Plugin Alliance insanity
 

PIA has been doing some insane one-day sales lately. Yesterday it was the Acme Opticom compressor for $49 and today it's the Townhouse compressor for $29. In each case PIA sends/has sent out an email to their customers with a specific code to be entered in the checkout page.

Re: Plugin Alliance insanity
 

I didn't buy anything since November because of the lack of decent offers.

Seems normal service has been resumed. Grab them whilst they are cheap!

I'm even considering going for the $50 voucher. That said, there are no guarantees from Plugin Alliance this will continue. After all, they pulled the December voucher without warning which was a change to the previous offer of a monthly voucher.

Stephen

Re: Plugin Alliance insanity
 

I think they have a difficult job to do managing competing interests of the various plugin developers so this is likely why we see the business model all over the map in regards to offerings. I grabbed a lot of stuff when they were sending me vouchers with no minimum limit on purchase.

Unfortunately for everyone in the business Waves has comoditized the plugin business so we all now expect $29 for everything. I will absolutely pay more for a very special plugin but I no longer drop $150 on a plugin without thinking long and hard and justifying the price based on need for a client’s session for example.

UAD may not be as affected in this area but I would bet they are still selling less than before that all happened about two years ago.

Re: Plugin Alliance insanity
 

Hi,

Think ive got about 50 bus compressors now :-)


Chris

Re: Plugin Alliance insanity
 

Agreed. $29 has long been the new standard! Plenty of great pro offerings at that price.

UAD have been affected is seems. Sure, they still retain their 'premium' status but even their prices are tumbling. It's a buyer's market for sure :D

Stephen

Re: Plugin Alliance insanity
 

Yeah, only $4 today with the monthly voucher

Re: Plugin Alliance insanity
 

To be fair the UAD plugins are on the money if you buy the bundle :confused:

UAD Ultimate 7 is 99 plugins for £2999 which I make just over £30 per plugin :cool:

Stephen

Re: Plugin Alliance insanity
 

I am not willing to pay to graphic designers for their work even if marketing department use a slogan "Modeled after the unique bla-bla...."
The actual PA unique plugin is buggy for years (confirmed by themselves).
So until I am losing my money by the fact that PA is not fixing ProAudioDSP DSM2 plugin automation behaviour, I am not buying anything new from them.

Plugin Alliance insanity
 

Maybe but not 50 AAX-DSP Buss Comps

Plugin Alliance insanity
 

Interesting I guess I have never automated that plug. I remember it sounding really good however.

I choose to support these guys b/c of AAX-DSP, even though all of theirs aren’t AAX-DSP....most of them are

It’s not like Waves fixed all of their bugs either....not to mention Avid themselves

Re: Plugin Alliance insanity
 

I thought under their new one voucher rule you can’t do that. Are you saying you bought the TH Buscomp for $4 yourself?

Re: Plugin Alliance insanity
 

It is sounding really good and I think its quite unique processor.
However being not able to automate this plugin for film post work is a stopper.
I switched to Zynaptiq Intensity plugin to apply a quick little magic for some limp Music stems.

Re: Plugin Alliance insanity
 

I haven't got a voucher since November, but I still get Heavy Hitter discounts. You guys still getting vouchers?

Re: Plugin Alliance insanity
 

Yep. Hopefully this is still the deal.

http://duc.avid.com/attachment.php?a...1&d=1550337921

If you still qualify then contact them via support on their page.

Stephen

Re: Plugin Alliance insanity
 

At the end I didn't buy it but I was able to lower the final price to $4 by stacking the TH and my $25 monthly vouchers. You have to login otherwise the vouchers don't work.

Re: Plugin Alliance insanity
 

I started getting vouchers again since I bought bx_digital for $69 last December.

Re: Plugin Alliance insanity
 

I'm sure I've spent enough... maybe I need to recheck my purchase dates.

Re: Plugin Alliance insanity
 

I'd already used my $50 monthly voucher to get the Neve channel strip so the $29 voucher was welcome for the Townhouse comp.

Re: Plugin Alliance insanity
 

Yep. December was weird because PA didn't do the regular monthly voucher. Ditto for January IIRC although they did do some 'if you spend this amount you get to use this voucher' thing a few times.

Re: Plugin Alliance insanity
 

Don't let one bad apple ruin the experience. Sure PA is glacially slow at fixing some bugs but remember it's not up to them to fix them but the plugin developer. If you listen to the bungholes at Gearslutz you'd think the PA SSL channel strips were ****e because the metering isn't right (according to them). Personally I don't put stock in a plugin's metering. If the plugin does what I need it to do and the metering is suspect it's nothing I worry about as I use metering plugins I have and trust. Sure it's an extra insert that needs to be tended to but frankly Scarlett I don't give a damn (cue GWTW).

Re: Plugin Alliance insanity
 

I agree with you about the metering.
I work in post so a flawless automation is essential and equal to the quality of the tools I use. There is no time for workarounds and I know anyone who managed to work without rock solid automation in film mixing industry. Music is different.
I am not oversensitive regarding the DSM2 is not working correctly. I contacted the PA several times, they confirmed its a bug and told me they probably will never gonna fix it...or maybe only at v3 (funny but thats was their response). I smiled and moved on - bought Intensity which works perfectly so far. No crisis, no irritation just not supporting with my wallet the PA anymore. Luckily we have so many great processors now days.

