IK deal time again

[foxAsteria]

Aw man, still 254 in the last day? Come on, don't let me down! I even did the deal twice, cos apparently I've become an IK fanboy.

Here's my generalized review of IK plugins:

The good:

Some of the best looking and sounding plugins around.

Good quality freebies.

Awesome mid/side switching on most mix plugins.

Can buy most amps and fx a la carte.

The bad & the ugly:

Horrible authorization system (inputting each serial manually when the software already knows what products belong to my account??).

Horrible built-in marketing system (menus are cluttered with unowned products that are barely distinguishable from owned products).

Horrible MIDI implementation for the amp sims. Everything is clunky, nothing is intuitive, most of the settings are not stored in presets and lost as soon as you change preset

Inconsistent quality. Many amp sims look and sound only slightly different. Only the newest plugins have scalable UI.

The aesthetic considerations often override usability. There are frequently 3-4 switch positions that can't be selected directly and must be clicked many times to cycle.

Must hold control to reset knob positions (no double-click support anywhere).

It can be hard to figure out what parts of the interface are interactable (do we need half of the interface to be tube graphics while the main controls are tiny little screws just because the original hardware was like that? I like appreciate analog-esque UI, but there is no reason to introduce hardware limitations in a digital model.

Inconsistent pricing (stomps that cost as much as the amps?).


That's a lot of criticism, but like I said, I still did the deal twice and I've been using AmpliTube since the first iteration, so that should tell you something about the essential quality. My faves from the second round were the EQP-1A and the Orange Collection (can't believe I almost passed that up).

[DarkStar]

Sept 3rd is the last day (plus a few days after that for physical product Registration).

[jelloman]

But...were I to go in, it would be the Amplitube with the Fender and the Hendrix expansions...after that I'd just be duplicating processors I already have in Waves or others, which is why I'm fence-sitting...

[foxAsteria]

Originally Posted by jelloman

But...were I to go in, it would be the Amplitube with the Fender and the Hendrix expansions...after that I'd just be duplicating processors I already have in Waves or others, which is why I'm fence-sitting...

You should just wait for Black Friday. They'll have some really good sales then too. Although, Mesa Boogie, Orange and Leslie all have really good stuff too, unless you have those already...

[DarkStar]

^^^^
Dive in. You have 30 days after the end of the GB to pick your freebies. Plenty of time to try them out, comparing them with your existing plug-ins. THey may have similar names but they may well sound different.

Even if you buy AT4 and get both Fender and the Jimi bundles, that's still a bargain. You could also pick T-RackS 5 (with 9 processor modules) and 3 others.

[foxAsteria]

Oh, forgot to mention, I didn't think I needed T-Racks, but went ahead and got it since it included 2 others I wanted and thus saved me a freebie slot.

Unexpectedly, I found it very useful to use a single plugin on the master with most of the master chain inside it. It's somehow a little more convenient than just using individual plugins and I can toggle them all at the same time without also disabling the visual stuff I have on the master (SPAN etc). The workflow inside the plugin is pretty slick, I find.

[Judders]

Originally Posted by foxAsteria

Oh, forgot to mention, I didn't think I needed T-Racks, but went ahead and got it since it included 2 others I wanted and thus saved me a freebie slot.

Unexpectedly, I found it very useful to use a single plugin on the master with most of the master chain inside it. It's somehow a little more convenient than just using individual plugins and I can toggle them all at the same time without also disabling the visual stuff I have on the master (SPAN etc). The workflow inside the plugin is pretty slick, I find.

I find their "Classic" plugins pretty good. Never been keen on their console/compressor/EQ emulations, but their own brand plugins are very useable. The metering in T-Racks is good too.

[fred garvin]

More mini reviews:

I'm enjoying Lurssen, sounds good, smooth, only does that one thing but does it well. Definitely squashes your mix but sounds good doing it.

One - I think I need more time with this one to really get the best out of it. Does much more than Lurssen, but also pretty easy to mess up with and to me doesn't quite sound as good as far as pure sound quality. My initial impression was "Wow" but listening in the car that turned into "Oops".

