Anybody making any wild last minute business purchases before the year ends?

[Julius D Majestic Studios]

👀👀. Any interesting tax write offs on the horizon? Lol

[Ed A.]

I bought a HondaJet HA-420...

 

 

 

... in my dreams.  🤣

[DJkeys]

I have some microphones that I could not sell, so I am donating them for the tax benefit-

 

-dj

[Julius D Majestic Studios]

On 12/19/2022 at 9:51 AM, DJKeys said:

I have some microphones that I could not sell, so I am donating them for the tax benefit-

 

-dj

Yeah, I'm doing that with a few items too. 

[Ed A.]

On 12/19/2022 at 10:51 AM, DJKeys said:

I have some microphones that I could not sell, so I am donating them for the tax benefit-

 

-dj

I wanted to donate gear for the tax benefit, but my accountant says I would have to itemize to do this and it’s not worth the trouble since he has me taking the standard deduction instead.

[Adam Burgess]

Had a last minute call late Saturday night to cover a biggish gig all this week including Christmas night (in the tax-free UAE).
Good little unexpected earner so I may treat myself to something new and shiny 😀

 

Or, be sensible and save it… (probably to buy something new and shiny down the line!)

[Bill H.]

If subwoofer drivers qualify as new and shiny, yeah that's it for this year. Not all that exciting for most of you. 

[Baldwin Funster]

Last minute? I got waaay to much time to think about that. Maybe in a week.....

[Jon G]

Was thinking of buying a used Hydrasynth or Rev2 - there are a few on craigslist in my area, but I don't REALLY need them. Might just buy a melodica instead. Or nothin'.

[Joe Muscara]

2 hours ago, Jon G said:

Was thinking of buying a used Hydrasynth or Rev2 - there are a few on craigslist in my area, but I don't REALLY need them. Might just buy a melodica instead. Or nothin'.

@AnthonyM has one for sale in our Garage Sale …

 

 

[marino]

Ok, I'll confess.
After all the reasoning, self-debating, self-arguments and "final" decision made not to do it, I have preordered the Aodyo Anyma Omega, at the very last minute before the Kickstarter deadline.

I'm not going to bother you with all the convoluted excuses that my brain built, leading my fingers to push the button: The bottom line was that I wanted this instrument badly. It's announced for Sept. 2023, so it will hopefully show in time for next year's Christmas...

[AnthonyM]

Hey Everybody, funny thing about the Hydrasynth 49

 

American Musical Supply had new one's listed for $1100.00 when every else had them up for $1299.00.  So i called to see if it was a mistake. The salesman advised that this was the price, and that the item was reduced.

 

The next day, they were back to $1299.00 again. I would really like to have the deluxe version for the extra keyboard and voices, but can't see spending good money for a keyboard I already have. Which is why I put mine up for sale.  It's absolutely unused. Will have to see if I leave it up.

 

Anthony

[Konnector]

I will be, but not by choice. My DAW died yesterday. Trying to finish up an album project, and now that's ground to an abrupt halt. Hopefully it's just the C drive and not something more serious like a motherboard failure. Fingers crossed. Figures it happens now when there's no way to get it fixed right away. Humbug!!

[Pianoman JC]

Been thinking about picking up U-he Repro at half price from NI.

 

 

 

 

JC

[SteinwayB]

Behringer ob xa

[Mighty Motif Max]

Not super "wild", but I noticed that Line6 was having a substantial holiday sale on discontinued "Legacy" products, so I just snapped up a brand new Pod HD400 floor unit for approx. $119 + tax. I briefly owned an HD300, then traded it in with a bunch of other gear for a Fantom 7, but have missed it. At that price, a brand new HD400 was a no-brainer. I have a nice studio pedalboard and some small amps, but nothing for going direct to the house (without bringing the pedalboard out) should I sub in on guitar at church or such. So this should be nice.

 

Otherwise, bought a nice acoustic-electric violin for my sister who's entering college soon. Every time I start thinking that keys gear is expensive, I have to look at the stringed instruments and woodwind market. Eek.

[bjosko]

I have been looking at a MacBook Air 13 inch M2 / 8GB/256 for a while.

