Fake Effects Plugin Deals

[zerocrossing]

Some companies, like Valhalla, just keep their prices very inexpensive and quality good, knowing satisfied customers like me will mention them in threads like this and win them new customers.

A lot of love for Valhalla. Supermassive is the bomb. What is your favorite Valhalla plugin?

Valhalla Delay, but Übermod is also excellent.

[Choikdoi]

I've got to say, since I found KVR and subsequently Knobcloud, I've never overpaid for a plugin since. Always check what's being sold on those 2 pages first, when there's something you know you want to buy.

And it's not just 'for sale' posts on the forum on here (viewforum.php?f=43)... if you can't find someone selling what you want, then make your own 'want to buy' ad and post it so that others can see what you're looking for and PM you with offers.

[Kappa_Beta_Hi-Phi]

Good advice in this thread. Here is my advice speaking as someone with a serious plugin addiction.

Step One: TDR is your friend, try all the free effects, the GE versions can be had for $10-$30 regularly from reseller sales. You can go a long way with just these tools.

Klanghelm does not do sales, all plugins are $25 or so, all good, all worth it, try the free versions.

Valhalla does not do sales, all worth it at $50 and try the free effects.

Step Two: Ignore all list prices. $30 is the price of a plugin, if something is $30 or less and you want it/need it, $30 or less is what it should cost. If it costs more than $30 time to consider a few things.

Do I have an equivalent? If so, is this better than the thing I already have? If so, how much more than $30 do I have to pay for this right now? If this thing is not $30 or less right now at some point in the future it will be $30 or less, either on it's own or in a bundle sale. How long am I willing to wait for this to happen and/or would I be willing to purchase this plugin in a bundle in the future? If you are willing to wait indefinitely or you are willing to buy it in a bundle then don't buy it right now if it is not $30 or less - obviously.

Simple.

BTW in my experience all the big manufacturers will eventually offer bundle deals within a calendar year and it is always worth waiting for these deals (like the sonnox one below) instead of buying individually for the best savings. Some smaller developers will not, so you do need to build up your market knowledge a little bit before you start spending.

Here are a few deals available this weekend:

https://www.pluginboutique.com/products ... ge-nosto-1

^^ Good deal. Good tools. Recommended if you in the market for any one of these tools.

https://www.plugin-alliance.com/en/prod ... _oven.html

^^ Fairly new to the market. As you can see it is $30. Good tool, but do you need this right now? If you do get something like this saturator plugin it is best to commit to it for 6 months to a year before getting or trying another IMO. A pretty good rule of thumb going forward in fact.

Good luck and remember you don't need any third party plugins to produce great mixes. Also when asking advice for X best plugin you will get X times all the plugin developers as answers, worth remembering this too.

[kritikon]

Regarding Melda...do they still do that thing where you have to download everything, then pick the ones you want to install? That is/was definitely irritating and I get why people dislike that. If you're not on unlimited internet (not that long ago I wasn't, as services here are just not anything like urban and unlimited cost a fortune). Last time I got anything Melda it was the vocoder, and I had to dl something like 0.5 GB of shite to get the vocoder, only to discard the rest.

Having said that, Melda make some superb plugins. MVocoder is still one of the best on the market IMO. Any time I want an effect, I always check out what Melda has as part of my research. Superb how-to vids too. And Melda are generally VERY competitive price. Just having Valhalla + Melda will take you a long way down the quality road, and keep your wallet happy.

[LunarKitten]

https://musicsoftwaredeals.com/
Always worth checking here to see if plugins are on sale and where; also lists history of deals as well, so you can get an idea of previous sale prices.

That is a nice site!

I meant that your approach seems entirely absurd to me. If quality is not important to you as you say because you're a beginner, then why bother with payware in the first place? There's enough freeware around. That's the first bit I don't get at all.

You may be right. Maybe I should rethink my perspective.

Then: if I didn't misunderstand you you consider expensive plugins that are on sale with a heavily reduced price often "fake deal" and you are not interested in them because of this. So what you look for is expensive plugins that are on sale only rarely but then also with a deep discount. So the perfect plugin for you would be - regardless of any other measure - one that is the most expensive of all (let's say a thousand bucks), but costs only fifty dollars every ten years. And you would prefer that one over something else that's always 50bucks and everyone raves about.

It not so much about numbers for me. I think that valhalla supermassive for 50$ would be a good deal for example, even though it is free. I am sure that there are plugins that sell for 300$ that are not as good.

