Refresh
There’s really some astounding price-drops this Black Friday, from those individual Swiss-army-knife tools to the music production equivalent of luxury hampers, stuffed with extraordinary gear. Speaking of which, Plugin Boutique have a head-turning, 89%-off deal on Softube’s gargantuan Producer Collection. This exclusive suite is an impressive treasure trove of virtual analog gear, retro guitar tones and amp sims, expansive effects and a whole lot more…
You thought it couldn’t get better than 90% off? How about 100%?
Antelope Audio is providing its top-tier EQ, the MG4+ absolutely free of charge until November 30th. How extraordinarily generous of them, particularly as it typically goes for around £/$100!
Taking its cues from the iconic 500-Series six-band analogue EQ, this is a slick addition to your EQ toolkit. It’s also one which – at absolutely zero outlay – requires no more hard-selling from me.
Just grab it while it’s free (before Sunday November 30th!)
Crikey, I’ve just had a look over to see what Sample Logic is up to, and the company has only knocked off 90% from its fabulous Cinematic Guitars series until December 1st.
Cinematic Guitars Infinity, Cinematic Guitars Motion and Cinematic Guitars Organic Atmospheres typically retail at $599, $349 and $299 respectively, but those asking prices have just plummeted to a measly $60, $35 and $30.
That’s a phenomenal saving, what’s also phenomenal is how these Kontakt instruments sound. Able to conjure animated and realistic guitar textures and atmospheres, they’ve long been trusted go-to’s for elevating a mix, and making things a bit more ‘widescreen’.
They’re getting on a bit now, but they still sound utterly brilliant, and are well worth having in your arsenal. At this price, it’s a no-brainer. The sale ends on Monday, so if get them while they’re hot.
Included in that number is the hugely impressive Remix:Drums – an AI-powered plugin that enables you to isolate specific parts of a pre-recorded drum set and control the levels of its constituent parts, in real-time.
That’s an ability that a scant few years ago would have been regarded as impossible – you’d be laughed out of the room for even suggesting it. But now, thanks to AI (and a pinch of Acon Digital’s considerable know-how) it’s eminently possible to delve into the murkiest of drum samples and fine tune kits you’ve really got no business tinkering with. It’s also cheaper than ever.
You can currently bag Remix:Drums over at Plugin Boutique with a 33% markdown. You don’t really need me to explain how useful a tool like this is going to be
A mammoth bundle of world-class synth emulations, Arturia’s V Collection 11 Pro is currently half-price over at Plugin Boutique. It’ll still cost you considerable outlay ($349) but when you look at the jaw-dropping original RRP ($699!) you’re saving a fair bit – and gaining a veritable army of synths. You get 45 meticulously modelled software synths, covering all analog, digital, sampler, and electro-acoustic bases.
We can’t really recommend this mouth-watering bundle enough, and at this price, the value and quality it’ll imbue into your tracks will more than pay for itself.
You’ll have to move quick though, the offer ends on Sunday!
Spitfire Audio has created some of the most realistic and emotionally-stirring string libraries on the market, and over at its official site, right now, the company is offering between 15-50% off its entire catalogue up until December 2nd. That’s a bountiful stable that includes the mighty BBC Symphony Orchestra, Albion One, the British Composer Toolkit, the recently released BBC Radiophonic Workshop and the Zimmer-overseen Hans Zimmer Strings.
If you subscribe to the company’s newsletter before the 2nd December, you’ll be able to get a further 20% on top of all sale prices via a unique code. So, subscribe here and get shopping!
Evening all, Andy Price here, MusicRadar’s music-making Ed. I’m taking the Black Friday live blog-reins from Si and ready to keep you up-to-date with the most eye-popping and unmissable deals springing up across the web.
Before I start on the ‘big’ stuff, I just wanted to direct you to a couple of specific little software bits that have served me very well in this year’s music-making exploits. Cherry Audio’s Mercury-6 and Ujam’s Virtual Pianist Bundle are both essentials in my personal projects and have significant discounts over at Plugin Boutique (51% and 60% off respectively).
Check out just why you should grab ’em here and here
Back soon…
On the Native Instruments front, it’s worth flagging up Traktor Pro 4 too. The discount here isn’t quite as big as that on the Komplete bundles, but £89/$99 is good price for a fully-featured piece of DJ software.
As I said when I reviewed the latest version of Traktor last year, the most appealing thing about Pro 4 is the fact that – compared to the likes of Rekordbox and Serato that come entangled with subscriptions and add-ons – the whole feature set comes for that one, all-in price.
While that might not sound like the most lavish praise, honestly, Traktor Pro 4 looks stylish, runs well and has all the features that most DJs will need. For at-home use or hobbyist DJs, it’s probably the best value digital DJ package.
Plus, with the launch of the new OneLibrary format, it’s now possible to export tracks from your Traktor library for use with AlphaTheta CDJs, which is a pretty big deal.
Back to it.
As in recent years, Native Instruments is going pretty big on its Black Friday deals.
The biggest discounts to be had on the various Komplete bundles, which have discounts of up-to 50%.