Tape Machine 440 - Interesting. Kinda not liking it just by itself, but using it before Lurssen gave me my fav result of all the test tracks I did.

[EpicSounds]

Originally Posted by DarkStar

^^^^
Dive in. You have 30 days after the end of the GB to pick your freebies. Plenty of time to try them out, comparing them with your existing plug-ins. THey may have similar names but they may well sound different.

that's actually a lot less time than I thought. I picked a few but I'm too busy to demo anything right now

[fred garvin]

Stuck at 19 for 8 free. This may be the end...

[foxAsteria]

Yea I don't really need anything else, but I'm still gonna be mad if I get that close to 2 freebies and get jipped!

[Not_Here]

Originally Posted by fred garvin

Good on ya. I almost went hardware too... How do you like your Stomp I/O? Almost went for that but then saw that they go for half price used, which seems like either a warning or an opportunity. What do you think the AXE will do for you that the Stomp doesn't?

The Stomp I/O is good for one thing (IMHO), to control AT, and for that it works. once I have everything dialed in it gives me a convenient foot controller just like any other midi controller.

BIG DOWNSIDE is that for whatever reason, it does NOT have an FX loop.. Making it pretty much useless to run with a 4 cable method in conjunction with what amp you choose.

Now onto the AXE I/O, this is gonna be fun to work with. the 1st input is for guitar only and has a number of features that places a very usable, good sounding pre amp set up 1st in the chain. You can vary impedance, to altar the tone from biting and tight to soft and really warm sounding. You can also change the circuitry of the pre amp from FET to a setting called PURE. very subltle change but it can be heard and felt in the responsiveness (? not sure if I'm describing it correctly)
it also has a second guitar input that is like most other interfaces. Oh and it has a switch for active or passive pickups to insure a clean signal for either at a good level.

It has a really cool and well done re-amp out (ground lift, buzzless, and at the proper levels, and adjustable level on send) that can be routed through whatever chain to a mic or direct right back into the interface and will also record your processed signal and a clean d/i for later re amping onto separate tracks, at same time. Big plus for me. ( yes I'm aware I could do this also with a small mixer, but space...)

also has two sets of outs on the back, auto sensing for bal/unBAL to use for monitors (ch1 & ch2 have dedicated volume on front). the software for it also has some limited routing and full control of all volumes across it's ins and outs.
A separate headphone out and dedicated volume too, lots of power there. 48V available, all inputs are auto sense for line or inst levels, on everywhere, full midi configuration, and one knob on interface is used for scroll/select/back with AT. built in tuner too, but it's not adjustable and locked to 440.

on the back are also two XLR/TRS inputs, midi in and out, and twp more inputs for separate foot controllers, like a volume/wah pedal, and a single or double footswitch- configurable for momentary or on off type signals.

The Stomp I/O can be put into midi mode and used to control AT through the interface also. I prefer to have my macbook for AT as a separate guitar processor, and then I'll sent the signal to the AXE. and keep my main Mixing box, for just that. It's an ongoing experiment for now. but so far this AXE I/O is pretty damn cool...

Now to pick up the few missing bits of softwares I'm missing.

It's a great little interface so far that seems like its begging to be experimented on/with.

the AXE crushes the STOMP, but the stomp has it's place (for now).

[fred garvin]

Well whaddya know. Critical mass achieved, 9 for 1 in effect. Good as it's gonna get folks.

Originally Posted by foxAsteria

Yea I don't really need anything else, but I'm still gonna be mad if I get that close to 2 freebies and get jipped!

Need? Bah. I want what I want!!! And now I shall have it!

Final swag bagged (pending): Lurssen, TR5, Sat X, all the tape machines, AT Fender 2, AT Leslie. Not bad for a bit over a bill.

[Not_Here]

WOW i just went to check the promo section on my IK and a little pop up came up and said FREE GIFT - T-Racks Full Metering and it's been added to my products section.. yay!
and now still 8 more choices?! I could live with that.

