Audiobus: Use your music apps together.
What is Audiobus? — Audiobus is an award-winning music app for iPhone and iPad which lets you use your other music apps together. Chain effects on your favourite synth, run the output of apps or Audio Units into an app like GarageBand or Loopy, or select a different audio interface output for each app. Route MIDI between apps — drive a synth from a MIDI sequencer, or add an arpeggiator to your MIDI keyboard — or sync with your external MIDI gear. And control your entire setup from a MIDI controller.
Download on the App StoreAudiobus is the app that makes the rest of your setup better.
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If classic romplers are your thing then Digital Sound Factory have a summer sale on with code dsfsummer20 which gets you 20% off at checkout
https://www.digitalsoundfactory.com
Expires 19th July.
I have the Proteus and Ensoniq Keyboard Collection bundles and I am very happy with both. They are not cheap but I see it as an investment in a ton of well programmed soundfonts that I can carry around with me forever on whatever platform I like. Converting them to SF3 in Mac Polyphone (now we have KQ Sampei to play them!) also pretty much halves the disk space used.
A special shout-out to Tim Swartz who worked over the weekend to promptly correct my order after I mistakenly ordered the wrong item. Really good customer service.
Waverley Instruments' Synthetic Materials is 40% off at Loot Audio (with NKS support too). Sounds great and you can even drag and drop your own samples into it.
https://www.lootaudio.com/category/kontakt-instruments/waverley-instruments/synthetic-materials
Plus lots of extra content here https://www.waverley-instruments.com/downloads
I’ve been tempted by the Ensoniq collection for at least a year now. If one is a fan of this vibe you’re saying worth getting?
I managed to still get this for free last night.
Certainly, if you aware of the Proteus pack then this is more of the same but in a good way. I like how small the samples are - over 1000 presets in the Ensoniq ASR part of the bundle (which is the largest part) uses just 250MB when converted to SF3. Many of these have a few velocity layers and different samples across the keyboard so not just one or two samples stretched. The EMU-Emax part compresses to under 40MB for almost 900 presets and the story is similar for the other parts of the bundle.
The $99 price point for each of the Ensoniq and Proteus bundles seems a lot on paper but when I add up how much romplers and associated IAPs cost on iOS then it does not seem such a bad deal, especially when the format is pretty much future-proof versus a walled-garden rompler. I can also shove these on my Android phone and load them (in SF2 format) into Audio Evo Mobile and have a wealth of sound options without needing any other plugins.
Don't go for the Ensoniq ASR (that was my mistake!) as it is the same price as this bundle which is on sale at the moment and which also includes Ensoniq ASR: https://www.digitalsoundfactory.com/product/kontakt-keyboards-bundle/
The 20% sale should be over now, officially anyway - the code may still work. I got the Proteus pack during the sale last Black Friday which I believe they run every year.
Edit: another thing I forgot to mention is that I like knowing that these samples are from what I consider a trusted source and so I can use them without the copyright worries I would have when using some random SoundFonts from the web.
All the Samples From Mars Bundle is 97% off at $59. Lots of bundle and pack sales too. Check out some of the recently released packs as well. Dam. I’m gonna have to grab this for the second time at the end of 2022 to get all the 2021 and 2022 samples.
https://samplesfrommars.com/
the SSL Native X-Comp and SSL Native X-ValveComp are both down to $14.99 atm ('til Aug 10th I think), even less at jrr with code 'forum', some other SSL Plugins are on sale too
Another small Reverb Drum Sample Pack, this time dub pop in the style of Stewart Copeland
https://reverb.com/software/samples-and-loops/reverb/3787-dub-pop-drums-in-the-style-of-the-police-s-stewart-copeland
A new and free polyphonic/MPE chord bender:
https://joshuapostel.github.io/deep-gliss/
Pigments is 50% off
https://www.arturia.com/products/software-instruments/pigments/overview
Krotos’ Concept 2 synth plus SFX sample packs in this HumbleBundle. Have read good things about this synth as a sound design tool https://www.humblebundle.com/software/krotos-audio-software
Good run through here
Spitfire Audio BBC Symphony Orchestra Discover is now available as an instant download for FREE!
https://www.spitfireaudio.com/shop/a-z/bbc-symphony-orchestra-discover/
I still don't know what it is after watching the video. Are they sampled instruments? Is it an AU plugin? Anyone download and use it?
If you also own Unify, there are some really nice patches integrated from this plugin.
Propbably already posted, but if you're looking for free LUFS metering, Youlean Loudness Meter 2 is free, 64bit VST2 and 64bit VST3 on Windows. Pro version is currently 38% off, at $29, down from $47. Nice that it keeps its metering history.
https://youlean.co/youlean-loudness-meter/
They are sampled instruments from the BBC Symphony Orchestra. 200 MB in total. Available in the Spitfire Audio plugin, which can be AU, VST2, VST3 or AAX, depending upon your chosen DAW.
Thanks for clearing that up. 👍
Sonarworks SoundID Reference up to 50% off at JRR Shop.
https://www.jrrshop.com/sonarworks?dir=desc&order=special_from_date
Use FORUM to get an extra discount.
Don't know if anyone uses Soundpaint (https://soundpaint.com/), but they've given me a referral deal where you can get $15 off one of their libraries using this link: http://soundpaint.refr.cc/nigelt - being totally up front, I also get $15 off my next purchase...!
Everything at Applied Acoustic Systems is half off. Link. Really good physical modeling instruments.
I picked up a custom bundle with Chromaphone 3, Multiphonics CV-1, Objeq Delay, String Studio VS-3, Strum GS-2, Ultra Analog VA-3 for $34.
That’s insanely cheap, upgrade prices or something?
I originally purchased their 'Professional Bundle' years ago. The upgrade bundle was originally only $69 before the sale.
If you log into your account, and click on 'OFFERS' on the right, it'll show custom bundles and deals for your account.
Ah cool that makes sense, Ta 👍👍
They also create a custom installer package for everything you buy so you only need to download and install one installer. Benchmark customer service, the exact opposite of Native Instruments, Izotope, IKM etc
Thanks for posting.
Love AAS! One annoying thing about their Mac installers is they don’t give you the option to pick which plugins to install (AU, AAX, VST2, VST3) so after installing I have to delete plugins from several folders to save space because I use Logic which only uses AU. First world problems I know and to be fair other brands of plug-in installers do the same thing.
Waldorf PPG Wave is 89% off
https://audioplugin.deals/ppg-wave-3-v-from-waldorf/ref/21/
ADSR has a free sample pack called Outpost, use code “bday” usually $17
https://www.adsrsounds.com/product/wav-samples/outpost/
Wake me up when Nave will be on sale
But it's probably a very old app now with better equivalent. When was the last time Nave has been updated?
I own Synthmaster 2. I'm sure there not a lot of thing that Nave can do that SM2 can't, but it's probably the only Hall of Fame music app that I never bought. Probably just an OCD thing.