Thought I would kickstart this thread into the new year, as I enjoyed last year’s so much!
I have just invested in Symphobia, and am well happy. And yes I have still got Gotta Gettem All Syndrome! I have been looking for good orchestral sounds for some time. I got introduced to Spitfire Audio’s products via social media and tried their BBC Symphony Audio Discover, which is a very cut down Orchestra plugin. It is very limited but gave me a taste, and started looking at upgrading, only to find that most of their products require a higher spec laptop than mine! And most of their stuff is scoring software, and not really given to live playing. I did get a number of their “Originals” products to give me the orchestral sections, but the sounds didn’t seem to be as good as the main products.
I had looked a number of alternatives, but none of them came near the Spitfir Audio sound quality, or were expensive, or need more processing power than I had. Then out of the blue came an upgraded Symphobia which is aimed either at quickly sketching ideas out, and at live playing. It has the basic orchestral sections of strings, brass and woodwind, and has a “Multi’s” section where you can blend or layer different sections. It does have some limitations, but was what I was looking for, with good sound quality, and runs in Kontakt Player. I am very happy indeed!
I just upgraded from Core to Pro for the Spitfire BBC Orchestra, and it has been worth every penny FOR ME. But Core would suffice for most people.
Best instrument plugin purchase for 2022 has been the GForce OBE.
Best utility plugin purchase for 2022 has been Blue Cat’s Connector.
Best software purchase was Rode Connect, which awakened hidden features I did not know were built-in to my VideoMic NTG (and other Rode mics). That led me to buying a Rodecaster Pro, though!
Production Voice Grand. A big Steinway-D library for Kontakt. The best Steinway I ever had. Plus, not any trouble of velocity dynamic with my SL88 keyboard.
Really install &play.
I just did the same thing last week! I was expecting Pro’s “mix 1” to be Core, but not even close. But really like it. The one thing I didn’t like is that the Core and Pro instrument attack are different enough that I couldn’t just put Pro on an existing Core based midi performance without tweaking it some. But using Pro from scratch is great.
I have just invested in Korg’s Wavestate Native VST. It is amazing!
I was very keen on the original Wavestation (a friend had one) just before the RSI kicked in. I am also hankering after a second keyboard (just a midi controller), but would have pushed to the Wavestate keyboard if it had more than 3 octaves. And then along comes this VST!
It is on the Korg website at $200, although it has been known to be at $149 from time to time. I found it here ( https://www.vst-plugin.shop/product/korg-wavestate-native-vst/ ) for just $55, although things aren’t quite as simple as it seems. I will give details of the the buying process in a separate thread to keep this simple.
There are masses of sounds and performances, with some really good sounds and samples in there, but the main thing is the absolutely massive number of programming options, with just about everything being able to be modulated by almost everything else! Ther are lots of little extras, with the stand-out being Performance Hold, where played notes will sound indefinitely, until the next notes are pressed. So you can set up a drone bass, or chord, via a keyboard split, then play to it with the rest of the keyboard, and simply changing the note or chord, and off you go away. Even better for multiple keyboard set-ups because it frees up both hands!
There are loads of soundbank Youtubes where you can listen to just what this thing can do, and it is amazing. I can thoroughly recommend it.
This note is because this site ( https://www.vst-plugin.shop/product/korg-wavestate-native-vst/ ) offers a ridiculous price for the vst. At first it looks like you buy the complete vst here, but that is not the case. Instead you download the demo version of Wavestate Native from the Korg site, which gives you 20 minutes time to explore the app - nowhere near enough time! Then you would normally upgrade on the Korg site, which effectively over-rides the demo time limit, and gives you the full soundbank. But for a fraction of the price you can get the same thing from the VST Plugin-Shop site, so you download the upgrade from them.
What you have to do is get a Korg ID, then a software Pass (both from the Korg site) which then lets you download the demo. Then you click on Register, which asks for the product code, which you don’t have because you haven’t bought from Korg! Instead, type “KORG” in the activation code box, note down the code which then appears, and email that to the plugin shop. They in turn will send you the serial number/activation code and off you go with the full blown vst!
Wavestate either in hardware form or VST is an amazing pad monster. I brought the 3 octave version, although I am not a fan of that form factor, as I gave up waiting for a larger version, and figured I could play it on my other boards anyway.
Then three months after I brought it, Korg announce a 5 octave version with aftertouch. But that was at the start of 2021 and there is still no sign of it.
In the meantime the VST has come out, which I have and I do not know if I will bother with that larger 5 octave version if it comes out.
Well “Gotta Get’em All Syndrome” has struck again!
I thought having bought Symphobia and Symphobia 2 to get the orchestral sounds I wanted I had everything I needed and was set up for life. But then the Wavestate VST floated across my bows, and bang I got it - first shot!! I was made up for life! But I’ve been and gone and done it again!
Eventide are offering their Blackhole VST for just $29, with it being advertised for $200 dollars only a couple of months ago. I got it from Plugin Boutique for £25. It offers stupendously huge reverbs, as well as smaller more normal settings as well. It is very clean and clear, and produces beautiful sounding reverbs, and at this price is a no-brainer.
Now - does anybody know of treatment for my illness?
Best paid of 2022 is a big pile of Plugin Alliance stuff mostly by Brainworx. All the BX stuff is very good, particularly their channel strips (AMEK, SSL 9000 and Focusrite) and their new True Peak limiter. PA is running sales all the time or you can buy for a good price via their $29.99 Forever plan which is cancelable/restartable any time. They have a three computer license with no apparent restrictions on concurrent usage, which is very “not Waves” (plus they’re better plugins anyway imo).
For me personally the best softaware purchase this year was Cantabile.
I understand this OP is VST centred however without Cantabile, I could not
explore Ideas I dreamed up a tad over 25 years ago, when all I had was a cz1000, poly 800 with pencils and notepads.
Those were my sentiments in last year’s “Best Buy” thread!
I am barely scratching the surface with what Cantabile can do but it has revolutionised what I can achieve, especially with all the help everyone in this forum keep giving!
So far it is ceremony Melodyne. Got a freebie version of it and via a bit of trickery managed to upgrade it for an intermediate version that has the DNA (direct music access). To be able to see all the notes in the music (OK, I do not have perfect pitch!) and export them to MIDI is mind blowing.
Resurrecting this thread since exchanging thoughts on purchases that work out particularly well is always a good idea.
Still loving all the Brainworx stuff I bought earlier in the year and last year, particularly the channel strips and their bass amp sims, plus their buss comps and limiters.
PA gave me a $75 voucher on a $99 min spend and they had their amp sims on sale for $19.99 each, so I bought five for $25 total (3 ENGL, 1 Diezel, 1 Orange, all real amps I’ll never buy). They’re all DSP by Nembrini and sound as good as what he offers on his own site, and the IRs are arguably better. Like these sims better than Tonex…so this gets “best deal for 2022”.
Cherry’s GX-80 and CA2600 make the top of the instruments list. I’m having a ball with CA2600…R2D2, Apocalypse Now helicopter, machine guns, explosions, I even did a modern Blackhawk helicopter sound complete with wind during landing and the tail rotor sound, its actually pretty convincing. Edgar Winter’s Frankenstein sound…there’s just no end to it… And I haven’t even plugged a guitar into it yet. They even include a FX version of the plugin to make this more readily possible in a regular DAW, a very thoughtful feature, imo. So CA2600 gets “most fun of 2022”.
