💬 Deal Chat – Free Form Discussion on the Latest Deals

[LinkedMusicians]

I thought it would be useful to have a thread that lets us discuss the latest deals and whatever is on our minds. Yep, we’re not a community that penalizes anyone for an off-topic post! As long as it’s friendly, it’s welcome here.

With NAMM approaching (it starts tomorrow), there are a lot of deals going on, including a good deal of freebies this week. More and more sample developers are starting to have a presence at NAMM.

So, what deals are you watching for, considering, or mulling over?

Do you tend to buy anticipating future needs or buy for existing needs?

I tend to buy for things I’m planning to do in the near future or things I’m working on. But I tend to plan my big purchases around Black Friday and big sales (like Native Instruments’ summer sale).

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[Brian]

I always look forward to seeing what new MIDI controllers premiere.  Particularly if they are “Off the beaten path” of keys/pads/knobs/sliders.   I remain ever hopeful to see the debut of the magic hat I can don that converts my thoughts to MIDI signals.

3

[mustakatu]

@bluescat, well, though not ideal, Interaxon’s brainwave-sensing Muse headbands exist. E.g. they work in Ableton Live through a couple of apps and Max for Live devices.

https://choosemuse.com

https://maxforlive.com/library/device/8244/muse-port

https://mind-monitor.com

3

[fretman]

I am currently in  the market for a solo flute VI. EastWest products are too noisy for solo work. Right now I’m playing with OT’s Passion Flute which might work out. But in case it doesn’t, I’ll be looking for an alternative. It’s for a baby lullaby so it needs to be quiet, smooth, but bright. Although at some point it’d be fun to do some Jethro Tull.

Studio One, Windows, RME UFX, Yamaha MSP7

2

[jude77]

I’m still looking for the mythological “Gooderizer” that will somehow make all mixes/music sound even better than what a pro can do.  I know that it, a unicorn, and a close parking space at Target are all out there.  Probably near the Fountain of Youth.

These days I just watch deals in general and see if anything interesting pops up.  I’m really intrigued by the AI things that are beginning to appear.  In particular I think Sonible is doing creative stuff.  I’ll be watching to see what they do next.

As an aside, I really enjoy this site.  It’s my first stop every morning.

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[Brian]

On mustakatu said

@bluescat, well, though not ideal, Interaxon’s brainwave-sensing Muse headbands exist. E.g. they work in Ableton Live through a couple of apps and Max for Live devices.

https://choosemuse.com

https://maxforlive.com/library/device/8244/muse-port

https://mind-monitor.com

Cool link @mustakatu – Thanks!  -Off-topic alert-   You know, I think I bought a really early version of the Muse headband, or very similar tech, several years ago when I was struggling to learn “mindfulness”.  I just didn’t get much out of it, but that was early days and I think they have come a long ways based on the video.  What (much) later worked for me was using a VR headset+app.  Kind of barraging visual and aural senses along with the mindful practice let me enter the mindful state, which I was then able (over time and practice) to achieve without the device.

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[patrickwichrowski]

Looking for some male voice library that is cheap. There is a lot of free female ones, but its hard to find male libraries.

https://linktr.ee/patrickwichrowski/

https://patrickwichrowski.bandcamp.com/

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[LinkedMusicians]

I’m either going to do a weekly Deal Chat thread each week or keep them for the full month. What do you guys think? Would you rather have them remain for the entire month or just for a week? Also, I’m going to pin them so that they’re easy to find.

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[fretman]

I guess the ideal would be to keep the chats up as long as the deal is active, but that takes some extra work and mindfulness.

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1

[lamia6]

@patrickwichrowski Might wanna look at Black Octopus, they have a 75% off coupon now, limited to just 200 users. COUPON CODE = 75flash261

https://blackoctopus-sound.com/genre/male/

Of course coupon is good for pretty much anything else.

