IK Multimedia group buy 2025

[BackInCheck]

Having said all that. My favorite amp to just sit around and play with while watching some movie or reading a book (yes really!) is the Neural DSP Tone King Imperial mk2. It's just gooey, lovely and dynamic in a way no other amp sim quite captures. I'd probably like the real thing very much. It also works extremely well as an amp that you feed distortion pedals into. This is what I am going to use ToneX for. It's the pedal, Neural DSP Tone King is the amp and TH-U is my cab sim.

Have you tried the UAD Showtime 64' amp, which was given away for free a few weeks ago? Would like to hear your opinion!

[Cuauhtli]

IKM appears to be putting on a master class in marketing psychology. Yes, the system issues are annoying but in the end everybody that registered is going to get their 49 freebies. There is going to be a lot of whining and threats of "I'll never use IKM again" but IKM will have snagged thousands of users onto their platform with this promo.

And now the new users are gonna spend hours with downloads and testing/previewing all the free products. And every hour spent is a sunk cost that is going to make it harder to just walk away from IKM. Then, when the next incremental promo comes out the old user is more likely to buy it (even if it adds no value) because they have all the other stuff and it won't seem like too much additional money to just have a more 'complete' collection (especially if they look at the value of their collection based on IKM's own silly MSRPs). Yes, the old user will still be royally annoyed that the upgrade price for them is the same as the price for a new user (but remember that's because it's more important for IKM to get new users locked in). IKM's marketing strategy has ALWAYS been about getting the new user, not keeping existing users.

And on it goes. IKM will keep pulling $49 to $99 off each user every year. The products can't be easily resold so an old user who is in the IKM ecosystem has to decide whether they're just going to walk away or stay engaged. And based on all the time they have invested, they will most likely stick around (but they will be grumpy).

The most important thing for IKM is to lock in new users and wow! did they ever do that with this promo!

Could IKM achieve the same result by just switching to a subscription model which pulls $99 a year from every user? I don't know, IKM seems to think the promo model works better at this point though.

Of course, the last thing to consider is whether these products are worth it. I like their TRacks and I use them a lot. So I keep getting pulled back with each promo.

Should I feel bad that I qualified with the $30 Amplitube and $30 Tonex purchases from Plugin boutique? Twice, no less. 49 freebies for Amplitube and 49 freebies for Tonex.

On the one hand, Amplitube and Tonex was the only thing on my radar from them. Everything else I have covered elsewhere. But you're right. Now I'm considering their new headphone doohickey they just released. I'll take a look at Resing if the free version ever comes out, I'll now look at future T-Racks releases and MODO Bass and Drums. Sneaky devils.

[sjm]

I'm wondering if anyone has any suggestions for my final picks. I have 9 picks left, and so far have pretty much everything from IK that interests me and is part of the Group Buy:

• Amplitube 5 and all the extras
• ToneX and all the extras
• MODO Bass and all extras
• MODO Drum and all extras
• Pianoverse and all extras
• T-Racks 6 and all modules except EQ-PG, Lurssen Mastering EQ, Tascam 388, Tascam Porta One, TEAC A-33405, TEAC A-6100 Mk II
• Lots of Sampletank stuff, but not everything

So basically all that is left from me to choose from are the 6 aforementioned T-Racks modules, ARC X (I already have ARC System 2) and a bunch of Sampletank libraries.

The T-Racks modules don't particularly excite me - I have enough EQs already, and I don't really feel the urge to recreate the sound of a bedroom studio from decades ago (and if I did, I have my old physical 4-track I could dig out). But maybe some of them are amazing and I'm just being too dismissive.

The Sampletank libraries I don't have are:

• Salsa Percussion Loops
• The Code Volume 1:Urban DNA Kits
• The Code Volume 2: Urban R&B Edition
• Hitmaker: Trap
• Hitmaker: Reggaeton
• LA Confidential
• Billy Cobham Drums
• High Padgham Drums
• Neil Peart Drums
• London Grooves
• Chillout
• Deep House
• Drum'n'Bass
• Hardcore
• Indie Dance
• Minimal
• Techno
• Trance
• Nanotube
• NRG
• Power Up
• Grid

A whole load of these seem to be construction kits and loops, which I really have zero interest in. Are there any gems in there that you would recommend?


