ok, really depends on the genre and feel you want to create.
it can transform the super clean samples and synths into an 80ies superfat psychedelic sound, or it can pimp up dull and poor drum recordings or acoustic guitars.
EQ is not meant to turn structure and character inside out, Vitalizer is.
it is about the workflow.
you throw in some keyboard sounds and this is it, needs only minimal EQ.
or you throw in some different sound, and then change it again.

so, this is the other one, that can create quite a change.
when I get an unlucky dull track, most time either Vitalizer or Cascade does the job to pimp it up, when EQ would only make it harsh.
the third improvement tool would be Lindell 354, used more like an exciter, but does not change much of the character, just increases intensity and adds some brilliance (depends on the high band settings of course but this one comes very pristine) and some oomph.

most saturators seem to introduce some degradation, like the Decapitator, but Phils Cascade seems to add something that is really brilliant and HQ.
with the bias though, you can dial in some degradation also. there is a sweet spot, left and right from there, you will get different kinds of softening.
you have the choice to make the overdrive dominant, or the "presence" filter. (I call it like this because it seems to work like the presence knob in very old tube guitar amps.)
If you want the character of the presence filter, but it becomes too bright, you can use the dampening filter on the right side.

I guess it depends a lot on what type of musician you are.
for some years, I played keyboards with bands, and these pad sounds were my daily bread, so I feel immediately what to do about...

How often do they change the item on sale? Today the Shadow Hills normal is $49.99.

I have the class A Shadow Hills.

I just tried the normal and it does sound abit different.

Just wondering whether to wait or not to spend my voucher.

I was thinking of getting Bass Mint and the normal Shadow Hills.

MonkeyX,
try stacking a lot of different sounds when designing pad sounds. Experiment a lot of you want to make something "unique". This will bring your sound- design to another level. Experiment with levels to find perfect sweatspot for the layers. Sometimes a brutally metallic sounding or completely distorted sound beneath a sweet pad can make a huge difference when layered very low in volume. Great thing also is combining acustic and synthetic sounds together. Try rendering things in a mix and reverse it underneath the main pad. Another thing is to be careful with too much filter resonance env or LFO movement, which can be difficult to mix later. Sometimes it's better to layer e.g. a moving Wavetable pad under a mellow pad too get more interest via movement. Try FM both too... endless options.

And finally get MSoundfactory...as there isn't a second sound design instrument soooo deeeeep like that.

At what price are you thinking to get Bass Mint? Is it the "always available upgrade path from a qualifying plugin" for 79.99? Then you should wait for someone offering you a 50 bucks voucher - either by swapping your 25 bucks voucher for it or by waiting until some end of a month without any useful use for the 50 bucks voucher, at that point they are just posted here in this thread. If it's full price: Everyone and their mother will advise you against buying anything from PA at full price or close to full price.

Since there are so many prices you always need to make clear which offering you are talking about.

I was getting both for $55.

But I have decided against getting Bass Mint and the normal Shadow Hills.

Thanks for the tips. My two handed keyboard playing is not "excellent" yet at all, I'm more of a guitar player. But slowly I am making progress. The big problem I had with Prophet 5 VST instruments is I have never found one that sounded good, until uHe Repro 5. I didn't care for the Arturia, and so on, but maybe I can go back to them later once I have some Prophet "chops."

There's a lot of sound design in the Repro 5 patches which is interesting to me. It doesn't just sound like a couple oscillators going through a dark filter with a slow envelope.

My bread and butter for a few years was Juno pads, that's something easy for me to grasp. I mainly use FM for punchy basses, pseudo acoustic sounds and so forth, bright, unfiltered squares, harps and such. But I realize there's a lot more possibility now with FM than there was in my Yamaha DX7 MK I brown keyboard or TX81Z. I guess I should try to design an FM pad in Dark Zebra or something.

Reaktor is sitting there too but I'm not sure if I'm truly ready for it yet.

