Sergio

One thing I do often: I upgrade to a bundle that includes my existing outdated plugins. For instance: I had some solo CLA signture plugins on version 9. When Waves did a deal on the CLA bundle I bought the upgrade from my plugins to the bundle. Doing this I have a discount on the sale price (because I already have some of the plugins) and I WUPed the whole lot on the bundle. I did this also by upgrading from Gold to Platinum to Diamond and in many other occasions. You'll get new plugins, a discount and WUP with one strike ?

I understand Zo. The term "modular synthesis rabbit hole" is a little beaten but very much true. When you start digging into this you must be very focused or you'll end up losing precious time (or having fun... YMMV). I forgot to mention the new (and also free) Blocks Base for Reaktor player, that is front panel patchable. Of course, if you have the full version of Reaktor you'll have access to the giant Reaktor user library. https://www.native-instruments.com/en/reaktor-community/reaktor-user-library/

If you don't want to dig into modular synthesis but just get sounds made with that kind of synthesizers you can start checking the free Reaktor player and the instruments available for it. Here are some videos to get you started:

Hey Zo. You just made me throw years of therapy down the drain?. Yes... I guess you can call me a synth addict ?. Regarding Softube vs NI; in a few words, IMO presently Softube gives you the most authentic modular synth experience both sonically, by having the most precise HW emulations, and by the way they implemented the user interface. Every comment I read about it makes this point: if you want to know how it is to work with a REAL modular synth without buying HW, get the Softube modular stuff. NI's Reaktor, OTOH, as an open environment and specially because it allows users to create new devices without writing code (I'm not saying it's EASY, mind you) has the biggest variety of sound generating , sound processing , utilitarian or whatever modules you'll ever see in any modular synth environment that ever existed. If you cannot create the sound you want in Reaktor it's probably an impossible sound to create (if this ever exists). Until a few years back the biggest complain of users was the "hard to master" user interface. With the introduction of Blocks in v6 this aspect was somewhat addressed and now, with the introduction of front panel wiring in Blocks, NI finally gave a more authentic modular synth experience to its users. Comparing both I'd say I could not choose one or another. I'd have to have both, although I'm not a big fan of the Softube's UI approach. IMO, it makes some simple things hard or even impossible to do (for instance, the last time I saw there was no way to map multiple parameters to a single knob). But when you want THAT authentic analog modular sound... Softube is presently unbeatable.

As I said, I don't know why but for me is the opposite. Lately I'm underwhelmed by new soft synths with loads and loads of options. This one looks simple; the multiwave oscilators with waveshapping capabilities reminds me of my little microbrute and minibrute HW synths that I like a lot (of course with 2 oscs intead of one, and 8 voice polyphony) or even the roland ms-101. As I don't like to install and uninstall demo versions I'll keep seeing the audio/videos on the web 'cause I can't get it right now. But for $69 (or less, who knows) I'll probably get it in a month or two (as Softube's new 296e comes first in the queue).

Hummm... my spider sense is tingling ? I don't know why but I think this will be a fantastic synth to play with. Maybe it's just because all the other incredible things being made with Reaktor in the past years, like Monark, the Blocks thing, etc. I'll check further but it's already in my shopping list.

Since creating an account in the Venomode server and registering the plugins there takes zero space in my disk, I'll do that. One day I'll stop and see if the plugins are useful or not. You never know.

Are there any shops still selling v6? If not, this drop in price does not make much sense. Unless someone wants to jump out of the boat and stops using the Collection for good, since after upgrading Arturia does not allow selling/transfering the old version.

How about a little Haggle

I already paid more than the asking new customer's $399 price for the collection by upgrading since version 3. That's why I skipped the v6 entirely (for which Arturia was asking a similar stiff upgrade price until the other day). And that's why I'll probably skip this release too. I'll do that until Arturia change this ridiculous pricing policy or until the releases accumulate enough new emulations to justify the asking price (which, IMO, that's not the case, coming from v5).

Something must be wrong. I have only V-Collection 5 and I'm unpigmented and my upgrade price is $199. But as I have Xils 4 and UVI Mello I'm still not interested in this upgrade.

