I’ve got this but haven’t explored it too much yet, how do you use it in your mixing process?
Nothing special. I’ve used it on samples I prepare for Octatrack and on the full mix from OT once I’ve recorded the stereo outs. I use it quite subtly in the 20-30% Amount range and a bit of Tilt back to being slightly bass heavy. Cleans up mud successfully, reduces my overwhelming sub frequencies and brings out a bit of air too.
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Hit: Elevate from Newfangled, it has some fine control, and is transparent.
Shaperbox 3. Fabfilter 2 R2.
Miss: Devicemeister Stepic Activation process, it works fine when i have internet, but for my rhearsal space it constantly bugs me with loosing activations. I dont have internet there, and dont want to move my mac mini each week to activate it. Cant wait for Live 12 to eliminate it.
303 Emulation , it just sounds bad compared to the Behringer clone.
This year’s Black Friday: U-He Presswerk and XLN Audio Retro Colour RC20
Both hits, especially Presswerk
Last year’s Black Friday the best thing I got was Sonarworks SoundID Reference which has had a pretty big impact on my mixing
I really wish Noise Engineering would do a Max for Live version of some of their plugins to work with Push Standalone.
And also provide an update path from the Reason rack extension to the plugin - I bought the Reason version long before the vst came out and while it works fine using Reason rack as a wrapper, it’s still a bit awkward. Sounds bang on though.
Haven’t bought many plugins this year, the main change to my setup has been Push 3 arriving so mostly it’s been Max for Live stuff - like others have said the Fors stuff is probably the pick, for me Glänta became an instant favourite, but basically all their devices I’ve bought have been getting heavy usage. Considering completing the set after Christmas.
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I purchased nothing at all and it was a hit.
Edit:it was hard to resist synplant 2 though.
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For me a miss, tons of new features I’ll never use and none of the features I hoped for … I still did the update to support the developers.
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Akai Flex Beat
v v good
Shaperbox 3, various Valhalla reverbs and the TDR compressors and limiters have all been huge assets for mixing this year.
Ableton 11 is an actual nightmare and I despise it.
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I like to support the developers as well. I was so glad to get an alternative to Sibelius and it’s getting better and better for notating my teaching material.
However, there is still a long way to go before I can use it to notate “new music”.
What were you hoping for?
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Exactely that 
I really love the approach of Dorico, which is to me to automatically make my music look right because there’s [almost almost] only one right. This works fabulously when the piece is rather traditionally notated, like …
(my own music font btw.)
… but when it goes above that I start to spend more time with making it look nice than writing my music …
… even though I do things (as always) as neat and in the easiest way possible (i don’t do crazy workarounds).
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Exactly.
Dorico makes things aesthetically pleasing when they conform to traditional idioms, but when it comes to “new music” there is still room for improvement… I remain a fan for now and trust the team.
And otherwise there is still for me the good pen and paper method.
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This reminds me I’ve bought far too many VSTs this year:
Hits
U-He - Diva, Hive, Presswerk, Satin, Repro - All absolutely superb and worth every bit of hype they get
Synapse - Obsession and Legend - As with U-He everything they do sounds superb and uses resources very efficiently
Shaperbox 3 - Use it loads super creative and fun
D16 Phoscyon - Really fun acid box
Fabfilter - Pro R2 hands down my fav reverb
Sonic Charge Microtonic - Just as good as everyone told me it would me
Kick 2 - Very simple and sounds massive
In the Middle
Soundtoys Superplate - It’s very good, but I always tend to use Pro-R2 in preference
Sugar Bytes Drum Computer - I really like it, but rarely end up using it.
Misses
Cherry Audio Dreamsynth - It’s fine, but the UI is too cramped and I nothing stands out enough to make me ever use it for any tracks
Melody Sauce - Nice idea, but never made anything I’m interested in. Wish I hadn’t bought it
Playbeat - I’ve seen a few people recommend this as an idea generator, but it didn’t inspire anything I ever used
Oxford Inflator - I was warned, but didn’t listen. It’s not magic it’s just a saturator as far as I can tell
Drumazon 2 - I really like it, but the CPU usage is brutal for a basic drum machine
Arturia FX4 - I fell for the black Friday upgrade pricing, but I don’t need any of the new things. The new reverb for example is nice, but higher CPU and less flexible and good sounding compared to Pro R2 so I know I’ll never use it
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Hit
Ableton Live 11 so good!
Misses
None as Ableton Live 11 is only software purchase as an upgrade from Ableton Live 9
Super Plate for me! Also AIR Flavor was a nice surprise, I got it to use on MPC standalone but gave mostly been trying it out in the DAW. Nice iteration on a familiar concept.
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HITS
Phase Plant - Really great synth, easy to program and flexible. The granular generator is worth the price alone, very easy to create amazing pads and atmospheres from whatever sample. Also a pretty solid subtractive and wavetable synth. The workflow is great and the built-in FX are very useable.
Arturia Analog Lab - I couldn’t resist at €49 but it may have been a bit hasty. I don’t like their clunky emulated synth interfaces but some of the presets are great and I can easily find nice pad or a bass or a lead sound and tweak a few macro controls. On this basis, it’s great value for 2000+ presets.
Reason Algoritm - I don’t use Reason standalone but this is a fun and interesting rack extension FM synth that I can use as a VST. It has a good randomisation feature and a quirky interface which encourages experimentation. I got it FREE as I had some sort of reward points in my account.
UNDECIDED
Sononym - It’s great at what it does but the drag+drop behaviour with some software is a bit iffy. It’s not the fault of Sononym but if it’s awkward then it won’t get used! On its own merits I think it’s really excellent but I want to find a sample and quickly drag to DAW/sampler, I don’t need to actually “curate” my sample collection. I think it’s probably a keeper, even just browsing folders of samples without the advanced features is much quicker with this.
FUTURE…
I’m sorely tempted to get a cheap upgrade to Live 11/12 Standard. I’m curious about the new browser tagging features (see above about Sononym and finding samples) and the MIDI generation tools. I can get it for about £120 which seems pretty reasonable. I’d need to take a punt on the new V12 features by buying 11 now and wait for the beta or full release. I have an old Push 1 controller and the integration with Live 11 Intro is great.
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Picked up Madrona Labs Virta. Really fun—like a vocoder on LSD.
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HITS:
• XLN Audio Life- very inspiring, fun, Pandora’s box of making percussive tracks from any sample including an app on your phone. Turn field recordings into hundreds of drum patterns that are pitched, delayed, reverb, slowed down, sped up all in seconds.
• GForce Obie - great emulation of a oberheim synth and with Toms blessing. Sounds great in mixes and cheaper than buying an OBX or OB6.
MISSES:
• Stutteredit 2- maybe I need to spend more time with this but I can’t make this fit on any tracks. The UI is odd and the presets don’t gel with my music.
Moog’s new Mariana synth is, like all their other soft synths, a definite hit. They have it for half price, but I don’t know for how long.
My advice is to definitely get it.
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Just to point out that according to Weaver Beats, their T&Cs give XLN the right in perpetuity to use your samples & music as they please, including using it in the AI generated content of others. It’s a problem with many of these AI tools.