8DIO Majestica Flash Sale - $80

[Larry Shelby]

https://8dio.com/products/majestica-2-0?variant=41310157865160

[PavlovsCat]

I only clicked to see what it was,  but wow, the graphic they use is a mess.  At this point, 8Dio has so heavily discounted just about every library,  that they've trained the market that their retail prices don't mean much. It's a lot like Waves. When you know a plugin is constantly going on sale for $29.99 USD, it no longer makes the retail list price of, say $299 USD, seem like the product's actual value. 

[PavlovsCat]

 

Edited January 2, 2023 by PavlovsCat

[kitekrazy1]

On 1/2/2023 at 10:07 AM, PavlovsCat said:

I only clicked to see what it was,  but wow, the graphic they use is a mess.  At this point, 8Dio has so heavily discounted just about every library,  that they've trained the market that their retail prices don't mean much. It's a lot like Waves. When you know a plugin is constantly going on sale for $29.99 USD, it no longer makes the retail list price of, say $299 USD, seem like the product's actual value. 

I think many are finding out the more you add 8dio to your collection you finally come across serious disappointments.  Some of the stuff is in the league of Aria sounds not near VSL.

[Kreveta Puket]

8dio have some so nice libraries as: Liberis children choir, Roula, Jenifer, Laura and many others...

[Amicus717]

1 hour ago, kitekrazy said:

I think many are finding out the more you add 8dio to your collection you finally come across serious disappointments.  Some of the stuff is in the league of Aria sounds not near VSL.

I find with 8Dio, it's all-or-nothing. I have some 8Dio libraries that have some great components, and I use them regularly; and I have too many that disappointed me greatly and have never been put into a project. There's nothing in between.

And for the libraries that work, even they are hit-and-miss when considered on a patch by patch basis. The Century Brass and Anthology Strings are the ones I use most often, but only specific patches, and only for specific purposes.

The above-linked Majestica does not interest me in the slightest. I have not heard a lot of good things about it...

[Carl Ewing]

The more I see comments here about instruments, the more I realize Vi-Control is a much better forum for deal discussion.

Check the discussion of this sale on Vi-Control. Comparison videos, discussion of the Majestica Pro upgrade, specific discussion about the good / bad patches of this specific library (i.e. strong low strings, weak high winds, lack of reverb control, etc.), quality control of specific patches, alternative suggestions (from 8Dio or other manufacturers), 

Here it just seems like people who have little to no experience with products (or perhaps little experience with composing) sounding off about a sales / promotion grievance or trying to downplay what is clearly a very successful company in virtual instruments.  Which helps absolutely NOBODY who might want / need this library...

Here's what informative posts look like:

Quote

If you need massive percussion ensembles… sure. These types of questions are really difficult to answer, because I don’t have much insight in your template nor in the type of sound you’re after.

I don’t know where the “Majestica is mainly just cool for percussion” vibe is coming from though haha. I quite like 8W for what it is; a set of huge sounding ensemble patches. The strings for instance layer really well with Century Strings. So it’s not like everything but the percussion is sub-par.

If you’d look up some older threads, you won’t find much love for Majestica. Most people deem the mic mix too ambient / wet (which I concur is largely true) and the fortissimo capabilities of the brass have been surpassed by other libraries (such as Talos). But when you just take Majestica for granted, don’t expect too much from it, and realize it is a full-on massive orchestra broken down into a bunch of rather playable ensemble patches, al of a sudden it becomes a rather attractive package.

The only thing is, they should have included a drier mic mix. The 8W version of this comes with a whole array of spot mics, which makes it infinitely more malleable. That said…. 80 bucks - are you kidding me?

It seems this forum is just endless IK Multimedia and Plugin Alliance spam, missing half the actual sales of instruments throughout the year, and most of the conversations devolve into complaints about marketing / promotional practices and little substance about actual products. Maybe time to unbookmark.

Edited January 5, 2023 by Carl Ewing

[Fleer]

27 minutes ago, Carl Ewing said:

The more I see comments here about instruments, the more I realize Vi-Control is a much better forum for deal discussion.

