Brian Walton

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.

Seems to still be missing the drum you created a while back and we hoped to be in the next release, can you nudge for us?

Seems like they don't give ToneX SE to current users of iRigHD2.

I like Magic Video Pro X better than Vegas (though it does lack a few things I wish it had). Passing on this hoping we get a bundle that includes it again.

Indeed, and it sounds like the Mods on the board are in the dark also. Given we have some confirmation that support things have been addressed via email (potentially from other people) at least the company still seems to be around. But the Dev no longer posting publically is quite unusual. Really hope Ralph is ok. I jokingly think that the Mac updates may have been too much to deal with...

It can take more experimentation that I'd like that is for sure. You end up having to adjust the input gain (plus your guitar volume knob) and then the gain on the amp plus the output gain to find the sweet spot of where the rig is reacting to your playing the best. On a real world non-master volume amp it is a bit more simplistic as the gain knob accounts for most of it, and you tweak your guitar volume knob to make sure that sweet spot gives you the control you want. Amplitube in general isn't as responsive to the guitar knob control so I tend to elimiate that. ToneX on the other hand, can respond better and the guitar vol knob actually becomes a factor for my setup. I wonder if it would make sense to have a function like the United Plugins Electrum has where you have some feedback on the input gain the plugin sees to properly set the levels. Given how critical impedence and volume of signal is to a guitar rig input I bet it would help users get a more realistic sound/feel as many guitar players just don't have the experience with that interaction at an expert level.

The tech is there to make some AI drummer but the question is if anyone is putting the money and development time into actually making it and then what will they charge for it. I wouldn't hold off on a non-extravagant purchase that is most likely years away from seeing the market. If someone is concerned about the state of JamStix, that is a different story. I'm also hopeful for a program that is easy to control and produces great results. JamStix can feel unwieldy. But as it stands, it is the only Windows based product I'm aware of that can do what it does.

Good to see someone is still running the site to update the sale. Great software that is quite unique. But the sole developer hasn't posted in the Forum on the site in many months and has quite a few people concerned about the current state and potentially his well being.

Same with input gain as it impacts how the amp is driven. We need a default setting of course, but for those with a variety of interfaces the signal hitting Tonex can vary wildly. The beauty of AXE I/O seems like when the interface input is setup well, you get a reasonable response with a guitar. I can't say the same for all other interfaces with DIs out front or not.