[Kirean]

Congrats on the hub.

And I’m glad the episode is over… for now? I might actually buy a Kontakt instrument again!

4

[Kirean]

So some worrying updates as of late is that you can’t download installers (including for older versions) anymore from Native Instruments via the account. Things seem to work through via Native Access now only.

Then on VI Control there was mention that iZotope had removed NI logo from RX12.

I truly am hopeful that my gut wrenching feeling about how things are gonna go turns out to be wrong.

1

[Kirean]

First annivesary? Seems like a lifetime already!

Anyway. Congrats for the achievement!

Otherwise I think most my thoughts have already been said, but I really do appreciate there’s a place to share an honest opinion on all products, without the fear of blackouts like Hoppy said. Especially with such a low barrier for entry. Even if it goes against survival instinct financially. Thus, kudos to Peter for having principles in that front, and props to the few devs who can also live with that fact.

All the best to coming years.

11

[Kirean]

Nice. Didn’t have it.

 

I hope if crap hits the fan with NI, that 8dio offers a really cheap way to move to Soundpaint. In the past the crossgrade prices haven’t been too enticing.

[Kirean]

Apparently Plugin Alliance posted this on some Facebook page:

“As of today, Plugin Alliance entities are not part of the insolvency filing. Our operations in Langenfeld and the US remain outside these proceedings. For now – It’s business as usual. We continue to operate normally – product releases, support, installers and all other activities continue unchanged. We’ll share further updates as the situation develops. I hope this helps – we remain dedicated to our partners and customers!”

I don’t like online activations, I don’t like DRM. I like owning things I buy. Yet, despite all that, I thought that spending on Kontakt libraries would be relatively safe as far as longevity goes, considering how big of a player it is in the field. Little did I know and could end up losing quite a bit of quarters if it isn’t sorted out.

Anyway. All of this is way beyond my paygrade and I’d be only adding to the noise speculating about where they end up. Hope they end up in a place where everyone will feel relatively safe with their investment going forward.

In other news, I’ve already cut my spending on music stuff in the past month or two to almost zero and going forward, with this looming around, doubt that’s gonna change. Especially when there’s so much open hostility towards the customer base that it almost feels unreal at times. Developers charging for minor updates and stability fixes etc, a lot of things going unpatched despite obvious problems/bugs, launchers filling your computer with unneeded services and rootkits… There’s simply a lot of unnecessary steps and bloat to getting to play a synth or making your vocals sound less crap.

It never seizes to amaze how people willing to pay for a product are almost always getting a worse experience than those that obtain things illegally. I had my doubts about Steam when Valve released it with Half-Life 2, but in ~22 years they’ve built a platform for computer games that takes customer experience and especially convenience into account and have become one of the biggest players in the entertainment industry. What they’re also doing with Linux support for example has been nothing but absolutely amazing. Yet, their success seems like rocket science to everyone else, when at the core, it simply boils down to “trust”.

With that said. If something interesting comes up and the developers don’t treat the buying customer like filth (and offer me ways to secure my investment to them), I’m more inclined to spare my coins.

Anyway. I digress. Carry on. Hope all the future updates will be positive ones.

3

[Kirean]

swijaya is absolutely correct. Pulse’s Vivid Strings started out strong but as was mentioned, there’s a few bugs lingering and I have no faith that the current owners will iron them out. Doesn’t seem to be in their MO or DNA to do so. As people discuss on VI Control, the issues are mainly with few vibratos. There might be some other quirks as well.

However, especially at/or below $49 (individually they were $25-29 when they were released), I think it’s still peculiar enough, different enough and workable enough string library if someone already doesn’t have enough of them. Mileage may vary of course.

Just do a quick opinion/video search and know what you’re getting is “as is” without future development. I’m sure the package will be cheaper and cheaper in the future as well.

1

[Kirean]

Vivid Strings bundle at $49 + discount is a good deal.

[Kirean]

On pseudopop said

No bundles this year.

Spitfire Symphony Orchestra is €272.80 for me with the discount. Hmm…

That’s the only one I’m wondering about as well.

