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Nothing is crazy ITB if it works. I have a bunch of PA plugs at this point and think they do great things when used well - I often use SHMC-A after another dynamics processor (varies) in my final chain with both doing 0.5-1db of gain reduction max, great glue (and that is after track & group compression). Try IKMM's Sunset Sound Studios Reverb, its dry is just dry but its wet features some modeling of the console used as well as beautiful IR-based reverberation capturing the various spaces & plates there. I use it on a lot of material, very natural. I like the Abbey Roads Saturator on some instrument tracks, bit aggressive for the whole mix but where it works it works pretty uniquely. I track digital instruments like synths & guitar amp sims through NEOLD Warble with wow and flutter at 0.2-0.5%, tune the resonant filters to get what I'm after & apply small amounts of saturation/dirt (doesn't really do the "record to tape" thing, in terms of transients and compression, but it has great sounding modulation and saturation when used sparingly) and I find that helps cumulatively across a number of tracks to help the sound feel more "analog" and lively, less synthetic. A compression and saturation group on instruments after panning can help things gel. I like Fuse Audio compressors for that job, VCL-25a for example is great on guitar groups and VCL-864u has a nice sound for other material. Saturators, there are so many options and many of them are quite capable - Ray D. has made a bunch of the ones I like, including Elysia Phil's Cascade, NEOLD Big Al, and Black Box Analog HG (I use the HG-MS version and love it) and but others have made nice ones too. Recently I got Audiority Pyros and it is dynamite for percussion, especially with its easily configured envelope follower. Black Rooster is another brand I rely on, with their older plugins coded by Ray D. and newer ones by others, many gems for tracking and mixing among them. Klanghelm DC8C3 is my go-to ducking compressor and is amazingly configurable - I adore it for that purpose and consider it a big contributor to my tracks' sound at this point. I don't do aggressive pumping, I do subtle ducking and this lets me dial it in so precisely like I want it. I recommend keeping a multi-band compressor you like handy as well, those can be so situationally dynamite. I like Audiority Polycomp, which models the IGS Multicore mastering multi-band and adds some features that the hardware unit didn't have like cutting as well as boosting individual bands. Two situations I mixed myself into without having the moving parts still in place to easily re-record some parts, Polycomp saved my bacon on splitting the track out with itself in parallel and selectively compressing and boosting/cutting the different bands. I like to work with stuff like I'm committing to tape rather than keeping DIs going and fiddling as I go because if I do the latter I will fiddle with poo poo forever and not get the job done, so it pays to have a nice, precise tool like this even if I seem to have mixed myself into a corner. Apart from rescuing me there it's also just a really nice multi-band VCA-style compressor with a good sound 
Agreed fucked around with this message at 16:56 on Mar 25, 2022 |
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Mar 25, 2022 15:58
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Drunk Driver Dad posted:Anyway, two questions. There are several different versions of EZkeys. From what I've seen, Studio Grand seems to probably a good choice, do you guys agree or should I try going with another one for my purposes? 
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Mar 25, 2022 17:37
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I like to include a few things run to outboard in my mix, either a portion of a track or running parallel to the original, to get more of that older style of sound. I don't think you need anything fancy for it to help differentiate things in a mix, or get a little bit of a more analog flavor. Mixers, tape machines used as mixers, pedals, even running something to an amp and re-recording it can make the great quality of plugins sound more 'real'. Plugin emulation tech has gotten really really good, and I think totally worth it, but there is a certain amount of imperfection and uniqueness that in my experience makes a few physical pieces of gear worth it. Less about analog purism, more about the benefits of a hybrid setup.
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Mar 25, 2022 18:04
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If it's what you like and can afford and have space for, for sure, I like doing it all ITB and don't find it to hold me back from my modest creative desires personally but analog gear powered it all for a long time to great results, that we are still chasing with emulations. ITB has more and more great results all the time too now, looking forward to seeing more tech develop both in terms of good emulations and also good unique tools that aren't worried about emulating things, like DC8C has been all along, or the work of that Valhalla reverb fella (just got EOS2 recently, man it's nice, and that's older code from him). I wish I had the budget and space for a nice HW synth and a tape machine, personally, or a sick outboard comp! Someday 
Agreed fucked around with this message at 19:33 on Mar 25, 2022 |
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Mar 25, 2022 18:46
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Ruffian Price posted:The free SINEfactory piano easily beats EZkeys when it comes to sound imo. EZkeys has a set of fantastic chord manipulation tools built in and is great as a MIDI source/effect, but the first thing you should do after loading the plugin is mute the output Lol the dude's trying to make Cradle of Filth not Hans Zimmer.
