Brian Walton

I was always curious about this one. But VoxDucker came out for -$15 and I grabbed that. Curious if anyone has compared on a few sources. From what I gather VoxDucker despite the name has some options on the tonal spectrum it can target for ducking.

Different kind of workflow and approach, IMO. Though some of the concepts overlap. I have EZKeys and used it on a number of projects. The interface is too small and it feels clunky to me in terms of adding then selecting a new chord. It does do a number of things well and you can technically even use both as complimentary products. Ex. Create chord progression in Scaler 2, import that progression into EZKeys and then apply a "style" to those chords and EZKeys will play your chord progression using one of the style packs you purchased. Scaler isn't perfect, but it is worth checking out and is perhpas the only VST that comes to mind where after using it I actually think the non-sale price is truly worth it, but it won't be that way for everyone. (and at currently $39, fantastic time to grab it) Not sure what the trial version is actually like, but I'd watch a few intro videos and give it a shot to see if it adds something to your workflow.

Yes, I did use the link you posted, the idea sounded good. Oddly enough with all the options to check out, I can get it for either $10 or $49. Just not the one option I want = free upgrade. Interesting the serials you got for another product...haha

Was hoping this would work but doesn't seem to for me:

Curious what the ownership looks like to get it as a free, non-paid upgrade. I only lack 3 Boz Plugins (besides this new V2). Panther, Big Beautiful Door, and the Clap bundle thing (which I heard was a CPU hog). So I own the V1 10db bundle, but v2 is offered at a paid (but discounted) upgrade on login. (and I'm not an M1 user - which presumably is what is taking up most of his upgrade development time) I'll also add that I've owned the 10db bundle for years but basically never used it because the interface (while it reflected the hardware) felt like burden to use with the unintuitive layout and tiny print. So the update effectively might have made it useful to me.

I figured I'd only put things down I've invested in. Fabfilter would likely be my choice on a few. I like T-Racks stuff but unless I've got a super-computer with power on this desert island a number of my favorites can be CPU hogs, some that are not - such as the 670 just not versatile enough to handle every source if limited to one option. I'll change my limiter option if I have more CPU power too. But the Melda one has some flexibility since it is light enough to use across tracks and can be good enough for bus/final stuff.

Maybe the top two out of all of them in terms of single plugins (and didn't even have a catergory) Channel Strip: Amek 9099 Scaler 2

It gets linked to your account usually when you run the software and then activate in the product. After that it magically shows up as tied to you in the on-line portal.

Be aware that "AI" is an abandonware product. They will no longer add features to it and is more or less EOL. They are focused on squeezing money out of customers with NEO which uses most of AI features. I think the HDR app is worth the $20 as I do some HDR work and it has a good workflow. It also serves well as a very inexpensive RAW editor for non-HDR stuff and has 5 computer activations. Doesn't have a DAM built in, which I'm personally just fine with. As for all the other stuff, basically just presets for AI and the usefulness of that is going to be dependent on each individual. I have a whole mess of them from previous bundles and rarely use them.

Login into your Skylum account, should be in your account area on the website https://skylum.com/account/my-software

I really wanted to like Darktable but found it too slow and clunky to do the work I need to get done in a reasonable amount of time. I can be powerful though. GIMP didn't feel refi ned enough to me, but again really wanted to like it. Affinity Photo won't get rid of Darktable if you are applying edits to multiple images or need ot catalog stuff, I would say it can't revisit edits but I also haven't dived in on the ins and outs of how the new "go back and edit RAW" works in v2 workflow. As much as I didn't love the upgrade pricing - I think it is reasonable for new users that are coming from free software if they use it frequently.

I"m not an advanced user but I've put together a few fairly large photo books with it (think file size above 3gigs. ) And a few dozen presentations. The ability to press a button and enter affinity photo and another to jump back to publisher then to designer if you own all three apps is a serious strength.

Photoshop added a fair amount. Luminar AI and Neo have this at the core (I run them as plugins in affinity) On1 keeps adding more (they also have plugin version that work in Affinity) Paint shop Pro finally added some AI DxO tout AI functions Topaz Studio moved to a focus on AI Affinity does have the in painting brush and selection tool that have some content awareness but that is as far as it gets and the AI selection process certainly isn't looking for subjects or things like that.

I've been a long time lover of Affinity and as noted still support them financially. But they do not have the "same" product feature set as anyone else on the market. They fit into a similar product type/class so comparisons are not quite so easy. Are you also going to lump Gimp in the same product class as Affinity Photo, etc? But the other piece we don't know here is how long until the next upgrade. I'm hoping for many years with the Affinity products. But we didn't see anything universal from them yet. Publisher felt like it got maybe a year of updates from when they released it to when they stopped updates to work on v2. "All" other companies products also have AI as part of the package other than Affinity at this point.

You can see my posts here where I'm annoyed too. But I also caved in as I use the program every single week and just hope we get a number of years of updates before another shakedown.

For long time Cakewalk Users, they gave the well regarded CA2A for free a while ago so many may already have a alternative http://www.cakewalk.com/products/ca-2a/free

Free! lol

I'm quite aware as I started the thread and commented about the pricing. But I don't think a sale extension on this is unexpected at all.

Maybe, but they also kept extending the pandemic 50% off sales becuase the feedback and sales were overwhelming.

No need to bump a thread that was half a year old. Good chance PA will run it on sale this month. You can always test drive it for 14 days. Also MCompare is on sale for $31 https://www.meldaproduction.com/MCompare If you use a new account and my referral code you would get $10 off (by sigingn up for the news letter) plus 20% off with this at checkout. MELDA31209027 So your total out of pocket would be somewhere around $15.

The AirIr is the impulse loader (though it comes with some). That product gets to a lower price point....full price minus 50% off isn't that great for Audio Assault. The individual IR packs, yes - this would be a good time to grab them if interested as the sale plus 50% off gets them about as low as they go. I own most of what they offer but personally they get passed over in the collection (ML Sound Lab and York Audio) though much more expensive seem to fit the sound I look for more often. I was using the AIrIR loader as my primary until I switched to Melda's MConvolutionMB. It is just so much easier to preview and change things.

As long as I've been buying from them and informally tracking such things for the "top" releases. It seems expecation was about a year or more before you would see that kind of discount. And it seemed even longer than that to get to that price point without a voucher. The program was designed to drive more sales early on since very few people will fork over $150 for an EQ, Comp, etc anymore. Apparently the math didn't work out well enough for them so they dropped the offer.

I'll need to check the way back machine, but I could have sworn at the initial launch the codes were expected to be valid without some short term expiration date. This issue only came up when they decided to quickly discontinue the program. The FAQ they created for it was pretty liberal allowing you to sign up as much as you want quit whenever and rejoin at any time, etc.

Somewhere it was posted as 12 months after subscription cancellation the codes will expire. Can't find where it was officially now though. Thought that was lame as that certainly isn't anywhere close to forever.

Sorry typo on my end I meant TONEX SE. Obviously anyone can get CS without a purchase. Point being that only new purchases are eligable for the bonus software.