I was saving my voucher to get the Oberhausen but I came to my senses and got the Museq on this sale for $14, more for the price than my needs (of another EQ). And, as I saved $60 in the change, I finally decided to get a Zero Downtime iLok insurance this month.

Thanks for your kind words, Zo (as always). Yes, I have a fall for those classic synths; after all, many of my favorite pieces of music were made with them in the past few decades ☺️. And I was just kidding about regrets (well... more or less). I have the Arturia SEM and I like it a lot but I'll probably get this one also since it has some additional features (like the unison mode f.i.) and the intro price, IMO, seems reasonable.

Release price is $99 for "heavy hitters". With my $25 coupon it'll be $74. Tempting, although I REALLY don't need another synth ? The fact is: last year I loose the opportunity of getting a REAL SEM (actually, 2 of them in the same unit) and I really regret this. If this emulation is good enough maybe I could pardon meself. What do ya think, Zo?

You can choose the output's bit resolution and apply dithering Zo. And after that even if your DAW's project is 24 bits you can "save as" the resulting audio at the chosen bit depth without any further degradation. L2 was my first choice for years. Nowadays I prefer to use IK Multimedia's plugins for that (the Stealth Limiter and even the old Brickwall Limiter) after watching the excellent "Mastering With T-Racks" series from Groove3. Oh... and I really don't care if the limiter works internally as multi band or not. I just need to know that it does its job properly (stopping the peaks) and trust my ears for the rest.

Depend on your needs. The description says its forte is dialog noise reduction. I'm supposing (because of the graphics and... well... the price) it's a refinement of the algorithms used in the W43 and NS1, both based on the Dolby's CAT43 system. At least it's more flexible because you can adjust the frequency bands where it operates. I'd say if you have any need to clear dialogs in noisy recordings, maybe it's the right tool for the job although I guess the results will depend on the source as always. For $25 I got it.

Humm... I already have those APIs. I guess I'll have to find ANOTHER plugin that I DON'T need to grab. Or maybe I should get another copy of those for backup. You never know when this old gear will break. Decisions... decisions....

I've seem those 2 on sale for $29 many times but never picked them up 'cause, as I said, I already have the Noise Reduction bundle (that one with X-Noise, X-Click, etc). I was talking about this one: It looks a more refined approach for that kind of tool and I never saw it that cheap before.

Scheps Omni. The good ol' classic gear emulations (SSL, Fairchild, DBX, the channel strips, etc, including all the Abbey Road stuff), although the competition is stiff in that particular area. I also like all the Waves synths (old and new). Of course it'll depend on what you already have (hence my previous comment about the WNS Noise Reduction plugin).

A bunch of Waves plugins for $29 ($23.90 with YNY23 code). http://everyplugin.com/waves-29-ers.html I'm a bit disappointed that the new CLA Mixhub is not included but... anyway... What caught my attention was the WNS Noise Supressor; I never saw this pupy at this price level. I have the Noise Reduction suite so I don't know if it'll be redundant. But I think I'll grab it anyway.

Now I'm impressed!!! ??? Sorry for my impertinence, Zo. I should have checked your video again before jumping into conclusions. I saw your video but, after a while, I was just hearing it and did not paid much attention to the image. So... do you think the PA emulation is on par or better than Arturia's (that I like a lot BTW)? I was hoping that Softube could release some vintage synth emulations since the sound of their modular stuff is second to none.

Zo is just kidding. This surely is the Plugin Alliance take on the Oberheim SEM emulation, and it reproduces the synth panel just like the Arturia version (hence, they're almost identical). Apparently they also added effects to it, taken from the PA pantheon (and it looks like they also added an arpegiator and a modulation matrix). Soon we will know.

Not in the site. If anyone is curious, here's the flyer. Release date: April-09; no price announced yet.

Log into your account, click the option "Redeem Gift" in the Licenses menu and paste the gift code you'll get from the collective site. The license will be deposited in your account and you'll also receive a discount code by email to use on the D16 web shop.

OK. In my case I have a Focusrite ISA One and a Novation ReMOTE 37SL registered in my account. Apparently, with these, I was able to access all the plugins they offered there.