The tractor beam …

[Sundown]

There are two certainties this time of year:  Mariah Carey and insanely great sales on plug-ins.

 

I just picked up the Marshall Silver Jubilee, The Friedman Buxom Betty, and the Studer A800 from UA.

 

Good times …

 

Todd

[bill5]

FYI:

https://forums.musicplayer.com/topic/182103-software-deals/page/4/#comments

 

Re Mariah Carey, you're right; it's certain I will not listen to her, esp this time of year. 

[David Emm]

I'll surely fall prey to a new plug or three. The GAS leopard usually takes a modest bite outta me at this time of year. I'm holding out until I see what the new Cherry Audio synth is going to be. If its a new Pro Soloist with modern monster balls, everything else will follow that.

[Sundown]

There are so many sales right now … I just checked Korg’s site and the Triton, Prohpecy, etc. are at very low prices. I’ve had my eye on the Triton for a while. I own the M1 and Wavestation plugins, and they sit very well in mixes. I’m hoping the same from the Triton. I’d like to pick-up the PolySix as well.

 

Arturia has the V-collection at a great upgrade price, but I never actually use their instruments in songs. To be fair, my PC is 11 years old and some of the Arturia plugs are resource-heavy, but there’s something about them that makes them fun to play, but not so useful in compositions. That could be my own personal taste or hang-up, but of all the instruments in that collection, you won’t find a single instance in my productions. All that said, the SQ80 sounds great in demos. The DX7 is good too (which I own right now), but it sucks up a lot of juice.

 

Todd

[Sundown]

My willpower has not been strong this season, but the sales have been incredible.

 

I recently picked up the complete Korg Collection 4 even though I owned M1 and Wavestation already. But getting Triton/Trion Extreme, Prophecy, PolySix, MonoPoly, and some of the Electribe/MicroKorg stuff for less than $200 was hard to pass up. I’m not a big fan of Kronos/Nautilus, but there’s something about eighties and nineties Korgs that makes them sit well in a mix. And it’s not the emulative sounds I’m drawn to (pianos, horns, etc). It’s often the synthetic analog/digital sounds. With some filter and envelope adjustments you can quickly come up with comp and pad sounds that sit wonderfully in a track.

 

The other deal I fell for was the two-for-$99 plugin sale from UAD. For less than a hundred bucks I scored the EL8 Distressor (now in native format) and the AMS RMX16 reverb. I almost chose Capitol Chambers for some variety, but I tend to get more use out of eighties digital reverbs.

 

I told myself I wasn’t going to get another compressor, but after watching some demos on the EL8, I was impressed with the range of control and color that’s possible. You can clamp down a sound without much coloration, or you can create an 1176 on Steroids. The 10:1 Opto setting is also quite impressive.

 

Hopefully I’m done for the season. If Waves Flow Motion hits the $19 mark I’ll jump, but otherwise I’m closing the books on a good quarter.

 

Todd

 

 

 

 

[Stokely]

I was pretty restrained.  I got a couple things I'd been wanting for a while, and that I think I'll use:  Sun Drums on a crossgrade from Moon Kits for $50, and Cinematic Room from Liquidsonics, which was half off and I had a small loyalty discount from purchasing Tai Chi Lite last year.  Feeling more than set on reverbs

And as is tradition, I liked one of the plugin boutique freebies (Dawesome Love) so I picked up some Repro-5 presets on sale in order to get the freebie.

Strongly considered Musio 1, which seems like an awesome deal--but I got Komplete Ultimate not long ago and haven't used the orchestral stuff it has, so I'm not going to get something else similar until I do.   Knowing Musio is there kept me from strongly considering a number of other libraries.

[Anderton]

2 hours ago, Sundown said:

I recently picked up the complete Korg Collection 4 even though I owned M1 and Wavestation already. But getting Triton/Trion Extreme, Prophecy, PolySix, MonoPoly, and some of the Electribe/MicroKorg stuff for less than $200 was hard to pass up.