Although NI isn’t at the forefront of synth design as it was back in the days when Massive ruled the roost, in recent years its Komplete bundles have really benefitted from the company’s merger with iZotope.
Komplete Standard, for example, will get you NI’s Kontakt, Massive X and Guitar Rig, but also iZotope Ozone standard VocalSynth 2 – plus a whole load more synths, effects, sampled instruments and expansions. It’s a really nicely rounded package, particularly at this weekend’s prices.
There are two new Aphex Twin tracks up on SoundCloud. Yes, I am aware this has nothing to do with Black Friday plugin deals.
As part of InMusic’s Black Friday deals, the company is offering up a new tape emulation plugin for free – Tape Double Track.
From InMusic: “With Tape Double Track, we wanted to honor one of recording’s most iconic studio innovations and make it accessible to every music maker,” said Neal Gustafson, Software Marketing Manager at AIR Music Tech. “This is not just another doubling plugin — it’s a faithful recreation of the original tape-based technique, enhanced with modern flexibility, and free for a limited time for everyone to use.”
Waves has its traditional Black Friday freebie too… Magma StressBox. This year’s offering is a combined compressor/expander with a simple one-knob design, which aims to add punch, tension and feel to ‘flat’ tracks.
While we’re talking Universal Audio, that’s a neat way to segue onto the topic of Black Friday free plugins.
Even if you’re not in the mood to part with any cash, ‘Cyber Weekend’ always brings a decent crop of free plugins that can often be had in exchange for nothing more than a mailing list signup.
UA has a nice little giveaway of its own…
ValhallaDSP’s Supermassive delay isn’t strictly a Black Friday thing – since it’s been free ever since it launched in 2020 – but it was just updated a few days ago with yet another new algorithm.
Honestly, this is one of my favourite plugins full stop, even ignoring the fact that it’s a freebie. If you don’t already have it on your hard drive, get it now.
I really like the concept of Universal Audio’s ‘Mixtape’ plugin deal. This lets you pick 10 UAD plugins from a fairly extensive list of big-hitters, which includes a lot of classic hardware emulations and a few synths, for a set price of $99.
UAD Mixtape: 10 plugins for $99
What would my list of 10 look like? Good question…
Long story short, I’ve been listening to a lot of dub techno lately.
If you’re a guitarist though, there’s a good range of amp sims on offer too. Alternatively, studio heads could spec up a full list of classic preamps, compressors and EQs.
If you just want maximum discount, load up on the UAD synths such as Opal, Polymax and the Minimoog – some of which are $149 each at full price.
We’ve already flagged it up elsewhere, but it’s worth mentioning this deal on FabFilter Pro-Q 4. It’s quite simply one of the best mixing plugins out there.
The latest version adds spectral dynamics, improved dynamic EQ and a really handy ‘instance list’ feature that makes it easy to adjust multiple tracks from a single interface. Honestly, this is a plugin that genuinely makes it easier to make better-sounding music.
There’s 25% off over this weekend, which is nothing to scoff at.
On a similar front, there’s some solid discounts out there on Bitwig Studio. Again, it’s not that uncommon to see discounts on Bitwig, but this is still a great opportunity to get a truly excellent piece of music making software at a good price.
Bitwig’s modulation system – which lets users add an unlimited amount of LFOs, sequencers, processors and expression tools to any device – is truly innovative, as is its Eurorack-inspired modular synth, The Grid.
It makes a great secondary DAW. I regularly switch between Ableton Live and Bitwig Studio in order to find some fresh inspiration in one when I’ve hit a creative block with the other. It’s particularly great for experimental, ambient and generative music.
The deals below are on the current version – Bitwig Studio 5.3 – but will also get you access to Bitwig Studio 6, which is currently in beta.
Hi all. I’m Si, MusicRadar’s managing editor looking after all things music technology.
I’m kicking off our live coverage of Black Friday plugin and music software deals. I’ll be here for the next few hours to guide you through the best discounts and offers as I find them. (After which one of my illustrious colleagues will take over).
I’ll be totally honest from the off – I’m pretty sceptical about a lot of Black Friday deals, particularly when it comes to software. There’s usually quite a few offers out there jumping on the Cyber Weekend bandwagon that aren’t all that special. Equally though, some brands do go all-in, and if you’ve been waiting to restock your hard drive or you just fancy something cool and new to play with, there are some great offers to be had.
I’ve been reviewing hardware and software around these parts for more than 15 years, so I’m not short on opinions on what is, and isn’t worth your time.
Let’s kick things off with a few big names…
First up, Ableton Live. I’ve been a Live user for more than 20 years and it’s come on in leaps and bounds in that time. Live 12 and its recent ‘point’ releases are some of the best updates the DAW has had in decades. The generative MIDI tools and Roar distortion are particular highlights.
Live offers aren’t exactly rare, but this is definitely a good time to buy if you’ve been holding off. The best deals I’ve seen are on Live Suite, which you’ll find below. If you’re an existing users, check out the Ableton site for update prices.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.musicradar.com ’
