Air instruments Complete Bundle $75

[ghettosynth]

I've thought about getting it but haven't pulled the trigger, the only things that really interest me are Hybrid 3 and maybe Structure (I dunno if it's significantly better as a rompler than xpand it's rarely mentioned in comparison to sampletank or kontakt) are the other synths really special? I'm pretty well covered as far as synths go and I don't really think these would provide anything I don't have.

Depends on what you value in terms of workflow. I use Riser a lot, but I don't actually use risers like you think of them in EDM. I like it as a super fast way to create moving parts in soundscapes.

Structure has a big library, most of it is not up to Kontakt quality, but, some of it is useful. What I really like about Structure though is that it is a much faster way of throwing together a sample kit than Kontakt is.

Strike is also a somewhat dated sounding acoustic drum set, but, if you do electronic music, especially house, it's nice because it has some nice features regarding complexity modulation and allows you to replace acoustic drums with samples. I like it for creating hybrid drum kits that I am going to use i n a context where acoustic authenticity is not the top priority.

Vacuum Pro can be a bit awkward but has some features that are rare. It has two cascaded filters with adjustable slopes and built in heavy saturation. This allows you to create M!2 style pads but the saturation definitely adds a flavor that isn't in most synths.

I use some of the effects a bit more than I thought that I would. Especially the pumper, the diffusion delay, and the pitch shifter. They're not going to win audio quality awards, but they are useful in certain contexts.

I like Velvet a lot. The front panel dynamics controls allow me to quickly tayler it to my playing mood.

Mini-grand is absolutely not my favorite piano, but it loads so quickly that it gets used a lot more than I thought for sketching things out.

I agree that Loom could be better, but, I think that at the price, it's still useful.

If I scored my purchases by total cost divided by hours of actual use, this would have to rank as one of the best values of last year. Right up there with Eventide's bundle and the HGSounds groupbuy.

[zzz00m]

I would have to agree with the comments made by ghettosynth! It is a great value, especially for those that do not already own a massive synth arsenal!!!

If you already own Omnisphere and NI Komplete, move on, LOL!

If not, just get Reaper and this bundle and you are good to go!

These instruments were previously an exclusive instrument bundle in Pro Tools, until a few years ago, when inMusic brands acquired AIR Music Tech from Avid. The plugins are now offered in VST, AU, and AAX format for the first time. So they have been under the radar unless you have worked with Pro Tools.

As far as the synths are concerned, I love Hybrid 3, Loom, and Vacuum Pro. The presets are all professionally designed, and there are more than you can count. These 3 synths cover subtractive, wavetable, and additive synthesis.

If you want keyboards, they are well covered in Mini Grand, Velvet, and DB-33. I love the DB33FX Leslie cabinet emulation that is also provided as a separate FX plugin that you can use with any track. Sounds cool on anything!

For samplers, Structure 2 provides a good 38GB sample library. You can also import your own samples and create patches with multisamples using the included wave editor, and keyboard mapping tools. Strike is a good Drum library, with a 19 GB sample library. It has some cool performance features with the pattern key switches mapped across the keyboard.

And Transfuser ... made for manipulating, slicing, and remixing loops. You can chop up beats and phrases, time-stretch sounds, re-pitch notes, randomize sequences, and more – all on the fly. Comes with a premium drum and instrument library that includes 3,200+ loops and 1200+ drum machine samples for instant music experimentation. I'm still trying to wrap my head around this thing, but it is cool.

[Astralv]

Total rip off for those that paid full price for it.

[ghettosynth]

Total rip off for those that paid full price for it.

Pure fallacy. Most things lose value, you should expect that when you buy things. No matter how much software has devalued over time it can't compare to the devaluation of digital hardware.

[incubus]

Hey, despite my negative rap, I think that it's valid that someone is pissed about that. That doesn't mean I won't take advantage of it, but it's a valid complaint.

[ghettosynth]

Hey, despite my negative rap, I think that it's valid that someone is pissed about that. That doesn't mean I won't take advantage of it, but it's a valid complaint.

