If the February doldrums have you, Plugin Boutique has some last-minute software sales now, including a big deal on an SH-101 clone from Softube and 95% off a bundle from Universal Audio. And that could very affordably get you a nice synth fix.
Some of these expire today Sunday, so go go go… (I literally put this off and was just reminded.)
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First, I’m going to cheat and leak the code from Plugin Boutique’s newsletter as this one tempts even me. Softube’s Model 82 is a recreation of the Roland SH-101 – check the Sound on Sound review. Now, I can’t help but compare this to the Roland Cloud version. Interestingly, Softube goes the extra step of recreating even the classic hardware step sequencer functionality, and it’s got the accurate single envelope. What they’ve done is add a slightly heftier low end and nice overdrive and doubling functionality. It sounds great, and you might well prefer this to rival D16, which is cool but loses a lot of the original’s characteristic simplicity.
Doubly awesome – this includes Model 82 for Softube Modular. That makes this an instabuy for me:
I mean, for $19? Through February 21. Use the code PBNL53. Discount shows up on checkout.
Model 82 Sequencing Mono Synth
I’m really addicted to Universal Audio’s native stuff lately. You can go subscription with them, but if you prefer to buy to own, here’s a great deal that’s exclusive to them: $69 for the full bundle, or 95% (!) off the list price of everything a la carte. It’s not all my favorites, but quite a few of them:
- Opal morphing synth
- Moog Minimoog
- Studer A800 Tape Recorder
- 1176 Classic Limiter Collection
- Lexicon 224 Digital Reverb
I think it’s worth it for the Opal and the 1176s alone if you don’t have those. (I’ll steer clear of the confusing variations of 1176 plug-ins offered by UA, as they all seem good.) The 224 is sort of ridiculously accurate to the original’s interface, if you’re into that sort of thing.
Universal Audio Electronic Music Bundle
There’s also 25% off the Korg Collection. It’s impressive how much this library has expanded. And it’s a reminder of how much gear is in the Korg back catalog. Its biggest competition, honestly, may be Korg’s own Gadget, which arguably makes more sense as software – though this is something for the nostalgic Korg completionist.
- microKORG (which connects to the hardware, if you’ve got it)
- Electribe-R
- KAOSS Pad
- miniKORG 700S
- Prophecy
- TRITON/TRITON Extreme
- ARP Odyssey
- MS-20
- Polysix
- Mono/Poly
- M1
- Wavestation
- MDE-X
Moog Mariana is 50% off for $49. They also added some improvements in a recent update, including going lighter on your CPU. Excellent. I love this thing. It’s heavy enough sound-wise that … I tend to just use Mariana in a mix (apart from when I got carried away and made some hats in it). But wow.
More time on this one, but AAS also has this exceptional sounding library Split Personalities on 50% off – also available from Plugin Boutique. And I never get tired of Chromaphone – there’s some gorgeous library content for it, as well, plus since it’s all physical modeling stuff, you can really wildly mess around with presets if you have the full Chromaphone. (You can use the free player, but… you want the full Chromaphone, trust me. Definitely one of my all-time favorite pieces of software.)
Split Personality Chromaphone 3 Sound Bank
And Soundtoys has their midwinter sale on – various a la carte plug-ins are steeply discounted (including the mighty EchoBoy and SuperPlate), as is Effect Rack which is your best budget entry to the full Soundtoys library (as well as a great way of combining them). Also, EchoBoy – it handles tempo changes. Yeah.
I included a guitar, to try to prove I don’t hate guitars. Look, some of my best friends are guitarists. Actually… uh, okay that is 100% not true, come to think of it; maybe I do have a problem.
Soundtoys plug-in store @ Plugin Boutique
Let us know if you’re using any of these. Good night for now.