Re: Plugin Alliance insanity
 

Curiously the thread title in pretty appropriate here too [emoji846]

Re: Plugin Alliance insanity
 

I’ve been holding off myself, mostly. So many family related expenses since Christmas. I have still yet to replace the drive in my daughter’s computer.

Damn. It never ends. Still, these are killer sales,

Re: Plugin Alliance insanity
 

So, February is almost ending and since I wasn't sure there was going to be another opportunity to spend my 25 monthly voucher I ended up buying Elysia mpressor for $4. I don't know anything about it and I don't think I really need another compressor, I'm reading and watching all I can now but I would really appreciate if you guys can convince me I made a good purchase (apart from getting an awesome deal of course) that will prove itself useful in the future.
So far it sounds to me as benign as a distressor as it can take a lot of GR without ruining the sound... Or is that me cheering myself up already?

Re: Plugin Alliance insanity
 

It's a decent compressor for when you don't need the alpha comp. Have had both for some time now. I only knew about the mpressor sale price when I went to the PA site; didn't get an email notification about it. The current thinking is PA only sends out email notifications with a discount code to those that don't already have whatever plugin is on sale that day.

I used my $50US voucher early on for the Neve channel strip.

Re: Plugin Alliance insanity
 

Thanks Jack, please feel free to tell me more. I didn't know about the alpha comp either!

Re: Plugin Alliance insanity
 

The Alpha Compressor is one of my favorites as well.

Re: Plugin Alliance insanity
 

The alpha comp is my favorite mastering compressor as it's almost impossible to make something sound bad. Gentle compression ratios, flexible internal sidechain adjustments. Mid/side is to die for especially when you unlink the sidechain. I don't detect a specific character with it. Not an inexpensive piece of s/w and it doesn't go on sale all that often. It's possibly the only one of PA's plugins that I'd pay full price for no questions asked.

Demo it and you'll find out why.

Re: Plugin Alliance insanity
 

I bought the MPressor even though I had already spent my voucher.


Loads of compressors here but this one is unique. Great for drums and I liked it on the master too when I tried it earlier.


More than useful to have in the toolbox.



Stephen

Re: Plugin Alliance insanity
 

Thanks folks for all the comments! I didn't like it too much on the master bus but it worked great on different instruments (bass, guitars, percussion) and the manual was easier to read than other PA stuff I have so I think it's a keeper, I always enjoy having a gain reduction limiter on a compressor.

Re: Plugin Alliance insanity
 

Got one of these:

Attachment 11482

Re: Plugin Alliance insanity
 

This comp has no Windows? It should have 10 [emoji6]

Re: Plugin Alliance insanity
 

This thread is going ”off road” :D

Everyone Get off the Bus !!!

Re: Plugin Alliance insanity
 

Ahhh, the maag. Do you have a verdict, now that you've had it for a little while? IIRC, you had the Hardware already? (or was that someone else...)

Re: Plugin Alliance insanity
 

Seems I'm in the mood for verdicts this morning. :o I will have a on-topic post. I promise.

I'm curious to hear your thoughts on the Neve plug.

I've done a few using this one on a large percentage of tracks. I've done a few sessions with this as a primary, almost every track gets one added thing. I do wish the noise makers would default to much lower settings. The THD is nifty to add as needed later in mix-down for some quick and easy bolt of energy to the mids. The gate can be useful at times. The compressor is a source of constant twiddling, though leaving in Limit mode can produce some interesting results.

I have some DSP coming for my UAD. I have their Neve 1073 and 88 strips. I might re-mix a small session using the 88RS in-place of the "N" and see what happens with a non-scientific A/B.

Re: Plugin Alliance insanity
 

So on the voucher thing, I think the Monthly ones have less limitation than the ones they send out as "Surprise" vouchers. The Surprise voucher I jsut looked at from a month or so ago had the $149 minimum purchase. The monthly vouchers did not have these limits in both Jan and Feb. At least not spelled out.

The big unknown on some of these are if they stack. Sometimes they do, sometimes they do not from what I have seen and played with. I got a $29 voucher for an Unlimited Audio plug called Spec-Ops. Adding my monthly $50 brought it down to 0$. Almost feels like cheating, though will not stay like this as I am deciding on one other at the moment. :D

Re: Plugin Alliance insanity
 

I'm just liking the plug. And wouldn't mind if someone sent me the hardware for testing :D

Re: Plugin Alliance insanity
 

We were the ones with the hardware and I will post a verdict later on this eve. Have some personal stuff to attend to first.

Re: Plugin Alliance insanity
 

I use the Neve strip on things that need a bit of boost in level along with some mid-range eq. The low freq eq doesn't do much for me and same for the high freq eq. I find the gate easier to get on with than the ones in the PA SSL branded strips. And like the SSL strips I wish the compressor had an adjustable attack and not just a two position control.

I find it's a totally different sound than the SSL strips (of course) that works where they don't.

Re: Plugin Alliance insanity
 

Very interesting. Thanks for sharing your usage habits with this one.

I'm struggling with a mix right now that refuses to behave in both areas you mentioned.