 

That is REALLY tempting me...! Thanks for the heads-up.

[Greg Mein]

Part of my problem is that I'm using three different MBPs for various different things and I don't want to do any OS updates because important programs would die. I got burned real bad a number of years ago when a Mac OS update killed my Logic Pro 9 along with Final Cut and it was a lesson I'll never forget. This leads to some confusion and frustration when ordering/updating plug-ins. Is it just me or do Mac OS updates come out fast and furious these days?

 

For example I "renewed coverage" on all my waves plugins recently and updated to version 14 but now I have a little problem with my middle MBP (2017); for fear of losing Photoshop CS6 I will not update from Mojave (10.14.6) but it turns out that the waves plugins I want on there can be no higher than ver. 13. Supposedly I can fix that but it didn't appear to work for me yesterday.

 

Another incident arose yesterday. I bought Steven Slate Drums 5 on sale last week. I had an older version years ago and liked it so I thought it would be fun to try it again, however, I couldn't have been more wrong. They still use iLok and I have an iLok account and dongle thing but none of this would let me run it even though the receipt read that I wouldn't need an authorization code. What a mess!

 

[Anderton]

1 hour ago, Greg Mein said:

Another incident arose yesterday. I bought Steven Slate Drums 5 on sale last week. I had an older version years ago and liked it so I thought it would be fun to try it again, however, I couldn't have been more wrong. They still use iLok and I have an iLok account and dongle thing but none of this would let me run it even though the receipt read that I wouldn't need an authorization code. What a mess!

 

I don't know how versed you are in PWI (Perverse Ways of the iLok), but it could be that the license has been deposited in your account but hasn't been activated to your specific iLok. Or something like that. 

 

Even though Apple Silicon came out a while ago, it will be a while before that all settles down into something predictable. Once it's stable, then it can be broken again 

In any case, support should be able to help. I've had good luck with Waves support. Haven't needed to try Slate's yet. Good luck!!

[Anderton]

 

5 hours ago, Sundown said:

I recently picked up the complete Korg Collection 4

 

The previous post reminded me...what kind of copy protection do they use? Hopefully not the orphaned eLicenser used in the first generation of Korg VI plugins.

[Sundown]

8 hours ago, Anderton said:

 

 

The previous post reminded me...what kind of copy protection do they use? Hopefully not the orphaned eLicenser used in the first generation of Korg VI plugins.

 

Hi Craig. As best I can tell, it’s Named User License dropped on your machine in the background (no dongle, iLok, etc). You download a download/license manager program, you punch in you authorization you get via email, and then it activates the license in the download manager.

 

There is one annoying glitch with installation …. When you go through each instrument for installation, it will re-trigger the install of the software you just loaded. If you’re working on a PC and you get the typical Admin warning, pay attention to which instrument it’s referring to. I just hit “No” for the software I already installed and eventually it gets to the right installer.

 

It’s clumsy and clearly a bug, but I powered through it.

 

Todd

[Anderton]

23 minutes ago, Sundown said:

You download a download/license manager program, you punch in you authorization you get via email, and then it activates the license in the download manager.

 

Thanks, I can handle that. The eLicenser was a PITA. 

[Greg Mein]

10 hours ago, Anderton said:

 

I don't know how versed you are in PWI (Perverse Ways of the iLok), but it could be that the license has been deposited in your account but hasn't been activated to your specific iLok. Or something like that. 

 

good luck with Waves support. Haven't needed to try Slate's yet. Good luck!!

It looks like the Waves issue is fixed after testing today, I was concerned because Waves Central still showed the plugins at V14 and although there was a check on authorized there was not one on installed. A good interactive walk through from the Waves website lead to the fix.

 

As far as Slate, I suspect they've got my iLok user id wrong but I've yet to receive any assistance from either of those entities.

 

ETA: I noticed something I thought was odd on my iLok account webpage. There are five authorizations associated with UAD plugins that coincide with the date I received my UAD Apollo Solo (Aug '22). I've never used UAD plugins without UAD hardware, you couldn't until recently as far as I know so, why would they be associated with my iLok account and why only five of them??