Lollll

I've also decided against both. I already have the Class A and don't need both Shadow Hills.

Regarding Bass Mint I've already written so much rant and hate speech that it's already getting old and boring.

Random one, there is no UK country option in the country list when buying from softube currently .
Maybe its because of Brexit haha.

They sent out an email. They’re not selling to UK customers until they figure things out.

Da Fcuk! :(

Dirk posted a pic of a GML 8900 he acquired today in order to create a plugin version

You´re welcome. Repro is very good imo.
FM is an awesome synthesis form, I love ever sincw. Btw, MeldaProductions MSoundFactory includes an 8 Operator FM module with internal OP-feedback and where really everything is modulatable plus manipulatable via all the other modules in MSF. This FM module alone has more features than any FM8 or other FM snyth I know of. Can´t recommend this monster system enough. No I´m not working for Melda

Gladly i made my shopping from them before NYE, i was aware of that.
There's always the option to buy from a reseller, but some products are not available from third party, also upgrades of individual plugins AFAIK.
Didn't they have 4 whole years, since the Brexit announced to "figure it out"??


Cheers!

Very interesting!

I wonder how Melda MSoundFactory compares to Omnisphere, Falcon, and maybe Zebra 2, maybe SynthMaster. (Have the last two.)

The "super synth" is not something I have many of yet.

I have come around to Melda a little bit lately. I used to hate the interfaces and seemingly extraneous controls. But I sort of get it now, I have MTurboComp. Someone gave that license away recently, don't remember where that came from. Probably Plugin Boutique.

Dude. **** all the rest of the synths, Reaktor is THE ****. Learning how to build and program in it was life changing for me. I've been a synth jockey since the '70s (built my first synth at 17) and Reaktor is the *ultimate* in anything synth or sound processing.

(How much do I love Reaktor? Look at my avatar. That's real.)

I'm just saying: don't sleep on Reaktor. Go to the NI user Library and be blown away by what's out there, free for the asking!

Thanks! I should probably learn these before I go shopping any more. Your experience reminds me of my experiences with Monotribe, DX7, Alpha Juno 1, and more recently Zebra 2.

I have a synth expert friend who might buy Reaktor, and he never buys anything. The kind of person that designs midi note logic templates in Ableton and so on. I think he mostly uses Operator for sounds.

I know Thom Jenkinson uses it almost exclusively as well.

I learned what I need to on the Juno I think, Zebra is taking me a little further now. I had a lesson from the friend on Reaktor a few months ago, we got a basic patch built. I was thinking about building a modular analog synth system too, since it wouldn't be too expensive at first.

Seems like Zebra and Reaktor can keep me occupied for a long time. I've heard Absynth is pretty good for design too.

Trying to slow down and get stuck in, your reminder is a good one.

**** absynth. Seriously. Reaktor will give you approaches to learning things about synthesis you never knew existed. And the fun part is you can tear things apart and modify them to your hearts content. It's just amazing. (NI bread boards all their stuff in Reaktor, btw)

Reaktor already comes with something called "blocks" that are effectively a virtual modular synth system. Mess with them before you shell out for real physical objects. It'll help you learn conceptually before attempting building the real thing.

Most importantly: have fun!

not to forget, synths have a digital layer of "outboard gear". very important: haas delay. I use ADT by airwindows.
various chorus devices, formant generators, try ada flanger. try the "elastic" from the DAW and transpose it and mix it together.
odd reverbs and granular delays.

Now that's true devotion! I too grew up in the 70s with the Prophet 5, Korg-MS-10 and Arp Omni. By the 90s many synths were uninspiring due to menu diving etc. I purchased Seer Systems Reality and that was very impressive as a synth being generated from my PC, but that wasn't where Dave Smiths heart was at. When a friend asked me to try Generator & Transformator (Later called Reaktor) I was instantly blown away by possibilities. I made some long-distance friends quickly at NI. Their so called "manual" was absolutely horrible, however they were aware of that. This period is when NI was a super cool company so alive with passion they had no time for a decent owners manual.