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Mar 25, 2022 19:03
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I was actually thinking about going with Waves Rhapsody because it looked and sounded cool and is only 30 bucks. But part of the reason I was considering EZ Keys is the song writing tools. What do you guys think?
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Mar 25, 2022 22:20
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Agreed posted:Nothing is crazy ITB if it works. Much obliged! That gives me plenty to think about. I can't wait for a day off so I can spend some more time experimenting. Does IK Multimedia ever have sales? I want that Sunset Sound Reverb now.
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Mar 26, 2022 01:23
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Yes they do, and fairly regularly.
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Mar 26, 2022 02:17
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Free XO with Bitwig Studio, and they're sending it to existing users too! I was actually three payments into a rent-to-own contract on Splice so that just saved me like $115.
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Mar 26, 2022 05:07
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Hell has frozen over: UAD is now selling native versions of their plugins. Mac available today if you can get past the technical glitches, Windows versions later this year. https://spark.uaudio.com/
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Mar 30, 2022 23:40
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drat I guess I better start saving for that Studer tape plugin everyone raves about.
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Mar 31, 2022 00:25
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They're launching a subscription service for (I think) all of their plugins. I already own almost all of the ones I have any real interest in, so I doubt I'll be signing up. Currently it looks like their poo poo is hosed because of too many people trying to sign up and/or authorize their already-bought plugins, so I haven't yet been able to get mine running. e: Yeah now they're saying it could be up to five days for some people. https://help.uaudio.com/hc/en-us/articles/5204648081812?fbclid=IwAR3gUVL7JLcQBFrt9EiYozd_6LADNSHv-IjSSmT1oQwW_-b9kSp6Ynr7W0M It's tempting to look into selling my Satellite now, because with my crazy af new MBP it's hard to see me needing the extra 2007 Nokia flip phone's worth of DSP that the Satellite provides. Trig Discipline fucked around with this message at 01:01 on Mar 31, 2022 |
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Mar 31, 2022 00:46
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Trig Discipline posted:Free XO with Bitwig Studio, and they're sending it to existing users too! I was actually three payments into a rent-to-own contract on Splice so that just saved me like $115. Do you have any details on it being sent to existing users? I purchased Studio at the start of the year and seems the only way I can avail of this offer is to buy an earlier resub.
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Mar 31, 2022 02:02
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Boody posted:Do you have any details on it being sent to existing users? I purchased Studio at the start of the year and seems the only way I can avail of this offer is to buy an earlier resub. I think it may actually not be all existing users, in fact. I got my license in an email that specifically mentioned me being with them for a long time and keeping my upgrade plan active.
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Mar 31, 2022 02:15
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Trig Discipline posted:I think it may actually not be all existing users, in fact. I got my license in an email that specifically mentioned me being with them for a long time and keeping my upgrade plan active. Thanks for letting me know. Had been looking at XO but not enough to pick up an early renewal.
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Mar 31, 2022 18:23
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I bought Bitwig last July and have had no time to learn how to use it  It seems really intimidating coming from a Logic user.
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Mar 31, 2022 18:35
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Tayter Swift posted:I bought Bitwig last July and have had no time to learn how to use it The arrangement view is very similar to Logic, but yeah the clip launcher view is a whole other thing. I really didn't use it much for years, but now that I've started performing live using Bitwig I find myself using it more and more often.
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Mar 31, 2022 23:39
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I'm mostly interested in the grid and all the aleatoric, generative stuff a la State Azure or Polarity. Going deep I guess. But first I gotta find time to learn the more basic differences between it and Logic.
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Apr 1, 2022 00:38
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I caved and subscribed to the Plugin Alliance Mastering bundle. All the plugins of theirs that I'm interested in and don't yet own are included so I figure I'll give them a whirl. Between the virtual guitar amps, the mixing/mastering stuff, everything I picked up from Waves recently, Analog Lab V, Valhalla VintageVerb, three GetGood drum kits, and a bunch of free utilities, I think I've got more than enough to start recording some full fledged songs.
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Apr 1, 2022 02:03
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Tayter Swift posted:I'm mostly interested in the grid and all the aleatoric, generative stuff a la State Azure or Polarity. Going deep I guess. I had no prior DAW experience and the grid is what drew me in. As I've branched out from the grid I've learned bits and pieces of bitwig along the way. I really have nothing to compare it to, but generally I really like it. The grid plus the regular, comprehensive modulation system makes it pretty straightforward to do interesting sounding generative stuff.
