What’s On Your Black Friday Wish List? Latest Update

[peter]

My Black Friday wish list has been evolving / morphing. Here’s where it’s at now. Please share your list and maybe we can look out for one another.

• Musio 1 Perpetual License $149 Black Friday Deal
  Cinesamples is, of course, a top notch sample developer, and I’m sure that Mike Patti knows my IP address for obsessively visiting the Piano in Blue and Tina Guo page (the libraries sound great to me, my only hesitation has ever been the reverb baked into the samples). My hesitation on Musio has only been because I know these libraries are great in the Kontakt format, but could Musio’s scaled-down versions be good enough for my purposes? From the feedback I’ve been seeing posted, I suspect I’ll be satisfied. Piano in Blue alone just sounds like one of the most amazing piano sample libraries imaginable. FTR, my kids grew up hearing the album that inspired that library many times and I’m blown away by how well that library captured that sound. I have a friend who owns the library who has said that there’s nothing else like it that he knows.
• Studio One Pro Upgrade
  I own version 3 and I’m certainly not going to go with Bandlab Sonar — which from what I can discern from their erratic strategy is almost certainly not selling well and with their subscription model where the product stops working the day you stop paying, I would never buy from them — so this is an absolute for me.

MAYBE ITEMS (unsure)

• Sonible EQ4
• Izotope upgrades
• Toontrack and AD2 Drum Kits

How about you? And have you already picked up some good deals you want to tell us about? It’s crazy how many great deals are already live. Clearly, A LOT of developers had the same idea, to get a head start on Black Friday by starting their sales in early November to grab as much of our cash as possible. There’s no question that this is the best time of year to buy audio plugins, sample libraries, DAWs and everything related to music making, and, subsequently, the hardest time to resist buying. If you’re in the resist category, there’s A LOT of Black Friday freebies this year. Scan the forum and check the freebies forum and my two curated lists of the best free sample sample libraries for Kontakt and the best free sample libraries for free samplers.

LinkedMusicians Founder. Your friend who keeps the beat.

Check out my music. 

6

[Kirean]

Musio 1 at 149 is a no brainer. “Too bad” I have it already.

Since I think I’ve got strings covered for a while and percussion too, I was hoping for some good brass/woodwinds deals. Something that goes into no brainer impulse buy territory. No idea what libraries I’m looking for though.

Looking forward to see this year’s Spitfire bundles as I think they’ve provided decent value for me.

Thinking about Arturia upgrades.

Hoping UA offers a further discount on UAD Signature Edition 2.

Other than that, ready for maybe a few surprise buys if something amazing goes into deep discounts. Or maybe I’ll just get some fab filter stuff, since I don’t have any. Saturn 2 seemed interesting and not sure if I’ve got anything that compares.

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[peter]

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LinkedMusicians Founder. Your friend who keeps the beat.

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[Kirean]

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[peter]

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1

[doug]

@kirean, does Musio Voxos have the phrase builder? If not, then this is a huge difference between Cinesamples Voxos and Musio Voxos.

This would be a clever signature if I could think of one.

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[cclarry]

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[Kirean]

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[doug]

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This would be a clever signature if I could think of one.

[Kirean]

On some instruments (like with Voxos) there’s a clear distinction to be made but for others, the loss of extra controls doesn’t really show up, at least in my own use. I just did some comparison between some of the brass instruments, and unless you really needed the extra mic positions and mixes, the difference appeared to be kinda minimal. Naturally, your mileage may wary.

For 149 I simply can’t think of too many better deals that I’ve come across in my two full years of looking/buying/playing. You basically get playable/usable versions of all cinesamples libraries for the price of a decent library on deep discount.

I personally paid quite a bit more last year and wouldn’t have minded the extra dough, yet I find it really hard to complain. Especially since they’ve been adding to the library and making improvements based on feedback.

[peter]

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LinkedMusicians Founder. Your friend who keeps the beat.

Check out my music. 

[doug]

I am certainly interested in this as well. One of my most favourite a cappella groups, Voces8, has a library in Musio. I am going to see them in concert next February, a real bucket list event for me. The thought of being able to compose music using their voices is an absolute dream.

My reason for asking the Voxos question was to temper my expectations. I fully expected there to be a difference between the Cinesamples libraries and the Musio libraries. How could there not be. I just wanted to know what they were going in. Knowing the difference in no way decreases the anticipation of having access to such a wide range of high quality instruments. What would have taken some of the shine off of using Musio would have been expecting the full Cinesamples library and finding that there were major limitations. Yes, I am fully aware that it is a very unreasonable expectation.

I have signed up for the free trial. I am about to give it a spin.

This would be a clever signature if I could think of one.

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[Kirean]

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[cclarry]

I did the trial of Musio and opted not to continue.
even at the $149 price there is just far too much that
I’d never use, and I already have far too many things to
“play with”.

I would like to have the Cinesamples Vocal Bundle that
includes Voxos

[RSMcGuitar]

I’ve been messing around with Kontakt Player lately. I was thinking about it, but man, the entrance price to the basic Kontakt Full is quite high.

Is there a good strategy for getting into Full Kontakt, for a lowish price? I feel mostly I want it because of stuff I’ve seen from other vendors that require it.

[peter]

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LinkedMusicians Founder. Your friend who keeps the beat.

Check out my music. 

1

[peter]

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LinkedMusicians Founder. Your friend who keeps the beat.

Check out my music. 

1

[RSMcGuitar]

Thanks Peter!

