There are some big deals through October 31 – and happy Halloween. That includes the last call on Universal Audio’s beautiful LA-2A tube compressor plug-in and a ton of discounts over at Perfect Circuit (with Eurorack, drum machines, and more).
If you buy something from a CDM link, we may earn a commission.
Universal Audio LA-2A for free
This is your friendly reminder to grab UA’s LA-2A Teletronix compressor model for free. This is actually an all-new plug-in, too – it’s not the same model as in the LA-2A Collection (confusingly). And it’s fully native, so you don’t need UA hardware. I’ve been running UA’s native stuff on Apple Silicon, and it runs perfectly well. There’s also a lot you can do with these historical models that’s outside their conventional use – they often sound just as good on electronic sources.
You just provide your UA account (or sign up for one) and they’ll send you the license. You’ll need UA Connect, their app, in order to download. (On the Mac, it’s 59 MB for the plug-in.)
There’s some nice background info in the manual, too.
Universal Audio plug-in sale
Speaking of UA, Plugin Boutique has an exclusive sale that adds you all the other essential UAD plug-ins – also native, without any other hardware. And this stuff is really, really good I have to say:
- Teletronix LA-2A Leveler Collection (3 plug-ins)
- Pultec Passive EQ Collection (3 plug-ins)
- Century Tube Channel Strip
- Oxide Tape Recorder
- Galaxy Tape Echo
- Pure Plate Reverb
- PolyMAX Synth
Sometimes the skeuomorphic UIs get a little annoying, but the modeling craft from UA remains exceptional. I particularly like the Pultec and have already talked about how much I like the PolyMAX synth – it doesn’t look like much if you’ve just seen the screenshots, but the sound is full of character. At 85% off or $49, this one is easy to recommend:
UAD Essentials Edition – Crossgrade Bundle from FREE LA-2A
Perfect Circuit Halloween sale
Perfect Circuit has a big Halloween sale (stretching into the early days of November), with up to 40% off select items, and with anything that isn’t already on sale / b-stock / otherwise excluded, you can take 10% off with code SPOOKY10.
In the pro audio department:
MOTU M4 USB-C audio interface – I still totally love mine. DC-coupled I/O, big knobs for control on the front panel, LED metering, and class-compliant audio all mean this is perfect for live use. The UltraLite-m5 is on sale, too.
And you can get DT-990 Pro open-backed studio headphones / 250 Ohm for $25 off.
Oh, and how about $100 off the Sherman Filterbank 2 Compact?
On the synth side, some really nice deals:
Melbourne Instruments Nina Hybrid Polyphonic Synthesizer Module
Erica Synths SYNTRX II Analog Synthesizer
Gamechanger Audio Motor Synth MK II Electro-Mechanical Desktop Synthesizer (yes, please buy one of these and tell us about it!)
Erica Synths LXR-02 Drum Synthesizer
Kodamo MASK1 Polyphonic Bitmask Keyboard Synthesizer (I love that this is such an unusual creation)
SOMA Laboratory Enner Analog Touch Synthesizer among others
1010music Nanobox Lemondrop Desktop Granular Synthesizer
There’s a ton of Eurorack stuff in there – some of the stuff on my personal wish list – dear Santa Claus or whoever the demon spirit of Eurorack GAS is:
Endorphin.es GHOST Stereo Effects Processor (see CDM review)
XAOC Odessa Additive Synthesis Oscillator
Joranalogue Step 8 Sequential Tracking + Sampling Register
Qu-Bit Bloom Fractal Sequencer
Qu-Bit Data Bender Stereo Circuit Bent Effect
Miso Modular Cornflakes Stereo Granular Sampler
Doepfer A-124SE VCF5 Wasp Filter (Special Edition)
Doepfer A-198 Trautonium Manual / Ribbon Controller
Frap Tools QSC Creative Mixer Quad Stereo Channel
Befaco 1U STMix 4-Channel Stereo Mixer
Erica Synths Drum Sequencer
ALM Busy Circuits Tyso Daiko Dual Drum Voice and MFX Stereo Multi-Effects Processor (see recent ALM writeup)
Tiptop Audio Mantis Powered Eurorack Case
…and all the Buchla stuff from Tiptop is on sale, including the coveted Buchla 266t Source of Uncertainty
More plugin sales
A bunch of developers are offering discounts this week:
HoRNet has buy one – get one for 85% off
D16 is 40% off everything through November 5 – enter HALLOWEEN23 coupon code, a perfect time to grab Drumazon 2 (review coming this week, will get that out before the sale)
Reason Studios has discounts up to 77% off Rack Extensions including developers like Noise Engineering – and they’re doing a Halloween livestream, so if you don’t want to go out on Halloween, you can stay in and nerd out!
Cherry Audio has various items on sale now, but most notably the Voltage Modular has a sale starting on November 1. (Looks like some modular stuff is already on sale.)
Plugin Boutique has a bunch of Halloween sales and just-about-to-end October sales, plus… uh, “Black Friday early access,” not sure what that even means at some point, but there you go.
