Your best purchase of 2015

[Bombadil]

It is a toss-up between an RME FF802, A Taylor 320, and a late 2015 iMac 27" 5k (4ghz, i7, 32gb RAM, 2TB Fusion Drive). I think the iMac takes it.

[Mister Natural]

I was very fortunate to have the ability of acquiring a couple of interesting pieces last year.
Of the new additions to the studio, I'd have to say the black Friday deal to upgrade from LIVE standard to LIVE suite is probably the most significant. Getting MAX for LIVE is the key there

peace

[foosnark]

Probably the "best" overall purchase I made this year was replacing my hard drive with a 1 TB SSD.

As far as softsynths go I didn't get much that seems either essential or particularly distinctive, aside from Chipspeech. I did get a couple of hardware items very late in the year -- AY3 and Therapsid from Twisted-Electrons -- and those have been fun so far.

Lots of filling in the gaps in effects -- mostly for dynamics and enhancement rather than wild creative tools, for a change.

Honestly I'm reaching a comfortable saturation point on gear, and I like it.

[Gonga]

Yes, this is definitely cool. Are you gents completely electric-independent?

That is a big install. I have 10.5 killowatt install comprised of 42 Sharp panels. You must have a lot of south facing roof space. Cool to see this on a KVR post!

actually my best purchase was 15 kilowatts of solar panels on the roof. I more or less make horrible noises for free....

It's pretty easy to answer that question yourself. Does the sun shine in the night (or rather when it's dark)? (Hint: The solar panels produce nothing at all then) Also, when the weather is cloudy, solar panels only produce about 1/10 to 1/20 of their nominal capacity. And only in absolute optimal conditions (sun shining vertically on the panels), they get NEARLY their nominal capacity, for half an hour a day or so. There are many small cities which claim they're independent here in germany because of solar and wind power. My suggestion would be to cut them from the net, and see if they're really independent, of course noone would do that, because then everyone would see how extremely inefficient and unreliable the facilities are. And how much they cost, and how much (fossile) energy ressources were spent to manufacture them in proportion to what they deliver.

The micro inverter panels that I had installed are set up in parallel rather than in series. Parallel installations don't suffer the same losses due to shade that series installations do...the inverters also convert DC current to AC therefore avoiding any possible overheating of wiring passing through roof spaces etc. On the day of installation, the system generated 76 kilowatts of power..Bear in mind that the installation of 60 panels plus connection to the house circuitry took most of the day...

76 killowatts doesn't make sense, if then, it should be 76 killowatt hours. And excuse me, but that figure seems pretty utopic. You should have gauges (if that's the correct word) to measure not only the amount of killowatt hours you import into the electricity net, and also a display about what the installment produces atm.

Our neighbour has an installment of 7 killowatt on his roof, amidttedly a bit older than yours. the maximum amount of power, at optimal conditions is about 5-6 killowatt, IF the sun shines, there's no clouds or anything, and it shines vertically on the panels. If it's cloudy, it produces about 1/10 of that, which would be enough to power one or two desktop computers. At other times than at peak times, in the summer, when the sun shines vertically on the panels, there's already a lot of loss too. And when it's dark, there is nothing, nada. Considering that's a 20.000 € installment (of course, 50% of that subsidized), and there's also the need of other installments, like a converter, which cost a couple of thousands too afaik, the installment, without being susidized will surely not be cost efficient in its lifespan (and of course took a lot of fossile energies to manufacture). Apart from that, like with all of the subsidized, and hyped renewable energies (not talking about water power here, which actually is efficient), it takes a lot of compensaion power plants, to do the basic requirements of electrical energy, which in my case in germany comes from coal and gas plants, which are neither climate neutral, nor very clean by default. Wind and solar can only do peaks, they can't do the basic requirements, because they're completely unreliable.

Btw, the farmer i often pass by to buy something also has a sonar panel installment. Most of the times, the energy produced is about 1/10 of its nominal capacity. Which would be in your case about 1,5 killowatt, which would be almost enough to run a washing machine.

We're 100% wind, and that's heat, A/C, and everything else. Wind seems very reliable to me.

[incubus]

I forgot to say what might have been the "real" best purchase of the year.......an ipad.

After years and years of ragging on "i" stuff, I found a legitimate reason to finally buy one and it's been the greatest surprise.

Not a big apple fan, but a really good product that has done more for me than I thought was possible.

Ah, I remember the days........

[jancivil]

I believe I purchased only one item in 2015: Wavesfactory - Suspended Cymbals. For... 5 or 10 bucks. So kudos to them, it's an astonishingly good buy, even if they went up on it since.

[shroom81]

Out of the countless plugins I splashed out for in '15 I must say for me and my style of music Dimitri Sches Tantra is rocking my world. It's just a seriously fun and really nice sounding plugin

[masterhiggins]

Kaivo and the mangle.

