[Brian]

Ohhh.  I am not so pleased.  In Music has orphaned a LOT of hardware over the years. and I own a NI S61 Mk3.  Wait and see I guess.  On the plus side, I really like my Akai MPC and Headrush hardware that is excellent mainly because of integrated software support, but I have also owned M-Audio and Alesis hardware that they promised future software upgrades for that was completely orphaned and abandoned.  I will certainly wait for a lot of dust to settle before I put any $ into In Music (et al) hardware.  Software, yes I think I can support that.  There is going to be a big shakeup in all their hardware lines because of the many cross-overs.

2

[Brian]

My nickel’s worth-  Back to Reddit is what I was hoping we would pivot to.  I like seeing all the deals in one place, sure, but there are other places you can do that.  What I come here for is the engagement with intelligent creatives.  I realized over the past few months I completely stopped visiting KVR and VI- just rarely if I am looking for some specific hints on a music gadget.  I think it would be great to discuss and debate specific deals on https://www.reddit.com/r/LinkedMusicians/, but to be honest I would just as soon NOT see a daily flood, or at least put those in a sub-sub, if you can do that?  I gotta learn more about Reddit mechanics.  The King is dead.  Long live the King!

11

[Brian]

 

Category #1)  I can’t really think of any off the top, but I probably tossed and forgot about them.  I will say that (AND IT COULD BE ME) that the Izotope stuff never really “hit” with me.  BUT I still consider myself very much a “student” (a really OLD student), so I still try to use “manual” fx rather than auto-magic ones, just to further my understanding of the process. If I want “magic”, the Sonible stuff resonates better with me.

 

Category #2) This is one I have been using and preaching for years- Hornet Plug-ins VU Meter Mark IV.  This little gem is 6 Euros FULL PRICE at Hornet, and you better know it goes on sale 😛  Who needs a meter?  Nobody! But this plug-in makes gain staging a breeze. Put one at the top of every track and they can talk to each other, as well as be grouped.  Makes a chore a lot easier.  There are probably alternatives but I found this back at version 1 and it still does the job.

3

[Brian]

Well, you caught me @Peter.  I don’t actually OWN it.  I bought a year of the EW subscription last year when JRR had it for @ $80 just to get a taste of everything that I DON’T have, and I still have some time left on it.  I only own HOOPUS and (I forget the title) “Soul Singers” or similar.  At some point I will pop for Fantasy, but I just have not been playing with enough orchestral stuff to buy yet.  IMO the libraries do sound fantastic, and I like the EW engine a lot better than Kontakt.  The best feature (IMHO) is the Orchestrator, but then I have always had a soft spot for MIDI tools.  I think HOOPUS is “better” from a useability and sound standpoint than Sonuscore The Orchestra, probably due to the samples being so much deeper.  My understanding is that the authors of the MIDI engine for both products are the same folks.  People might want to consider a year of EW if they catch a cheap offer and want a “long trial”.  I discovered that I really don’t care for most of their stuff- HOOPUS and Fantasy being exceptions.

• This reply was modified 3 weeks, 3 days ago by Brian.

3

[Brian]

Just a heads up on this deal.  You are only getting HF STRINGS, which is one of SIX libraries that make up “Hollywood Fantasy Orchestra”.  If you buy the full bundle for $159 from JRR (use code ‘forum’), you get all six libraries for an average price of $26.50 each.  ALSO, very important-  Orchestrator is one of the six libraries and is NOT included with “Strings”!  Orchestrator is the real powerhouse of these bundles, so do a bit of research to see if HF Strings is all you want.  There is probably a upgrade to bundle available direct from EW.

/edit/  It looks like AD has the bundle for CHEAPER THAN JRR if you use the 10% code!  I can’t verify because AD website is not working in my browser.

• This reply was modified 3 weeks, 3 days ago by Brian.
• This reply was modified 3 weeks, 3 days ago by Brian.
• This reply was modified 3 weeks, 3 days ago by Brian.
• This reply was modified 3 weeks, 3 days ago by Brian.

1

[Brian]

I think I am adapting to a similar approach @Xandre.  Last year I bought the UJAM “catch up” through JRR and figured I will just do it again every year or so.  Somewhat depending on how interesting the new releases are.  I like the revenue model as a user (I guess for me it’s an “expense model”).  I wish UVI would adopt it- Their complete bundle has been static for over a year (nothing recent included).  I think UVI is hoping bundle owners will pony up for individual titles, but their pricing to bundle owners is unattractive IMO.

[Brian]

Comment Below: Tell us one thing you value most about the community and which feature (beyond the forums) interests you the most.

ONE thing?   Hard to pick.  I have to go “big picture” and say- “A culture of integrity” that LM strives for, top to bottom.  I am hoping for more interaction on stuff beyond the deals, like favorite software, hardware, why you like it, why you don’t, how to use it, neat tricks it does, what issues are you having that you need help with, what new cool thing did you find that has not been mentioned on LM before?