Yeah, I should probably just hold out (not like I don’t have enough things to tinker with) the GAS does get pretty intense around this time of year.

I’m probably the worst barterer on the face of the Earth, but the second hand market is a good suggestion. I’ve never really done that with software.

I don’t seem to get any discounted offer with the Player. At least not in the account section.

[peter]

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LinkedMusicians Founder. Your friend who keeps the beat.

Check out my music. 

2

[RSMcGuitar]

Yeah, that sounds like a good way forward with it. Thanks!

1

[bapu]

I was looking for a great deal on Omnisphere 2 (max $249).

Tried knobcloud and made an offer, never heard back. Probably for the best, I have so many other tools I need to learn anyway.

My name is Ed. I Am still bapu though. My Studio

Virtual Bands: Citizen Regen, The Forum Monkeys,  Fizzy Pickle, The Coffee House Band

[Anonymous]

I already did a little shopping with some drum sample packs. And I do have a wishlist, but there’s not much of significance on it to be honest. Lots of stuff there probably won’t be a deal on or the deals are the same year round (so no fomo).

Like some Drumbroker packs. They have the same sale in a couple of months, so I’m probably not going to bite. I am however going for the Production Music Live 2024 bundle. That’s probably the most expensive thing I’ll get at around $200. Orchestral Tools Illuvia if on sale. Kazrog just released a new plugin which won’t be on sale I think, so that’ll have to wait. Maybe maybe The God Particle from Cradle Audio, but I’m perhaps too much on the fence about that one to pull the trigger. Cableguys Snapback looks promising and affordable. Goodhertz Tupe if the price is right (they don’t do very huge sales and it’s still pretty expensive, but I like their stuff).

Overall nothing fancy and a lot of ‘only if the sale is good enough’. Perhaps something like Harmony Bloom or Lunacy Beam, but those don’t break the bank.

Now I do however have very fun hardware things planned. I already upgraded to 2 new cameras recently (both Panasonic Lumix G80/85, both secondhand) for my jams and other stuff I have planned. I’m probably going for a new desk, a proper studio desk. A new pedal, the Empress Echostation. I recently bought the Pulsar 23 secondhand at a fenomenal price!! So that’s absolutely amazing, looking forward to playing with that one. Aaaaannnnddd, to top it all off, with my Christmas bonus I’m looking at either the Vermona PerFOURmer MKII or a classic Juno 106! But, that’ll (both) be secondhand so there has to be a good one available. No hurries there either (both the PerFOURmer or Juno), and I took a little advance on my bonus with the Pulsar 23, it’s not endless.

Which is why I’ve only highlighted 3 things I’m definitely going to get and I probably will be holding off to get the coveted hardware.

2

[Brian]

 

I am slowing down my software acquisitions, thank goodness.  I am looking for Studio One 7 upgrade (from 6) on sale, but I did just go ahead with the surprise Cubase update to 14, so I should have my fill of DAW exploration for a while.  I decided to sell a couple of my guitars this year and blew some of the proceeds on MIDI hardware, so I have been getting into MPE, going overboard on too many VST instruments that ended up being really MEH.  SO I will be looking for software tools that really utilize and make implementing MPE a “fun n’ easy” exercise.  The best MPE VIs have been the ones I already owned: Arturia (not all MPE but a lot- Love PIgments), U-he (added and adding MPE over time), and Dawsome.  Of course I will doubtless succumb to FOMO and buy something that I never looked twice at but is now 90% OFF FOR ONLY TWO DAYS.

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[superabbit]

I’m hoping that I can get a deal on Sonuscore Orchestra Essentials.

-Erik
___________
superabbit.bandcamp.com

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[Brian]

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[mustakatu]

I’m waiting for LiquidSonics, sonicLAB and Isotonik storewide sales, those usually don’t repeat during the year.

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[peter]

Once the holidays are over, I have been looking at a bunch of technology — including AI technology to scrape prices off of sites, which would give the same functionality that MusicSoftwareDeals has but with more integration of regular user’s reviews and ratings of plugins and products. I couldn’t take on doing that this year — with the time it already took to set up the site plus some health issues, that have since resolved.

But after the holidays, this site will basically go into LinkedMusicians 2.0 mode with a lot of the functionality I’ve been talking about. I would expect it to be delivered by Feb / March. But the reality is, when I’m doing this on a shoestring budget, and I’m doing a lot of it myself, and running my business, it’s hard to hit precise delivery dates. Consider that I’m creating a ecosystem that is a blend of Consumer Reports, a pricing comparison engine, people manually posting deals, social media, a blog and helpful guides. But it’s not going to happen as quickly as if this were an actual business. We’re in search engines, we’re seeing steady growth — even without offering public registration. I expect we’re on track to hit over 10,000 unique visitors per month sometime in 2025.

The more members we have, the more we’ll be able to do worthwhile polls and surveys that can help us all make better decisions when researching sample libraries, plugins, services, etc. My objective is to remove as much bias as possible. There are some polls and surveys I have planned that I cannot vote in because of the rules I have created to weed out potential bias (I have consulted to some developers and I don’t want to allow employees or contractors of developers to vote as they are very likely to have bias, so while I can design and oversee a poll or study, I won’t always be a participant).

LinkedMusicians Founder. Your friend who keeps the beat.

Check out my music. 

1

[fretman]

I’m still waiting for the mandolin and guitars to go on sale at Music Sampling. Those sounds pretty darn good to my ears.

 

Studio One, Windows, RME UFX, Yamaha MSP7

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