1. After five years of very active buying (and selling again), I consolidated my plugin folders based on what I am actually using. Expensive solutions like Fabfilter and Melodyne stayed, many things in the 30 bucks range went away.

What did you keep in the 30 bucks range if you don't mind sharing.

This may be different depending on your personal preferences or needs, but it seems there are a handful of "standard" solutions that both have a good reputation and are in use by many. Examples are: Fabfilter EQ, Compressor, Saturation; Melodyne, Valhalla Reverbs; XLN RC-20, NI Noire, Algonaut Atlas, just to mention a few. I see these as long-term investments into infrastructure I will be using on a daily basis.

I have heard alot of good things about Saturn. It seems to be the industry standard that all the star engineers use. I don't think I will ever be on the level to get the green light working with the stars.

Now, you can look for third party stuff for free that has very high quality. Examples are: Melda Free bundle (costs you 25 bucks when on discount to unlock all features), Toneboosters legacy (very good, completely free), Chowdhury plugins, Blue Cat free package (very good), Pianobook libraries (enough instruments for a lifetime), Project Sam Free Orchestra (good an entirely free), Audiodamage legacy plugins (totally free, but no support, sound design stuff for half a lifetime).

Thanks for sharing. Do you think I should even look at lowpriced plugins/heavy discounts with these option available? The Melda kit for 25 bucks seems like a great deal.

Bottom line: You perhaps have to spend a little money, between 50 and 100 bucks (look for second-hand DAW!), but what you've got after that can make you happy and well-equipped. I always find it ridiculous and a pain to take part in the marketing battle out there and then complain about the money that has been spend or things everyone "needs" to deliver something good.

Got it.

One thing to consider though: In professional audio engineering, "time is money". Many plugins deliver convenience and time saving, and this can be crucial if you are working with a deadline or have to be competitive. However, 90% of what is discussed here does not seem to fall into this category.

I see your point, but by the way your speaking I can tell that you work on a different level than I am.

That site and this forum help define the real world base price for software.

That's nice!

Selling stuff on sale way lower than the initial/standard price is not called fake but a discount.

A real deal implies that there is something special about the offer. If, however, your buisness model is to tag on a price that is outlandishly high and constantly do discounts to even sell your product< that is not a special offer and not a real deal.

No one forces you to buy software on full price. Consumers shouldn't blame other people and companies over their low impulse buy control behaviour. So the title of this post should be corrected.

They don't force me, but they are being deceptive. Exploiting people who don't know any better or have low impulse control is not a good look.

TDR has awesome free plugins, you can buy GE versions.

[...]

Another general fake dev for me is Acustica Audio, they mainly focus on creating analog like guis, but tgey mainly slow down work flow and there's is no analog mojo or magic, there are way better plugins imo.
I stay away from Native Instruments and Plugin Alliance, don't care what they do or release any more.

Thanks for sharing.

Almost everything in this niche is priced like it's mining equipment so you just wait for the price of gold to fall or someone to go bust and fire sale. The pricing around everything music is so gamed that it makes it quite the ethical quandary. I do know that money literally stopped me as a young person from exploring music because not dying took precedence and the most ethical alternative is a subscription or two to sound generators and mix tools.

That is good to know.

Check out Toneboosters good stuff,never goes on sale but it’s affordable. Otherwise just watch and wait and try Demos, eventually you’ll know what you need or want and what is a good price

I'm going to take a closer look at them.

I've got to say, since I found KVR and subsequently Knobcloud, I've never overpaid for a plugin since. Always check what's being sold on those 2 pages first, when there's something you know you want to buy.

Will do.

Step One: TDR is your friend, try all the free effects, the GE versions can be had for $10-$30 regularly from reseller sales. You can go a long way with just these tools.

I'm going to check them out as well as the others you have mentioned.

Excellent posts thank you all very much!

Ignore all list prices. $30 is the price of a plugin, if something is $30 or less and you want it/need it, $30 or less is what it should cost. If it costs more than $30 time to consider a few things.

Do I have an equivalent? If so, is this better than the thing I already have? If so, how much more than $30 do I have to pay for this right now? If this thing is not $30 or less right now at some point in the future it will be $30 or less, either on it's own or in a bundle sale. How long am I willing to wait for this to happen and/or would I be willing to purchase this plugin in a bundle in the future? If you are willing to wait indefinitely or you are willing to buy it in a bundle then don't buy it right now if it is not $30 or less - obviously.