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Apr 1, 2022 15:14
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Out of loving nowhere, AIR Music is back with 6 new synths. https://www.airmusictech.com/ Of course, AIR being AIR, their new authentication system is broken to all hell. I picked up Bassline and TubeSynth from ADSR, and Bassline's giving me a bad serial number error, while TubeSynth is giving me an error that someone else already used my serial number because the serial number field on their new authentication site doesn't allow enough characters for the full serial number. It's a loving embarrassing rollout, but the synths are fun. I already have tickets open with both AIR and ADSR, and the problem is on AIR's side. They admitted they're having massive problems with their registration system.
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Apr 8, 2022 16:46
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I logged into IK's site for the first time as I noticed the Sunset Sound Reverb was 50% off at 74.99, and I got a message saying I had "Jampoints" available. Unbeknownst to me, it's a loyalty points program that can be used for discounts in their store. Just making an account gave me 25 points, and it let me use 22 of them on the Sunset, which knocked it down to $52.99 You guys might want to take advantage of those points.
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Apr 10, 2022 02:25
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NeuralDSP is running a 50% off sale unconditionally and I took advantage of it to, well first to ask for another trial of the SLO-100 so I could be sure, which they were quick to give, and then when I had really given it a full fair shake and compared it to all my favorite high gain options, snap it up with a quickness. I had trialed it previously and not gotten it when it was introduced, but the sale price is nicer than its intro was and after thorough evaluation I feel it just does for sure the best job that I could get at doing an authentic Soldano sound. I have other high gainers I like very well, enough so that I was not tempted by the Tim Henson archetype for example and could cover its ground, but nothing gets the low midrange and particular character of the upper frequencies right like NDSP Soldano SLO-100 if that is specifically THE sound you're after. It's impressively authentic. Audiority released another low cost plugin, this time an Electric Mistress emulation, and at $10 I was quick to get it also after trying it out. Other recent thing I like a lot: Baby Audio's new Crystalline reverb. It's got a crisp, clean nature but can go farther out with some smart functions and an unusually easy to dial in layout for a reverb. It has a great sounding "Freeze" and a useful ducker that has a couple modes & a useful slider to get precisely how much out of the way you want it to get. If you own a few Baby Audio plugins, get in touch with their support address and they'll give you a discount below the $49 intro price that might make it more attractive to you as well.
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Apr 10, 2022 06:04
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Agreed posted:NeuralDSP is running a 50% off sale unconditionally and I took advantage of it to, well first to ask for another trial of the SLO-100 so I could be sure, Rad to the max. I run a Synergy Syn-2 with a Friedman BE/BB and ENGL Powerball modules, and I've been thinking of picking up a SLO module as well, but maybe this plugin is the way to go. I'd be using it almost exclusively for recreating the tone of David Isen of HORSE the Band.
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Apr 10, 2022 12:21
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Agreed posted:
I really like their Spaced Out effect - do you think Crystalline adds something useful beyond what you can get with spaced out, raum, and valhalla (the other stuff I've got)?
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Apr 10, 2022 15:56
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DammitJanet posted:Rad to the max. I run a Synergy Syn-2 with a Friedman BE/BB and ENGL Powerball modules, and I've been thinking of picking up a SLO module as well, but maybe this plugin is the way to go. I'd be using it almost exclusively for recreating the tone of David Isen of HORSE the Band. I listened to some clips and it sounds like it would do that - they offer a 14-day trial without restriction during that time, I'd nab it and see what you think havelock posted:I really like their Spaced Out effect - do you think Crystalline adds something useful beyond what you can get with spaced out, raum, and valhalla (the other stuff I've got)? I also have and very much enjoy Spaced Out. Crystalline does not seem to have a lot of overlap in its core functionality and product features with Spaced Out, and additionally takes a significantly lower amount of CPU. One of the standout features is easily syncing predelay and decay to project tempo - I have spent time manually calculating that in other software, so I appreciate how quickly it's doable here. You can set it in ms yourself if you prefer, but that's a cool feature. It has great, quick tone shaping for the reverb also. Its modulation is pretty unique sounding, and I really love its ducker and granular Freeze functions - it has probably the best sounding "infinite reverb tail" Freeze sound I have personally used, really textural and cool. And the ducker only uses two controls, a slider for overall ducking intensity and a Gentle switch which sounds like it changes the knee a bit, but with those two controls accomplishes everything I could want if I ran a reverb with a side chain compressor ducking manually with a lot more configuration. I think it's a great tool and I've loved using it so far. Their demo is not terrible, 5 seconds of silence out of every 60 seconds, you can probably get a good feel for how you like it demoing.
