Brian Walton

Yes, the videos are very good expecially if you already have an understanding of other software previously. Most of the website tutorials are about how to use a certain tool or a certain fuction, not necessarily the context or a series of actions to do something. They have a youtube channel as well as had a number of artists do hour long video sessions of different aspects of the work that can provide some direction and inspiration. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQZN-kIrZUQyoTnexM3jJAw If you have access to LinkedIn Learning/Lynda.com there are 2-5 hour courses on each product that gives some good overview as well. A number of good regular contributer channels pump out content every week too, there are lots, but here are a few examples that are very much committed to making regular content: https://www.youtube.com/c/AffinityRevolution/videos https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCKx8mAHiFus-XYQLy_WnaA https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOnLUmyPHr2rayOHVHWsHVw

I'm not an expert on the store front, but I'm quite sure there are limitations in getting it through the Windows App store that I read about at some point. And I've seen a couple people complain about buying in the Apple store vs. the Affinity web shop (delay in roll out of a version perhpas?). So I'd suggest doing research before buying it anywhere other than Affinity's own website. Highly recommend trying Affinity Photo then. The general layout and shortcuts will feel very similar. The learning curve is far less switching from Photoshop to Affinity than any other pixel based editor I can think of. It certainly isn't a clone and you will have to look up how to do certain things, but they clearly used the concept of Photoshop as the base and I think it was a wise move. And if your version of photoshop is that old (CS6 still runs on Win10) then I think you will also see a number of performance improvements using Affinity as it is built on much more modern code.

I have one of the Ampeg suites for Amplitube 5, but then I tried a couple of the PA ones, and honestly thought they sounded/felt better and the foot print hit is basically nothing compared to what AT5 takes up. I got PA for both sound quality and efficiency. Haven't tried out this one yet though, but they clearly make some good stuff. I don't think the Ampeg was worlds better, but trying the Fuchs ODS and Train, got me sold on trying other PA Amps as those offer something very different than anything in the AT5 package and the quality vs foot print is unmached from anything I've experienced on the Amp Sim front.

Indeed, I gave the free ones a shot both when I was starting out as well as testing for others (I teach Photography and photo editing) to get started in the game. Great for free, but also not really aimed at a beginner. So it fits in a odd spot. Capable of professional results, but a professional wouldn't want to use it due to the time wasting to get there. It is basically aimed at the really advanced hobbiest with plenty of time on their hands, and a firm understanding of post processing in my mind.

RAW Therapee can produce good results, but if find it is clunky and takes way longer to adjust a photo than other paid applications. Many of the tools are needlesly complicated and the interface isn't ideal. That and Darktable are top of the heap for free programs. I use Capture One, but it is also the most expensive product on the market.

Affinity does not offer a real RAW processing program/ DAM like RawThereapee. It does have a RAW development module but it is for one off photo processing (just like Photoshop handles it). It is more of a Photoshop alternative than a LightRoom alternative. The usefulness as a replacement for Inkscape will likley depend on your needs. Affinity really comes into its own when you own and use all 3 apps, since swtiching between them is seamless (if you own all of them). No doubt the sale will be up for a couple of weeks. The bigger question will be if it is more than a month or two months.

They haven't settled on one. Previously when they ran a deal like this it was actually set to end before the 90 day free trial offer, but they extended it. At these prices, hard to go wrong. You can authorize it on as many machines as you own, and thus far all updates have been free (I'd expect that to eventually change).

I'm betting the full version has more than double the IRs...as this one only has 3.

The UA Ampeg stuff is the exact same as the PA, made by the same people. Only difference on this one is it is a stripped down version. I have the SVT3 Pro which I got for the versatility, but the V4-B is my favorite sounding one for recording, it just works in the mix without fuss unlike anything else I've tried.

Any "bass" type of source would be ripe for processing with this. It would be like running any source though a bass amp, simple as that.