[Kirean]

On Barrie said

I waited all year (didn’t buy any new ones), so my upgrade from the last synth stack is $125

Cheers. I have the same price.

1

[Kirean]

Those that have a good chunk of Cherry plugins, how much is your Synth Stack loyalty price (ballpark)?

[Kirean]

Insane deal.

1

[Kirean]

Really wonder how the website is coded, because different browsers/machines/locations all bring $129. Except if I choose eurozone, then the price is ~58 eur (or ~65 usd).

Edit: Figured it out. Canadian address required for $54.80

1

[Kirean]

Unfortunately still shows $129 in the cart / checkout.

[Kirean]

On lamia6 said

How’s Spire for $54.80 for an attention grabber? LOL. So much for me figuring 69 was a hell of a deal.

https://www.gear4music.com/us/en/Recording-and-Computers/Reveal-Sound-Spire/3NUS

Dammit. Back to 129. Would have bit instantly.

And yeah. Gears4Music is legit. Bought from them many times without issues.

1

[Kirean]

These are quite a bit cheaper at Gears4Music https://www.gear4music.com/us/en/u-he

2

[Kirean]

I wonder if their customer support has gotten better after the acquisition.

Never replied my somewhat simple and easy emails.

[Kirean]

How about…

No.

1

[Kirean]

I think they were asking about VSL’s involvement.

[Kirean]

On pseudopop said

Remember to calculate the total money spent for that little extra sting!

Yeah. No. Never. No way. I’d like to maintain my ability to sleep. I’m already contemplating my life choices enough as it is.

1

[Kirean]

On LinkedMusicians said

↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑↑ The sad reality is that I think most of us — including me — can completely relate to this! I’ve done this a bunch of times and bought stuff twice. That’s why I’ve always appreciated Plugin Boutique having a function that shows me when I bought something from them before that I just put in my cart. Now, if it could just check with Best Service, Audio Deluxe, PluginFox and a few others to see if I bought anything in my cart  there.

The official LinkedMusicians account

I have to admit (except to my significant other) that I’ve done that. Buying something cheap twice on different occasions and feeling like a total idiot after. Which is why I began tracking what I owned, where, when and how much in a spreadsheet (+ having a wishlist of things to look out for when the price is right). Using the search function in the email helps too.

1

[Kirean]

I was waiting for my Softube newsletter 25% voucher to arrive and was contemplating on Model 84 for $39.

Then I realized I already had that with some bundle of theirs that included it and a bunch of others for a total of $39. I only remembered buying Model 82 for ~20 bucks.

Lesson of the day: Don’t press “buy” just yet! You might already own it!

 

Edit: Spitfire gearing up for BF deals according to their newsletter. Nothing up yet, but will be 50% off individual plugins + 20% off voucher for newsletter subscribers. No mention of other details or bundles in the “heads up” email.

4

[Kirean]

Based on the title, I was hoping to receive $89.10 with a code…

1

[Kirean]

Sonnox was definitely cheaper around August for sure when they had some kind of celebration with ~90% discount. At least when it comes down to individual plugins. For example: Claro $12, Inflator $13 etc.

But you’re right. Late December / early January has often had some good deals not seen on BF/CM and a lot of companies have yet to start their deals. Hence “thus far”.

1

[Kirean]

On LinkedMusicians said

Because I’ve been immersed in deal posting this year, I have to respond to that one! There are literally dozens of developers doing deep discounts right now (technically, anything 40% or more is considered deep discounts, but we’re seeing A LOT of developers discounting far over 50%). UAD, IK, SSL, UAD, UJAM, United Plugins, Baby Audio, Klevgrand, Wave Alchemy, Sonnox, Musio, 8Dio, Krotos, Sonible, Black Rooster, Reveal Sound, Newfangled Audio, UVI, Native Instruments, Ink Audio, Sound Toys, Three-Body Technology, Softube… are just some of the developers from the top of my head that I’ve posted deals, and a bunch of these deals have been more than 70% off, with a number of them 90% or more off. It’s far more discounting then we saw in 2024, not even remotely close.

It’s a good time for those starting out for sure. Musio for so low is simply a “just do it” deal.