 

• This reply was modified 3 weeks, 5 days ago by Brian.

22

[Brian]

It looks like I am back in business.  You have to go into Device Settings and track down and remove any In-Music drivers and reboot.  In my case, I have a Akai MPC One+ and had their driver installed.  I blame MS for insufficient testing.  They blame In-Music.  Whatever.  To get the fixes, you have to use the link above, join their discord server, and follow the threads.  Again- Not very customer centric treatment from MS.  Linux beckons.

[Brian]

I don’t know if this is at all related, but it seems to be an “unread” status issue.  I mentioned to you that I missed the “activity” left menu, and now you have the “Latest Post Activity” which is supposed to be the same, but ever since it was implemented, the first thread I get is the 24 day old Open Mic “Origin Story” post.  I expect it to pop when there is a new post added, but there has not been for 9 days and yet every time I have used “Activity”, the original Origin” post plus several old responses are at the top of the list.  I now have muscle memory scrolling a few screens down before I look 😛  Namaste!

• This reply was modified 4 weeks, 1 day ago by Brian.

[Brian]

“HOOPUS” for $149 is a great deal.  It does eat a whole terabyte if you download the entire library, but the Opus engine does support “download on demand”, where sections are only downloaded as you implement them.  You will have to wait a bit (or maybe a long time), depending on your d/l speed and how many sections / articulations your patch requires.  Once stored locally, they stay in place until removed, so as you pull in new data the drive space will increase, unless you clear it out.  I bought this on a terabyte SSD for an extra $50 from EastWest a couple years ago, but the drive ended up failing after about a year and a half, so I don’t recommend that option.

3

[Brian]

I am curious if they really made this.  The dissonance in the video was enough to trigger me, so I don’t need to hear more.  Cute video though.

[Brian]

I am SUCH a sucker for these MIDI generating doo-hickies.  The paid version is only $12.  Uhg…  Joe also just posted a new one a little bit ago.

1

[Brian]

Good argument for Fender.  I would love to see them take in NI hardware and software, but not the other companies (Izo, etc) that were grossly over-paid for.  I suspect the seller of P.A. (to NI) is going to get it back for pennies on the dollar 🙂

Edit-  Adding a bit re: In Music.  While I have been burned by them more than once, I think their HeadRush Guitar pedals (at least the Flex Prime I recently bought) is amazing, and unbeatable for $500.  I still would HATE to see them get NI, but not all of their companies are dumpster fires.

1

[Brian]

Cool @thesteven- Thanks!  I am especially attracted to the DIY stuff.  My Dad and I built my first guitar amp about 1971 (Heathkit).  Also nearly 50 years as a ham radio guy, so I built a lot of gadgets over that time.  I still have a “Kent” branded solid body that I Frankensteined in High School with custom switches to phase the pickups to make it “quack”.

[Brian]

On LinkedMusicians said

That sounds really cool, Steve! Seriously.

Check out our new tools:

SEARCH: Gear Reviews, FREE Synth Presets, FREE Samples,  Forums & Subreddits , Synth Manuals.
TOOLS: Mixing/Mastering Problem Solver, Ryhme Generator.

I agree!  For $10, got got me 🙂

 

1

[Brian]

I finally caved and bought the Tonex pedal last year, and it is really neat.  I think they have been selling a ton of them.  All the magic is still in the software though- even if its ported to a stomp.  Probably true of most new pedals these days, at least if they are cramming a ton of FX in them.  IK also recently released that Vocal AI program, but I am sticking to my “promise” not to buy any IK software until it is part of a Total Studio Max update.

2

[Brian]

Hey @bselack –  Not speaking for Mike or Musio, but you might check out the Discord Channel for Musio.  There is a lot of engagement from the devs over there.  I am not really a fan of Discord- a little “cartoony” for my taste, but I try to look at it every week or so for folks like Musio and SoundPaint that hang out there.  Heck of a lot more tolerable than FB.  I have had trouble posting Discord links before, so if that doesn’t work, you can find it at the bottom of the Musio homepage.

3

[Brian]

Hello Mike and welcome to the forum!  Thanks for joining us here on LM and especially for working out the third party deal for us “Lifetime” Musio+ owners.  You set up a heck of a buffet table 👍

3

[Brian]

… at’s a fantastic deal for the Lifetime Deal buyers. I did not expect that. Considering that you bought the lifetime deal, I am guessing this makes you pretty happy. Is that right, @bluescat?

Yes, I definitely think they did “the right thing” to treat us “early supporters” fairly.  There is discussion about this on the Musio Discord if anyone is interested.  I am disappointed to read your posts in the Members area about Musio having a couple devs poached by a rival.  Musio should have a pretty good “leg up” on their competitors though, having already written the tools to convert Kontakt libraries to Musio.  I have to think some Kontakt devs have been looking at alternatives, at least as a co-development effort, since NI revealed its frailty.