They also have a 90 day trial currently https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/ Deal is as good as it gets for the product, and highly recommend them for anyone that want to test the waters in the 2D visual arts front. A message from the Affinity team As a way to lend support to the creative community during these difficult times, we’re once again offering a 90-day free trial of the Mac and Windows versions of the whole Affinity suite, for anyone who wants to use them (even those who have previously completed a free trial). We’re also bringing back the 50% discount for those who would prefer to buy and keep the apps, including our iPad versions.

I'm not the poster, but I'm fairly new to them (which I'd argue was a mistake). The retail rates they had made me think, I shouldn't even try this stuff becuase I'll never buy it. I held off for years! It wasn't until last year that I realized how deep the discounts really got...then went crazy. Bought a whole mess of stuff it has helped getting away from some plugin makers that have less than idea authorization schemes and update models. Granted PA isn't the best in the business on that front, but it seems pretty reasonable.

Who can name the model of the Ampeg? Looks a bit like an SVT-CL to me, but not 100% sure.

I do the same. But even with the same settings, I actually have different experiences on different machines with Cakewalk. Once machine clearly scans everything another one seems to only search for new stuff and skims over all the old ones. Haven't figured out why. But I just disable that scan across the board, I know when I install something, then just run a manual scan.

These particular products come with a ProChannel Module/version: (I'd wait for a sale on the Hozer, great EQ, but no EQ plugin is worth $150) https://www.bozdigitallabs.com/product/the-hoser-xt/ https://www.bozdigitallabs.com/product/10db-bundle/ You can get the whole package here (but again these go on sale - I likley got it for $60-70) https://www.bozdigitallabs.com/product/hoserxt-and-10db-bundle/

I'll say it everytime a deal comes up. Still needs a prochannel version.

Maybe something like this as an alternative (for free)? https://www.auburnsounds.com/blog/2019-08-14_Introducing-Panagement-2.html

Probably becuase your computer is heating up due to excess resources being used. Seriously though sounds great, but unless he made some significant revisions, it is far less CPU efficient than most Tape Emus on the market.

I'm right there with you on that. That has been my #1 realistic wish for a long time. Scaler 2 came along and gave me the generate midi/chord/voicing idea to test out ideas and get a base structure quickly. But this still lacks the obvious "big chord" image in the DAW for when I'm playing over a progression. It boggles my mind this is still lacking. Using those miniscule marker points is tedious and inadequate. Hopefully soon.

Honeslty you can blame the community for not voting for it. A while ago Bandlab asked for feedback on what the community would like to see developed. Chord Track wasn't even a blip on the votes. I've thought that should be a top priority (other than stability) for a long time. It is the one feature that can help noobs make music without haven't to know much of anyting and can be of great use to very experienced users as well if done right. There is been enough chatter about it that I think it is on the roadmap finally. But there are also many different levels and layers as to what a chord track is and can do. Therefore hopefully they just release a chunk at a time as a full featred set that has the entire capabilites of Studio One and Cubase (and perhpas more) is going to be a long journey I'm sure.

A fun over the top plugin for sure. One of their free offerings And lots of respect for the no-nonse authorization/trust system on the paid plugins too.

Appreciate the feedback. I haven't tried it yet, but Reverb has to be one of the harder plugins to make a top teir one. Even iZotope when they were looking around for a developer realized the list of names out there of being at that level was super small. I honestly would have been surprised if this "AI" reverb was mindblowing as it seems to be the developers out of the gate offering. Doing something wild, not too hard but really good transparent algo verb...seems like few are up to the challenge.

Who is going to test it for viruses? ?

I would say yes. Very few of them seem to have multiple eq and compressor options. We have a ton of SSL E or G series but the comps on those are great on limited sources. Waves Omni, Infini strip, and tbaudio CS-5501 are some of the few that really bridge that gap. This new PA one seems to get in that territory too. And maybe eventually we will see $30 or less price point on it making it more desirable. Unlike the insane amount of comps and was on the market. The number of console/channel strips that I'd want to use on basically every source are fairly limited.

I don't have it yet, but I'm mostly intersted in it becuase I watched the Scaler 2 "live" video by Plugin Botique (I think it was yesterday) and if I recall correctly this was the one plugin that the Scaler 2 developer David made for plugin Boutique before he conquored the world with Scaler.