Reid Rosefelt

That is simply not true. You can't generalize from your wish list to everybody else's in the world. For example, I am currently ready to buy a Stream Deck XL for the current price ($229), but I am going to wait until Prime Day. Why? Because I got the XL for $199 on a Prime Day. It may not happen this time, but it's worth it to me to wait until Monday. (By the way, the prices for the $249 list XL went insane during the Pandemic--over $300) To make Prime Day and Black Friday work for you, you simply have to decide what you want to buy and how much you are willing to pay for it. Then check on Prime Day and Black Friday. Of course there may not be a sale on that particular thing, but I have bought ALL my SSDs on Prime Day and BF. It can be a good time for external hard drives too. If you are in the market for some music or computer hardware, like a particular SSD or hard drive or MIDI controller or instrument, then be ready. Know the list price. And this isn't about just checking today. It helps to keep on Amazon prices all the time, because they fluctuate. You need to read up on it. A lot of 7200 drives from Amazon don't come with warranties from the original manufacturer. So in that case it might be a better deal to get it from another place like NewEgg or B&H. I'll post here some of the good deals I find.

If you're in the market for a hard drive, and lots of other stuff... this is probably the best time to buy until Black Friday. So you may want to think about what you might want next week so you are ready to buy if there's a sudden sale. I'm planning to jump on a Stream Deck XL. (I'll sell my regular one). https://www.amazon.com/

There is an intro price of $65 available now on the Audiofier site. I wonder if the price will be lower in the stores. http://www.audiofier.com/tetrality/

Very cool. It's not even up on the Audiofier site yet.

Yes, it will control everything. And the cool thing about it is that it changes the buttons when you switch from one software to another In other words if I change from Photoshop to Premiere, the buttons switch. You can put documents in it, so that it can load a word doc with one button. You can put URLs in it to control your browser. And there are different kinds of switches, like two-part ones. It can type text (like a password) Very easy to set up. Any picture can be drag and dropped into it.

They do offer free sample sets of a lot of their stuff, so you can check out the quality. https://www.sideshowfx.net/free But I admit, I have spent a lot of time getting my cubase buttons just the way I want them. What I've found with their other sets is that it's very easy to copy and paste their programmed icons and put then where I want them. My Streamdeck templates are always a work in progress. I did ask them to do this a long time ago, and I'm happy they decided to do it. I hope it works out for them. They did Ableton, and I think that there are so many controllers out there for Ableton that are better than a streamdeck. Streamdeck is much better for DAWs, photo and video editing, etc. I think. Oh, it's pretty good for streaming, too.

This is not merely a set of icons but a complete set of programmed shortcut keys. 600+ icons - 474 programmed keys for XL and 438 programmed keys for regular Streamdeck You get five sets for each one: labeled on Black, Grey, Dark Gray, and Dark Blue and Unlabeled Transparent It works with Cubase 11 and all previous editions. Products from sideshowfx are ready to go and can be installed in minutes. They have clear instructions about how to get them into your Streamdecks and how to put the keyboard shortcuts into the software. I don't have this set yet, but my sets for Photoshop and Premiere work flawlessly. Once you have them in, you can adjust them to match your workflow. More information here: https://www.sideshowfx.net/cubase-pro-stream-deck

This deal does get better the longer you wait for it

If you DO have a version of Komplete 13 above Select, it comes with 6 Massive X expansions: MECHANIX MOEBIUS PULSE RUSH SCENE DRIVE

I'm still waiting for the EZBass 6 packs to arrive, so I don't have a lot of their patterns. I will buy more MIDI, but not more basses. The way they sampled it is very lazy, as I showed in my video. They didn't sample all around the fretboard, just one note going up the scale, which is kind of nuts. By the time you get to the A string, it starts at C. So no open string or Bb or B on that string It keeps going on like that until the E starts way up at the top. Weird. So I use EZBass-generated MIDI to drive Trilian, my OTS bass, and MODO Bass. The Steinberg Bass samples every note you can play on a bass. And it is intriguing because it allows you to choose different styles, that play in different places.

Who makes good bass MIDI files aside from Toontrack?

Thanks for all of this, Eusebio. I really appreciate you taking the time. These are either too cheap (and a waste of a coupon) or $70, which would be okay if you could use more than one voucher at a time, but no thanks. I'm going to keep waiting for the regular ones to go on sale. I know that they at least were under $25 at one point, so at least I will wait for that to pick up one or two, and then see what happens. If you happen to notice a sound fx sale, please post it here. Thanks! Reid

Anybody buy some of the Groove Monkee bass loops? Are they as good (and useful) as the drum loops?

