Please share your thoughts. The ultimate objective of Black Friday for me is....

[kitekrazy1]

8 hours ago, marled said:

For me this was the sadest Black Friday! There was almost nothing that raised my interest. Some of the few good deals I had already! ☹️

But for my wallet this was the greatest Black Friday though!  ?

I'm wondering if it's the same for many developers.  We shall see what happens next month.   Most of these deals were happening year round.

[PavlovsCat]

8 hours ago, Batwaffel said:

https://www.reddit.com/r/AudioProductionDeals/

I follow that group! Haha. It's very good! Nice job, @Batwaffel!

[bitflipper]

The true meaning of Black Friday hit me last night...it is the weaponization of FOMO.

And because we're all friends here, I feel comfortable confiding in you without shame that I, the cynic, the skeptic, the experienced user totally fell for it. The ability to spend money late at night under the influence of cannabis wasn't selected for during 4 million years of human evolution.

I saw a Kontakt library that I've wanted for a long time, saw that it was on sale, and bought it. Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! Long story short: the library is mundane, duplicates stuff I already have, and sounds like a ROMpler from 1986. The sale price was triple what I would have paid for it had I been able to try it out first.

Next year, I will be wiser. Yeh, that's the ticket. Next year I won't fall for it again.

[PavlovsCat]

1 minute ago, bitflipper said:

The true meaning of Black Friday hit me last night...it is the weaponization of FOMO.

And because we're all friends here, I feel comfortable confiding in you without shame that I, the cynic, the skeptic, the experienced user totally fell for it. The ability to spend money late at night under the influence of cannabis wasn't selected for during 4 million years of human evolution.

I saw a Kontakt library that I've wanted for a long time, saw that it was on sale, and bought it. Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! Long story short: the library is mundane, duplicates stuff I already have, and sounds like a ROMpler from 1986. The sale price was triple what I would have paid for it had I been able to try it out first.

Next year, I will be wiser. Yeh, that's the ticket. Next year I won't fall for it again.

You're not alone. I'm sure most of us in this group have done the same. I know that I sure as heck have. 

[Nick Blanc]

On the duplicate stuff, I have that a lot ?. I will buy something thinking "well there is that more expensive plugin which does roughly the same but just a bit better, I won't buy that one but this cheaper one". And 6 months later the more expensive thing is on sale, I buy it and regret buying the first thing.

[antler]

10 hours ago, marled said:

For me this was the sadest Black Friday! There was almost nothing that raised my interest. Some of the few good deals I had already! ☹️

But for my wallet this was the greatest Black Friday though!  ?

Just curious - was it that there were some developers that didn't have a sale, or that the discount wasn't steep enough?

[Grem]

11 minutes ago, antler said:

the discount wasn't steep enough

^^^This for me.

I have enough already. And I don't really need expensive libs. ST4 stuff works well for me!! LOL

 

[kitekrazy1]

2 hours ago, bitflipper said:

The true meaning of Black Friday hit me last night...it is the weaponization of FOMO.

And because we're all friends here, I feel comfortable confiding in you without shame that I, the cynic, the skeptic, the experienced user totally fell for it. The ability to spend money late at night under the influence of cannabis wasn't selected for during 4 million years of human evolution.

I saw a Kontakt library that I've wanted for a long time, saw that it was on sale, and bought it. Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! Long story short: the library is mundane, duplicates stuff I already have, and sounds like a ROMpler from 1986. The sale price was triple what I would have paid for it had I been able to try it out first.

Next year, I will be wiser. Yeh, that's the ticket. Next year I won't fall for it again.

Which one i s that?

[artturner]

...to not miss the best price of the year on something I want.

[PavlovsCat]

As a marketer, there are some sales tactics that I find overly manipulative or downlight ugly that I would never advise a client to engage in. One thing I really don't like -- although it doesn't fall clearly into those areas, it is subjective -- is the artificial sales limiting. Of course, I realize why small developers do it, but I still dislike the technique and find it overly manipulative. Sales have a valuable purpose for a business -- they raise revenue quickly. When you get into the games, I think it's not the best course to take. As we've seen sales techniques that annoy bitflipper, I bet a lot of us have techniques they don't particularly like. And because there are so many small developers who don't necessarily have experts at the helm in this area, sometimes we see some odd techniques.  As a consultant, I've always advised developers NEVER to severely discount to an extreme level -- say 80% because it dilutes the value your brand has, it trains the market not to pay full price and it alienates existing customers who paid full or close to full price. I recommend pricing more realistically instead. But in recent years, we've seen Waves completely destroy any ability to ever make sales at full price again. Only someone completely uniformed would pay full price for a Waves plugin. I love Izotope stuff and have a lot of it, but they've really deeply discounted and trained the market to way for deep discounts. Then we have developers like one that sells soft synths out of Germany -- I won't name names -- but he has ridiculously high regular prices only to have 90% off sales -- I seriously doubt his non-sale prices generate any sales for the business, it's just a scheme. I think that's one of the techniques that I find most annoying. I bought some of the libraries and they're completely meh. But the constant 90% off sales are absurd and more than a bit dishonest. 