[fred garvin]

@Not: Yah cool, the metering's good, lots of meters lol, including the LUFS everyone's so into now. Wouldn't have paid $120 for it but a nice freebie. I guess I don't get a freebie as TR5 includes that. My extra DL showed up though.

Well the AXE sounds pretty sweet, very sophisticated. So beyond the FX loop thing, was the I/O part of the Stomp I/O OK if I don't need the loop? Or did you just not like that part at all?

[jelloman]

The promotion NOW expires September 30 with a potential for TEN items...

[fred garvin]

Well this is just getting silly now. They should add more products, to fill out 11 products at this point I'd have to pick things I actively don't want. The new Brian May package, on the other hand, that'd be nice.

[foxAsteria]

What the? Well alright then...

So, I tried Saturator X early on but I wasn't too impressed or I just had too many saturators already, but now I'd like to take a second look and can't cause of the trial limitations. How does it stand up to the other tape sims (440 and 80 we're the ones I liked best)?

[fred garvin]

Originally Posted by foxAsteria

What the? Well alright then...

So, I tried Saturator X early on but I wasn't too impressed or I just had too many saturators already, but now I'd like to take a second look and can't cause of the trial limitations. How does it stand up to the other tape sims (440 and 80 we're the ones I liked best)?

Hmm, it wouldn't occur to me to compare SatX and 440... AFAIK X isn't a tape sim, it just does different styles of saturation including tape. Which is what I hear when I use it, just a nice kind of thickening and smoothing effect which to me just makes the track sound better in that specific way without reference to any other type of effect, where with 440 I clearly hear compression and EQ and I'm sure a dozen other things including saturation, comprising the whole modelling process. I imagine I'll use them quite differently, probably X on featured tracks that I really want to stand out, and 440 as part of the mastering chain.

[foxAsteria]

Yea I guess I meant I'll probably end up choosing between SatX and the last 2 tapes, not because they're similar tho. Is SatX cheap enough to put on every track? CPU-wise...

[fred garvin]

Originally Posted by foxAsteria

Yea I guess I meant I'll probably end up choosing between SatX and the last 2 tapes, not because they're similar tho. Is SatX cheap enough to put on every track? CPU-wise...

Well, that's a good question... Don't you get like 20 free at this point? Surprised you have to make any tough choices lol.

Added X to every channel of a 16 track project, load ran between .3 and .5 per channel, mid 3 to 4% total. Added 440 on the master, high 4 to 5% load. On my i7-8550, as reported by the Reaper performance meter. So yah, quite a difference there and consistent with the other comments here re use and load on those. YMMV etc., hope that helps.

[foxAsteria]

Haha, yea if they keep adding tiers the way they are, I won't have to make any choices.

[jelloman]

OK, I'm in...I now have a full suite of Amplitube...

[Not_Here]

If they hit 10 freebies I'm good with that... got all the plugs except the four tape machines.
I'll be picking up the other amplitube items I don't have, Leslie maybe or the 2nd fender collection. I had 10 freebies last year too. Wish they would put some new stuff in to the choices.

[Not_Here]

Originally Posted by fred garvin

@Not: Yah cool, the metering's good, lots of meters lol, including the LUFS everyone's so into now. Wouldn't have paid $120 for it but a nice freebie. I guess I don't get a freebie as TR5 includes that. My extra DL showed up though.

Well the AXE sounds pretty sweet, very sophisticated. So beyond the FX loop thing, was the I/O part of the Stomp I/O OK if I don't need the loop? Or did you just not like that part at all?

Sorry I missed your question, but yeah as far as getting guitar into Reaper it was just fine. Easy to get good levels going into Reaper. No noise. I have AT on both the guitars MacBook rig and on the Reaper mixing computer too. Pretty much only downfall of the stomp is no frigging fx loop. That would have been too much like right.

But with AXE, thevStomp I/O can become the midi controller for AT - While I'm recording. Can't wait to see how that'll work. Expect there might be a ms or two of lag between program changes perhaps. Well see.

I've seen also that there are Vox fx for the Stomp and can be used as a live vox fx board too.