I don't disagree, but it's a fallacy to say that it's a "rip off", it simply can't be. You paid an agreed price when they came out, how could a different sale be a "rip off" to you?

I spent over three grand for my K2000R when it was new, it's worth about ten percent of that today, I don't feel ripped off. I used the hell out of it for a few years.

[exmatproton]

Hey, despite my negative rap, I think that it's valid that someone is pissed about that. That doesn't mean I won't take advantage of it, but it's a valid complaint.

I don't disagree, but it's a fallacy to say that it's a "rip off", it simply can't be. You paid an agreed price when they came out, how could a different sale be a "rip off" to you?

I spent over three grand for my K2000R when it was new, it's worth about ten percent of that today, I don't feel ripped off. I used the hell out of it for a few years.

software/hardware analogy is a bit off in this case, imho. If a used product wears off, sure, it is worth less. This won't happen with software (when the dev hasn't introduced new software, i don't get value dropping schemes, to be honest. Sure there exceptions). On the other hand, often you see a dev drop the price of a certain range of products in order to get new customers and introduce a new iteration. Which seems not to be the case with AIR for a long period of time...Often dropping a price and introducing new stuff has some nice financial advantages for the users and devs. In this case, none of this is the case...

Maybe they will indeed release a new version of their suite, which, ofcourse, would be a solid reason (imho) to drop the price.

[ghettosynth]

Hey, despite my negative rap, I think that it's valid that someone is pissed about that. That doesn't mean I won't take advantage of it, but it's a valid complaint.

I don't disagree, but it's a fallacy to say that it's a "rip off", it simply can't be. You paid an agreed price when they came out, how could a different sale be a "rip off" to you?

I spent over three grand for my K2000R when it was new, it's worth about ten percent of that today, I don't feel ripped off. I used the hell out of it for a few years.

software/hardware analogy is a bit off in this case, imho. If a used product wears off, sure, it is worth less. This won't happen with software (when the dev hasn't introduced new software, i don't get value dropping schemes, to be honest.

The point was simply that the loss of value over time doesn't make your deal a rip off. If you didn't extract the value that you felt a product was worth then that's your problem.

While I agree that used is slightly different than new, I disagree that there isn't something comparable happening. What seems to be happening is that the market is changing owing to increased quality and competition. Since there are minimal recurring costs with software, the price can be adjusted to continue to extract revenue. You can't do this with hardware to the same degree because there are very real recurring costs. However, it does happen that hardware sometimes becomes cheaper over time, of course, especially when economies of scale can be leveraged, e.g., television sets.

Granted, the constant sales can be annoying. However, you will find them less annoying if you just decide for yourself what something is worth and stick to that. This is why I think that virtually all plugins are worth about $20, on average. That allows for a lot of cheap ones and a few expensive ones.

[exmatproton]

Hey, despite my negative rap, I think that it's valid that someone is pissed about that. That doesn't mean I won't take advantage of it, but it's a valid complaint.

I don't disagree, but it's a fallacy to say that it's a "rip off", it simply can't be. You paid an agreed price when they came out, how could a different sale be a "rip off" to you?

I spent over three grand for my K2000R when it was new, it's worth about ten percent of that today, I don't feel ripped off. I used the hell out of it for a few years.

software/hardware analogy is a bit off in this case, imho. If a used product wears off, sure, it is worth less. This won't happen with software (when the dev hasn't introduced new software, i don't get value dropping schemes, to be honest.

The point was simply that the loss of value over time doesn't make your deal a rip off. If you didn't extract the value that you felt a product was worth then that's your problem.

While I agree that used is slightly different than new, I disagree that there isn't something comparable happening. What seems to be happening is that the market is changing owing to increased quality and competition. Since there are minimal recurring costs with software, the price can be adjusted to continue to extract revenue. You can't do this with hardware to the same degree because there are very real recurring costs. However, it does happen that hardware sometimes becomes cheaper over time, of course, especially when economies of scale can be leveraged, e.g., television sets.

Granted, the constant sales can be annoying. However, you will find them less annoying if you just decide for yourself what something is worth and stick to that. This is why I think that virtually all plugins are worth about $20, on average. That allows for a lot of cheap ones and a few expensive ones.

