Bargain Center: discussion, gossip, etc.

[OneOfManyPauls]

Considering Waves has been in business for well over 20 years I'd say the way they do things is working fine.

I don't expect they're going anywhere soon either - but that's not the say they couldn't make more money and/or gain more users with a different approach or that the market won't shift due to competition and alternate approaches eg subscriptions.

[Uncle E]

WUP is a big reason Waves does so many crazy 70-80% discounts. If they weren't making money on WUP, they would probably price and market themselves differently.

A cool thing is those $29 deals they run can sometimes work out really well for upgrading. For example, I bought Kramer Master Tape when it was on sale for $29 and it now gets me a $142 discount on Mercury. Even the plugins Waves gives out for free ever so often (One Knob Louder this year, Renaissance Bass last year) count towards upgrading.

[koolkeys]

Looking at the Musicians Friend Stupid deal today and saw one of the deals was T-Racks Mic Room for $20. Is that worth the price, or is it just a gimmick? I mean, obviously it has to be a little bit of a gimmick. But I was away for a while and wasn't around when that was released. So I don't know if it was received well or not. Thoughts?

Brent

[dzilizzi]

You never have to pay until you want to update. So I don't know what the problem is. If the program hasn't changed? You can still use it. There really isn't any change for individual plug in owners. As long as your DAW or your OS doesn't do any major changes to how plugins work, you never have to pay again.

Spoken like a PC user! Us lucky Mac users get our OS's broken every 9 months.

LOL! Another reason to use a PC. And? I downgraded my 8.1 computer to 7.

I've been informed on another thread you don't actually have to update your OS.

[dzilizzi]

WUP is a big reason Waves does so many crazy 70-80% discounts. If they weren't making money on WUP, they would probably price and market themselves differently.

A cool thing is those $29 deals they run can sometimes work out really well for upgrading. For example, I bought Kramer Master Tape when it was on sale for $29 and it now gets me a $142 discount on Mercury. Even the plugins Waves gives out for free ever so often (One Knob Louder this year, Renaissance Bass last year) count towards upgrading.

This was how I did it. I bought plug-ins and bundles on sale. Slowly upgrading. It didn't hurt that right before they switched to one format a few years ago, they had some crazy good deals. And all the cheaper native versions transferred with no extra cost. (Probably because there wasn't much of a change)

And? I don't think I even use half of the plug-ins I own.

[Musical Gym]

For $14.99 you can get the new Kontakt product Casetto (usually $65) plus 5 free products (several selling for $65 or more on their own). If the final level is reached by the end of this month, everyone gets a sixth free product.
See details for this insanely cheap offering: viewtopic.php?f=43&t=470810
You can also get the free Kontakt product Kosmology/Multiverse-Free Fall without entering the Group Buy, but after you experience it, you won't want to miss out on the others.
http://hgsounds.com/product/kosmology-freefall/

[Rational]

Anyone else struggling with what to choose from that GB? I am.

And yes, it's a fantastic deal. $15 bucks goes a looong way on this GB. So far I've only chosen Kosmology Elementary. Trying to decide what to get for my remaining deals.

And I just read that it's already up to the 5th freebie level. And that he's added a 6th now. Talk about being a cool guy. That's incredible. Really like Cassetto. Think I'll grab the 2010 samples & loops pak at 12gigabyte. Then I have no idea what to choose next...

[OneOfManyPauls]

I didn't look at the number of instruments in a product, I listened to the demos for the sound palette. This is the order I got my bonus products (including 5 additional GB "entries") - all kontakt instruments as I love the scope and flexibility of having both the kosmology and multiverse scripts with all of them:

multiverse dominate - mfb dominion X
kosmology evolution - DSi evolver
kosmology fusion - dsi mopho
multiverse vintage - akai sg01v
multiverse classics - soundscapes
kosmology elementary - cheap digital synths
kosmology awakenings - synthpop
multiverse infekted - access virus
kosmology analog - analog 4
kosmology space - ambient

(the first 5 and cassetto for the $14.99, the other 5 were additional products received for each additional group buy entry. So $90 in total for me, plus looks like we're going to get an extra one soon - incredible value)

as you can see, my personal preference is for sampled hardware. having had a mopho for a while, it was really nice to have the essence of that synth running with the creativity of the HGS scripts.

[Uncle E]

LOL! Another reason to use a PC. And? I downgraded my 8.1 computer to 7.

I've been informed on another thread you don't actually have to update your OS.

It's that Apple marketing machine, they'll convince you it's the greatest thing ever created when all they actually did was add a semi-functioning version of Siri. Dear Apple, Siri is a nice for our phones as an alternative to a full size keyboard but our computers HAVE FULL SIZE KEYBOARDS!!!

[Uncle E]

And? I don't think I even use half of the plug-ins I own.

It's an impossible situation with the Mercury bundle. There are around a dozen plugins that do de-essing.

[dzilizzi]

LOL! Another reason to use a PC. And? I downgraded my 8.1 computer to 7.

I've been informed on another thread you don't actually have to update your OS.

It's that Apple marketing machine, they'll convince you it's the greatest thing ever created when all they actually did was add a semi-functioning version of Siri. Dear Apple, Siri is a nice for our phones as an alternative to a full size keyboard but our computers HAVE FULL SIZE KEYBOARDS!!!

This does crack me up. I had an iPhone for a while. I don't actually like talking on the phone, so why do they think I want to talk to the phone? Though I am probably in the minority on that.

Windows 10 has Cortana - their answer to Siri. And just as useless to me. But I am not a big fan of Windows 10. It turns a computer into a big tablet. If I wanted a tablet, I would have bought one. I want to be able to look at multiple programs at once. But it wants to run apps that allow only one thing open at a time. It isn't really that bad, I just had to load a number of programs that it already has as "apps" like PDF reader.

[dzilizzi]

And? I don't think I even use half of the plug-ins I own.

It's an impossible situation with the Mercury bundle. There are around a dozen plugins that do de-essing.

Truthfully, I am not sure why I got it. Other than it only cost me $700 at the time. I had gotten the Diamond upgrade about a month earlier for only $100. But I do use some of the the signature plugins, so I guess it was a good deal

As you say, slowly buying bits and pieces when they are on sale really helps.

[Uncle E]

Ironically, my MacBook just alerted me that it will install Sierra the next time I restart. My interface isn't yet compatible with it so I guess I won't be turning off my computer for a few months.

Mac users:

System Preferences > App Store > Uncheck 'Automatically Check for Updates'

[sprnva]

Cupertino, stop your photocopiers!

[koolkeys]

But I am not a big fan of Windows 10. It turns a computer into a big tablet. If I wanted a tablet, I would have bought one. I want to be able to look at multiple programs at once. But it wants to run apps that allow only one thing open at a time. It isn't really that bad, I just had to load a number of programs that it already has as "apps" like PDF reader.

If you are on a laptop, it shouldn't default to the tablet interface. It has the start menu that Windows is known for, and you can add the tiles to it, but you don't HAVE to (though I personally love them in the start menu, amazing way to organize apps I use often). Other than that, it doesn't run any differently than previous versions of Windows. It DOES have some store apps that are a little limited, but honestly, I've never touched the store or touch versions of apps since upgrading my two machines. Maybe you have some settings that got transferred or accidentally set? It just sounds odd to hear something describe Win10 like that. Windows 8, yes. It was bad from these perspectives until they updated it. But Windows 10 doesn't force the tablet stuff on you. At least it never has for me.

Brent