In case it's relevant: I play a bunch of instruments and have a whole load of guitars, basess, keyboards, synths, an e-drum kit, hand drums yadda yadda in my studio. I am perfectly capable of writing my own melodies, chord progressions, drum patterns etc. I have pretty wide musical interests and am not fixated on any particular genre. So the thing putting me off the Sampletank libraries is their construction kit like nature (at least based on the product description), not the genres themselves.

Thanks for any suggestions as to what might still be of interest to me!

[Scotty]

I would fill out the rest of the T-Racks stuff. The ones you don't have are good , the tapes in particular are better than the Universal Audio offering, and I own everything that they sell too. And the Lurssen Mastering EQ rings my bell. You said you have all the Amplitube 5 stuff, but I don't know if that includes all the add-ons that you may have had from an earlier version. If not, I have a few suggestions there.

[heyheycnv]

Haven't even used up all my promotions and I see I'll need to download 197 gigs with what I've picked so far. Ain't gonna happen.

[sjm]

I would fill out the rest of the T-Racks stuff. The ones you don't have are good , the tapes in particular are better than the Universal Audio offering, and I own everything that they sell too.

I was thinking that I'd probably end up just finishing off the T-Racks collection and then get 3 random Sampletank libraries. But I am wondering if there are any gems in Sampletank that I have overlooked, or things that aren't as construction kit oriented as the product page makes them sound.

You said you have all the Amplitube 5 stuff, but I don't know if that includes all the add-ons that you may have had from an earlier version. If not, I have a few suggestions there.

There's a few things I don't have, but they are not available as picks in the group buy.

[Cuauhtli]

I got everything else before Sampletank.Even the Hammond (I despise organs).

FWIW, the Sample Tank Trance, Techno, etc. stuff includes midi loops I think. Maybe you can use those to spark a creative idea? If it was me I'd get the T-Racks stuff.

Or just assign a number to each possible selection and use a random number generator/dice/whatever to decide what to get. There's no wrong answer.

[Choikdoi]

I think the SampleTank libraries are really weak - both in terms of quality and quantity of content in them. I picked up quite a few and realised after that anything else would have been better.

[BackInCheck]

I would get the Lurssen Mastering EQ and the TEAC tape machine emulations. I'm assuming you already got all the top-tier TRacks plugins like Bass One, Quad Saturator and Joe Chiccarelli Vocal Strip, as well as the Fender (vol 1 +2), Leslie, Fulltone and Brian May collections for Amplitube?

With the slots left I got some of the higher quality Sampletank drum libraries:

LA Confidential, Billy Cobham Drums, High Padgham Drums, Terry Bozzio and Neil Peart Drum

Might be useful if you need quick access to a bunch of basic drums grooves. Sampletank is probably not going to become my go-to plugin for acoustic drums, but I hope it can be used as a sort of "drum groove rompler" for quick inspiration.

I also got a few additional Samplitube libraries, including some of the pre-Pianoverse extensively sampled pianos, such as Brandenburg Piano and Art Deco Piano, as well as American Acoustic guitar.

[sjm]

FWIW, the Sample Tank Trance, Techno, etc. stuff includes midi loops I think. Maybe you can use those to spark a creative idea? If it was me I'd get the T-Racks stuff.

Tbh, the MIDI stuff leaves me cold - that stuff falls under construction kits for me. I personally don't really see the point 95% of the time. For arp patterns and virtual drums (BFD/SD et al) I can just about see the point. But I don't need some cookie cutter melodies and bass lines or whatever when I'm prefectly capable of writing my own (IMO far more interesting ) parts.

I would get the Lurssen Mastering EQ and the TEAC tape machine emulations. I'm assuming you already got all the top-tier TRacks plugins like Bass One, Quad Saturator and Joe Chiccarelli Vocal Strip, as well as the Fender (vol 1 +2), Leslie, Fulltone and Brian May collections for Amplitube?

With the slots left I got some of the higher quality Sampletank drum libraries:

LA Confidential, Billy Cobham Drums, High Padgham Drums, Terry Bozzio and Neil Peart Drum

I also got a few additional Samplitube libraries, including some of the pre-Pianoverse extensively sampled pianos, such as Brandenburg Piano and Art Deco Piano, as well as American Acoustic guitar.

Yeah, I have all the T-Racks stuff apart from the listed modules, and I have all the Amplitube stuff that is available in the Group Buy. The more interesting Sampletank libraries you mention I also picked up as my final picks in the last Group Buy. I did think that the drums might be the most interesting picks of the libraries I don't have.

General sense I'm getting is that my gut feelings generally chime with other people's opinions: the remaining T-Racks stuff is more interesting than the remaining Sampletank libraries, even if I already have 100 EQs and 30 tape emulations.