 

[Sundown]

Hi Craig,

 

One thing you will notice with Korg Collection 4 is that it could use some commonization / standardization across instruments. I love that Korg continues to develop these instruments (and sometimes offers major updates free of charge), but you will find some dumb inconsistencies across the collection (for example, changing screen size/zoom percentage is handled differently in one instrument versus another, librarians sometimes look and behave differently, etc). 

 

But again, I’m probably being nitpicky, as there’s nothing like having my teenage dream instrument collection available with huge polyphony, far more presets, far better editing interfaces, etc. It’s a steal for the price you pay. And there’s just something about those late 80’s/90’s ROMplers and how they sit in a mix. They just *work*.

 

Todd

[Greg Mein]

On 12/3/2023 at 12:31 PM, Anderton said:

Haven't needed to try Slate's yet. Good luck!!

 

Just to follow up, they responded to my email offering to do a "Teamviewer", some kind of screen sharing session. I thought that was a bit over the top, seemed obvious to me they hadn't authorized my license with ilok. I mentioned that in my responses and I guess it finally lit a spark. He got the license sent over and I had no more problems after that.

[Sundown]

I’ve got my eye on the UAD Manley Massive Passive, and either the Manley Vari-Mu or the Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor (but not both).

 

I told myself, no more compressors, but when a $300 piece of software is two-thirds off, that’s hard to pass up.

 

Todd

[Sundown]

I got pulled in again … Once UAD starts throwing in the $25 coupons (coupled with ridiculously low prices), it’s game over.

 

I picked up the Manley Vari Mu and Massive Passive ~last week, and today I snagged the updated 1176 collection and the Roland Studio D chorus. I usually use the TAL-Chorus-LX which is free and sounds great, but I couldn’t pass on the Roland for ~$14 with coupon. As for my commitment to stop buying more compressors, you can see how well that’s working out. 

 

Todd

[Anderton]

Thanks to this thread, I bought the Korg Collection 4. Now I can sell my Polysix

[JimboKeys]

14 hours ago, Anderton said:

Thanks to this thread, I bought the Korg Collection 4.

Me too 😁

[Anderton]

I'm really enjoying it, too. Sundown's right - there's something about those instruments that sit well in a track.

[Sundown]

For anyone who grew up in the eighties or nineties, that Korg Collection is a lot of fun and a great value when it goes on sale. 

 

Most of the instruments offer something, but my favorites are typically the ROMplers (M1 and Triton) when they are emulating an analog or digital synth. With some filtering and envelope tweaks you can get some great sounding patches that really sit in a mix. I’m less interested in the “realistic” sounds (e.g. oboe’s, pianos, etc). The PolySix is a lot of fun as well. It was a good instrument and alternative to the Juno 106 at the time.

 

I’d love it if they tackled the DS-8 FM synth, but I don’t know if it has enough of a following.

 

I almost always kill-off onboard effects if I’m recording a part (unless it’s an integral part of the sound like a special EQ, Chorus, or Phaser), but one common complaint about the M1 is the amount of reverb on the patches. I don’t remember the hardware unit being so drenched, but it’s been a while. It’s easy enough to fix but when you’re cycling through patches it’s like being in a bright cave.

 

Todd

[Sundown]

The only “dud” of the season was the UAD Studio D chorus (Dimension D replica), and shame on me, I didn’t try the demo first. It was an impulse buy when I had a second coupon. And it’s a fine sounding chorus, it just needs a wet/dry mix to make it more useful. On even the lightest setting, it’s a bit too much for my ears. I generally use the free TAL-Chorus-LX (which has a wet/dry control) and at low settings, it’s a great sounding plug-in on guitar, bass, etc. 

