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Orchestral Tools up to 63% off - which one

Oh my gosh, 500 US for Met Ark 1 and 2? I just paid over 700 two months ago...no way I could have foreseen this. Bumming.

Not suggesting__ "misery loves company" :crying: __ but experienced exactly what you posted …. not so long ago.
Jumped at almost every 'deal' running every few days in Dec (noted source) and then Jan, a big blast over at NI for everything _ $200. less.
Each purchaser doesn't really care if it's few days, or few months ….. just not cool

Hang in there. More of this likely coming and you can hopefully be on the other side. ;)
 
For those considering OSR, I ran across the following list of articulations which is much more thorough than is currently presented on the product page at orchestraltools.com:
https://www.orchestraltools.com/downloads/ARTICULATION_CHART.pdf

Caveat is that this list may have been from version 1.0, and the more recent updates (2.0 came out in 2012-ish I think?) could now include more offerings.
 
Yeah I don't really understand, OT said that they weren't doing sales in order to avoid screwing over loyal customers. Then they choose to suddenly dish out large sales without warning, thereby screwing over loyal customers

Yeah I honestly wonder what the hell is up. I realize that the economy changes and prices have to change with it. But they just kept up the perception that they wouldn't cut prices like this, and then immediately turned around and without any warning just pulled the rug out.

It ouchies quite a bit.
 
Inspire 1 was my gateway drug into modern sample libraries. It was great when I got, but I've moved on to bigger and better things and rarely use it anymore. I still think it's a fantastic library, especially at this price.

This is a mockup of March of the Resistance I made using Inspire 1:

 
VSL is where the real professionals go. The best instruments, software, and never depreciates. People complain sometimes that VSL is expensive, but you see its some of the best VI you can buy.
 
Well, this one stings just a little. I took advantage of the sale at the OT website, and in the process bought a couple of items that were NOT on sale, figuring... "Why not? It's not like the OT stuff goes on blowout sale all the time, or ever, really..."

So what this kind of chain of events has taught me (or, rather, reinforced my normal way of thinking) is this:

I will never buy anything unless it's on some insane half-price (or better) sale.

Why bother? We've seen that even the high-price stalwarts in the industry eventually cave to pressure / competition / FOMO and, sooner or later, EVERYTHING goes on sale.

So we seem to have arrived at the point that the developers have all been dreading - everyone knows that almost every product will be at half-price sooner or later, so the only time I'll pay full pop is when a product is directly relevant to a project that's due in two weeks. When it comes to just stocking my pantry, these are all canned goods and can be bought in bulk when the price is on blowout.
 
Yeah I don't really understand, OT said that they weren't doing sales in order to avoid screwing over loyal customers. Then they choose to suddenly dish out large sales without warning, thereby screwing over loyal customers
It ain't great for loyal customers and I know after having been shafted by OT in the past - and it shows OT may not care if they get loads of "whoopee bargain" comments from first-time buyers....

Imagine offering a promo sale, then getting contacted by a loyal customer (within 30 mins of purchase) that the customer had been clumsy and forgotten to add a voucher code when buying so missed out on the discount, and then telling that customer "bad luck"....
 
Well at least now we know why the Arks weren't on sale for Black Friday, lol.

But seriously, if Ark 1 and 2 is available for $500, why don't they offer a $100 cross-grade if you own one of the Arks already?
 
Well, this one stings just a little. I took advantage of the sale at the OT website, and in the process bought a couple of items that were NOT on sale, figuring... "Why not? It's not like the OT stuff goes on blowout sale all the time, or ever, really..."

So what this kind of chain of events has taught me (or, rather, reinforced my normal way of thinking) is this:

I will never buy anything unless it's on some insane half-price (or better) sale.

Why bother? We've seen that even the high-price stalwarts in the industry eventually cave to pressure / competition / FOMO and, sooner or later, EVERYTHING goes on sale.

So we seem to have arrived at the point that the developers have all been dreading - everyone knows that almost every product will be at half-price sooner or later, so the only time I'll pay full pop is when a product is directly relevant to a project that's due in two weeks. When it comes to just stocking my pantry, these are all canned goods and can be bought in bulk when the price is on blowout.

VSL never have even half off on their main libraries. Sometimes their software goes on sale and such, but most is about around 25% for their libraries. Keep in mind some of their libraries are almost around 10 years old...and still going way strong.
 
VSL never have even half off on their main libraries. Sometimes their software goes on sale and such, but most is about around 25% for their libraries. Keep in mind some of their libraries are almost around 10 years old...and still going way strong.

Yeah, I was generalizing a bit in my earlier post. I have a bunch of VSL stuff but it was all either bought on sale and/or with vouchers for reduced prices. I think the only product I bought at full pop from them was VEPro and Appassionata Strings - and that was many years ago.

And I realize that Spitfire has sales, but it's rarely (never?) a full-on half-price deal. But it really seems that more of the first-tier developers are doing sales when they never did before, even if the half-price deals are reserved for products that are older or about to be made obsolete by newer products. The second-tier developers seem to rotate through the sales, and sooner or later the half-price (or even better) pricing comes around on the products you want. Down in the trenches of the third-tier, it's a freaking free-for-all in terms of pricing.