Sam in the Composers Roundtable podcast that Simeon and I just did said flat out that the KU13 update was not worth it. But then I mentioned that Noire (which he talked about) was in it. But I think this is common. A lot of people don't want to update every time. Here's my two cents: First, I do think 13 CE is worth it because Noire and Picked Acoustic are two of my very favorite instruments. Not just NI instruments, two of my favorites. And Arkhis is really good. And then there is some other stuff I am just exploring, which I'll talk about below. I only got into Komplete with 11, but I've updated both times. But before this time, I always waited patiently and didn't buy anything, as I do for Total Studio. This time I started buying things because I learned that reselling was so easy. When Noire came out, it was $149, but I had a $50 NI Voucher at the time. So I got it for $100 and I figured I had a good chance to sell it at $75. I couldn't resist Picked Acoustic, and it didn't go on sale at BF so I bought it with a voucher for $75. I just sold it for $50. So I paid $25 to enjoy it all these years. I also bought Mallet Flux and Arkhis for half price. I'm hoping to sell them for the same amount. But again, if I have to cut the price by a few bucks, it was worth it. i bought the update for the Percussion (a great library) and the Electric Sunburst Deluxe (sold already) So we'll see how this works out. But my feeling is that if you buy with vouchers or doing 50% off sales, you have a decent shot at getting all or most of your money back. So right now I have two vouchers. I will definitely use one for the upcoming Asian Discovery library (no way that the Yangqin freebie was a one-off). I'm going to want that one right away. But I'm also thinking about getting the Electric Vintage Guitar with my other voucher. So I pay $75 and hopefully sell for $50 someday. Compared to all the other crap I buy that I can't resell, it works out. The thing that makes it work is that the NI prices are so steady. Full price except for half price twice a year. That works for me. You can sell to people who don't want to wait for the next sale. But some of the other stuff I can wait for. But I am pretty dazzled by the Cremona Quartet. I never would have bought it from anybody else, but now that I have it, love it. And I have a lot of pretty good violins and cellos already. It has a lot of fancy articulations which make it a great combo with stuff like Sunset Strings and Ben Osterhouse stuff. And of course Pharlight and Straylight I had demos on--so no surprises there, I knew I loved them. Guitar Rig 6. A real shocker was Butch Vig drums. This is like a ujam drum set on steroids. Just wow. And he comes from my hometown of Madison, Wisconsin. I watched him play with his terrific pre-GARBAGE band Spooner. During the holiday sales I bought Maschine software. I had no idea you could play Maschine through my Komplete Kontrol controller. It's so easy to miss because there are four buttons that don't light up unless you're running Maschine. It's a blast to play with--very similar to using Ableton. You don't have pads, but you can use your piano keys or another pad controller. I'll probably make a video someday about it. Needless to say, getting all those expansions really means something. FYI, My sale is going on HERE.

Eusebio, Do they ever put pro sound effects on sale? When I first got the vouchers, the price for commercial was around 24 or 25 dollars. Since then they have been $29.99, e even during this sale.

This time we did it live, which was interesting because I lost my connection for awhile and then became a spectator. Next time around we will post a link ahead of time in case you want to watch it live. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6r32TrYgVc Among the things we talked about: Music Technology: the benefits and drawbacks The Native Instruments Sale - Is KU13 or KU13CE worth it? Our favorite pianos and why we like them Why Full Kontakt is the best first purchase -- and how to get it now for $124.50 Please subscribe to our podcast HERE

They sent me a photo of the serial number from the box today. It worked! Just wanted to pass on the great customer support from T+S. You can always buy with confidence from them.

My serial number came this morning from T+S, but I was too busy to deal with it. Among other things, the Composers Roiundtable podcast I do with Simeon was today. Anyway, Native Access wouldn't accept the serial. I've sent a note to T+S and I am confident they will work out the problem. But I was really looking forward to setting everything up today. Kicking myself that I didn't try the serial right away while they were still open. ? Maybe they copied the serial by hand? Native Access knew it was for Komplete 13 Ultimate CE.

I got mine, but I haven’t had time to install yet.

That downloads the two bonus libraries - Dronar and Ethera Lite.

This is a nice deal, but I've seen PATTERN STRINGS at that price before. But 16 euros for Sospiro Strings is an amazing deal. I have been collecting his stuff like candy since the original String Flow. There are few that I don't have.

I’m not somebody who’s interested in crafting sound design, just somebody who uses sound effects constantly in my YouTube videos. So for me it’s fun AND useful. As are libraries like ProjectSAM’s Animator, which I used 3 times in this one.

With this particular one the randomization is more useful, because you're making noises instead of musical sounds. There are so many surprises. And I didn't get into the modulation parts of this, which may be one of the coolest parts.

This is a super good deal on one of his best libraries.