Bargain Center: discussion, gossip, etc.

[dangayle]

Sounds From Mars is selling their entire catalog for $39 right now:

https://samplesfrommars.com/products/al ... -from-mars

Over $1000 worth of libraries for $40. Ridiculous deal - they make some awesome stuff, especially vintage synth / drum libraries.

The bargain hunter in me screams buy this now!!!!! The owner of way too much stuff that I don't use says "no more stuff you don't need" Bargain hunter is starting to win the fight.

Yeah. I turned it down and I sticking to that. The problem is that samples don't get used near as much as you think that they will, especially drum and synth samples. I've already downloaded multiple gigabytes of samples that were free almost free from multiple vendors this season, none of which I've yet to use.

Multiple gigs of bad free samples is not even remotely the same as high quality samples tracked through high quality studio gear and painstakingly assembled into a full package of professional sampler patches. These are not free samples, these are samples that legitimately cost $$$ and are being released on sale because the guy felt generous, but they’re each a lot of work to assemble.

I guess it depends on your style of music whether you’ll find this useful, but regardless of any of that I think this is the single best Black Friday of the year.

[JoeArambulo]

Do you want another example to show why Uncle E is one of the best, if not the best online retailer?

During the Black Friday period, I ordered some stuff from his shop, and my order qualified to get the free Galaxy X-FX. But for a reason unknown, I couldn’t added it for free in my cart. So, I wrote to him about it.

Not only did he gave me Galaxy X-FX, but he also added Roomer for free. That’s customer service above and beyond.

Thanks Eric!!

Me too!

Eric fixed a bunch of stuff for me as well - It is always a pleasure to do business with JRR Shop!

He helped me too! Good prices. Good service.

[ghettosynth]

Sounds From Mars is selling their entire catalog for $39 right now:

https://samplesfrommars.com/products/al ... -from-mars

Over $1000 worth of libraries for $40. Ridiculous deal - they make some awesome stuff, especially vintage synth / drum libraries.

The bargain hunter in me screams buy this now!!!!! The owner of way too much stuff that I don't use says "no more stuff you don't need" Bargain hunter is starting to win the fight.

Yeah. I turned it down and I sticking to that. The problem is that samples don't get used near as much as you think that they will, especially drum and synth samples. I've already downloaded multiple gigabytes of samples that were free almost free from multiple vendors this season, none of which I've yet to use.

Multiple gigs of bad free samples is not even remotely the same as high quality samples tracked through high quality studio gear and painstakingly assembled into a full package of professional sampler patches. These are not free samples, these are samples that legitimately cost $$$ and are being released on sale because the guy felt generous, but they’re each a lot of work to assemble.

I guess it depends on your style of music whether you’ll find this useful, but regardless of any of that I think this is the single best Black Friday of the year.

I'm not talking about "bad samples." This time of year there are plenty of free or almost free HIGH QUALITY samples and I already have gigabytes of samples that I haven't had a chance to use yet as well as terabytes of samples that I've had for years. So please don't presume that you know what kind of samples that I'm talking about. But, let's be clear, this is a matter of taste. I don't really care how you sample an 808 or a 909, I have great samples of those coming out of my ears. There's just only so much you can do to sample instruments like that and that's not what I'm looking for and that's what I meant. With synth samples, I don't use them at all unless there's something interesting going on and I don't mean that you've run them through some other "high quality studio gear."

Like I said, I passed, and I passed because I think that it's the kind of thing that is likely not to get much use. That's specifically because it is samples of things that are common, i.e. old drum machines and synths. and also fairly easily and frequently emulated. As far as I can tell, they're also not really sampled in what I would call interesting ways. I'm sharing that perspective to provide a contrary voice to what will be the undoubted gushing over this.

Specifically, their entire catalog sounds very pedestrian to me. The things that are "strange", aren't, for my tastes. Moreover, I'm not hearing anything in their DX samples, their Linn samples, the x0x, that's so much better than what I already have from, literally DOZENS, of other providers who have been sampling those boxes for decades.

I tried to find interesting things but the only sample packs that ended up being a little interesting to me, were the 606, which was free, thanks, and the Voyetra, which wasn't worth $40.