[fred garvin]

Originally Posted by jelloman

OK, I'm in...I now have a full suite of Amplitube...

Well good on ya, hope you enjoy it as much as I do. I'm just starting to realize how deep it is and how little I use its potential.

When you say full suite I'm assuming you mean everything on offer in the deal? There's a -lot- more, in fact most of my fav stuff I most use like the Soldano isn't included. I'd highly recommend anyone that's new to AT and liking it, look around see if you can find AT3 anywhere. If you found that for cheap and got everything from the sale you'd basically have their Max package, that would cost what, >$500 or thousands bought one item at a time. Some of that AT3 stuff is quite good imo.

I'm really liking the Leslie, a bit surprised as I really didn't think of that as my kinda thing, but sounds real nice and on the low speed setting is more subtle than I'd expected. Now I'm messing with dual amp rigs to have sounds that kinda always have at least a bit of it in the background. Nice one fox!

@fox, see what you're saying about Fender 2, glad I didn't pay for it lol. Haven't found one I like yet. Did you find them to be weirdly super high gain? Why would a "vintage Fender" be louder and have less dynamic range than a Soldano lol?

@Not, thanks yah that Stomp unit is looking pretty good to me for the more ITB thing I'm doing. Liking the Axe? Got your new setup all dialled in?

[foxAsteria]

Originally Posted by fred garvin

Now I'm messing with dual amp rigs to have sounds that kinda always have at least a bit of it in the background.

Yea I keep meaning to do the same. Stereo amp setups are so nice, but I keep getting caught up in other details. Finally weeding out the amps I don't need to have as options.

I got really into Bias 2 for a night or two and thought I wouldn't use this stuff anymore, but I came right back to AT. I really dig the customizeablity of Bias but too few parameters are MIDI mappable and the end tones were actually not quite as good as what I'd been getting with AT. Not sure if I'll keep it, but it's such a perfect concept for my tinkering nature.

Originally Posted by fred garvin

Did you find them to be weirdly super high gain?

The levels were all very out of balance. After tweaking and saving each one, I was able to compare them more easily but they were so similar. Many were way too fizzy when pushed or were overdriving the output too easily. I really wish AT had some AGC, or even just some auto-leveling buttons like in ReValver.

One thing I noticed was that the crapper amps had more recycled GUI elements; like they just cheaped out on their development all around.

Leslie's dope but I just can't stop coming back to the 57 Deluxe, which was the first one I ever bought on its own.

[jelloman]

Originally Posted by fred garvin

Well good on ya, hope you enjoy it as much as I do. I'm just starting to realize how deep it is and how little I use its potential.

When you say full suite I'm assuming you mean everything on offer in the deal? There's a -lot- more, in fact most of my fav stuff I most use like the Soldano isn't included. I'd highly recommend anyone that's new to AT and liking it, look around see if you can find AT3 anywhere. If you found that for cheap and got everything from the sale you'd basically have their Max package, that would cost what, >$500 or thousands bought one item at a time. Some of that AT3 stuff is quite good imo.

I'm really liking the Leslie, a bit surprised as I really didn't think of that as my kinda thing, but sounds real nice and on the low speed setting is more subtle than I'd expected. Now I'm messing with dual amp rigs to have sounds that kinda always have at least a bit of it in the background. Nice one fox!

@fox, see what you're saying about Fender 2, glad I didn't pay for it lol. Haven't found one I like yet. Did you find them to be weirdly super high gain? Why would a "vintage Fender" be louder and have less dynamic range than a Soldano lol?

@Not, thanks yah that Stomp unit is looking pretty good to me for the more ITB thing I'm doing. Liking the Axe? Got your new setup all dialled in?

I got everything except the Metal and Dimebag packs...I took a peak at Custom Shop and can see how much more there is, so I'm sure I'll be adding to it, but for now I just want to get to know it and see what I really need...

[fred garvin]

Weeell, last last chance I think lol, 11 for 1 in effect. So you have about 20 minutes if you wanna get in on that.