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1

[mustakatu]

@linkedmusicians, honestly, I’d leave this thread as it is, not for a month even, but forever or until it reaches a seriously distracting number of pages. Some threads on other forums have literally thousands of pages, and it doesn’t bother people at all, on the contrary, it gives a sense of a continuous conversation.

[MagicRuss]

Boss just released the GX-1 for $225.  It’s the most budget pedal they have in the GX line with 8 usable effects at a time including modeling, etc.

40 years ago that money would have gotten you a Boss delay pedal and a Morley wah/volume pedal and a power supply.

 

[LinkedMusicians]

I realize that it’s well covered in other threads, but while I’m not going to hold off if I see a great deal on Kontakt libraries, I’m definitely hitting the pause button on anything else from NI and especially NI-acquired companies such as iZotope and anything from Plugin Alliance. The fact is, if you buy it now and the company is sold off, the company that purchases those brands hasn’t made any money from you and may not inherit any obligations that Native Instruments had, so I wouldn’t count on updates at no cost. If NI or another company that ends up with these brands/product lines were to buy Kontakt and the various main products in Komplete — personally, I only care about the sample libraries and Massive X presets, not loop collections — and had a good update for Komplete Ultimate 16 (I own version 15), I would strongly consider it.

I own a bunch of iZotope plugins — including a bunch of the advanced versions (but they’re around two versions behind). I own a few dozen Plugin Alliance plugins. This isn’t a safe time to buy more of them. It’s a gamble to buy any NI products right now. Kontakt is a lot less of a gamble because it’s the crown jewel and worth more money than anything else NI owns, but even that isn’t guaranteed. It could be sold off to a company like Apple, Splice, or Bandlab that decides to make it subscription-only or it could be — some strategists may think that it could be an excellent money maker with the current userbase. In any event, if you upgraded your iZotope plugins now, that’s revenue that goes towards the creditors today, not the eventual owner of these companies, and it’s not known, but I suspect iZotope, Plugin Alliance, and Brainworx will end being sold off (if the administrator can get a decent price for them that will satisfy NI’s creditors).

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1

[LinkedMusicians]

When I first picked up UJAM’s virtual acoustic pianos, I was blown away at how cheap they were. I got one of those offers that was something like pick 5 for $49 and got an extra 10% off at Audio Deluxe. I loved the presets. But once I started actually using a couple of them for songs, I found them so filled with little noises that they were unusable. I don’t buy the rationale either — like it’s some kind of charm. It’s not charm when one of three times you hit an Ab you get some odd little creaky noise again and again. It doesn’t sound cool, it sounds like there was a problem with the piano you played or the recording quality. Late last year I picked up all of the UJAM Virtual Pianos (that was before they released the Wurly library, which I demoed and didn’t find it captured the Wurly’s dynamics at a level I’ve come to demand out of Wurly libraries).

Now, I also picked up Universal Audio’s Ravel piano. I think it’s far more usable than, say the UJAM Score, a grand piano, and its undesirable noises or the UJAM Relic — an upright with tone that I love but it too has these annoying noises embedded in some of the piano notes that play over and over when you hit certain keys. I really don’t know how the person who did the samples or the person who approved them let that pass. If they were going to record little creaks, why not record them separately and overlay those samples with the piano samples? Anyhow, I originally only post about those libraries right after I picked them up and spent very little time with them.

The sample libraries — well plugins — that I picked up late last year that I absolutely love are Pianoverse MAX. Those are absolutely gorgeous and are up there with Noire, Rosewood Grand, Walker 1955 Concert D, and some of the 8Dio pianos. I love them. But I love the tone of UJAM Relic and the presets and am really disappointed about the noises, because I would otherwise use it. I don’t love the tone of Score as much. It’s very nice, but more standard. But like Relic, it has great presets. Once again though, I’m not going to use a piano that has annoying noises every time or every other time I hit a certain key.

Has anyone else found this to be the case with the UJAM Virtual Pianos? Great presets, but the little creaks and noises baked into individual note samples kills the usability of the library.