However, a lot of the stuff has been lower.

For some of the mentioned: Sonible smart:bundle was ~99 few years back (granted, I believe there might be one more plugin in that package now), Sonnox has been cheaper, Eventide has been cheaper, NI has had better offers (especially their glitch deals were awesome. Wish I’d had more money back then), Ink Audio has been lower (Nashville Toolkit now $50, has been $35) etc etc.

For me, I’d call a deep discount (as in “Alright. Let’s check it out.”) something that starts with 75% or more. 50% is basically the minimum to care about. Generally though, if it’s not as low or lower than the previous historical low, then it’s not a real deal.

Thus, for anyone who is starting out, the best advice I can really say is that buy only what you need of course, but also don’t jump on something without checking what the going rate has been before (so that you can make an educated purchase).

1

[Kirean]

It’s been somewhat easy thus far. Aside from some smaller plugins, I don’t think there’s been any real deep discounts (maybe EastWest and Musio are the only ones that have shown how it’s done?)

A lot of companies seem to run the same discounts as last year making fomo really easy to deal with. Also if your BF discount isn’t really different than your spring/summer deal, then who really cares? Easy skip.

Some developers also have really crappy crossgrade/upgrade discounts (if any) or make you run through a lot of hoops. I’m looking at you Sonuscore.

I suppose I’m currently debating between Ancient bundle from Eastwest (needs quite a bit of space though and I’m short on extra) and the Arturia upgrade. Maybe it’s neither.

We’ll see what Spitfire offers in bundles this year. The Ton has been often fine, but most likely the good stuff will be in the more expensive bundles which eliminates the impulse buying bug. After all, several hundred dollars is still several hundred dollars (and again, their offerings require HD space).

3

[Kirean]

Yeah. It never seizes to amaze me how much more effort some companies put into driving customers away instead of getting the free PR and good word of mouth for relatively little to no effort. But when the message is practically “Your investment is not safe with us” it’s kind of really easy to skip buying from such vendors.

1

[Kirean]

On William Heins said

“VST 2 is not officially supported. VST 2 plug-ins may be loaded (excluding on Native Apple Silicon) when the VST 2 plug-in scanner is enabled in the VST Plug-in Manager. However, Steinberg does not provide support for any issues related to VST 2.”

From the Notes section 🙂

A lot of demo stuff here- https://www.reverbnation.com/daylight

Sounds like a reasonable compromise to me. Only saw some talk about it on KVR or gearspace.

[Kirean]

Cubase 15 apparently also drops VST2 support completely, if that’s something one cares about.

[Kirean]

Story continued:

Video could be about quite a few plugin developers, including some that have had their cases talked about earlier on this forum. Goes more into general customer care stuff and actually treating your customers with a bit of respect and how that will earn you a good rep in the long run.

3

[Kirean]

On fretman said

The problem with bundles like these is I find I already have 3 out of 4 of the items.

Studio One, Windows, RME UFX, Yamaha MSP7

From what I’ve heard, EastWest allows you to exchange some duplicates in bundles for items that have the same price. Or at least have for some people online.

Edit: Of course, better to clear that with EastWest before you commit.

[Kirean]

Was kinda looking to buy maybe something, but none of the bundles take into account the things you already own.

Singular products seem to be the exact same prices I think that they ran last year.

2

[Kirean]

That’s an amazing development.

1

[Kirean]

Seems to be some historical lows in there for a few of the more recent-y synths, I think (at least ODC2800, Sines, P-10, Mercury 6).

Cherry Audio has a Pick 3 or 6 packages that make the individual item price between $33 and $25, which I think works as an accepted price reference for the newer fully fledged synths (effects and such not withstanding since those might be more in the ~20-25 range.) But generally, I feel like, anything at or below $30 should be worth a look if you’re looking to get individual synths (instead of bundles etc).

3

[Kirean]

On MrFigg said

I’ve got 12 of the synths. That took the price of Synthstack from $349 to $323.

Nah!!!

Weird. Sorry for the false alarm.

[Kirean]

It redirects me to Hive 2 🙁

[Author]

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