[Not_Here]

finally got around to grabbing the freebies.
Orange
Mesa
Fender Collection 1 & 2
Hendrix Anniversary
Slash
Metal
Lurssen Mastering
Tape 24 & 440
- they threw in full metering, entered into my products, then sent me an email... fine by me. Already had Dimebag ( my total fav of all for the 7 string, hands down) The Bugera tube head also got mean nailed, and the clean is really nice tube-wise.


pretty well ends it for me, nothing left for next year unless they add in new items.

Cant wait sit for a while (or month) and play with all the new amp sounds

[Not_Here]

Another Group Buy at IK

This time it is for their virtual Instruments

See here.... https://www.ikmultimedia.com/vigb/

[Quasar]

Originally Posted by Not_Here

Another Group Buy at IK

This time it is for their virtual Instruments

See here.... https://www.ikmultimedia.com/vigb/

BUMP: And a group buy yet again in 2021 for IK Multimedia's 25th Anniversary Sale, for almost everything except MAX bundles.

Really is a fantastic deal, and is currently up to 8 free products if you buy one. MixBox, and the T-RackS, Amplitube & MODO series are all superb IMHO. Only three days left UNLESS it gets to 10,000 and 10 freebies, in which case IKM is going to extend it another month, potentially reaching 25 free products for the price of one.

[Superfly76]

Originally Posted by foxAsteria

Nice, thanks! Anyone know if using Jam Points on the initial purchase lowers the "lesser or equal value" amount?

I.e. if I pay less than $99 upfront due to JamPoints can I still get $99 items free? The site says we can use them, but I wonder...

It does not lower the value to use jampoints. You get the full value of the product. I did this. 159 product, used jam points, I still get other 159 products for free.

[Hex Enductor]

Originally Posted by Quasar

BUMP: And a group buy yet again in 2021 for IK Multimedia's 25th Anniversary Sale, for almost everything except MAX bundles.

Really is a fantastic deal, and is currently up to 8 free products if you buy one. MixBox, and the T-RackS, Amplitube & MODO series are all superb IMHO. Only three days left UNLESS it gets to 10,000 and 10 freebies, in which case IKM is going to extend it another month, potentially reaching 25 free products for the price of one.

yep, it really is a great deal. I bought SampleTron 2 using some jam points on it to lower it, and added MixBox, Amplitube 5, Modo Drum, Modo Bass, B-3 (had T-RackS already) and Space Delay so far. Still have a couple picks left, hope we can get to next level. That would definitely not be a bad problem to have, lol!

[fred garvin]

Lolz well I said to myself I wasn't gonna pimp for 'em this year, but since the pimpin' has begun without me... if you're gonna do this, don't miss Comprexxor, it's a bit all right. Played with it for 5 min. and now I have a setting called "Guitar Magic" lol which magically does everything I want a compressor/saturator to do to my guitar sound as if by magic.

Actually kinda POed at these guys right now, decided to reup Total Studio a month ago as they were quoting me a special one time only discount lol yah guess I should know better huh? And then a week later (at the time) turned out I coulda got everything I wanted on separate licenses and saved at least a hundo.

Hey I know there's IK guys here... put in a word huh? Do right by those who support you more than just buying at your biggest sale. Actually there's very little they could even give me at this point, since I just bought their biggest most expensive package that they are now basically giving away for $200. But hey think of something! Or refund me a hundo...

[westie07]

Just another heads-up guys. The group buy has been extended to the end of October. It currently stands at buy 1 product get 20 of equal or lesser value free!!

I'm running out of stuff I really want. lol.

[Greg Savage]

Originally Posted by westie07

Just another heads-up guys. The group buy has been extended to the end of October. It currently stands at buy 1 product get 20 of equal or lesser value free!!

I'm running out of stuff I really want. lol.

I wish more companies offered group buys.

[kirk1701]

I've enjoyed this group buy very much. The biggest surprise to me was Sampletank 4, particularly the piano libraries.

I do wish it did multichannel routing a little more like Kontakt. You don't really get OHs or Room channels. They've put those things on macros from some reason.