Bargain Center: discussion, gossip, etc.

[ghettosynth]

Both Plugin Botique and JRRShop have the Air Music Tech AIR Instrument Expansion Pack 3 Complete Upgrade at a really low price. I have an Xpand!2 serial from beat magazine.

Is there anything in the Air instruments Expansion that is really excelent?

Compared to what? I think that all of the Air stuff is kind of tier two. There is no way, for example, that Vacuum will compete with something like Diva in terms of pure emulation quality. However, you aren't paying Diva prices for it either. I think that the Air Expansion pack is the no-brainer for 2016. I like Vacuum, it has some unique features and it's fun to work with. It's also a bit annoying, but hey. Riser is useful and somewhat unique. Loom is also different. I like Strike way more than I thought that I would for making hybrid acoustic/electronic sets. If you do EDM like stuff, then Hybrid is really cool, for me it's just kind of cool but it also has some unique features. I like Transfuser a lot, but it is a bit weird. Then finally, the organ is passable as is the piano. The sampler doesn't blow me away, but I like some aspects of it and it is faster than Kontakt for whipping up a quick sample based instrument.

Some of the effects are cool, the pumper for example. Truth be told, I like the instruments a bit more than I like most of the Arturia stuff and they were a lot less expensive.

[robotmonkey]

Both Plugin Botique and JRRShop have the Air Music Tech AIR Instrument Expansion Pack 3 Complete Upgrade at a really low price. I have an Xpand!2 serial from beat magazine.

Is there anything in the Air instruments Expansion that is really excelent?

There's nothing really spectacular there. But for the price there's some very nice plugins. I do not have the full bundle but between me and my brother we have the best parts of it. Xpand2 was surprisingly more useful than I thought. Plenty of good rompler sounds there. Hybrid3 is nothing special as a synth but it does sound good, is easy to program, and has loads of useful presets. Strike2 is ok too I guess. Probably not the best drum synth out there, but competent enough to fill the gap I had in my setup. The biggest positive surprise I had with the Creative FX Collection +. Good sounding fx overall and some of them are even unique enough that they could add something new.

The rest of the collection I do not care about.

[BingBang]

Compared to what? I think that all of the Air stuff is kind of tier two. There is no way, for example, that Vacuum will compete with something like Diva in terms of pure emulation quality. However, you aren't paying Diva prices for it either. I think that the Air Expansion pack is the no-brainer for 2016. I like Vacuum, it has some unique features and it's fun to work with. It's also a bit annoying, but hey. Riser is useful and somewhat unique. Loom is also different. I like Strike way more than I thought that I would for making hybrid acoustic/electronic sets. If you do EDM like stuff, then Hybrid is really cool, for me it's just kind of cool but it also has some unique features. I like Transfuser a lot, but it is a bit weird. Then finally, the organ is passable as is the piano. The sampler doesn't blow me away, but I like some aspects of it and it is faster than Kontakt for whipping up a quick sample based instrument.

Some of the effects are cool, the pumper for example. Truth be told, I like the instruments a bit more than I like most of the Arturia stuff and they were a lot less expensive.

Cool, thanks. That is what I was wondering. I am interested mostly in EDM, so I have to think about this. Its a really hard time of the year. Usually I wind up buying too many things that I don't use during black friday.

[counterparty]

That Loops De La Creme offer is pretty neat. If you buy 'Clap Pack' and 'Cymbal Rolls' at the same time it comes to 81 EUR, just enough to get the 50 EUR discount, so you can get them both for 31 euros (+VAT if you're in the EU). They look like useful libraries.

[soundbylaura]

That Loops De La Creme offer is pretty neat. If you buy 'Clap Pack' and 'Cymbal Rolls' at the same time it comes to 81 EUR, just enough to get the 50 EUR discount, so you can get them both for 31 euros (+VAT if you're in the EU). They look like useful libraries.

I find Cymbal Rolls to be invaluable. Also have Chimes Deluxe, which is great too.

[greenfly]

Still lost in this plugin / sample-pack sea. Any Black-Friday recommendations for beginner who tries to get better 24/7 at producing. I have Ableton Suite, Omnisphere 2 and Kick 2. I dont have any reverbs / eq's /compressors other than from ableton. Also no sample packs.

Was hoping to find good quality sample packs for fx / vocals /fills. also kicks / claps / snares. About mixing plugins i have no idea which ones are good. People have been recommending me waves gold bundle but i see many are hyped by eventide deals or soundtools deals.