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Apr 10, 2022 17:21
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Agreed posted:
Thanks for this info. Looks like the intro pricing is going on for a while so I should have some time to try it out. Offering a demo like that is cool, too.
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Apr 10, 2022 19:57
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The holding company that owns Izotope and Native Instruments just added Plugin Alliance, Brainworx, and some brand new company called Sound Stacks, to form a new umbrella company called Soundwide: https://blog.native-instruments.com/soundwide/?_ga=2.69271312.1097314501.1649497556-1570085459.1613054436 They are giving away a number of plugins as a result. Links to download them are at the bottom of the above-linked announcement. I am skeptical about these mergers (NI was acquired through a leveraged buyout, which kills more companies than it helps), but freebies. The links: NI Ethereal Earth: https://www.native-instruments.com/en/specials/2022/soundwide-offer/get-ethereal-earth/request-ethereal-earth/ Izotope Neutron Elements: https://www.izotope.com/en/products/downloads/neutron_elements.html Plugin Alliance bundle: https://www.plugin-alliance.com/en/products/pa-soundwide-bundle.html EDIT 2: Best to already have accounts with NI, Izotope, and Plugin Alliance before following those links. The NI one will add Ethereal Earth to your registered products (install with Native Access). The Izotope one gives you a registration for Neutron Elements (install with Izotope Product Portal, I imagine), and the Plugin Alliance one applies a coupon code (JOINSOUNDWIDE) to your cart, reducing the $599 bundle to $0 USD. (Their site is getting slammed rn.) Radiapathy fucked around with this message at 21:21 on Apr 12, 2022 |
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Apr 12, 2022 19:38
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Arturia is giving away some sort of new strings/synth hybrid instrument through the end of the month. Says it'll be the first in a series.
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Apr 12, 2022 20:10
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That Plugin Alliance bundle is really nice. I bought Masterdesk and Focusrite a while ago and use both a lot. I highly recommend it.
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Apr 12, 2022 20:17
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Tayter Swift posted:Arturia is giving away some sort of new strings/synth hybrid instrument through the end of the month. Says it'll be the first in a series. Thanks for the heads up. I didn't get an email about this one.
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Apr 13, 2022 02:12
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On the Plugin Alliance thing, so what's up is Dirk sold the companies Brainworx (Germany) and Plugin Alliance (USA) to Francisco Partners, and now sits as CEO of both Brainworx and Plugin Alliance still and has bought enough shares in the newly announced Soundwide umbrella to be the top private shareholder. Seeing what happened to Izotope, and what is currently happening to Native Instruments, this concerns me frankly but it is what it is. Those dudes own a lot of music software now. Also if you add Neold Warble to your cart you can get it for basically free with the Soundwide bundle, and Neold Warble is niiiiiice. There's also some other cart screwery going on that I don't understand - I didn't take advantage of it but apparently you can get a lot of stuff mondo cheap at the moment, not sure if it's intentional or what. I just claimed the standard bundle to get SHMC non-class A for free since I had the rest already (bought several of them last year...!) Edit: I believe they have fixed the cart so that such fuckery is no longer possible. They seem also to have disabled discounts for previously owned products. This is in an environment where they recently introduced the "Forever 29" subscription plan which gives a voucher per subscription to make literally any plugin, regardless of when it was released or whether it is on sale right now, cost $1. So all PA plugins price can be considered capped at $31 right now. Agreed fucked around with this message at 15:18 on Apr 13, 2022 |
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Apr 13, 2022 05:43
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Tayter Swift posted:Arturia is giving away some sort of new strings/synth hybrid instrument through the end of the month. Says it'll be the first in a series. came here to post about this. downloading rn
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Apr 14, 2022 12:10
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man that merger news is troubling. i didn’t really care about brainworx or plugin alliance but there’s a not too distant future where things i really care about are gonna be completely inside of the native instruments walled garden
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Apr 14, 2022 13:33
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I am concerned, especially since Native and Izotope originally had their previous CEOs still but they have since been moved and now Mark Cattini acts as CEO for both companies on a "unified executive board." Mark Cattini is a CEO who has presided over companies prior to major sales in mergers and acquisitions before numerous times. For now Dirk is CEO of Brainworx and Plugin Alliance, but is he destined to go the same route as the former CEOs of NI and Izotope? Perhaps as a hedge against this or perhaps just out of faith in the profitability of the venture, he invested enough in the new Soundwide company to become its largest private shareholder, but it remains to be seen what will play out as a result of all of this.
