Brian Walton

I like Klanghelm too but it seems like they stopped development years ago and just keep selling the same stuff. TB are constantly updating and evolving with the times. Your post about v3 now freeware shows how much of that they are doing that v4 is such a massive leap that he can simply give v3 away without fear of lost revenue.

They basically never run sales otherwise I'm sure they would get much more love from the deals forum. The pricing model is very reasonable and lots of people would consider them to be a deal at the normal prices. EQ4 is IMO among the best on the market. Beautiful UI and features somewhat similar to Melda AutoDynamicEQ, but easier to use, i.e. nodes are active by default, no need to double click on things). And Barricade has long been considered a go to Limiter

You have more than me, I didn't even bother downloading it in the first place. I just grabbed it for free and left it right there on their servers. Maybe I should grab the few midi files as they don't take up much room though.

There is a lot to be said about the right mic for the source. An SM57 can sound a whole lot better than a SDC on a guitar cab in a live band room as an example of a cheap $100 mic beating out an expensive one. It is just better suited for the job generally speaking.

I'm not suggesting you need to pay $1500 for a good mic, but a $99 Sure SM58 and even a decent $700 consensor mic create a very different sound. This isn't so say you can't make a good sounding recording using a SM58, if you are in a terrible room you might "need" to. But the difference in sound can be dramatic. Plenty of mic shoot out videos out there which suggests that even with terrible youtube quality the differences show up.

Make sure to remove the freebie thing they auto put in your cart. After that, worked for me.

Plugin version finally seems to work in Affinity Photo. For all the talk/hype about them building a new platform to make the edits faster, I encourage everyone to give it a test spin before buying. It is improved over AI in that department but it still feels like a failure to me based on how slow it remains. Perhpas it only sees this speed difference on mega core monster machines that I don't have but other RAW processors don't need that. Certainly useful for some of the AI functions that would take a lot of manual work to do. But basic stuff, it feels really slow compared to something like Capture One or Affinity Photo.

Hardly perfect with its limited EQ and less than ideal UI (the frequency "ring" around the gain knob). Don't get me wrong, I think it sounds great and really like it, but I also think it has a number of shortcomings for using it across all types of tracks and the general workflow. They type N also sounds quite a bit different as does the Focusrite (which is also a Neve design). The type N also doesn't have the greatest UI but for different reasons as many of the controls are "backwards" to one might be typically used to.

Mentioned in post 3 as I also find this annoying. However, with my one physical ilok, I've kept it around as it isn't something I've found a direct replacement for.

Cakewalks Channel Tools? It doesn't cover the same ground for me. That frequency combined with the pan functionality is what makes the pan knob special.

And is "X-Phase" actually any better than MFreeformPhase from Melda Production which is free?

I'm always curious on these in the box emulations on the HiWatt how they handle the super high headroom of the actual thing. Haven't found a plugin yet that captures that, they all seem to breakup too easily and not get that super loud clean thing going just right. Nembrini is responsible for some of the best Amp sims out there so I'm not sure I want to demo it in fear of GAS I really don't need.

I might be missing something but I think there are only 2 $20 plugins in the offer at SSL, so the best case is $45 to get X-Phase (i.e. $25 - assuing this works, wasn't on the landing page but is on the home page), Saturator, X-Valve Comp. X-Comp $30 EQ2 is $40

Yes, the Slate one offers the highend boost one is looking for but in a more pleasing way. I had hoped the Bertom would do the same thing, but side by side the difference is obvious. Not that the Air Shelf is bad, it just isn't a natural, warm or whatever positive attribute you want to give it as the Slate is. The Slate one is pretty unique in its ability to boost the high end but not introduce harshness. WIth the limited authorization thing with Slate, I was expecting to use the Air Shelf as a replacement on other machines, and while it is usable, I personally don't think it is in the same catergory.

Yeah, nice to get two seats (for those of us that grabbed it last time) but the problem is unless they changed the authorization system you actually need two physical iloks to do it - or an active internet connection for a "cloud session" which is really lame. Just give us multiple seats and let up authroize to the ilok computer manager. This one is very usable.

You can't re-use the generic $25 in the same month it was issued. The survey voucher was set to expire on Jan 31st. Unless there is a glitch that is over.

Same deal as yesterday "from" being the upgrade price and $49 if you are new customer. These are basically the best deals they run on this program and IMO worth every penny even with some stability problems in Cakewalk (perhpas other DAWs too) just save often.

Agree, but depending on the subscription you can get a voucher for the amount spent in a year. Hard to get the ultimate deal that way but it isn't as far off as a normal sub where you get zilch after the year is up and you don't want to pay. I don't do the sub thing but spent a few years worth with PA in the past year on products to own. The more they add to that bundle, I have a more difficult time saying it makes no sense as the voucher amount back combined with a mega sale seems like a better deal than WAVES.

I've had two occassions where a Waves Central update made non-WUP'd plugins no longer work. From v9 to v10 and also during a v12 update (with a v12 plugin no less), but without WUP, Waves won't lift a finger to assist. Just saying that if this thing is delivered via Waves Central, by the very nature of the system, WC will need an update to add it and therefore if you run WC and don't have WUP there is some level of "risk." It might be minor risk, but as someone burned twice, I'm just raising my hand saying the processes isn't foolproof. And this happened across multiple machines mind you. Only WAVES plugin I use any more is the Silibance one I got a couple free seats of.

If whatever it is ends up being delivered via Waves Central and you have non-WUP'd plugins, I'd have to disagree on the no risk part.

I'm having an issue on one of my Win10 intel computers with the VST3 version (works fine of the other machine with same OS and even older hardware). VST2 seems to work fine though. Hopefuly they get the Ryzen issue sorted out. Seems like a fun VSTi for about $10 with reasonable authorization system.

Yes, I also picked it up in the GB! It gets a number of things right, such as a better impelemtation of the intensity. The throb and rate feel pretty good but the detail and lack of variation in the throb could be improved upon. In that respect it tend to sound slightly "digital" as the photo receptors in teh real thing give a different level of randomness. But I was surprised by it as many of the Amplitube pedals I find fall too short. That said, the fact it is tied to the Amplitube Echosystem makes it less useful in practicality as I use the PA amp sims more, and having AT5 open just to add an effect like that is a pretty significant resource hog for real time playing. I do tend to like it better than that X-Vibe 60s Vibe which sounds more sterile and modern.

Grabbed the bundle with VYBZ for 8.99, now perhpas I won't regret passing up the XLN RC-20 deal.

Hopefully the upcoming update adds GUI scaling. Otherwise a missed opportunity as this one could really use it.

Yeah, I picked up Tube Modulator 2 months after Xeno. I'm also a big fan of that one as the Uni-Vibe has to by my favorite guitar effect and it has the most convincing in the box emulation of that plus some really nice Tremolo stuff to boot. Indeed, I grabbed Polaris within minutes of the offer price, without even testing it. I'm actually messing around with it right now and while I expected it to be more of a one trick pony, I'm shocked at some of the presets given the controls available. For me personally, a total no-brainer at $10 even though I own some crazy reverb plugins like MeldaTurboReverbLE.