Thanks to everyone who has replied so far!

[jum]

I feel like everything is over for me. ik did a successful marketing campaign, bpb ignited everyone's enthusiasm, and people who don't understand anything at all rushed to pay. The lagging website with constant registration failures - I, who don't understand, got burned big time. I missed Tracks 6 Pro, missed Tonex, and ended up with a bunch of scattered plugins. I accept that. Am I supposed to pay for Total Studio 5 Max now? Thank you ik, this was really unpleasant.

[jum]

Let me share my experience with everyone. I'm a complete beginner when it comes to music plugins. Suddenly I saw everyone talking about participating in the ik group buy, saying how worth it it was for just over $29. But I had absolutely no understanding of the product structure. I didn't know I had to assemble Max myself - I had to search for each component one by one. I didn't even know about KVR. Now the situation is that I have dozens of track plugins but not Track 6 Pro, I have the Tonex Signature Edition but not the main Tonex software. Am I just too stupid? Is there nothing wrong with ik's website being so laggy that it took me hours to register and download, with inexplicable availability issues where spots would appear and disappear without warning?

[sjm]

That seems incredibly unfair to IK. To paraphrase: you paid $29 to get into the group buy at the $99 tier; then you got 50 free plugins; and because you didn't have the patience to do a little research and let the servers calm down, IK somehow stiffed you?

Did I get that right?

I think the lesson to be learnt here is a different one. Patience is a virtue. Yes, IK do make their product structures impenetrable and confusing for no good reason - but there are a lot of resources out on the internet that try to make sense of it all.

Take a deep breath, and realise that for $29 you got an amazing deal even if you feel you could have done better if you had been just a little more prudent. That's a good lesson to learn.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_ ... experiment

[Scotty]

The deal is the deal regardless if he got in at $149.99 or the obscenely low $29.99 price.

IK messed up and then their servers couldn't handle the predictable server overload. The drop down menus provided no consistent context on which to choose the product. Some previous purchases were automatically picked up so you couldn't make a selection and others were available therefore allowing you to blow a choice.

I would say the OP passed the marshmallow test. He got in at $29.99 . He definitely understood the concept of delayed reward. He waited and saw a good deal. Then he was confronted with what to him was an inscrutable web interface which is understandable given the product overlaps between various versions.

IK changed the way you selected the choices part way through just as they did their terms during the group buy (repeatedly and often) . As I see it, IK blew the marshmallow test. They wanted all comers and they wanted them now. They didn't have the infrastructure in place to manage the demand and ultimately didn't care if someone was pissed if it cost them $149.99 or $29.99 to gain the same benefits.

Your assigning blame and judgement to the wrong entity here. This groupbuy was mismanaged and for any newcomer to the IK universe was extremely confusing. I know because I helped 4 friends who are audio professionals take advantage of the deal. Confusion reigned supreme. I also posted hopefully helpful tips to people in the Ik thread here who were similarly confused.

I personally made off like a bandit but the ops frustration is completely justified as I see it. It matters not if he paid $29.99 or $149.99. That is how I saw it and how I experienced it. YMMV.

That seems incredibly unfair to IK. To paraphrase: you paid $29 to get into the group buy at the $99 tier; then you got 50 free plugins; and because you didn't have the patience to do a little research and let the servers calm down, IK somehow stiffed you?

Did I get that right?

I think the lesson to be learnt here is a different one. Patience is a virtue. Yes, IK do make their product structures impenetrable and confusing for no good reason - but there are a lot of resources out on the internet that try to make sense of it all.

Take a deep breath, and realise that for $29 you got an amazing deal even if you feel you could have done better if you had been just a little more prudent. That's a good lesson to learn.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_ ... experiment

[sjm]

IK messed up and then their servers couldn't handle the predictable server overload.

They also messed up in that the previous poster's qualifying product was actually explicitly excluded from the Group Buy. And they still got the benefits. So swings and roundabouts.


I'm not saying the GB was perfect; I'm saying that complaining about getting 50 plugins for just over 50 cents a pop by exploiting a loophole by buying a deeply discounted product that didn't actually qualify seems a little harsh.

Side note: If you'd have waited a little for the dust to settle, the whole process of choosing your freebies reverted back to the original method a while back. That's what you got for passing the marshmallow test. It still lets you choose things that you already own as part of a bundle, but given that the OP is complaining that they failed to pick up said bundles, that hardly was an issue.