 

The other disappointment (not in terms of accuracy but in terms of usefulness to me) was the UAD Pultec collection. For what I do, Pultecs just aren’t that useful (and if you really want those Gerzon shelves you can create them in other plug-ins). To be fair, I haven’t tried them on guitar or voice recordings, but for keyboards I don’t find them that useful. 

 

But it’s been a great season … I picked up a lot of toys for not a lot of money. The real stand-outs were the Manley Massive Passive (UAD), the EL-8 Distressor (UAD), and the latest Korg Collection. Though I haven’t used it much yet, I’m looking forward to trying the AMS reverb on my latest mix (UAD). And I have to give an honorable mention to the SSL E-Channel (Waves). I had the G-Channel already, but I like the bell options on the E-series EQ.

 

Todd

[ksoper]

On 12/3/2023 at 2:31 PM, Anderton said:

 

I don't know how versed you are in PWI (Perverse Ways of the iLok), but it could be that the license has been deposited in your account but hasn't been activated to your specific iLok. Or something like that. 

 

And in that case fuck iLok and any company who employs it.  All of a sudden my True Keys American Piano won't load. The error messages suggest that there's no activation for the product. The iLok manager shows activation for all my products.  I've complained about iLok since the 90s.  Nothing that has happened since has changed my mind. Since I'm now old I have less patience for this kind of nonsense.  Where's my fucking flying car?  

 

[Anderton]

10 hours ago, ksoper said:

 

And in that case fuck iLok and any company who employs it.  All of a sudden my True Keys American Piano won't load. The error messages suggest that there's no activation for the product. The iLok manager shows activation for all my products.  I've complained about iLok since the 90s.  Nothing that has happened since has changed my mind. Since I'm now old I have less patience for this kind of nonsense.  Where's my fucking flying car?  

 

Maybe download the very latest license manager? I'm really sorry to hear you're having these problems.

[Anderton]

11 hours ago, Sundown said:

For anyone who grew up in the eighties or nineties, that Korg Collection is a lot of fun and a great value when it goes on sale. 

 

I tried out the software M1 when it was first released, many (many) years ago. I was surprised at how much better it sounded than the hardware. Then I realized - the hardware used the, uh, less-than-stellar D/A converters of that time. The software version gets to play back through my 21st century D/A converters. Big difference!!

[ksoper]

9 minutes ago, Anderton said:

 

Maybe download the very latest license manager? I'm really sorry to hear you're having these problems.

 

Why would all my other iLok plugs work and not the UVI product?  Like I said, this is a new development. It worked two months ago. Frankly, I'm a little scared to download a new version. ILok has given me no reason to believe that it would be as simple as that. It's bad enough just trying to activate a plug. 

 

I'll simmer down now. 

[Anderton]

2 hours ago, ksoper said:

Why would all my other iLok plugs work and not the UVI product?

 

Anything's possible, right?😬 At one point only my iZotope plugins claimed that a license was needed. I downloaded the latest license manager and they became happy again.

 

To be fair, I haven't had any problems with iLok that weren't solved by re-installing something, and even that has been rare. Maybe I'm just lucky. 

[Sundown]

4 hours ago, Anderton said:

 

I tried out the software M1 when it was first released, many (many) years ago. I was surprised at how much better it sounded than the hardware. Then I realized - the hardware used the, uh, less-than-stellar D/A converters of that time. The software version gets to play back through my 21st century D/A converters. Big difference!!

 

The other thing Korg has done (which I think is great) is they have made updates to capability and architecture where they can. For example, the original Korg Wavestation didn’t have a resonant filter. I know that all too well, being an original owner from ~1991. It had an Exciter parameter which wasn’t sonically interesting, and otherwise the LPF was really boring. The plug-in gives you the choice of either the legacy Exciter-based filter or a new resonant filter. Mind you, I wouldn’t say it’s a great resonant filter, but it’s an effort and I appreciate it. 

 

I think about all the ROM memory that was wasted in the original unit due to the lack of a good resonant LPF. There were countless short samples strung together (“time slices” in Korg-speak) to recreate that analog sound in a few Performances.

 

Todd