Check the discussion of this sale on Vi-Control. Comparison videos, discussion of the Majestica Pro upgrade, specific discussion about the good / bad patches of this specific library (i.e. strong low strings, weak high winds, lack of reverb control, etc.), quality control of specific patches, alternative suggestions (from 8Dio or other manufacturers), 

Here it just seems like people who have little to no experience with products (or perhaps little experience with composing) sounding off about a sales / promotion grievance or trying to downplay what is clearly a very successful company in virtual instruments.  Which helps absolutely NOBODY who might want / need this library...

Here's what informative posts look like:

It seems this forum is just endless IK Multimedia and Plugin Alliance spam, missing half the actual sales of instruments throughout the year, and most of the conversations devolve into complaints about marketing / promotional practices and little substance about actual products. Maybe time to unbookmark.

IMO if you’re looking for the best (most balanced) composer forum, that’ll be The Soundboard (https://thesoundboard.net/). 
Sure, VI Control has many more threads and posts, but you may get lost between Cinesamples lovers and Spitfire haters or vice versa (pretty much like the IK Multimedia and Plugin Alliance spam you refer too). And you’ll find many naysayers without any experience there as well.  OTOH, some very decent posters too. 
I tend to follow three or four forums, as they all have their particular merit and allure. Meanwhile, not bookmarking much anymore. And definitely not visiting KVR or Gearslutz the way I used to. 
But our Cakies forum has this je-ne-sais-quoi that I’m not feeling anywhere else. 

[Grem]

11 hours ago, Fleer said:

But our Cakies forum has this je-ne-sais-quoi that I’m not feeling anywhere else. 

Yep.

If I were to be more into samples for orchestration, I would look several places to get info before making a purchase. I learned here fairly quickly that good quality orchestration libs cost a lot. A hella lot!!

Regardless of what the posts evolve into, most people here can find pretty good deals. On many different things. Just deals. Isn't that the name of this sub forum of a sub forum?

 

Edited January 5, 2023 by Grem

[PavlovsCat]

On 1/4/2023 at 9:38 PM, Carl Ewing said:

The more I see comments here about instruments, the more I realize Vi-Control is a much better forum for deal discussion.

Check the discussion of this sale on Vi-Control. Comparison videos, discussion of the Majestica Pro upgrade, specific discussion about the good / bad patches of this specific library (i.e. strong low strings, weak high winds, lack of reverb control, etc.), quality control of specific patches, alternative suggestions (from 8Dio or other manufacturers), 

Here it just seems like people who have little to no experience with products (or perhaps little experience with composing) sounding off about a sales / promotion grievance or trying to downplay what is clearly a very successful company in virtual instruments.  Which helps absolutely NOBODY who might want / need this library...

Here's what informative posts look like:

It seems this forum is just endless IK Multimedia and Plugin Alliance spam, missing half the actual sales of instruments throughout the year, and most of the conversations devolve into complaints about marketing / promotional practices and little substance about actual products. Maybe time to unbookmark.

That post deserves the award for Least Self-Aware Post of 2023.

I'm going to have a sense of humor about this, and I hope you can too, Carl.  When you brutally ripped on Americans in the past, I didn't take too much offense. I thought it was more of a reflection of your worldview, as Americans, like citizens of any nation, can't be pigeon-holed so easily; they span a wide range of views, ethnicities,  etc. But, as a lover of irony, I can't help but appreciate the irony of your complaining about people posting grievances in this forum while posting your own  grievances and your  posting about people not making helpful posts providing their insights while you never shared a helpful insight of your own in your post. If you're so unhappy with this forum -- as you very clearly expressed -- and prefer another forum, the logical thing is to simply use the other forum. If your objective is to make this forum more like you feel it should be, lead the way. Set the example if you want this forum to change into your ideal forum. I don't see the point in your insulting, demeaning and arrogantly  lecturing this community, it's melodrama and attention-seeking worthy of a bye Felicia response. 

I've personally posted a lot of mini-reviews of libraries on this forum to help others and others have done the same on libraries and effects that I've found  very useful. Even more, some of those people have PMed me with advice on mixing, on sample libraries and various techniques after seeing my posts sharing my interests and my lack of solid mixing skills. So my experience is that this is a very helpful and kind community.  I spend time at multiple forums, but more at this one than any other,  and my own opinion as to why I like this forum so much is that people here are helpful and friendly. That's the main reason I like -- no, I love -- this forum. Where I find VI Control has advantages -- and FTR, I've been connected to its owner on Facebook for many years -- is when it comes to cinematic or gaming music. I do rock music and find this forum is more in tune (pun intended) with my interests. But you started by attacking the forum and insulting its members and arrogantly and condescendingly telling people how you believe is the right way forums operate. Somehow, you find that constructive? Has this strategy been effective for you in other parts of your life? Rhetorical question. It's not effective. If you had a question about this library, you should have asked it, but instead, you complained and attacked. I'm objective oriented and don't see a point to that approach. 