YMMV

[mgw38]

The timing of the Fabfilter Pro-L2 introduction is slightly strange. Fabfilter is expected to have a holiday sale that can be combined with in-account upgrades later this month (they hinted on this in a comment on their Facebook page). Last year they started their holiday sale Dec 12. Might be worthwhile to wait with the Pro-L to Pro-L2 upgrade for a week or so.

[Armadillo]

The timing of the Fabfilter Pro-L2 introduction is slightly strange. Fabfilter is expected to have a holiday sale that can be combined with in-account upgrades later this month (they hinted on this in a comment on their Facebook page). Last year they started their holiday sale Dec 12. Might be worthwhile to wait with the Pro-L to Pro-L2 upgrade for a week or so.

They just had a Black Friday sale. Do they really have another sale just weeks after?
I only ever remember them having 25% off anyway, and in case of upgrades I've noticed I only get around 5% extra off during a sale, so it's hardly worth waiting for a sale.

[mgw38]

The timing of the Fabfilter Pro-L2 introduction is slightly strange. Fabfilter is expected to have a holiday sale that can be combined with in-account upgrades later this month (they hinted on this in a comment on their Facebook page). Last year they started their holiday sale Dec 12. Might be worthwhile to wait with the Pro-L to Pro-L2 upgrade for a week or so.

They just had a Black Friday sale. Do they really have another sale just weeks after?
I only ever remember them having 25% off anyway, and in case of upgrades I've noticed I only get around 5% extra off during a sale, so it's hardly worth waiting for a sale.

People complained that the BF sale did not really do anything for those who already have a few Fabfilter plugins since it would not combine with the in-account discounts. This is when somebody from Fabfilter hinted on a holiday sale. It also follows their pattern from previous years.

[Armadillo]

The timing of the Fabfilter Pro-L2 introduction is slightly strange. Fabfilter is expected to have a holiday sale that can be combined with in-account upgrades later this month (they hinted on this in a comment on their Facebook page). Last year they started their holiday sale Dec 12. Might be worthwhile to wait with the Pro-L to Pro-L2 upgrade for a week or so.

They just had a Black Friday sale. Do they really have another sale just weeks after?
I only ever remember them having 25% off anyway, and in case of upgrades I've noticed I only get around 5% extra off during a sale, so it's hardly worth waiting for a sale.

People complained that the BF sale did not really do anything for those who already have a few Fabfilter plugins since it would not combine with the in-account discounts. This is when somebody from Fabfilter hinted on a holiday sale. It also follows their pattern from previous years.

Ah...that's cool. Yeah, I've always thought that those who already own their plugins saw no benefit from their sales, so nice to see we actually get a discount this time

[telecharge]

So please don't presume that you know what kind of samples that I'm talking about.

The lady doth protest too much, methinks.

You sure have spilled a lot of ink here to be dismissive of what is widely regarded as a killer deal. Moreover, you haven't provided a single specific example of better quality or value.

[Rational]

I couldn't pass up that Mars sale. That's my kind of value shopping right there. But I totally get ghetto's point about not using many of the drum samples I buy. I'm the same. But I also know quality and buy it when the margin is so favorable in just such a case as this. I know I'd kick myself a year or two down the road if I hadn't bought it.

[ghettosynth]

So please don't presume that you know what kind of samples that I'm talking about.

The lady doth protest too much, methinks.

Huh? That doesn't even make any sense in this context. In fact, I think that those of you who are gushing are the ones protesting too much. I'm just providing my opinion, why does that bother you so much?

You sure have spilled a lot of ink here to be dismissive of what is widely regarded as a killer deal. Moreover, you haven't provided a single specific example of better quality or value.

That's what we do here, chat. If you think that it's a killer deal, knock yourself out. But you can't go slagging samples from other vendors when you have no f**king clue what other vendors I'm talking about. Sorry, it's just wishful thinking to believe that these samples are so much more awesome than everything else. Case in point, one of the free black friday sample packs included, wait for it, Samples from Mars samples. So, now they're special and all other vendors in that pack are "bad samples?" Not likely. More likely is that everyone tries to do a good job and many vendors have access to "premium studio equipment" to run their samples through. Not that I think that it matters as much as people seem to want it to matter. Fantastic records with x0x drums have been made for decades with fairly unimpressive studio gear. Like somehow it's difficult to sample a drum machine?