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[lamia6]

Ok I had to check out Vogue, and I do notice that on G#6, it’s not all that bad but certainly there. Like a note, then a click. Seems to go away when you turn the Ambiance part off. Noises do bug me though. Like on guitar amp – pedal sims, emulating the AC hum like you are using a cheap adapter or got wiring issues. Why? The one annoying part of hardware. Some analog synth emulations too, just minor little artifacts. Once you hear it you cannot unhear it, guess those are supposed to make it true analog emulation, but still, why not a clean analog and improve the thing. I’m sure the companies would have done so in the past 4 or so decades since those 80’s synths were made. Imagine a guitar with a fret buzz, and saying nah lets keep that in there. LOL. Makes no sense.

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1

[LinkedMusicians]

On lamia6 said

Ok I had to check out Vogue, and I do notice that on G#6, it’s not all that bad but certainly there. Like a note, then a click. Seems to go away when you turn the Ambiance part off. Noises do bug me though. Like on guitar amp – pedal sims, emulating the AC hum like you are using a cheap adapter or got wiring issues. Why? The one annoying part of hardware. Some analog synth emulations too, just minor little artifacts. Once you hear it you cannot unhear it, guess those are supposed to make it true analog emulation, but still, why not a clean analog and improve the thing. I’m sure the companies would have done so in the past 4 or so decades since those 80’s synths were made. Imagine a guitar with a fret buzz, and saying nah lets keep that in there. LOL. Makes no sense.

I wasn’t literally referring to a note as having noise in it; I wrote that post on my laptop — not my DAW PC.

When I went through the samples and took off all the effects, I could still hear the noises. I then did a search and found a blurb from UJAM stating that the samples have noises baked into them, you cannot remove them, but you can use their effects to tone them down somewhat. They attempt to position it as natural charm. I disagree. I think it makes them unusable when you want solo piano, at least for me. Consequently, I would be very careful about purchasing more UJAM acoustic piano sample libraries. I love the presets, but there’s too much noise in the samples for my taste. I first found this to be the case with Relic, which has a lot of noises baked into the samples. I love the presets, but not the noises.

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2

[LinkedMusicians]

I just posted a bunch of really great deals and freebies. There are a number of free giveaways of normally paid plugins that I just posted. The two that really stand out for me — that I quickly grabbed — are Gorilla Drive from Safari Pedals, which normally goes for $49, and  Aurora DSP’s Mammoth, which is regularly $79 for all of you metalheads. The other thing that really catches my attention are that there are two great reverbs that are currently very heavily discounted. You can pick up IK Multimedia’s Sunset Sound Reverb for $27 plus grab a free plugin and you can pick up UAD Sound City Plugin for $39 — or you can add another plugin and get them for $22.05 each. That’s fantastic for two great reverb plugins that model iconic recording studios. If you don’t have both of those — and especially if you produce rock — you really should very carefully check them out.

Otherwise, it’s been really quiet this week. I’m not sure why. Chime in! Let’s hear you! I’m now starting to invite developers here and discuss doing exclusive deals, so it would help that they could see some activity, even if it’s just saying hello.

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[LinkedMusicians]

Posting a free sample library for Audiomodern’s Soundbox, I can’t help but wonder if Native Instruments’ current very serious problems will result in Audiomodern investing more money into Soundbox to make it a more sophisticated sampler. Personally, if I were advising them, I would likely recommend that they further develop their plugin — and do it soon while there’s a significant opportunity, as the market is concerned about the stability of NI and Kontakt, even if Kontakt remains with a restructured, but slimmer, NI following the insolvency.

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2

[LinkedMusicians]

Last night I realized that I never registered Eastwest Voices of Passion, which I picked up as my free gift with purchase last month from Audio Deluxe. So, I wondered if maybe my procrastination paid off, and when I registered, that I might get Spaces II — the highly praised reverb plugin (retail price $199) that Eastwest is giving away free right now when you buy a plugin (directly or from authorized resellers).

