So what are you planning to blow your money on on Black Friday?

[James Steele]

Hmmmm... so what are you guys/gals looking to blow your money on in terms of plugins or music gear this Black Friday? I have a few friends who have been saving up. So far Arturia got me with their V Collection 9 sale. It was $149 which was a total no brainer for all those VIs. That, and KORG got me with the Korg Collection 4 for $199.

Help me. I have a problem. I have more VIs than I will ever possibly use. Wanna hear the best part: my best instrument is guitar. I suck at keyboards... I can play pads and some chords. Sigh...

[HCMarkus]

I just picked up Lounge Lizard EP. On sale now.

I plan to purchase Spitfire Chamber Strings Essentials and Sonarworks Sound ID Reference while those products are on sale, starting 11/23 IIRC.

[James Steele]

Nice. I just dropped $129 on TC Electronic VSS4. I'm a reverb hoarder. It's bad.

[James Steele]

...and Sonarworks Sound ID Reference while those products are on sale, starting 11/23 IIRC.

Hmmmm... interesting. I'm looking at some point to upgrade my ancient Event ASP8 nearfield monitors. I'd love to get some of the midrange ADAMs. I think they use Sonarworks? I think they have their own built in room correction that is stored inside the monitor which would be great as I dislike having to remember to disable/enable IK Multimedia's ARC3 plugin. Seems like having the room profile stored *in the monitor* is much more elegant.

[HCMarkus]

...and Sonarworks Sound ID Reference while those products are on sale, starting 11/23 IIRC.

Hmmmm... interesting. I'm looking at some point to upgrade my ancient Event ASP8 nearfield monitors. I'd love to get some of the midrange ADAMs. I think they use Sonarworks? I think they have their own built in room correction that is stored inside the monitor which would be great as I dislike having to remember to disable/enable IK Multimedia's ARC3 plugin. Seems like having the room profile stored *in the monitor* is much more elegant.

Sonarworks allows you to place the correction on the system output, not only as a plugin in the DAW.

I have set up DP so audio going to Record Bus also goes to Monitor Aux Track; I apply the plugin on the Monitor Track, so it is heard, but not recorded. No need to bypass.

I like Sonarworks better than ARC (at least the version I used) in that it allows a lot more control; you can limit the frequency range of correction and balance corrected audio/bypass audio 0 to 100%. AS-Native. Free trial; the sale starts tomorrow afternoon.

[James Steele]

...and Sonarworks Sound ID Reference while those products are on sale, starting 11/23 IIRC.

Hmmmm... interesting. I'm looking at some point to upgrade my ancient Event ASP8 nearfield monitors. I'd love to get some of the midrange ADAMs. I think they use Sonarworks? I think they have their own built in room correction that is stored inside the monitor which would be great as I dislike having to remember to disable/enable IK Multimedia's ARC3 plugin. Seems like having the room profile stored *in the monitor* is much more elegant.

Sonarworks allows you to place the correction on the system output, not only as a plugin in the DAW.

I have set up DP so audio going to Record Bus also goes to Monitor Aux Track; I apply the plugin on the Monitor Track, so it is heard, but not recorded. No need to bypass.

I like Sonarworks better than ARC (at least the version I used) in that it allows a lot more control; you can limit the frequency range of correction and balance corrected audio/bypass audio 0 to 100%. AS-Native. Free trial; the sale starts tomorrow afternoon.

Yeah... you can also put ARC on the system output by using utilities like:
• Rogue Amoeba SoundSource
• Sonnox ListenHub

I tried both and actually bought ListenHub. I can't remember why, but I stopped using it. I should set it up the way you're doing it. I hate to ask, but maybe you could make a screen shot that part of your Mixing Board? Not clear on just how you set that up. I think ARC3 may have added some of the features you're talking about. That said, I'm very hot and bothered about getting some ADAMs at some point.