[Craig N]

I decided to invest in myself this Black Friday rather than just invest in more plugins.

OK I also invested in some plugins, I bought the LiquidSonics bundle, SSL FlexVerb, TC Icon Legacy bundle, some Ugritone IRs, drums and midis, Fat Lazy Cabs IRs.

I mean at these prices, I'd be crazy not to ?

But what I'm really excited about is I bought 1 year subscriptions to TrueFire and to Groove3. I've always played keyboard, but I've decided it's time to branch out and learn the guitar, bass and perhaps drums too. I haven't got a bass yet, so I'm starting with electric guitar while I save for a bass, perhaps something like an Ibanez SR 800. I also figure I should start exploring more of the depth of some of the plugins and DAWs that I've bought over the past 18 months hence Groove3.

Edited November 28, 2021 by Craig N

[marcL]

2 hours ago, antler said:

Just curious - was it that there were some developers that didn't have a sale, or that the discount wasn't steep enough?

• Most of the plugins/software I am interested in was not a good deal, i.e. the discount was less than at other occasions.
• There are also some developers that were spartan with their deals (e.g. PSP).
• But there were also a lot of plugins and loop libraries that don't have my interest.
• Last but not least I have to pay 25% tax in some shops (Europe!) that makes some deals also uninteresting.
• Also high prices in general reduced the budget available for Black Friday!

[PavlovsCat]

Since this thread is really all about tangents, here's a friendly, harmless and non-controversial one. 

For those looking for a diversion away from Black Friday and Cyber Monday, I strongly recommend the Beatles Get Back documentary. Okay, it will probably not appeal to non-Beatles fans, but I'm a big Beatles fan and I loved it. It was great to see that in contrast to the Let It Be documentary, that these four guys had a lot of affection for one another, especially John and Paul with each other. I love John, Paul and George's music and it was clear that George was really unhappy because he clearly didn't get his due in the band. Of course, when he released a double album of songs John and Paul rejected, "All Things Must Pass," I think the world got to see that he too was a great songwriter. Anyhow, if you love The Beatles, rock or songwriting and you're on a budget, take $7.99 USD  from plugin and sample budget and spend it on a month of Disney+ to watch that. You'll be glad you did. 

Edited November 28, 2021 by PavlovsCat

[Christian Jones]

I ended up buying one thing unexpectedly during all this and that was the Ujam Mellow 2 upright bass the other day. I had no intention of buying an upright bass as I already bought Orange Tree's Bass Pear a few weeks ago or whenever that was, and I bought Bass Pear because it can be tuned to drop D which will give me a proper Eb w/o having to detune Kontakt and play an Eb on the E key ? and so on. I read in some review somewhere real quick that the Ujam upright bass can also be tuned to drop d and that's a missing feature in a lot of upright bass libraries (such as Straight Ahead Bass). And the Ujam Mellow 2 was $39 for a 24 hour flash sale and there was no clock I could see so I had no idea at what point I was in that sale when I found it, plus it was $39 and Mellow was well regarded when I was researching the best upright bass libraries a few months ago, so I bought it. Other places have/had it for $64 (50% off sale) and it's normally $129 I think, so I got a good deal there on something I need but didn't plan on. So between Mellow and Bass Pear I have two upright libraries now that will let me properly detune the instrument so I'm set now for uprights, which I run through amp sims and big muffs. Bass Pear was super cheap too back then. So while I technically got sucked in w/ Mellow I made out very well in the end. 

Edited November 28, 2021 by Christian Jones
Beyond that, real men have self-control ?

[Marc Cormier]

I waited all year for the Orb Producer 3 update and then the sale, so I knew that was coming.  On the other hand, other things I didn't see coming: Keepforest Evolution: Dragon for $30, SSL Flexverb for $29.99, and the upgrade to FF Timeless 3 at $34.  I bit at all three.  I'm still on the fence with Softube Speaker Shaper, not that I will not have it at some point, but it's another $80 I didn't bank on.  See what I did there?  Bank?  Anyhoo, it makes just about everything I've run it through sound better.  Many options but super simple to use.  I'm actually pacing the floor over this.

But then I'm out.  No Cyber Monday for me.  I still haven't used most of what I gathered in the IK Group Buy.

[Starise]

I almost never use Ableton but I happened to fire it up the other night and in linear mode I had an almost instant idea using only the sounds in it which is a first on that DAW. Then I seen their deals which end midnight tonight. I have V10 standard.  V11 has been out since last year but I can get standard for $119.00 instead of 159.00 and the pro version for something like $288.00. I think the normal price is in the 400-500 range.

