US readers, if you’re looking for deals on new gear, major retailers are all running sales. Here are a few hand-picked selections I’d be scoping out if I lived in the US. And for now, while some inventory is backordered, you can lock in pre-tariff pricing.
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Perfect Circuit Memorial Day Sale
The offer: up to 40% off sale items, plus 10% off non-sale items with code MEMORIAL10 (some exclusions)
Dates: starts Memorial Day – unspecified
This is probably the dangerous one, as far as your wallet’s fear of me:
Synths / keyboards / drum machines
Top picks, to name a few:
Waldorf Iridium for $1200 (!) off (and you just missed $1100 off the Waldorf M – wow – but you can try to wishlist that)
Gamechanger Audio Motor Synth MK II for $1200 (!) off
Erica Synths SYNTRX II for $280 off
Some of these items are backordered. But if those are too rich for your blood, we also have some buys that work as impulse buys:
Teenage Engineering PO-12 Rhythm for $49
Erica Synths Pico System III – if you’ve got nimble fingers, this is an incredible little modular or modular addition
Modal Electronics Argon8 wavetable synth was a great buy to begin with, even more so for $100 off
Fred’s Lab ZeKit paraphonic synth – love this cute thing, $234
Plus there’s this: Sonicware’s LIVEN granular synth / effects box is now hardware at a price you might pay for actual software that does this:
LIVEN Texture Lab Granular Synthesizer + Effector – $239
There’s a ton of Eurorack stuff, too; here are a few examples:
Ginkosynthese Sampleslicer MKIII – utterly brilliant, one of my favorite modules of the moment
Instruo Scion Biometric Feedback to CV (for something left-field)
Instruo neóni Through-Zero Oscillator
The classic Doepfer when you need to add more envelope generators – actually I could use one of these. A-140-2 Dual Mini ADSR Envelope Generator
Sweetwater Recording Sale
The offer: up to 50% off recording; up to 30% off headphones
Dates: through June 2
So the big one here is Ableton Push 3 Standalone with Suite at $1995 instead of $2558. Sweetwater is the exclusive reseller for Push 3 in the USA; other sales have to go directly to Ableton.com, where you still pay the usual price price. And this includes the full Live Suite, not the lite edition that normally comes bundled with Push.
Ableton Push 3 Standalone – Live 12 Suite Edition
It’s hard to pick an audio interface these days in a good way; low-cost interfaces from Universal Audio, Focusrite, MOTU, and others all have great converters and plenty of I/O. This SSL strikes me as one that readers might find useful, especially in a project studio, as they had the sense to lay out the input channels and meters so you can stand in for a mixer – doubly so given the ADAT I/O there. I find I really do my mixing in the box where it’s easier to track, especially now that multichannel audio interfaces don’t take up much space.
Solid State Logic SSL 12 USB Audio Interface
Bonus round: some nice deals on Beyerdynamic and AIAIAI, especially. Having tried the latest TMA-2 headphones, yes, I would choose these over the (oddly more expensive) Sennheiser HD-25. But more on their new hotness soon.
Plus I love that Sweetwater made parody site The Hard Times:
Guitar Center
The offer: up to 35% off, plus 10% off used and vintage (over $499, in rewards) and 48-month financing
Dates: through May 28
And this is CDM, so let me tell you about keyboard deals from this “guitar centrum”:
Arturia’s excellent MiniLab 3 and KeyLab Essential 61 mk3 are both on sale, in black, GC exclusives. I use the heck out of that MiniLab 3, in fact.
IK Multimedia iLoud Micro Monitor pair for $229.99 is almost an insta-buy – these compact speakers are better than you think, and really portable, so can do duty everywhere from an extra project studio / monitors to trade shows with your modules.
And the flagship Akai MPC X SE is on a steep sale for $600 off ($1899 instead of $2499).
That’s all I’ve got; if you spot more, let us know in comments.