So here's my take on why I like this forum so much and my contrast of this forum with VI-CONTROL, as someone who also uses both and knows the owner of VI-CONTROL. 

VI-CONTROL is incredibly developer-centric. Cakewalk forum is user-centric. 
VI-CONTROL's primary mission is to bring in revenue from developers. That has no small impact on the ethos of the community.  I've seen many posts in various forums that describe VI Control as like a cult or series of cults and I think there's credibility to that assessment. There are a small number of pro composers from the film and gaming world that post there and they've developed personality cults, hanger ons; it's not subtle. Developers also have their share of hanger ons there too. That doesn't happen at this forum and many other forums.  Look at the posts in this forum. They're the polar opposite. While VI Control charges developers to post and Mike (the owner) even discourages people from sharing bad customer experiences on his forum, Bandlab has done everything possible to ensure that developers don't have too much influence or use shilling in this forum. I don't know of any other music production related forum that has gone to the extent BandLab has to keep their forum from being manipulated by developers. And I'm a marketing pro who has given advice to more than two dozen developers, but I am a believer in facts and not the stereotype many people have in mind of a marketer. I want consumers to have control and developers to be here to honestly share their products -- but I don't appreciate hype or less than honest promotional tactics. While Bandlab goes far out of their way to do a great deal to make this community not prone to manipulation by less than ethical developers. VI Control does nothing and even engages in practices that enable shilling to flourish while discouraging harsh criticism of developers. Why? Their revenue model is based on making money from developers, Bandlab's isn't. 

Developer shilling is not rare at VI Control. That's not the case here from everything I can discern. 
It's no secret among developers is that some developers incentivize people to talk up their products at VI Control (some forum users disclose getting NFRs in their sig file, most do not). You don't see that here and the regulars here -- including me -- would make terrible shills! I know Troels and I've posted some very critical things about his sample libraries. I still like him as a person, but if you read my critiques, they certainly aren't something a developer would be happy with because they're honest and that honesty means sharing the positive and the negative openly -- and not the way an influencer does it (only making the most mild forms of criticism to create the mere appearance of fairness). There has been nothing at this forum that I could discern as shilling. A big part of that, no doubt, is due to the community size being much smaller. 

VI-Control has no consistent policies regarding forum harassment or bullying and bullying regularly occurs there.  Cakewalk Forum uses best practices to stop bad behavior. 
VI-Control has a couple of well known bullies, the most infamous is a semi-pro composer who goes by the name re-peat. I've called the guy out on bullying people and I've gotten PMs from numerous people at VI-Control and two here who go to both forums, that have shared stories about being harassed or witnessing the guy harass people. The past forum owner and I had several discussions about his bullying after he bullied a sample developer friend of mine and I tried to have him banned. Why did they keep him there knowing of his bad behavior? Because he draws amateur composers who want access to a pro composer. He has a very large ego and craves attention and that means that while he's hyper abrasive and bullying, he still gives many people what they want. Being really blunt,  it's about the hanger ons, the wannabes. I have been coming to Cakewalk Forum since the very beginning and I rarely have seen any bullying or harassment of forum members -- and yes, when I see that stuff, I report it. I have zero tolerance for bullying or harassment and if we tolerate it, we create a community where that kind of behavior becomes normalized. I don't want anyone to have to face that. But I also don't see a personality cult here (okay, someone might say that Larry has one, but that's not a cult, we just appreciate the man). 

Edited January 7, 2023 by PavlovsCat

[kitekrazy1]

15 hours ago, Carl Ewing said:

The more I see comments here about instruments, the more I realize Vi-Control is a much better forum for deal discussion.