Yes. Do I personally need those plugins, probably not, but I am willing to wait and pick them up when the price is right for me.

Here are a few deals available this weekend:

https://www.pluginboutique.com/products ... ge-nosto-1

^^ Good deal. Good tools. Recommended if you in the market for any one of these tools.

https://www.plugin-alliance.com/en/prod ... _oven.html

^^ Fairly new to the market. As you can see it is $30. Good tool, but do you need this right now? If you do get something like this saturator plugin it is best to commit to it for 6 months to a year before getting or trying another IMO. A pretty good rule of thumb going forward in fact.

Thanks, I am looking for deals like this!

Good luck and remember you don't need any third party plugins to produce great mixes. Also when asking advice for X best plugin you will get X times all the plugin developers as answers, worth remembering this too.

That is nice.

Thank you all for the awesome posts in this thread.

[macmuse]

If you drop a few of the deals you've found in this thread, the guys here will tell you if it's worth it.

Yes, good advice.

A couple of sites I've used multiple times for deals, are humblebundle.com and audioplugindeals.com (hope I typed them right).

The audio plugin deals one is:

https://audioplugin.deals/

Not meant as criticism—only noting it for customers to be safe, since this particular company’s URL is different than the typical .com that one would expect.

[LunarKitten]

If you drop a few of the deals you've found in this thread, the guys here will tell you if it's worth it.

Yes, good advice.

Okay, I am going to ask before I make a purchase. I unfortunatly bought plugins, I later learned after the fact, that they are not VST3 and seemingly won't get updated. Now I am stuck with plugins that don't work and I can't tell if the issue is on my end or if the plugins are just too outdated to run in my scenario.

[jamcat]

But Melda is a shitshow. I've always avoided those "free" plugins.

What don't you like about them?

Crippled nagware. Dishonest and more trouble than they're worth.

Alright, I had to go back and refresh my memory of exactly what it was that had given me that impression about Melda "free" plugins. THIS is it, and it is still the case:

"MFreeFXBundle contains a set of audio effects, which are completely free. Our commercial plugins offer many more features, but these are still extraordinary when compared to most plugins on the market. You can extend the features of these free plugins at any time by purchasing a licence."
https://www.meldaproduction.com/MFreeFXBundle

You have to pay $53/€49 for a license to unlock something they literally call "MFreeFXBundle".
That's pretty shady and makes me never want to do business with them.

[_al_]

But Melda is a shitshow. I've always avoided those "free" plugins.

What don't you like about them?

Crippled nagware. Dishonest and more trouble than they're worth.

Yeah, they open your browser when you hit the cursed lower bar.

Seriously though, I have loads of plugins that do this. You accidentally click the little company logo at the top, and your browser opens. I don't know why people always pick on Melda for doing this.

I can understand that it's a bit more annoying than the average plugin though, because it's a big red "Alert" banner, that makes it look like you're using a demo.
Well hey... it annoyed me at first also when I started using Melda, but it didn't make me want to start bad-mouthing Vojtech, every time I saw someone talking about Melda fx (which is what seems to happen on here)
Instead, I decided to upgrade to get rid of it, and really glad I did. So many of his plugins get used in every project I start. I knew the banner was made to be a bit annoying, to try and make me spend some cash, but when I looked beyond my own ego, I knew that he actually deserved the cash.
Back in 2009, Melda fx really were next level deep.
Sonar was giving me all sorts of shit with automation timing and glitches, and then Melda came along and fixed everything for me.

And as a bonus... when I bought his Creative Bundle, it cost me like £60 - £80 or something, and is now selling for over £500, giving me for free, about four times as many plugins as I originally bought.
I guess I was a bit lucky that I could see his potential back then, but he was offering something I needed and couldn't get from other devs (DAW-level automation system lol).
So for that, he will always have my respect, and it's why I sometimes have these little "fanboy" moments on KVR

[LunarKitten]

For example. Here is this SSL Bus compressor. As far as I understand it, this is the kind of compressor that was on alot of records, and is often mentioned when it comes to mixbuscompression.
https://musicsoftwaredeals.com/price-hi ... ate-logic/

It went for 30 bucks? Is this a good price and does it have VST3 support?

[DCrown]

Afaik it was mainly used on master to glue a mix and make mixes sound bigger.
TDR is my fav one for this task, though.
It can generally be used on bus.
You need iLok. I like a lot of their plugins, never paid full price.
I also like their guis, have to admit or found out, that gui influences me more than I want to. A good gui also influences my workflow and I prefer fast workflow.
There are many, many emulations of it,
don't ask me which one is the best,
I like SSL native and Waves,
Cytomic The Glue is a very popular one, too.