By 2001 I realized that synth building in Reaktor wasn't my primary objective, and my music production had suffered because of spending too much time in Reaktor. Trust me, you can get lost in the Reaktor world. Lock the doors, close the curtains, dump cable TV, loose your friends, and explore a million opportunities of sound. For myself I decided to re-focus on my production and let the famous Reaktor synth builders do what they do best.

Anything can distract anyone from their audio objectives. Reaktor was a huge distraction for me. But I learned a lot in that short 2 year-period, and ultimately I didn't regret it. I just had to focus on what I love doing most, and set boundaries so Reaktor...actually plug-in tools in general... don't take away from my primary objective.

In 2019, because Zebra2 was so cheap, I purchased it. It's totally different than Reaktor. I feel I have only learned maybe 10% it's offerings, but it too could be a huge distraction. Determining which is "better" is a decision only you can make.

Is $49.99 a fair price for Shadow HillsMastering Compressor?The company makes so many dymamic discounts that I wonder if I can buy it cheaper later.

It's huge. It's so huge that it's easy to get lost in there. And the drum libraries you can download there are literally huge

PiB gave away the license for LE version. Basically it's just a few presets, without the possibility to dive deep in the edit panel.

I Gott Zebra and Synthmaster. MSF goes far beyond. One generator is an 8 OP fully featured FM synth, another a complete Wavetable synth. Additive, physical modellingis very good. The simple OSC generators alone have more options as any OSC section I know of any synth. Everything is modulatable and I mean Everything. You get EVERY effect plugin Melda ever made within the 3rd matrix, the efx matrix. This section alone is mind blowing. There is a sampler module, granular and whatnot.
Missy modules alow re-synthesis and usually every section within a module has randomized features. Multiband and MS effects... There is literally no end. Meanwhile many people have build instruments for MSF which have their own preset section. There are already some excellent ones. You can use them as a base and see how they are buildin the generator matrix section. Basically this is ZEBRA x20 and beyond. Can't recommend enough. Steep learning curve but literally really the last instrument you'll need. As Melda has free lifetime update warranty. There isn't another bargain like this. This instrument is still at the beginning. Everything Melda fires in the future will be a part of MSF and there is much in the making. A new amp system, new filter module, a new granular module and many more. My head starts spinning. Did I mention it sounds awesome.

I bought NobleQ a few days ago, dialed in some top end and a little bit of mids, and it instantly gave air and clarity to a vocal which had been just "OK" up to that point. I was impressed, and I've been unimpressed by a lot of plugins. I'm sure I will find it more useful as I go along. For a first try, that was good!

I've got two support tickets open with PA and no responses. Oh well. My bank wouldn't let me get SPL Passeq for some unkown reason.

I all ready have it but for those who don't - If you want the Volume Bundle from Softube now would be a good time to do so through Thomann given the sale price for Volume 4. Says it's only available till tomorrow though as a one day sale I think. IMO this means Volume 5 is on the way. Cheap way to get in on it anyway. Wonder what the upgrade price will be to Volume 5 when it's released...

Also Arturia V Collection 8 is on Thomann for cheap. Again I all ready have V7 so no point in this for myself but there are some great short term offers there at the moment. This makes me feel I should have waited instead of buying V7 in the sale as upgrade price to 8 directly from Arturia is a bit steep atm.

What price do you see on there, because I just looked and I see 372 pounds which is more than $500 US dollars.

What is the best way to sell plugins?

I am looking to sell Slate Digital virtual console collection.

Thanks!

The plugin buy/sell marketplace facebook group is pretty active:

https://www.*********************aud...llmarketplace/

Edit: It won't let me post the link, but just search for "audio plugin buy sell marketplace" on Facebook to find the group

I have requested to join the group.

Thanks!