Check the discussion of this sale on Vi-Control. Comparison videos, discussion of the Majestica Pro upgrade, specific discussion about the good / bad patches of this specific library (i.e. strong low strings, weak high winds, lack of reverb control, etc.), quality control of specific patches, alternative suggestions (from 8Dio or other manufacturers), 

Here it just seems like people who have little to no experience with products (or perhaps little experience with composing) sounding off about a sales / promotion grievance or trying to downplay what is clearly a very successful company in virtual instruments.  Which helps absolutely NOBODY who might want / need this library...

Here's what informative posts look like:

It seems this forum is just endless IK Multimedia and Plugin Alliance spam, missing half the actual sales of instruments throughout the year, and most of the conversations devolve into complaints about marketing / promotional practices and little substance about actual products. Maybe time to unbookmark.

Disagree.  Plenty of us also are members there.  We bring information from there to here. We do have experience with these products. 

They are just as impressed with shiny and new.

[Carl Ewing]

23 hours ago, PavlovsCat said:

That post deserves the award for Least Self-Aware Post of 2023.

I'm going to have a sense of humor about this, and I hope you can too, Carl.  When you brutally ripped on Americans in the past, I didn't take too much offense. I thought it was more of a reflection of you and your experiences, as Americans, like citizens of any nation, can't be pigeon-holed so easily. But, as a lover of irony, I can't help but appreciate the irony of your complaining about people posting grievances in this forum while posting your grievances and posting about people not making helpful posts providing their insights while you never shared a helpful insight of your own in your post. If you're that unhappy with this forum -- as you very clearly expressed -- and prefer another forum, the logical thing is to simply use the other forum. If your objective is to make this forum more like you feel it should be, lead the way. Set the example if you want this forum to change into your ideal forum. I don't see the point in your insulting, demeaning and arrogantly  lecturing this community, it seems like unnecessary drama and attention-seeking worthy of a bye Felicia response. 

I've personally posted a lot of mini-reviews of libraries on this forum to help others and others have done the same on libraries and effects that I've found  very useful. Even more, some of those people have PMed me with advice on mixing, on sample libraries and various techniques after seeing my posts sharing my interests and my lack of solid mixing skills. So my experience is that this is a very helpful and kind community.  I spend time at multiple forums, but more at this one than any other,  and my own opinion as to why I like this forum so much is that people here are helpful and friendly. That's the main reason I like -- no, I love -- this forum. Where I find VI Control has advantages -- and FTR, I've been connected to its owner on Facebook for many years -- is when it comes to cinematic or gaming music. I do rock music and find this forum is more in tune (pun intended) with my interests. But you started by attacking the forum and insulting its members and arrogantly and condescendingly telling people how you believe is the right way forums operate. Somehow, you find that constructive? Has this strategy been effective for you in other parts of your life? Rhetorical question. It's not effective. If you had a question about this library, you should have asked it, but instead, you complained and attacked. I'm objective oriented and don't see a point to that approach. 

So here's my take on why I like this forum so much and my contrast of this forum with VI-CONTROL, as someone who also uses both and knows the owner of VI-CONTROL. 

VI-CONTROL is incredibly developer-centric. Cakewalk forum is user-centric. 
VI-CONTROL's primary mission is to bring in revenue from developers. That has no small impact on the ethos of the community.  I've seen many posts in various forums that describe VI Control as like a cult or series of cults and I think there's credibility to that assessment. There are a small number of pro composers from the film and gaming world that post there and they've developed personality cults, hanger ons; it's not subtle. Developers also have their share of hanger ons there too. That doesn't happen at this forum and many other forums.  Look at the posts in this forum. They're the polar opposite. While VI Control charges developers to post and Mike (the owner) even discourages people from sharing bad customer experiences on his forum, Bandlab has done everything possible to ensure that developers don't have too much influence or use shilling in this forum. I don't know of any other music production related forum that has gone to the extent BandLab has to keep their forum from being manipulated by developers. And I'm a marketing pro who has given advice to more than two dozen developers, but I am a believer in facts and not the stereotype many people have in mind of a marketer. I want consumers to have control and developers to be here to honestly share their products -- but I don't appreciate hype or less than honest promotional tactics. While Bandlab goes far out of their way to do a great deal to make this community not prone to manipulation by less than ethical developers. VI Control does nothing and even engages in practices that enable shilling to flourish while discouraging harsh criticism of developers. Why? Their revenue model is based on making money from developers, Bandlab's isn't. 