[Scotty]

I am also in Ontario and benefit from the Microfit feed-in Tariff program. I got in when the contract was locked in a 80.2 cents per Kilowatt Hour and have been running for 3 years now of a 20 year contract. In Ontario, under the terms of my contract, I sell back to the grid and don't use any of the electricity that I generate. I don't store the power. I have two meters. One that tells me how much I have used which is completely independent of the meter that tells me how much I generate. I get two statements from the utility one which tells me how much I owe them and the other tells me how much they owe me (along with a cheque). Once the contract expires in 17 years I'll be looking to the Tesla battery technology or something similar to supplement my electricity consumption in the house. It won't allow me to go off grid but I am generating an annual average over 10 Megawatt Hours of solar generated electricity.

The average Canadian house uses 12 Megawatt Hours of electricity per year and that includes houses that are electrically heated ( I heat by natural gas). Panels will degrade about 22-25%% over 25 years but they can function almost indefinitely so it will certainly be worthwhile to store the electricity into battery cells and use it the electricity in the house after the contract expires. Each panel in my array has a separate inverter so the panels can be independently monitored and any point in the day and at any point over time. If one of the panels is in shade, the output of that particular cell dips correspondingly but the neighboring panels continue to generate independent of cell(s) that are in shade. This kind of install costs more as you need an inverter on each panel and you also need some electronics to connect to the grid which adds to the expense. As this is now an income generating asset you also need to insure the panels. My panels generate about $8200 to 8500 CND a year which is like having an income generating apartment in your house. The government has made the plan less attractive but even when it was generous very few people took up the offer. IN my town there are only 3 residential solar rooftop installations in a population of 6000 homes.

If we get into this much deeper the conversation will have to move to Hyde Park as this gets political pretty quickly.

At any rate (pun intended) happy music making and thanks for tolerating this little deviation from the KVR norm. Scott

[Scotty]

I am also in Ontario and benefit from the Microfit feed-in Tariff program. I got in when the contract was locked in a 80.2 cents per Kilowatt Hour and have been running for 3 years now of a 20 year contract. In Ontario, under the terms of my contract, I sell back to the grid and don't use any of the electricity that I generate. I don't store the power. I have two meters. One that tells me how much I have used which is completely independent of the meter that tells me how much I generate. I get two statements from the utility one which tells me how much I owe them and the other tells me how much they owe me (along with a cheque). Once the contract expires in 17 years I'll be looking to the Tesla battery technology or something similar to supplement my electricity consumption in the house. It won't allow me to go off grid but I am generating an annual average over 10 Megawatt Hours of solar generated electricity.

The average Canadian house uses 12 Megawatt Hours of electricity per year and that includes houses that are electrically heated ( I heat by natural gas). Panels will degrade about 22-25%% over 25 years but they can function almost indefinitely so it will certainly be worthwhile to store the electricity into battery cells and use it the electricity in the house after the contract expires. Each panel in my array has a separate inverter so the panels can be independently monitored and any point in the day and at any point over time. If one of the panels is in shade, the output of that particular cell dips correspondingly but the neighboring panels continue to generate independent of cell(s) that are in shade. This kind of install costs more as you need an inverter on each panel and you also need some electronics to connect to the grid which adds to the expense. As this is now an income generating asset you also need to insure the panels. My panels generate about $8200 to 8500 CND a year which is like having an income generating apartment in your house. The government has made the plan less attractive but even when it was generous very few people took up the offer. IN my town there are only 3 residential solar rooftop installations in a population of 6000 homes.

Some are very confused regarding the payback time in terms of environmental costs in manufacturing a solar panel. Most studies have confirmed that the energy required to create a single panel (even those that use power generated from fossils fuels)is recouped in 4 years of average installed generation. This included the power needed to harvest the materials (metals) , manufacture the panels, get them to market and install them. Panels have an anticipated lifespan of 25 years but most will last much longer than this if they are not in hostile environments. The carbon footprint sums to zero after 4 years of a 25 year install. This is why solar power has the potential to be environmentally sensible.

If we get into this much deeper the conversation will have to move to Hyde Park as this gets political pretty quickly.

At any rate (pun intended) happy music making and thanks for tolerating this little deviation from the KVR norm. Scott

[fedexnman]

I bought 2 rack of ribs on December 31st . In the USA it is a tradition , well in the south to cook greens or cabbage , blackeyed peas and pork. Well anyhow on New Years Day those ribs came out outstanding .

[bluedad]

I had a paypal balance that just about covered the sale price of Soniccoutre's Box of Tricks, so I took the plunge on that. Really interesting, organic sounds.

[Bombadil]

I bought their 'Conservatoire Collection' and the 'Hammersmith Pro' from them, with a 2for1 sale. The Hammersmith is probably the best VI Piano I've played (at 51 gbs, it should be lovely!!!). The harpsichords in the Conservatoire are also top-notch.

[SampleScience]

The D16 effect plugin bundle. These effects sound really good!!!

[Freaqpeak]

A house.

(Where bedroom and studioroom is separated by other rooms. No more disturbing girlfriend. Or neighbours.)