That's actually a pretty good deal if I would use the extra instruments and sounds for the high version. It's 70gb which is a consideration. Many of the things they say v11 does Cakewalk already does, like take lanes. Those have been around for quite awhile on Cakewalk. I want to keep Ableton around, so I'm thinking I might jump on the standard version minimum. Things I don't like about Ableton- I don't like the way it scans extra vst and plugin files. In fact, I forgot how I did it the last time I did it. These are the kinds of things I end up involved in. I'll be doing something ( like playing with Ableton) and it will lead to something else, like me considering buying the most recent version.

I also get caught up in one thing and investigate everything about whatever it is. Recently that 'thing' has been organs and I have been looking at organteq but it is salty even with the sale. Then I get an email from Precisionsound . I have a few of their products  and this sale is 50% off a boatload of scandinavian organ samples. They cost peanuts compared to organteq, especially at 50% off with a code. It depends on what you are looking for. I ran a few of those demos and I'm thinking in a pinch several of them could easily replace a squeeze box in a mix. They also have a church organ.............and this is how my mind works. One thing leads to something else.

As a consumer I notice these sales, especially the ones with a strict cut off date that I know won't be coming around again any time soon. Ableton ends at 12 midnight tonight. Precisionsound ends Dec 4th. Ableton doesn't have many sales. Precisionsound tends to have maybe a few per year, so if anyone wants any of that stuff better get on it before Dec 4th. 

[Grem]

On 11/26/2021 at 12:49 PM, cclarry said:

You might want to get the Komplete Select Half Off offer...it would be $99
and includes several decent Kontakt instruments and a LOT more

Use codeSELECT21 

https://www.native-instruments.com/en/products/komplete/bundles/komplete-13-select/pricing/

I was waiting all weekend to see if there was a better deal to get, thinking the $199 sale price would still be available. But in NI's infinite wisdom, they pulled the $199 deal, so this is no longer a deal I thought it would be. So I will pass.

My BF purchases? 2 TC clip-on tuners!!

[Larry Shelby]

2 minutes ago, Grem said:

I was waiting all weekend to see if there was a better deal to get, thinking the $199 sale price would still be available. But in NI's infinite wisdom, they pulled the $199 deal, so this is no longer a deal I thought it would be. So I will pass.

My BF purchases? 2 TC clip-on tuners!!

Deal is STILL valid...$199 - coupon = $99

https://www.native-instruments.com/en/products/komplete/bundles/komplete-13-select/

[Grem]

1 minute ago, cclarry said:

Deal is STILL valid...$199 - coupon = $99

https://www.native-instruments.com/en/products/komplete/bundles/komplete-13-select/

I know!! I just bought it while you were posting!!

I went to the link you posted and saw the $199 deal. But when I went to the regular website, did a search for Komplete Select, it would not give me the $199 deal!! It was like over $300!!

So I am go to go.

Others make note, you have to click Larry's link (or the Cyber Monday link on the main age) to get the $199 deal.

[abacab]

18 hours ago, Starise said:

I almost never use Ableton but I happened to fire it up the other night and in linear mode I had an almost instant idea using only the sounds in it which is a first on that DAW. Then I seen their deals which end midnight tonight. I have V10 standard.  V11 has been out since last year but I can get standard for $119.00 instead of 159.00 and the pro version for something like $288.00. I think the normal price is in the 400-500 range.

That's actually a pretty good deal if I would use the extra instruments and sounds for the high version. It's 70gb which is a consideration. Many of the things they say v11 does Cakewalk already does, like take lanes. Those have been around for quite awhile on Cakewalk. I want to keep Ableton around, so I'm thinking I might jump on the standard version minimum. Things I don't like about Ableton- I don't like the way it scans extra vst and plugin files. In fact, I forgot how I did it the last time I did it. These are the kinds of things I end up involved in. I'll be doing something ( like playing with Ableton) and it will lead to something else, like me considering buying the most recent version.

Speaking of included instruments, that is one thing to consider about the Live 11 "Suite" edition. You get a shedload of extra instruments, sounds, and Max devices included that are great for sound design and experimentation...

In addition to the usual suspects, a few examples new in Live 11 Suite are:

Instruments:

https://www.ableton.com/en/packs/#?item_type=software_instruments

Tension - in collaboration with Applied Acoustics Systems (String Studio)

Analog - in collaboration with Applied Acoustics Systems (Ultra Analog)

Electric - in collaboration with Applied Acoustics Systems (Lounge Lizard)

Collision - in collaboration with Applied Acoustics Systems (Chromaphone)

Sounds:

https://www.ableton.com/en/packs/brass-quartet/ (Spitfire Audio)

https://www.ableton.com/en/packs/string-quartet/ (Spitfire Audio)

https://www.ableton.com/en/packs/upright-piano/ (Spitfire Audio)

 

Edited November 29, 2021 by abacab