian and eggs on and engages in bullying of forum members. VI Control has the most toxic culture of any forum in this space, IMO.

I recorded this cover last year but struggled with mixing it until this weekend, where I was fairly happy with this mix (I don't know much about mixing and mainly do things by using my ears, so I'm sure there's a lot that can be improved, but it's much closer to what I wanted then my original mix). The song has deep emotional connections for me, so I always wanted to cover it. I welcome constructive criticism, especially with regards to mixing, an area I am fairly incompetent at.

It's a really nice, very interesting and creative piece of music, Wookiee. Thank you for sharing it and the story behind it, which makes the song even more powerful. Like you, I've turned to music as an emotional outlet since I was a young boy taking piano lessons. I have guesses, but I would be interested in learning more about your musical influences and your history as a musician and songwriter. Again, thank you for sharing your music and the story behind it.

What do you use it on (e.g., guitar, synths, strings, electric piano, etc.)?

I think that's a good point. Now that iLok doesn't require a physical dongle, it's not a dealbreaker for me, but I realize it is for some people. I completely forgot Softube uses iLok when I made the OP.

Ha! No doubt FabFilter makes great plugins based on the fact that a number of my musician and developer friends who really know their stuff keep telling me I should get them, but my budget says no.

Izotope's support people have been excellent over the probably 10+ years I've been a customer. But I agree with you regarding their targeting of loyalty offers, they consistently get it wrong in my experience. However, a related pro tip. I once bought one of their bundle packages from, I think it was JRR, and a month later a more expensive package went on sale for less than what I paid. When I contacted them to see if I could pay a little more and get the better package, they just upgraded my individual products to match the other bundle. On the downside, I don't get update pricing for that other bundle. However, when I see a great deal on that update, I'm going to contact Izotope and ask them if they'll let me qualify for update pricing since I have the same products and, based on past experience, I am expecting they will. So even with their downside of bad target marketing (more specifically, personalization, in this case), I really like dealing with them and think they make excellent products that, when on sale, are a great value.

After I bought Spring Reverb at Plugin Boutique (in order to get SoundShaper 3 as a freebie), I realized that I bought and completely forgot to install Trackspacer after a bunch of folks here recommended it! I now own Softube Dirty tape, FET Compressor, Saturation Knob, Spring Reverb, Tape and Transient Shaper (I own maybe 5 different transient shapers and I usually try all of them on drum tracks and always end up using the Softube one) and am very happy with every purchase, especially when I get a deal like this one. Count me as a Softube fan. I started with Tape several years ago but never bought anything else from them until a bunch of folks here started posting about how good their various effects are. I'm always open to checking into other devs people are impressed with. This forum has been extremely valuable for me in navigating effects developers.

I only own Eventide Quadravox, EQuivocate and UltraChannel, but I've only used Quadravox. I know I got Quadravox for free and I'm pretty confident that I got the other two free or very cheap. But I actually have never used EQuivocate and UltraChannel. I've seen a lot of positive posts about Eventide. What Eventide plugins would you recommend I check into (I think you're already aware, but I mainly do rock music, but I also do piano music, as it's my first instrument)?

So last night I realized that all of the Softube plugins on sale for $11 USD have demo versions and I did side-by-side comparisons with plugins of the same type I own from other developers. Here's my completely subjective thoughts after trying out the demos. I am definitely not an expert with effects and mixing, so you can take my opinions with a huge grain -- no, make that several grains -- of salt. If you're interested in any of these plugins, you should download and try them for yourself. But here are my thoughts, comparing the plugins to similar plugins I own: - Fix Phaser, Tube Delay and Spring Reverb are all very, very good plugins and a fantastic deal for the sale price. However, I didn't find Tube Delay was compelling enough to win me over when compared to the plugins I already own, largely because I don't think I would give it much use. I'm not totally sure about Fix Phaser --- I really like it and was comparing it largely to NI's Phasis. While I like the sound of Fix Phaser's presets over those of Phasis, I really don't think I would use the effect very much, so even at the current low sale price, I'm going to hold off on buying Fix Phaser. - The one effect I feel I will get a lot of use out of and am going to buy is Softube's Spring Reverb. I tried it with Orange Tree Samples Evolution Jazz Archtop Electric Guitar and it had a different character than the spring reverb in Guitar Rig -- cleaner -- and I really liked it a lot. While spring reverbs naturally sound retro, there is something about Softube's Spring Reverb that sounds retro, but updated -- especially when used in moderation. However, what really sold me was when I tried the Spring Reverb on my Wurli 145B sample library from Skybox Audio . That was it. The perfect combination, IMO. If you are a Wurli fan, you really should try the demo of Spring Reverb on your Wurli. It's a 10/10. Plus, $11 USD for very high quality plugins and no such thing as a Softube Update Plan???? Sign me up! If you're even mildly interested in these plugins, I would strongly recommend going to Softube's site and trying the demos out for yourself, but make your purchase at Plugin Boutique's site. While Softube has their Spring Verb on sale for $11USD at their website, the same price as Plugin Boutique (for that plugin, the other two on sale at PIB are not on sale at Softube's site), if you buy from Plugin Boutique, you'll get Cableguy's Soundshaper 3 as a free gift. Based on the posts I've seen about that plugin and a Sound on Sound review, it's well worth picking up. In fact, I'd say that it's a crazy good deal. https://www.softube.com/sr

Thanks for your help @msmcleod. I went through all of those steps in a previous post here, but tried them again just in case and unfortunately had no success. I did try the polarity switch on my pedal early on, but had no success. However, I just tried it again and something different happened than I noticed before. The sustain turned and stayed on when I played my MIDI controller. While the sustain pedal mechanically works properly, when after I flipped the polarity switch, pressed the sustain pedal down and the sustain came on and pressing it again doesn't turn it off or have any effect -- the sustain is now always on (I have a piano library loaded in KONTAKT, so there's sustain on everything I play that can't be turned off). When I flip the polarity swtich back, the sustain turns off. Any guesses what might be going on?

Softube plugins on sale for as much as 88% off at Plugin Boutique. Fix Phaser, Tube Delay and Spring Reverb are each on sale for only $11 USD. SEEKING PLUGIN ADVICE: I became a Softube fan a few years ago after a bunch of you posted how much you like their plugins, and your advice was excellent. Thanks. I've since bought several of their plugins and been completely happy with every one of them and they don't have an update plan! Imagine that?! Consequently, I'm eager to buy more when I see a sale like this with Fix Phaser, Tube Delay and Spring Reverb each on sale for only $11 USD, I could use advice on whether these effects are different/better than the ones included in Guitar Rig. I love spring reverbs -- especially to go after that 60s Motown sound of electric guitar. If anyone has one of the three effects on sale for $11 USD, especially if they can compare it to alternatives like Guitar Rig, I'd love to get your thoughts. There really isn't much risk in spending 11 bucks, but I just want to make sure that there's a good reason to use it over what I already own. https://www.pluginboutique.com/manufacturers/125-Softube?s=published