There are three often mentioned brands, even though there are many more:
SSL, Neve and API.
After many years I found out which I like best and it's SSL and API also depending on music genre, I am not limited to one genre only! Neve never worked for me, I just don't like it.
As far as I remember Neve is best suited for electronic music (?), I also have edm style mixes sometimes, but Neve don't give me the results I want.
If you want several plugins in one plugin, channel strips might be your choice, there are some nice new creations like
Waves Omnisheps, Eventide Ultrachannel, TBProAudio CS-5501 - real workhorses.

[LunarKitten]

Afaik it was mainly used on master to glue a mix and make mixes sound bigger.
TDR is my fav one for this task, though.
It can generally be used on bus.

https://www.tokyodawn.net/tdr-kotelnikov/
This one?

You need iLok. I like a lot of
If you want several plugins in one plugin, channel strips might be your choice, there are some nice new creations like
Waves Omnisheps, Eventide Ultrachannel, TBProAudio CS-5501 - real workhorses.

I have to check them out.

[DCrown]

TDR Kotelnikov, the free version is all you need for mastering compression, GE version gives you some nice extras. One of my all time fav plugins.

[Kappa_Beta_Hi-Phi]

For example. Here is this SSL Bus compressor. As far as I understand it, this is the kind of compressor that was on alot of records, and is often mentioned when it comes to mixbuscompression.
https://musicsoftwaredeals.com/price-hi ... ate-logic/

It went for 30 bucks? Is this a good price and does it have VST3 support?

First what DAW are you using?

Secondly don't think that just because there is an SSL badge on something that it's a sign of some kind of better quality, superior behaviour or it's a sortcut to a magic professional sound. None of this works that way. There are hundreds of Bus compressors out there and each one will claim to do all sorts of magic - and remember Bus compression in itself is a sticky topic.

Use Kotelnikov for now as has been already suggested.

On manufacturers you'll need to familiarise yourself with how each one operates sales-wise and that will take a while. Waves for example sells everything at $29 with many 2 for 1 promotions usually running weekly. Waves update system (some would say scam) requires you to pay a yearly upgrade tax if you wanna run the latest version. This can be a problem if you are on a mac. I won't go into all the details now but suffice to say not all sales tactics are equal in the plugin market.

Get Kotelnikov, read the manual and use it for 6 months to a year exclusively.

Make a text file or a spreadsheet and make a list of the plugins you are interested in each category you feel you are lacking. Periodically prune this list to make sure only the best ones are on it. Then wait for sales or bundles for those plugins.

Here are some of the best known developers:

Fabfilter - the current kings of the market - of course there are haters.
Universal Audio - Industry stalwart, many of their plugins have been on sale recently.
Izotope - they offer an excellent all in one mastering solution.
Softube - Excellent plugins but they are always expensive.
Goodhertz - the Hipster choice, rarely on sale and sales are meagre when on sale, great plugins.
DMG - the purists choice, no sales and expensive high quality tools that many engineering oriented folks love.
Arturia - Offer a great value bundle of analogue modeled plugins worth investigating as a beginner because it offers so much value.
PSP - Oldschool keeping it realz
Eventide - Hardware manufacturer now makes plugins too.
Soundtoys - Used to work at eventide back in the day, were leading makers of plugins for 20 years have slowed down recently.
Sonnox - Ancient plugins, still some of the very best.
Kush - For cool kids only.
Slate - Former innovator now known for their subscription model.
Plugin Alliance - Bargin Bin Kings with many hidden gems.
U-he - KVR darling and allround GOAT.

I could go on...

Plenty to investigate there so start making your list. Remember make categories and keep it pruned. Don't deviate from the list!

[DCrown]

Very important additional information, because some people like casting Waves in a bad light because of their wup.
I didn't have to update, upgrade or pay anything in addition for more than 10 years. WAVES is one of the first and best plugin devs and if you want high qualitay plugins in a bundle to really have everything you need, check Waves Horizon, it's the best plugin purchase I ever did.
A lot of these plugins I use for over 10 years and some have become irreplaceable.
Waves plugins were used for many professional production in this millenium.
Also Oxford SONNOX make plugins that are very high quality and established for many years and give you almost everything you need for mixing and mastering.
TDR, Waves and Sonnox are my fav ones and the devs I highly recommend.