Up until Christmas it was listed for sale for Danish KR 9999.- ( it about 1430 USD), but today 27. December the January sale started, and it went up to KR 10999.- increased with 143 USD 🤨

Found it in another store at the old price.

At Apple Store they are listed at USD 1146.

Yes, they aren’t cheap over here.

My old MacBook Pro from 2013 migh need a replacement.

Mostly for small recording and mixing on the fly, I have an newer iMac in my dungeon.

[CyberGene]

6 minutes ago, bjosko said:

 

I have been looking at a MacBook Air 13 inch M2 / 8GB/256 for a while.

 

I recommend going for the 512 GB version. It has been discovered that the 256 GB SSD is almost two times slower in read/write speed than the 512 GB one.

 

I purchased a MacBook Air M2 16 GB / 512 GB a few months ago and it’s a terrific machine for audio and everything else. And is very compact and beautiful. One of the best purchases I’ve made this year. 

[bjosko]

Thanks for that information, it might be the reason I’m seeing them for sale everywhere? 
The 512 is almost plus $600, so you saved me the money this time 👍

[CyberGene]

Here’s more information:

https://www.theverge.com/23220299/apple-macbook-air-m2-slow-ssd-read-write-speeds-testing-benchmark

256 GB SSD: 1433 MB/s read speed. 
 

512 GB SSD: 2850 MB/s read speed. 

 

If you will be using it for streaming some sample-based instruments in real time it would be better to have as fast SSD as possible, although I’m not sure if in reality even the “slow” 256 GB can cause any issues whatsoever. 

[bjosko]

So it seems like an M1 with 256 GB would be a better choice then, referring to that article.

 I have seen several tests on the M1 that seems to perform exemplary.

Recording will be stored on an external disc anyway.

[Julius D Majestic Studios]

On 12/20/2022 at 5:10 PM, Ed A. said:

I wanted to donate gear for the tax benefit, but my accountant says I would have to itemize to do this and it’s not worth the trouble since he has me taking the standard deduction instead.

Interesting.  So the donations across the board don't mean anything then right?  

[Julius D Majestic Studios]

On 12/25/2022 at 12:12 PM, Konnector said:

I will be, but not by choice. My DAW died yesterday. Trying to finish up an album project, and now that's ground to an abrupt halt. Hopefully it's just the C drive and not something more serious like a motherboard failure. Fingers crossed. Figures it happens now when there's no way to get it fixed right away. Humbug!!

What do you mean your DAW died?  What will you have to buy?  A new one?  Or a new computer all together?

[Al Coda]

On 12/27/2022 at 2:10 PM, CyberGene said:

256 GB SSD: 1433 MB/s read speed. 
 

512 GB SSD: 2850 MB/s read speed. 

 

 

But that´s not a Mac issue alone.

ALL smaller SSDs,- 64, 128 and 256 GB size,- are slower than SSDs offering 500GB - 4TB size.

In laptops, I use the usually smaller "drive 0" SSD just only for OS and applications and use at least a 2nd much larger SSD for storage of everything in need of quick load times.

It´s a crime users cannot replace exsisting smaller drives by larger ones in Macbooks !

What´s up when a small SSD drive, soldered to the mainboard, is worn out?

Do we need a new Macbook then,- or a all new mainboard,- and if the latter, what does it cost ?

 

 

A.C.

 

 

[Konnector]

13 hours ago, Julius D Majestic Studios said:

What do you mean your DAW died?  What will you have to buy?  A new one?  Or a new computer all together?

Turns out my C drive (OS and programs) and my E drive (sample libraries) died at the same moment. What are the chances of that? I got my C drive data recovered now and copied to a new SS drive. My E drive with all my sample libraries is still in limbo as to whether the data will be recoverable. I'd rather pay to have it recovered if that's a possibility as opposed to having to reload a ton of stuff that would be a huge pain in the butt. Thankfully my D drive is fine which has a wealth of project files on it. 

 

So...New drives all around + spare SS drives with disk images of everything. Fingers crossed that I won't have to reload everything if my E drive sample libraries are toast.