I compared the 606 samples with the 606 samples from several widely distributed free sample packs and also the one that autodafe created (also free) kontakt patches for. Yeah, I'm not hearing any magic that is making me want to pay for vintage drum samples. How many 606 samples do I need now? And also, please, tell me again exactly why these particular samples are so special?

https://www.autodafe.net/free-stuff/meg ... ntakt.html

I also have Arturia's Spark VDM, also yawn worthy. The problem, for me, is that Samples from Mars sample sources have been done to death. The simple samples are fine for what they are, but there's only so much that you can do with a 606 or 707 kick. I don't need to pay for the nth variant of those. Hell, I'm bored enough just with the excessive number of x0x kits that come with Ableton.

So yeah, I'm not impressed by the deal, I wouldn't pay that much, i.e. the sale price, for those samples under normal circumstances and because they put a $1000 price tag on the collection is of no moment to me. I think that this is good to recognize, the sticker price on these products means nothing, e.g. Waves, you have to decide what something is worth to you. I don't feel like this is $1000 of samples for $40, it seems more like $40 worth of samples for $40.

Again, YMMV.

[soundbylaura]

It's possible for the Samples from Mars sale to be a great bargain and to be useless at the same time.

Is it a fantastic bargain? Yes.

Is it something I'd ever use? No.

Just because it's a bargain doesn't mean it's right for everyone.

Just because it's not right for everyone doesn't mean it's not a bargain.

Both of these things are true.

[telecharge]

Again, YMMV.

1.) I've neither gushed nor slagged any vendor.

2.) I still "have no f**king clue what other vendors" you're talking about.

3.) Where is the better deal to be had?

[telecharge]

It's possible for the Samples from Mars sale to be a great bargain and to be useless at the same time.

Is it a fantastic bargain? Yes.

Is it something I'd ever use? No.

Just because it's a bargain doesn't mean it's right for everyone.

Just because it's not right for everyone doesn't mean it's not a bargain.

Both of these things are true.

Fair enough, but you could say that of any deal. I don't need large cinematic string libraries, and they hold no value to me, but I don't take the time to sh*t on them when someone posts a deal for one.

[ghettosynth]

It's possible for the Samples from Mars sale to be a great bargain and to be useless at the same time.

Is it a fantastic bargain? Yes.

Is it something I'd ever use? No.

Just because it's a bargain doesn't mean it's right for everyone.

Just because it's not right for everyone doesn't mean it's not a bargain.

Both of these things are true.

Sure but, specifically, I'm disagreeing with you. I don't think that it's a fantastic bargain. It's certainly a large discount off of the retail price, that doesn't make it a bargain. So we can agree to disagree that it's a bargain. If someone offers you a bottle of water for a dollar and the vendor next door offers you the same bottle of water for 90% discount off of the suggested retail price of $10, it's not a bargain.

I'm not trying to criticize Samples from Mars either. It's just that I think that x0x samples are as common as dirt and so are worth about as much.

[soundbylaura]

It's possible for the Samples from Mars sale to be a great bargain and to be useless at the same time.

Is it a fantastic bargain? Yes.

Is it something I'd ever use? No.

Just because it's a bargain doesn't mean it's right for everyone.

Just because it's not right for everyone doesn't mean it's not a bargain.

Both of these things are true.

Sure but, specifically, I'm disagreeing with you. I don't think that it's a fantastic bargain. It's certainly a large discount off of the retail price, that doesn't make it a bargain. So we can agree to disagree that it's a bargain. If someone offers you a bottle of water for a dollar and the vendor next door offers you the same bottle of water for 90% discount off of the suggested retail price of $10, it's not a bargain.

I'm not trying to criticize Samples from Mars either. It's just that I think that x0x samples are as common as dirt and so are worth about as much.

I also do not consider it a bargain because if I bought it even for $39 I'd be wasting my money. But I understand other people consider it a bargain.

Done with this.