Well, I’m very happy to report that when I checked my iLok software, it showed both Voices of Passion and Spaces II (as well as the Opus sample player).

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1

[Zargg]

On LinkedMusicians said

When I first picked up UJAM’s virtual acoustic pianos, I was blown away at how cheap they were. I got one of those offers that was something like pick 5 for $49 and got an extra 10% off at Audio Deluxe. I loved the presets. But once I started actually using a couple of them for songs, I found them so filled with little noises that they were unusable. I don’t buy the rationale either — like it’s some kind of charm. It’s not charm when one of three times you hit an Ab you get some odd little creaky noise again and again. It doesn’t sound cool, it sounds like there was a problem with the piano you played or the recording quality. Late last year I picked up all of the UJAM Virtual Pianos (that was before they released the Wurly library, which I demoed and didn’t find it captured the Wurly’s dynamics at a level I’ve come to demand out of Wurly libraries).

Now, I also picked up Universal Audio’s Ravel piano. I think it’s far more usable than, say the UJAM Score, a grand piano, and its undesirable noises or the UJAM Relic — an upright with tone that I love but it too has these annoying noises embedded in some of the piano notes that play over and over when you hit certain keys. I really don’t know how the person who did the samples or the person who approved them let that pass. If they were going to record little creaks, why not record them separately and overlay those samples with the piano samples? Anyhow, I originally only post about those libraries right after I picked them up and spent very little time with them.

The sample libraries — well plugins — that I picked up late last year that I absolutely love are Pianoverse MAX. Those are absolutely gorgeous and are up there with Noire, Rosewood Grand, Walker 1955 Concert D, and some of the 8Dio pianos. I love them. But I love the tone of UJAM Relic and the presets and am really disappointed about the noises, because I would otherwise use it. I don’t love the tone of Score as much. It’s very nice, but more standard. But like Relic, it has great presets. Once again though, I’m not going to use a piano that has annoying noises every time or every other time I hit a certain key.

Has anyone else found this to be the case with the UJAM Virtual Pianos? Great presets, but the little creaks and noises baked into individual note samples kills the usability of the library.

The official LinkedMusicians account

I have seen this in an UJAM piano (can’t remember which), and got rid of some of the noise using Pro Q4 and it’s spectral mode on a couple of frequencies. That and/or Soothe..
Hope it helps.

All the best.

Check out my music: https://soundcloud.com/zargg

[LinkedMusicians]

The first official LinkedMusicians exclusive promotion with a developer is in the works (there are a couple more in early discussions). I’m hoping we can launch this before the weekend.

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3

[joegyork]

Sounds exciting!

1

[LinkedMusicians]

On joegyork said

Sounds exciting!

I realize to people who don’t look deeply, it can look like the typical promotions that the big blogs and influencers do, but anyone who takes a serious look at what we’re doing at LM can see that this model is quite different. I again ask people to look back at how we used LinkedMusicians to advocate for a member who was wronged at a developer, Karanyi. There is no other forum where the forum owner would do that, no influencer, no blog. They prioritize developers and retailers over music producers and composers, and I completely understand how it’s surprising for someone who’s publicly known for their expertise in marketing to be behind all of this, but I’m dissecting the power structure as it normally works and turning it around to empower the community members instead of those they buy from. It’s a true grassroots approach and it’s the polar opposite how all of the legacy forums are run as well as the social media platforms.

Yes, we’re eventually going to look to advertising to fund this platform, but advertisers or affiliate partners will never call the shots. If Karanyi were an affiliate partner that mistreated one of our members, I would have dropped them– full stop. I can assure everyone that is not the way things normally work. But it is the way LinkedMusicians will always work.

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[LinkedMusicians]

Being candid here, but due to the lack of interaction on the site, I’m going to pause any further discussions with developers on promotions unless things pick up. The problem is, they come to the site, don’t see interaction and write it off.

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[Author]

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