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Apr 14, 2022 21:24
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I don't think NI is too much of a walled garden currently. Most of their software products (at least) work fine on their own and don't really lock you into anything. I think the added software will allow them to make Maschine more compelling with even more tightly integrated sounds/effects, but as of now that doesn't seem to be coming at the expense of people that just want plugins to use in whatever DAW. My main concern would be if they try to move to a subscription only model. I do think we'll see a Soundwide subscription come out that gives you access to all the Soundwide owned plugins under a single subscription, but going sub-only would certainly be quite bold.
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Apr 14, 2022 21:27
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i guess walled garden is a bit of an exaggeration but they do have their NKI standard and stuff that’s definitely inching towards it, but my problem is more that they price their stuff arbitrarily high just to make their expensive bundle seem reasonably priced. arturia also does this but they sell reasonably priced stuff aside from the bundles so i’m not as sour on them. and don’t even get me loving started on waves
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Apr 14, 2022 21:41
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The pricing stuff is annoying. iZotope is (pre-merger too) way worse IMO as they're MSRPs are all more ridiculous than NIs, not necessarily to sell bundles, but just to make the sale (which they run all the time) prices seem like a good deal. E.g. Elements packages, which are worth (and regularly discounted to) $0-20 have MSRPs of something like $130. NI isn't nearly as bad in this regard, as their individual MSRPs on flagships are maybe only around double (sometimes less) what they probably should be, as opposed to izotope that lists things for like 3-5x what they should be. E.g. Massive X should probably be a ~$100 synth, Reaktor probably is well priced @ $200 for what it can do tbh, GuitarRig should probably be around $100, etc. They do run sales on these products for up to 50% off as well (looks like Kontakt is 50% off right now for example), so you're not really locked into the bundles if you truly only want 1 or 2 items and can wait for a sale. For what you get, Komplete isn't even all that expensive @ $600, but when they run sales on it for $300-400, it actually becomes a great deal that is hard to turn down over the individual plugins even on sale (not because the individual plugins are overpriced, but because the bundle deal is just actually good). This is more of a competitive advantage they have for having such a large back catalog of useful plugins. What is ridiculous is the "you save $6k!" bundle marketing due to the prices for many of their non-flagship effects/sounds that almost nobody is actually buying a-la-cart outside of the bundle (many are , but that's easy to ignore/see through. I think Arturia's pricing is actually worse than NI's IMO as their individual vintage synth emulations are just not worth nearly what they charge for them due to the niche nature of each one (and the fact that at least in some cases their emulations aren't as good as some of the competition e.g. compared to u-he). E.g. most things in V Collection are priced at ~$150-200 individually, when they probably should be $50 or less a-la-cart. Pigments at $200 is reasonable (but again they'll sale it down to $100 or less), but it is in line with NI MSRPs (e.g. Reaktor for $200). Also IMO V collection MSRP @ $600 is much less value than Komplete @ $600, as Komplete is just much, much more versatile. A lot of this though (e.g. pricing high to make the sales seem good) isn't really specific to these mentioned companies or even the music production industry. It's a pretty common practice across many industries, not even just software based. Not loving around with pricing for sales is more of the exception, e.g. Valhalla.
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Apr 14, 2022 22:52
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Splinter posted:
U-he is consistent as well. I hate subscription-based pricing. Subscriptions only make sense for professionals. I'm not a professional musician. I dropped Adobe as soon as they made the change for all their software because I'm not a professional designer. If one of these plug-in companies makes me pay a subscription, I'm dropping them too.
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Apr 14, 2022 23:08
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Wizchine posted:U-he is consistent as well. U-he will run sales on rare occasions, just not clockwork Arturia/NI/iZotope/etc. I'm with you on subscriptions. That's why subscription only is my main concern here (but I'd be surprised if they went that route rather than just adding a Soundwide subscription as a separate option). I dropped Adobe as well for photo stuff when they went subscription only. I don't want to micro manage a subscription if I'm going through periods where I'm not really doing a specific hobby, and I also don't necessarily need to have the latest and greatest features as soon as they are released (especially being essentially forced to pay for updates that don't actually add any features I'd use).
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Apr 14, 2022 23:22
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