Synapse Dune 3 is now on sale $129 instead of $179
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Ops 7 is the BESt DX7 out there. Bar none. I can’t believe how great it sounds.
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Yesssss. Thank you. Been waiting for this one.
I’ve just bought both in the Black Friday sales so I feel reasonably able to comment.
The Arturia FX collection is brilliant if you want a collection of great reproductions of the most classic studio equipment which would cover every possibility of bread and butter FX you needed and could be the first and last set of FX plugins you ever buy. That being said it does have a granular effect and a texture delay so it does have some weirdies.
The SoundToys is not in any way comprehensive.
Most (but not all) of the effects are relatively simple tools that do something a bit off the wall and not normally covered like vocal formant shifting, or emulating the widening algorithm on a vintage Eventide, or a very specific super crunchy limiter.
It won’t give you a comprehensive set of tools, but if you already like the vanilla set your DAW gives you it gives you a bunch of creative inspiration tools.
If you can get it for $99 then the FX3 collection seems much better value. SoundToys also does seem a little old school in terms of UI although they all sound very good.
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After 2 year I finally pulled the trigger on them at $150 for the bundle. I think it would be best if you just demo’ed them to see if they’re worth your time and money. For me, their UI is just so easy to work w/ and the sounds are still relevant even w/o oversampling. The only negative I would say is their lack of tech support. I have never had them reply to any of my pre-sales or tech emails…ever. Luckily, the plugins work fine, but don’t count on them for tech support.
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How does it compare to the grit of the hardware version? I have a TX81Z and the magic with those early FM machines is in the D/A converters. the later DX7II was just too ‘hifi’ for me.
It’s awesome since they spent a ton of time modeling the DACs. I think there is a video on that on their website. To me it is so close to the hardware that there is no need to hunt down old ones on eBay anymore.
There is a grit in the software that i cant really explain well but they did an awesome job with it.
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I’ve never owned a DX7 but I will say that the Plogue made me think ‘this sounds like hardware’ in a way VSTs almost never do, included Dexed etc. If you give the demo a shot I doubt you’ll be disappointed.
Being a supposedly ‘bit-perfect’ recreation I guess the only part really open to question would be the modelling of the outputs, which I guess could vary slightly from machine to machine anyway.
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I don’t want to derail this thread so this will be my only comment on the plugin. I downloaded it and A/B’ed it w/ the the real hardware - TX81Z, DX7, and DX100. While the plugin does sound fantastic in it’s own right, I will not be letting go of my hardware over this. There’s still a magical depth and grit that the only FM machines have that I still haven’t experienced w/ any FM plugin. I might pull the trigger on it though since it is sounds great and I love the randomize function.
Yeah my main point is that since owning the plugin I lost the desire to hunt down and overpay for an old FM synth. If I find one for a steal I am sure I’ll reconsider but the plogue plugin scratches the itch quite well for me. I use it all the time and I do use old hardware in my studio.
Also editing on this thing is a joy compared to the old hardware. At least to me.
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MixedinKey with a Black Friday sale, 50% off on their software.
The Captain Epic plugins are interesting, bought them last year.
I agree with this. Not the original but i compared it to my DX7s at least, matched the settings 1:1 including my midi keyboard velocity response, and was totally satisfied and had no gripes about selling the hardware. It’s as close as you can get even if not identical down to the crackles. Certainly the closest one yet and there’s a lot. I use OPS7 a good bit more too since i can so easily automate and access the parameters. I have never clicked with the raw sound of dexed or the Arturia and FM8 never stuck out to me, so its a welcome plug
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Korg? Korg! How about a few bucks off Opsix Native?
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I’m not affiliated with this site, but it’s offering Ableton LIte to Standard for $204! I think it’s good till 1-10-23, but double check to make sure.
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Fruit shake free today
Kontakt instrument based on the excellent shimmer shake strike.
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Kush audio is doing a sale as well. For some reason I have only their simulation of REDDI box, but they have nice plugins…
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not sure if that’s a black friday or regular sale but Stepic bundle - Live+VST is sold for 50 euro while independently they go for 40 each. looks like a very powerful sequencer with great ratcheting / randomization options…
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I’ve actually noticed that thomann is significantly cheaper for US customers not only for hardware right now, but for some software too. For example, I was thinking about getting superior drummer 3, and it is almost $100 cheaper on thomann than through the toontrack website. So just a heads up if you are wanting a plugin that doesn’t get a black friday deal.
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LOVE his stuff, some of the best plugins out there, in particular the compression and saturation/distortion plugins are phenomenal.
EDIT: re earlier mentioned NeuralDSP sale, I bought the Tone King Imperial Mk2 plugin two nights ago and WOW! what an incredible amp simulation. Thinkjng about selling my AC30 now. Some good deals to be had this season.
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One time purchase.
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