I think we agree here, to be honest. I wouldn't call it a "rip-off" either. Cause i don't think it is. However, i disagree to your analogy to some extend. "Used HW" can be a big difference compared to new. It isn't even in the same ballpark compared to software;

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_ ... kus+fuller

While i don't think sales are a bad thing per se, software isn't prone to the same degredation at all and thus, when software is on par with the needs of todays demand (i guess Diva, Oddity and Massive are good examples; just to name a few), there really is no need to lower the price (again, IMHO).

Unless, the software dev is planning for a new/different iteration.

[ghettosynth]

I think we agree here, to be honest. I wouldn't call it a "rip-off" either. Cause i don't think it is. However, i disagree to your analogy to some extend.

Yes, and I don't want to belabor this, it isn't important. I was simply pointing out that time impacts value. I purchased a brand new still in the box MKS-10 at one point for the princely sum of $20. I sold it some years later for quite a profit. When I purchased it the salesman, who was a friend of mine was laughing at my offer of one percent of retail. He tried to talk me up. I said no.

Hardware isn't immune to the change of time. Wear is not the only reason that something devalues.

While i don't think sales are a bad thing per se, software isn't prone to the same degredation at all and thus, when software is on par with the needs of todays demand (i guess Diva, Oddity and Massive are good examples; just to name a few), there really is no need to lower the price (again, IMHO).

Unless, the software dev is planning for a new/different iteration.

Again, degradation isn't really the issue, changing technology is. The reason to lower a price is to generate sales. We live in a bit of a vacuum here on KVR. We track the sales, we remember the AAS UltraAnalog no-brainer, we remember the Eventide UltraChannnel giveaway. That doesn't mean that the rest of the world does.

FWIW though, I seem to recall that AIR is working on a fresh round of their stuff and expect that it will have a cost.

[exmatproton]

Sure. And i think that is the main reason as well (AIR being dev-ing something new).
Which is a good thing ofcourse.

[zzz00m]

Good stuff: Based in Germany, AIR Music Technology started as Wizoo Sound Design, one of the earliest pioneers in virtual instrument technology. The AIR team is responsible for the core of much of the effects offerings in Avid’s Pro Tools software, and also developed a suite of award-winning virtual instruments specifically for Pro Tools. Leveraging this history of excellence, AIR’s mission is to create the world’s most innovative virtual instruments, music software, and effects.

But then this happened: http://www.inmusicbrands.com/news/artic ... -m-audio-f

​So now: AIR is a member of the premier family of brands known as inMusic, which also includes Akai Professional, Alesis, Alto Professional, ION Audio, M-Audio, MixMeister, Numark, and Sonivox*. Committed to pushing the boundaries of innovation in the DJ, music production, live sound, musical instrument, pro audio, and consumer electronics industries, each of inMusic’s brands creates cutting-edge products that incorporate and build upon the latest in engineering, design, and technology.

So it seems that inMusic Brands is working to monetize the acquisition. It's all about revenue. I doubt that anything is AIR's decision anymore ...
http://www.inmusicbrands.com/news/category/air

[ghettosynth]

So it seems that inMusic Brands is working to monetize the acquisition. It's all about revenue. I doubt that anything is AIR's decision anymore ...

+1

[exmatproton]

So it seems that inMusic Brands is working to monetize the acquisition. It's all about revenue. I doubt that anything is AIR's decision anymore ...

+1

Indeed a good point...

[skyscape]

I really love Air's products, but I really hate their copy protection. Your mileage may vary, but every computer I have installed it on I have problems with the PACE anti piracy. Sometimes it stops running by itself and you can't load your instruments until you go back into the windows task manager and start it back up manually. It's more of an inconvenience than anything else, but it is something to think about. I certainly don't think their products will be 'future proof' because they rely on such an invasive copy protection scheme, the smallest little hiccup and you can't load your track. I can see in 10 years time I'll probably have a bunch of tracks I can't load anymore because PACE no longer works or something. That said though, I think their synths are some of the best in the business and I use them all the time, but their rubbish copy protection is a big drawback.