Also would like to have a plugin for vocal editing like little alterboy but is it really that good or should i go for something like melodyne? Please help a plugin newbie in need . Thanks!

Don't go for Waves gold, it's a bundled set of really old plugins with crappy interfaces. My opinion only.

The eq's and glue compressor in Ableton built into Ableton are as good as, if not better than anything else you could buy third party.

If you want to spend money though, get Soundtoys especially Echoboy and Decapitator. They beat what you have in Ableton as stock in my opinion.

For samples, personally I don't place a value on these things. There a plenty of places on the net where you can get samples for free, especially from classic drum machines. Make your own sample collection, it really will make your music sound unique and original.

[robotmonkey]

Don't go for Waves gold, it's a bundled set of really old plugins with crappy interfaces. My opinion only.

I'd disagree. Waves Gold is an excellent bundle. You will get a good overall set of fx and mixing plugins that are very different from Live's built in effects.

Gold is probably the plugin bundle when it comes to what you get fo your money. And all the plugins there are high quality. True, some of them are old. But some are new too. And some are still unique and without good alternatives.

[brownerthanu]

Don't go for Waves gold, it's a bundled set of really old plugins with crappy interfaces. My opinion only.

I'd disagree. Waves Gold is an excellent bundle. You will get a good overall set of fx and mixing plugins that are very different from Live's built in effects.

Gold is probably the plugin bundle when it comes to what you get fo your money. And all the plugins there are high quality. True, some of them are old. But some are new too. And some are still unique and without good alternatives.

I agree. Gold is super useful. I used to have it and miss it.

[Kalamata Kid]

I have not followed the Avenger discussion much.
So then Avenger is the Absynth and Falcon killer?

I'd rather say Avenger is the Sylenth1 + Massive + Nexus killer. Rather looks like a all-in-one solution with a good factory preset bank, and loads of addon sound packs to come. The approach is surely great, and, if i had to do a verdict, i'd say it will become the most used synth in EDM production. Of course, it'll be good for other musical genres too, but it'll surely be tailored, sound wise, for use in dance music genres.

Avenger looks fantastic but I really wanted to know what of mine might it replace. chk071 you answered my question and I appreciate it. I may still get even though I do ambient but now I will wait for the reviews.

[BBFG#]

I have not followed the Avenger discussion much.
So then Avenger is the Absynth and Falcon killer?

I'd rather say Avenger is the Sylenth1 + Massive + Nexus killer. Rather looks like a all-in-one solution with a good factory preset bank, and loads of addon sound packs to come. The approach is surely great, and, if i had to do a verdict, i'd say it will become the most used synth in EDM production. Of course, it'll be good for other musical genres too, but it'll surely be tailored, sound wise, for use in dance music genres.

Avenger looks fantastic but I really wanted to know what of mine might it replace. chk071 you answered my question and I appreciate it. I may still get even though I do ambient but now I will wait for the reviews.

Thanks from me too chk071. "Killing three synths" that are effectively dead to me already is enough to leave it alone. But I'll keep an open mind when the reviews start up.

Note: I'm not saying any of those other three are bad, just that they personally do nothing to inspire me. As always and to all, YMMV.

[pheeleep]

Anyone know the absolute cheapest way to get the Waves dbx at the moment? Cheapest I have found so far is a little over $31. I just want to make sure that I can't get it for even cheaper before biting the bullet.

[nickamandote]

Anyone know the absolute cheapest way to get the Waves dbx at the moment? Cheapest I have found so far is a little over $31. I just want to make sure that I can't get it for even cheaper before biting the bullet.

Sounds like a great price. Great compressor, makes magic on drums.

[VitaminD]

UVI Synth Legacy is on sale at MusiciansFriend for $29.99 today. Regular $50. Savings of $20.01

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/stupid

23 hours 40 minutes left as of this posting. FYI

Thank you for the information! Been meaning to get that..

Order arrived in the mail today. Upon registering the 'Synth Legacy' key, I ended up with 'Energy' instead. doh. Contacting support to get it corrected.

[Robert Randolph]

Anyone know the absolute cheapest way to get the Waves dbx at the moment? Cheapest I have found so far is a little over $31. I just want to make sure that I can't get it for even cheaper before biting the bullet.

Where did you find that? It seems everyone has it listed back at original price.

[nickamandote]

Anyone know the absolute cheapest way to get the Waves dbx at the moment? Cheapest I have found so far is a little over $31. I just want to make sure that I can't get it for even cheaper before biting the bullet.

Where did you find that? It seems everyone has it listed back at original price.

Still $39 at Waves.