It's the sample-pocalypse!
 
The thing about it is this:

Up until very, VERY recently, OT insisted in emails and in public policy that they wouldn't do this.

Only to turn around and act like they never said it. Brutal for the likes of us who trusted them.

They have to know they've hurt their reputation. I sent them an email expressing this exact sentiment.
 
Well Christmas sales are meant to be a surprise so anything is fair game. I don't think they could have told you there would be a sale since that's meant to be specially unveiled later for the holidays.
 
Yeah, I was generalizing a bit in my earlier post. I have a bunch of VSL stuff but it was all either bought on sale and/or with vouchers for reduced prices. I think the only product I bought at full pop from them was VEPro and Appassionata Strings - and that was many years ago.

And I realize that Spitfire has sales, but it's rarely (never?) a full-on half-price deal. But it really seems that more of the first-tier developers are doing sales when they never did before, even if the half-price deals are reserved for products that are older or about to be made obsolete by newer products. The second-tier developers seem to rotate through the sales, and sooner or later the half-price (or even better) pricing comes around on the products you want. Down in the trenches of the third-tier, it's a freaking free-for-all in terms of pricing.

It's the sample-pocalypse!
Spitfire did give 50% off of Tundra (And Albion One if you are a student) this year, along with some crazy sales prices, including this BF. BUT, they explained it as their 10th Anniversary. So then the question is, once this year is over, will the sales be as low, or will they go back to "you are lucky if we give you 35% off" sales.

NI did a lot of crazy sales with companies that use the NKS this year. I got the impression they were going to be one-off type sales. So it could be this is it for OT. And? I'm not complaining even if I did lose out on one company's great deal because I had most of their stuff already. I got enough good deals from them in the prior sales not to be too upset.

But I do commiserate with those who paid full price recently for the Arks, only to have them go on sale. It is very frustrating to see the sale of things you paid double the price for and feeling lied to.
 
Spitfire did give 50% off of Tundra (And Albion One if you are a student) this year, along with some crazy sales prices, including this BF. BUT, they explained it as their 10th Anniversary. So then the question is, once this year is over, will the sales be as low, or will they go back to "you are lucky if we give you 35% off" sales.

NI did a lot of crazy sales with companies that use the NKS this year. I got the impression they were going to be one-off type sales. So it could be this is it for OT. And? I'm not complaining even if I did lose out on one company's great deal because I had most of their stuff already. I got enough good deals from them in the prior sales not to be too upset.

But I do commiserate with those who paid full price recently for the Arks, only to have them go on sale. It is very frustrating to see the sale of things you paid double the price for and feeling lied to.

Besides BF and student, that was like a random 1-2 day flash sale in the year for 1 product. You could try asking Christian to hike up some more mountains to maybe offer more deals? I believe Charlie has spoken to him before. Who knows. Lol
 
I'm glad I bought the Ark series at the introductory discounts as they rolled out. I'm not all that annoyed at the NI sale price being lower than what I paid, since I've gotten a bunch of use out of them in the years since I bought. But I did buy a couple of things like Inspire just the other day, that were not on sale, but I did get the vouchers which reduced the prices of other things that were not on sale, so all in all it's pretty much a wash. But I can see how some folks who paid full pop for the big boys in the OT series might be less than thrilled to see the prices at NI today.

As to Spitfire, I generally try to buy on introductory discount, which is basically okay by me. Not really all that bummed at any of the companies really, but moving forward I'll be less likely to just spring for things at full price now that even the titans of the industry are offering discounts here and there.
 
VSL is where the real professionals go. The best instruments, software, and never depreciates. People complain sometimes that VSL is expensive, but you see its some of the best VI you can buy.
Wrong. Pros do use VSL but it's not like OT isn't in most film composers' arsenals in some way, shape or form.
 
I own SF Brass, Strings, SCS, HZP, Wotan Choirs and few other libraries.

Will I benefit from anything in Met 1 or 3 that I can't already to in what I own? I was waiting to pick these libraries up but I'm curious if anyone thinks its worth getting if I already own and use a lot of Spitfire stuff. This sale seems really good.

Out of the libraries you mention that you already own, I only have Wotan. That being said, I know enough about the others to know that the absolutely insanely gorgeous choirs in Met Ark 1 are something that you will most certainly benefit from. They are by far the best sounding choirs I've ever heard and I know that many on here will agree with me on that point. They're not overly flexible since they don't give you a lot of control over the syllables used, etc. ... but their sound quality is so high that within a couple minutes you forget about all that and simply enjoy the exquisite sound. They are a go-to for me for any epic or orchestral track.
 
Now back to the decision-making. I only own BWW that I got on BF and Time Macro - why didn't they do a $1,000 takes it all deal?

I don't need Sphere or the pianos. I probably don't need string runs - I have SonoKinetic's ostinado strings. I'm sure I have runs somewhere. I do have 8Dio's Caged that covers some of the Ark 3 stuff. And I recently picked up VS's Smart Orchestra for pretty cheap as I bought the SE 1 bundle in a prior sale. So I may not need Inspire. Well, I don't NEED any of it. But I see why people like the Arks.

Okay, more videos....
 
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