Carl Ewing

Mega sale season is just around the corner. Buy nothing in October!

Have they ever done Lifeline Console Lite as a freebie? Maybe it's too new. I think a lot of people that have Expanse are probably waiting for Console to be promo'd.

Minimum spend $34? They are really trying to sharpen this algorithm for maximum engagement. Soon it will be "MEGA-$26.77665-SALE voucher. Minimum spend $33.87654"

You can tell they are catering this 7 update to people who never do much else other than click on library defaults. See pretty picture, click on instrument you like and move along. The endless UI / UX problems with Kontakt for anyone who goes beyond this (scripting, sampling, mixer, routing, etc.) look untouched. Which is incredible, because they've been awful for 10+ years and still haven't improved. It's unfortunate, as their have been some excellent UI / UX improvements to Reaktor and other NI synths that have never made it over to Kontakt. Uggh. Looks like they made Quickload of non licensed libraries even more convoluted. Yay. At least we get enormous high DPI instrument panels with 90% wasted space, while doing complex drum routing will still use the 8pt font and teeny pull down menus.

If you have Ultimate CE13, here's what's new: Kontakt 7 Choir - Omnia Action Strings 2 Ashlight Lores Playbox Sequis Piano Colors Session Guitarist - Electric Vintage Session Bassist - Prime Bass World Series - East Asia Session Guitarist - Picked Nylon Session Guitarist - Electric Mint 40s Very Own Drums 40s Very Keys Ignition Keys Play Series - Soul Sessions Play Series - Empire Breaks Play Series - Glaze Play Series - Deft Lines (i think is new) Play Series - Melted Vibes Knifonium Ozone 10 Standard BX_Console N BX_Limiter True Peak BX_Console Focusrite SC BX_CrispyTuner Unfiltered Audio LO-FI-AF And about 30 new / additional expansions (103 total) Ain't nobody should be complaining about this lol. That is an absolutely enormous update, especially for $250 when it's eventually on sale.

Have extensive UAD collection. Been without my Octo card for a while due to working mobile, and lack of non-Thunderbolt support on their Apollo interfaces. Have replaced almost everything I had on the UAD platform...for like 1/10th of the price I original purchased the UAD plugins. There is almost no reason to stay in that ecosystem unless you're invested in the hardware. Even the Spark sub isn't appealing, considering the PA sub is the similar price, has a far more diverse / extensive collection (many of which are in UAD collection), and they give a bunch of free plugins with sub. Having said that, if I can access my UAD plugins that I already own for free via Spark - and not need a subscription - then it'll be nice to get the LA2A collection back, as it's my favorite emulation. Everything else has been replaced.

VST3 seems to be buggy. The Flip EQ was not displaying EQ changes in the graph. Installed VST2 and it works correctly. Not sure if it's the whole bundle, but found UI issues for VST3 in a couple of them. (Cubase - Windows 10)

Yep. Love it. Much more versatile than many low end plugins like Waves Submarine, Subsynth, Bassador, etc. In my opinion anyway. Although they all have their uses...BassMint just has a few more features that are great for fx work. Although it doesn't replace Submarine for me, as Submarine does some exceptionally cool stuff in the 20hz range.

Really too bad. Absynth has never been eclipsed in terms of modulation / envelope control over audio source material. It's probably one of the best samplers (and granular sample engines) and sound design tools ever built, and still used extensively in film sound design and scoring. It's a great example of very very high level experimental synthesis and software engineering. Such a great companion to Reaktor too. Sad day. I know many people that will keep running that synth for a very very long time.

Will definitely check them out. Very very curious to hear the Precious MTMs. I will buy them on the spot if they live up to the claims. Maybe they'll do a promo where you buy a pair and they throw in Total Studio.

"Beats sound at three times the price." So that's $2400 pair for Precision MTM. So at 3x, we're talking superior to the Ocean Way HR4 8"s, or Pro3 7s, ATC SCM20 pros, or Genelec S360 SAM 10s, and the Focal Trio11 Be 10s. I'm going to say....I don't believe you're marketing people. Lol.

Same. It's a much needed improvement to v1.

NVM - checked with support.