[Rick Cornish]

Maybe just a little off-topic, but I spotted this deal on Target and went for it:

https://www.target.com/p/sandisk-extrem ... A-82667995

[James Steele]

Well, I made my first major blunder due to Black Friday plugin lust. I bought Toontrack EZ Mix 2 for $30. Ugh... it's incredibly dumbed down and I understand their target audience, but some of these presets have effects and there's only very minimal ways to adjust them that I can see: simply the level of the effect. GUI isn't resizable either, which shows how old this plug is I guess. Dumb impulse buy. Oh well...

[HCMarkus]

maybe you could make a screen shot that part of your Mixing Board?

Essential Elements:

DP Input Monitoring OFF.

Track Outputs > Group Buses > Master Bus > Record Bus > Both: Mix Track and Monitor Aux Track.

Both Mix and Monitor Tracks > DAW Stereo Out > Speakers.

Put your Room tuning Software on Monitor and Mix Tracks.

[mikehalloran]

Having just dropped a chunk of change on my M2 Studio rig, i’m not planning on anything at the moment but my arm can be twisted.

My 2017 2nd gen iPad Pro is really showing its age. I’m tempted.

IKM has Total Studio Max 4 at a good price—but I bought it at the same price on a different promo a couple months ago, Now that I’ve helped them straighten out installation on the Mac (not perfect yet but I’ve found acceptable workarounds for the 6 libraries that still have installation issues), it’s a pretty good deal, especially for someone who does not have a ton of VIs and wants to take a plunge without going broke in the process. BTW, as of last week, that annoying $25 download fee after 180 days nonsense is now gone for good.
https://www.ikmultimedia.com/news/?item_id=15333

[James Steele]

maybe you could make a screen shot that part of your Mixing Board?

Essential Elements:

DP Input Monitoring OFF.

Track Outputs > Group Buses > Master Bus > Record Bus > Both: Mix Track and Monitor Aux Track.

Both Mix and Monitor Tracks > DAW Stereo Out > Speakers.

Put your Room tuning Software on Monitor and Mix Tracks.

Clear as mud. I'm obviously old, tired, or both. Does some of this depend on your doing realtime bounces as I know you often prefer? I will play with it when I have time. I'm wondering if I could have stereo track that the main buss is directed to in order to do a bounce and then make an aux track that would have the room correction plug on it, and then use a send of the record track to go to the aux with the room correction plug on it. Oh well... like I said... I'm tired and can't think about it now. I'll punt and by the ADAMs and be done with it. LOL

[HCMarkus]

I just picked up Lounge Lizard EP. On sale now.

I plan to purchase Spitfire Chamber Strings Essentials and Sonarworks Sound ID Reference while those products are on sale, starting 11/23 IIRC.

Missions Accomplished. Such good deals I couldn't afford NOT to buy them.
At least that's what I tell myself.

[Jim]

I succumbed to this deal. No previous UA purchase was required, contrary to the ad wording. I got it for the synth. The effects are bonuses to me:

https://www.pluginboutique.com/product/ ... io-Product

[Jim]

I just picked up Lounge Lizard EP. On sale now.

I love the AAS stuff. I've noticed more sales from them than usual. Must be due to increased competition in the VI market. I'm having fun with their unique Chromaphone. Their Ultra Analog synth is mighty powerful, but with a pretty ugly interface that's not very intuitive.

I suggest you skip their "bonus packs" for the LL. It's extremely easy and intuitive to program for making and modifying presets.

I also prefer Strum to the sample based guitar VIs I have.

[James Steele]

I succumbed to this deal. No previous UA purchase was required, contrary to the ad wording.

Well, actually that's more like what is referred to as a "glitch" at places like Gearspace. It's the ideal type of sale. The ad wording is there for a reason, but people have discovered that you can buy the upgrades and often a developer has no mechanism to verify eligibility and it slips through the cracks which is what that is. Sweetwater had a glitch too and actually some purchases that weren't eligible received emails that there was an issue and it was being reviewed and in some cases, they're money was refunded.

The bottom line there is you take your chances. There's no risk... if you get rejected you feign ignorance/confusion and get your money back.