Brian Walton

If you have Tonex, $100 would be much better spent on some Amalgam Audio captures in my experience. The UAD plugins are ok, but not worth that given TONEX. Amalgam has real captures of these types of amps. Vintage tweed deluxe, ac30, multiple plexi (rex DI is my favorite, super lead, super bass), deluxe reverb, super reverb, etc and plenty of other options to make your own pack instead of being stuck with the UAD choices that are also just simulations. Of course YMMV but also having the option to have Tonex in a pedal format dwarfs the UAD usefulness. In fact, one of my Tonex one purchases wasn't for much more than that $100 price tag.

If you didn't redeem the kits then yes you should be able do. If you added the serial to your account you can see how many selections you have left. I had something similar and it let me select products released after the package was purchased like the vintage dead set.

Interesting they added Signature collections to TS5 (but looks like you need TS5 MAX to get the tier that includes it) (TS5 MAX on the right column)

The update manager updating is annoying but once I've set the install manager to only install VST3 and not the other stuff, I haven't had issues across multiple PCs with the Melda one. And as someone that owns complete, doing individual installs when an update comes out would be an hour+ of my time I couldn't get back each time per machine. So yes, it makes it much easier on us.

Same thoughts here. Neo which uses the EA algos is a resource hog...did they fix that? We know the algorithms are not the problem. Is it also a one authorization system or is it the normal Izotope scheme? When it is going to be on a real sale? I've got something like 3 seats of R4 and 3 Nimbus seats (along with Neo) and my price is something like $150 like any other bum off the street.

Tonex SE alone is worth the full bundle price. If I didn't already have 4 copies of SE and two copies of max...via both software and hardware purchases, I'd jump on this. 😂

Looks like a good bundle for those that don't already own a ton of IKM stuff. Wish the MODO Upright was at the $1 tier as that is the one I don't have and would add to the collection. Pianoverse upright would also be tempting but that HD space requirement is no joke to get a single piano.

Basically it is AI machine learning to apply preset master adjustments then it has two tabs worth of modified MasterDesk controls. The fact it is standalone and you can't add other (even PA plugins) in the chain for mastering purposes makes it look a lot more limited than it could have been as it makes me wonder why not just add the AI/Preset part to MasterDesk pro and get the functionality there.

Indeed. The announcement of Mastering Studio years ago was a reason to sign up for the Forever 29 deal. I wonder if this was rushed to calm down some of the backlash over terminating F29 without a realistic runway to use or sell seats given so many lackluster releases since the takeover. Glad it was free but feels especially alpha given the UI is a poormans version of the UI they use for all the recent Bx plugins.

And I thought Sweetwater sales reps were supposed to be well trained and knowledgeable. 🤔

Maybe for phones, but for Computers we live in a Windows world and it statistically isn't even remotely close (i.e. 70% of market share vs 16% on Apple)

Yes - sometimes. Also have the T-Racks 6 suite and some Sonible products. I would also count Supertone Clear and that I use more than others on Vocal work not recorded in an entirely dead space.

Yes. Not with AI everywhere, but the occasional source/track I'll get a more refined outcome than I was getting.

Also disappointing that other Three-Body plugins were released but not available with PA. That cab loader for example is one I probably would have used my last voucher on. Now I'm looking at selling it for basically what I paid for it. Or get a plugin I may not use (or get extra seats for one I will)

I think they also have value when running in a DAW. It does take compute power to pull up VSTs within Scaler (or the daw) and most VSTi are not just load it up and it is right on the sound you want, therefore I think there is some use to the fact that a quick preview using the built in sounds isn't a bad thing to have. All depends on the workflow. That said not having to route VSTi in the daw for scaler to control is going to be a game changer and makes it much more likely to not need the internal sounds for a preview.

I think we have until the end of the month with this pricing (which might get more reviews in to see if the rating changes or we see feedback on it). I'd also assume that Scaler Music might end up with an official course.

The course itself. No concerns about the Scaler 3 program. I bought it and agree there is stuff to get used to but they also have an amazing track record of making things better. I already noted that they were called out on not having a "de authorize" function after switching to a "only 3 install" model and they have plans to remove the need to contact support if you exceed that. Honestly can't believe they made such a mistake out of the gate, but at least they listen.

The 4 star rating has me worried though. Anything below 5 stars on that platform is a red flag.

At least they bumped it back up. There was a time when it was 8% off on software product, then also $10% if it was under $100. It used to be 30% no matter what the cost.

Price is better at JRR shop anyway because IKM changed the tiers on JamPoints, you have to be at the $100 tier to use 30% off, so a purchase like this is only going to be 10% off when they allow it.

Might want to update your title to "TONEX" as I almost skipped the post having the Amplitube version already (which I never use). This TONEX package is a different story and one I've been hoping gets to a reasonable price and this was basically it. There isn't much clean in the package but these amps are well recorded/captured. While 3rd parties do a much better job with Clean to Mean with consistent EQ settings, I will say some of these individual captures here are really well done. I've never been a huge Mesa Boogie fan, but I do like some of their offerings and when you want to play along with a recording where mesa tone is appropriate this is going to be a go to even above some of the Amalgam captures of the same model amp. I think there is something to be said here of pulling out the amps Mesa have as "references" and a recording engineer that is very experienced with the particular amps. I wish they took a more wholistic approach (a criticism I have of every TONEX pack that IKM has as a branded release) but no arguing some of these are quite good).

Well the scaler 3 times installer did have a box you can uncheck bypass the internal sound install. But I don't think and alternative path option exists.

In the arranger view you can change the granularity with which you can drag the chord blocks As for the pre-mature release. Given it was in development for at least a year - and the drag out on the pre-release lead up - I think they could have easily done a larger beta, there were lots of willing participants but seems like the beta was pretty last minute. In fact, I didn't even bother signing up for it because it was only going to be about a month to play around before it was actually released or so.

It has quite a few sounds built in. Even a small sample library of a single instrument is going to be that size or larger these days. I would suggest posting the keyboard binding concept in the Scaler forum. Seems like an oversight in the stand alone app if it wasn't included.

VR Pro 2 was released literally a year ago, hardly a long in the tooth offer. VSTs can run properly for decades as long as it wasn't encoded with bugs not needing a single update.