Black Friday additions?
 

Anyone get any bargains for their studio this weekend?

I grabbed some the Chris Hein Winds Complete collection for 30% off. The emulations and articulations are really outstanding. I was primarily interested in the clarinet but the others sounded so good that I grabbed the bundle rather than the individual instrument.

I also picked up the FabFilter Pro-Q2 at a 25% discount.

I got a Peterson StroboPLUS HD on sale thanks to an alert from someone here at AGF.

A company named "Loops de la Crème" has a bunch of interesting vst instruments and they're offering a great deal where if you put €148 in your cart you get a coupon to use for €100 off. I picked up a bunch of things that might be useful at some point including cymbal rolls, bongos, tambourine, and hand-clapping. It was cheap as chips and they sound pretty good.

I also decided to treat my back and bottom to a gift and bought a Herman Miller Aeron Chair. I've been debating back and forth in my head between the Aeron and the Soundseat. The adjustability of the Aeron won out in the end (plus it was on sale for 15% off and I found an additional 5% off coupon online) and I do spend a lot more time in front of the computer without a guitar in my hand than with, so I think this may be the better direction for me. But I don't rule out buying a Soundseat just for recording if this seat isn't optimal for that.

All in all, a pretty good weekend but my debit card took it on the chin.

How'd all you guys do?

Black Friday Weekend Deals
 

I picked up the Maag Audio EQ4 from Plugin Alliance, regularly $229, now on sale for $59.
https://www.plugin-alliance.com/en/products.html
I really like Plugin Alliance, and have got lots of great deals there.

I also picked up the AirTurn AT-104 with 2 ATFS-2 and Pedal Board to turn pages of .pdf sheet music on my computer monitor with silent foot switches while I am recording. It is on sale right now for only $39 (56% off) so I figured I couldn't lose.
https://store.airturn.com/collections/pc-solutions

Slate Digital also has some great plugins (I own several) and some really great Black Friday deals.
http://slatedigital.com/slate-black-friday-2017/

I also bought the new Al Petteway CD, "The Collector's Passion". This will give me a good recording reference to shoot for; plus it has several songs on it I am learning.

Jim, great choice on the Herman Miller Aeron chair. I have been using one for fifteen years and it still looks brand new. It is very comfortable to play guitar in. I like that the arms swivel out of the way.

I picked that up earlier this year. I've found it's not always my best choice but there are occasions when it is, and in those spots it really shines.

I hope I love it. Fingers crossed.

I got Mixcraft 8 for $99 reg $179 and Studio One 3 Artist for $49 reg $149.

I also bought Cubase Elements 9 for $99 reg $99. So I'm all set for computer recording.

I also bought a Kitchen Aid Professional Version Stand Mixer for $200 reg $400. Got great deals on many attachments too.

Thanks to an AGFer, I purchased a Digitech Trio from Sweetwater for $50. I had heard a lot about their customer service and was amazed to get a call on Saturday afternoon apologizing that the item was back-ordered.

Also picked up a Channel Master Antenna filter and amplifier for the TV - we cut the cable long ago and anything I can do to improve over the air reception is a fun hobby . We get some 40 over the air channels with an indoor antenna.

The poor credit card is already sagging from some other items I purchased this month: I think I smell burning plastic!

Rick

I got the 20% off annual Avid upgrade and support plan renewal for PTHD offered by Sweetwater for $319 instead of $399
Good for 4 more days

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/PTHDAUPExthttps://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/PTHDAUPExt

I bought a Stephen Kinnaird OM with ultra-rare gorgeously figured Brazilian Rosewood and highly figured maple bindings (which are simply stunning) for $1000 because, in Stephen's words "We're both Texans and we take care of each other." And, because I paid cash, he threw in personal fingerpicking lessons from the guy on his site that has such a wonderful touch.

StewMac had a "1st 5 customers" sale with Dan Erlewine making a personal visit to my home to tune all of my guitars and then spend evenings in front of the fire talking about all of the famous guitars he's handled.

Since I am the most faithful viewer of "Daryl's House" on MTV, Daryl Hall has invited me to be his musical guest for his next taping. He's gonna bring back Smokey Robinson to sing harmony for me, The O'Jays to sing backup, Joe Walsh to join me in dueling guitars on the Eagle's biggest hits, and Keith Urban, Brad Paisley, and Vince Gill are going to compete in-show to see who will have the honor of writing and performing the next guitar-heavy country single. Oh, and Vince is gonna sing Eagles songs while Joe and me shred our electrics.

It was a very nice dream, LOL.

Yesterday I applied for and was allowed the educators' discount for Pianoteq's Studio Bundle. I've had my eye on that for a while. The piano models are the best I've heard. Not really a Black Friday event but I'm very happy to have scored this one.

I decided the best thing to do was to improve my mixing/mastering monitors, and went with a set of the JBL LSR308 units. I'm hoping they won't be too big for my monitor stands. One of the pair arrived last night and I'll probably unbox it to see if that will be an issue.

I've been having a bad time getting predictable bass out my recordings, and while I've compensated a bit with making adjustments from experience while visually looking a frequency waveforms or EQ filter lines, I'm thinking it might be better to use, well, a set of ears for this. Assuming I can get the stands to work, the JBLs will replace a set of small M-Audio speakers.

Though I dabble in electronic music, it's not really EDM with bass levels powerful enough to mash potatoes. But I do play electric bass most of the time on my recordings and there's a bass drum to mix often enough too. I don't need the LSR308 monitors to get really low-low, I just need them to give me a more reliable sense of how much is going on under 100hz.

This has been an incredible week for anybody in the market for recording software....deals galore !!!!Sound Forge, Overture 5, Cubase, Samplitude, Studio One, Mixcraft, Mix Buss, Magic Music Maker, Waves plug-ins...,,,,all have great prices for the next couple of days...now is a great time to buy recording software....just be careful and check the system requirements of each brand vrs your computer....some of the great prices have already disappeared, so act fast if you find something you like......

Pianoteq
 

I have tried several different high end piano virtual instruments, and Pianoteq is by far my favorite. It's the only one I really use now. Beyond the great sound is the realistic response and dynamics. Last year, I replaced my old 88-key midi keyboard with a Kawai VPC-1. The VPC-1 and Pianoteq are a match made in heaven (keyboard heaven anyway), especially if you have a good playback system. The VPC-1 looks classy too.

The VPC-1 is definitely a sharp looking keyboard. I picked up an M-Audio Hammer 88 earlier this year. It has weighted keys and the feel is very realistic. I agree about the Pianoteq. I've listened to sound samples from just about every piano vst out there and I didn't hear anything that was as nice. But as keys aren't my main thing, I asked a friend who's a professional keyboard player to give the samples a listen and he was amazed at how detailed the sound is. I was hoping the full bundle would go on sale for Black Friday but it didn't. But the educators' discount was 40% and I doubt I could have done much better than that.

I upgraded to NI Komplete 11 for a good price on Cyber Monday.

Got a pretty good deal on some Adam A7X studio monitors for a long-overdue upgrade, and a fair discount on some Proline monitor stands as well.

I got 1/2 off a JBL Xtreme bluetooth speaker.