Developer shilling is not rare at VI Control. That's not the case here from everything I can discern. 
It's no secret among developers is that some developers incentivize people to talk up their products at VI Control (some forum users disclose getting NFRs in their sig file, most do not). You don't see that here and the regulars here -- including me -- would make terrible shills! I know Troels and I've posted some very critical things about his sample libraries. I still like him as a person, but if you read my critiques, they certainly aren't something a developer would be happy with because they're honest and that honesty means sharing the positive and the negative openly -- and not the way an influencer does it (only making the most mild forms of criticism to create the mere appearance of fairness). There has been nothing at this forum that I could discern as shilling. A big part of that, no doubt, is due to the community size being much smaller. 

VI-Control has no consistent policies regarding forum harassment or bullying and bullying regularly occurs there.  Cakewalk Forum uses best practices to stop bad behavior. 
VI-Control has a couple of well known bullies, the most infamous is a semi-pro composer who goes by the name re-peat. I've called the guy out on bullying people and I've gotten PMs from numerous people at VI-Control and two here who go to both forums, that have shared stories about being harassed or witnessing the guy harass people. The past forum owner and I had several discussions about his bullying after he bullied a sample developer friend of mine and I tried to have him banned. Why did they keep him there knowing of his bad behavior? Because he draws amateur composers who want access to a pro composer. He has a very large ego and craves attention and that means that while he's hyper abrasive and bullying, he still gives many people what they want. Being really blunt,  it's about the hanger ons, the wannabes. I have been coming to Cakewalk Forum since the very beginning and I rarely have seen any bullying or harassment of forum members -- and yes, when I see that stuff, I report it. I have zero tolerance for bullying or harassment and if we tolerate it, we create a community where that kind of behavior becomes normalized. I don't want anyone to have to face that. But I also don't see a personality cult here (okay, someone might say that Larry has one, but that's not a cult, we just appreciate the man). 

It's a sales forum. Post sales, discuss products on sale, compare to other products and other sales. It's not rocket science. Aren't there literally 100 other forum categories on this site to discuss other things and bitch about the industry? WTF is this reply? lol.

99% of people don't care about the inner politics of forums, and come to a forum that says "deals" and expect to see "deals" (as many of them as possible) and discussion of the products that are "deals" which is exactly what I see on VI-Control. More sales posted, more developers represented, higher quality discussion across the board. I don't care what some forum member did in 2005 or April 8th 2011 that made this forum such and such and that forum such and such, and bullies and wtf are you on about? It's a deals forum. Post deals. Discuss products and deals. Vi-control is better at this. Clearly. Anyway, moving on. 

 

 

[PavlovsCat]

[user 905133]

On 1/4/2023 at 10:38 PM, Carl Ewing said:

The more I see comments here about instruments, the more I realize Vi-Control is a much better forum for deal discussion.

Check the discussion of this sale on Vi-Control. Comparison videos, discussion of the Majestica Pro upgrade, specific discussion about the good / bad patches of this specific library (i.e. strong low strings, weak high winds, lack of reverb control, etc.), quality control of specific patches, alternative suggestions (from 8Dio or other manufacturers), 

Here it just seems like people who have little to no experience with products (or perhaps little experience with composing) sounding off about a sales / promotion grievance or trying to downplay what is clearly a very successful company in virtual instruments.  Which helps absolutely NOBODY who might want / need this library...

Here's what informative posts look like:

It seems this forum is just endless IK Multimedia and Plugin Alliance spam, missing half the actual sales of instruments throughout the year, and most of the conversations devolve into complaints about marketing / promotional practices and little substance about actual products. Maybe time to unbookmark.

I think if you hold 8dio in high esteem, rather than provoke a battle, it would have been more helpful if you shared your positive experiences with their products.

If you want to "unbookmark" that is a personal choice, but bringing up the issue the way you did--pitting one forum and its participants against another forum and its participants--doesn't really tell readers why you would recommend 8dio products, why you think their prices are not over-inflated, why you think their marketing strategy is a good one, etc.

As for discussions of marketing/promotional practices, as a consumer of products I have found quite a number of those discussions very useful.  If you are not interested, that's fine (its a matter of personal choice), but I would feel at a disadvantage if that kind of information  was withheld based on your personal preferences. 

 

Edited January 6, 2023 by User 905133
added words that were accidentally omitted