 

 

1

[Brian]

Very cool.  Just learning about the “PresetShare” site was worth the visit.  I don’t have the patience or brain capacity to build patches from scratch, and sifting through hundreds of presets is a buzz-kill.  Best to find something “close” and tweakable using a search like this.

1

[Brian]

Rather than start a new thread, I am posting here, so you can see the previous comments.  I just got a marketing email promoting ASK lifetime access for $149.50 (half price) with code: 26BirthdayAV50.  No mention in the email of expiration.

I used ASK for a couple years and had no issues, but I found that most of what I wanted was over on Groove3, so I still keep that sub.  ASK does have a lot of other creative content in addition to music but you should definitely look over their content for suitable and timely offerings.

1

[Brian]

My upgrade price to Pro 6 from Pro 5 is $49, but I had purchased the Drum Mixer at release.

2

[Brian]

Update from Absolute 6 is $100 direct from Stienberg.  Also cross/upgrades available.  Update from V5 or older is $200.  Looks like crossgrades from competing products are $400.  I think there are upgrades for owning components (like Halion 7).

https://www.steinberg.net/vst-instruments/absolute/

 

[Brian]

Also- AAS released a FREE update for Multiphonics CV-3 owners to version 3.1 adding four new modules (including FM synthesis).

https://www.applied-acoustics.com/multiphonics-cv-3/#latest-update

1

[Brian]

Thanks @Frank!  I saw this deal in my email while I was waiting my turn at the dentist this morning, so you beat me to it 🙂  I will only add that in the past “lucky 13” sales, UVI went to a 50% off level for 3+ titles, so they cut back a bit for this one.

1

[Brian]

I will say that at least RA and LoFi are a lot cheaper at AD than other places I looked, so still a good deal.

Reply from AudioDeluxe support:

Hi Brian,

Exclusive Deals are excluded from coupons.

Thanks,

AudioDeluxe Support Team

1

[Brian]

Apparently the AudioDeluxe WINTER10 coupon is no longer working for EastWest stuff? When I tried, using either RA or Lo-Fi, it came back with “Coupon not valid with items in cart”.  I sent a support question about it and will report back.

1

[Brian]

I wonder if any comparisons can be drawn from the Magix insolvency that I believe was filed two years ago?  I am not interested enough to dig, and I would be reliant on translation as I don’t speak a word of German.  I did find the following recent press release regarding Magix that you can translate via browser.  I think they are small potatoes compared to NI, but they appear to still be selling and updating software products.

 

https://www.indat.info/Meldungen/Pressemitteilungen-Insolvenz-Sanierung/Erfolgreiche-Sanierung-der-Magix-Software-GmbH-d6579054b839094a54bbe5fa85d1eed8

[Brian]

In case you don’t want to watch some guy in a mask:

2

[Brian]

Definitely.

1

[Brian]

I have seen recommendations in a few forums to keep a list of your registered software products that involve NI.  It’s easy enough, so why not keep a copy.

I only use Windows, so no idea about other platforms.

If you run Native Access and select SUPPORT from the bottom left, then click “Create a Support File”, a ZIP file will be dropped in your public documents folder that contains TXT files showing everything installed on your system by NI and Izotope, including (as far as I can tell) all third party Kontakt libraries.  I also can find about EVERY VST I have listed there, probably because I have used Kontrol.

You can also log in to NI web site and your account to see your “My Products” page.  It’s just a list of titles, but you can grab the whole list (at least on Edge or Brave) by clicking in the window and tapping CTRL-S, which will make a full html file of the window- so no need to scroll and grab by pages.

 

51

[Brian]

FWIW I see the linked article in the first post has been edited quite a bit from what I read an hour ago.  A little less “end of the world” feel.  My biggest concern is my NI hardware, as far as ongoing support and updates.

1

[Brian]

🤯

[Brian]

I wasn’t gonna look at this because of the subscription, and then I found a (apparently) perpetual license for an “Essential” version in my Fender Studio Pro third party list, so I will at least give it a look.  Tonalics web site says “Essential” is included with Melodyne, so I expect owners will get something about it from Celemony soon, unless it is only a deal with Fender ATM.

2

[Brian]

On thesteven said

…

For any did the ‘upgrade’ did you get access to all the additional content & services?

Only had it for a day- Upgraded from 7 that “expired” Dec 21.  IMHO I guess it is the ever present debate any time ANY DAW releases a “major” ($) rather than “point” (free) update.  For ME I guess I think it should have been a free point upgrade, but if they added something that is really a help to your workflow, I can understand feeling it was worth the cost.  They DID add a few free VSTs that you have to get from the “my Fender” page, but I already owned what I considered to be “the good ones”.

There is a Features matrix at the bottom of https://www.fender.com/products/fender-studio-pro that shows by column the difference between Perpetual and Plus, but you DO get some third party VSTs with the Perpetual.  Oddly, there is a row labelled “Pro+ Library of 120,000+ Loops and Samples” that no one gets ?  Maybe my browser is not reading it correctly.

1

[Author]

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