You aren't running NASA. Professional composer for 26 years. Built my own systems most of that time. It isn't difficult. Knowing how to build and maintain my own systems, knowing each part that is in the machines I use, means I have zero downtime and require zero technical support. Ever. It saves me time and money over and over again. Meanwhile, colleagues that pay "premium" (and I said premium as a joke, I clearly meant "ripped off") to have systems built for them are CONSTANTLY calling me for technical help, because they can't be bothered to learn their own systems. Always wondering if there system is running correctly / efficiently. Never sure if a problem is software or hardware. When a problem occurs in the middle of the night, they have no idea how to diagnose and fix the problem. Because they don't understand what's in their machines. Don't understand the operating system, or how peripherals are interacting with the OS. And rely on other people to maintain critically important parts of their business, and hope those people are available when a problem occurs. You basically just advocated for a composer to outsource their technical expertise to someone that is NOT in the studio. If you have an in-house technician, then sure, outsource away. But outsourcing that expertise to someone 1000s of miles away is going to cost you A LOT money and time in the long run. Composing / producing music is a technical and creative job. You can't ignore the technical part and expect to be efficient.

I could really care less. Someone's waaaay overcharging for parts then I'll call them on it. But comments like these - which seem to come every time I point out something is overpriced here - is probably why every musician I know is broke. These aren't your friends. They run a business. They want your money. The more the better. And ya - it's 2022. Maybe in 2005 you needed someone to help you build a system, because so many parts had compatibility issues. Literal children can build high end systems today. Shit, pcpartpicker will hold your hand and tell you exactly what you need and automatically flag problems in your build. Building a DAW system today is child's play. The only thing that might be a challenge for some is delidding or pasting the CPU. But you don't need to pay a $2000 premium on a $3000 machine for the service. People charging those premiums are just straight up assholes - I don't care how much charm and salesmanship they use to get people to overpay. That applies to Apple or small businesses.

I'm surprised Klang isn't more popular. I don't hear about it much, but there are some very unique / cool instruments in that collection.

Spitfire's app is notorious for breaking installations, even when the content isn't moved. Literally 100s of posts about this on their forum. Shit, I just opened the app and it says half of my Labs aren't installed, but they all are, and they all work fine. The App is trash.

Finally might grab Hammers. Excellent sale.

And there it is. All month's sale items back to sale price for 2 days. Lol.

They almost always put everything that was on sale over the last month back on sale for a day or two for a final (till next week) hurrah. I always get that "if case you missed it, this is your last chance!! omg, never again!" email every bi-annual sale.

Why would I be mad at cheap plugins? Lol. You can always go buy way more expensive plugins (that do the same thing) from other companies. Shit, if you're really mad, you can buy many PA plugins at the UAD store for 10x the price any time you want.

Ya - going to use my $200 sub voucher on this I think. Can pick up 11 of the 15 that I want to own including 5 amp sims. Crazy.

Waiting for a sale on Hammers. Hopefully Christmas lol. Also - any difference between the 'Labs' Frozen Strings and the 'Originals' Cinematic Frozen Strings? Same with the Labs / Originals Soft Piano?

But I can buy what I need on sale with the $200 voucher I get with the Mix & Master subscription. I'm on my 3rd annual subscription ($600 in vouchers on $450 in subscription fees), and now own all the plugins I actually need while having access to their entire Mix & Master catalog of like 100 plugins + anything new they release in that year. And I know what plugins I actually NEED, because I've been using them for a whole year. On the flip side, I could endlessly waste time scouring sales to buy plugins I've likely never used, or never used for any length of time, likely spending more than $150 a year on crap that'll sit in a plugin folder for eternity, while still not having access to like 100 plugins that cover almost every single thing I could possibly ever need. The PA subscriptions are a no brainer. Anyone not using them, while still spending $150 a year on plugins that are covered under that subscription is wasting their time and money. They are giving you $200 in product for $150, and a demo of 100 plugins... for a year... to decide what you want to own. It's, without a doubt, the best deal on the market. My annual budget for mix & mastering related plugins is $150 a year. I don't need anything else (in that category) with that subscription. That is insane. There are people who still spend $1000s a year on UAD plugins that have equivalents covered under that subscription. It boggles my mind.

I'm very disappointed in this release. The entire library sounds like it's compressed into a tin can. Virtually none of the sources have any body to them, meaning it takes A LOT of work to pull out some power that isn't just relying on the transient. I have to go through multiple transient shapers just to get a percussive envelope where anything but the attack is heard in the mix. First week I used it I was regularly mixing in other drum libraries (especially kick and toms) to actually give it the characteristics it's advertised as having. The kicks are especially horrible. This is the problem with some of these libraries - that tight tone (especially for metal or hybrid) should be achieved through the various tools available in the plugin, not the starting point of the source material. Keepforest seems to be one of the few companies who understand how to produce power that has both strong transients and decay / body - especially in a modern context. Where the source material is so strong you have infinite options to take the sounds wherever you need it to go. Anyway - I'm sure some people love it. But it was a complete waste of money for me.