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Black Friday: A Christmas Story.

By December 10, 2018January 3rd, 2019Featured

Black Friday, Fabfilter and Luck

Oh Black Friday, you cruel mistress. As I’m sure we all know by the ridiculous amounts of emails we got, the Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Whatever you wanna call it Wednesday sales just went by and are now done with *opens inbox*… I just got another email about a sale *sigh*. This time of year there’s an obscene amount of bargains to be had and temptations to resist. No, you don’t REALLY need that new plugin, or maybe you do?

See if you are smart about it, you can really take advantage of these sales. They may mostly be a nightmare but used correctly, you can become more powerful than you ever imagined…no wait, that’s the dark side of the force. Used correctly and with some planning and the occasional bit of luck, you pick up some awesome tools for an amazing price.

Planning

There’s a suite of plugins that I’ve wanted for about 1 1/2 years now. I came across them when browsing plugins online, I was curious about 3rd party plugins, seeing what was out there beyond the Logic Pro X and Pro Tools stock selection. What grabbed my attention was a gorgeous looking EQ, it looked like the Logic Pro X EQ, but a little more advanced. Now I’m firmly in camp ‘don’t need to break the bank on equipment/plugins’. The stock Logic Pro X selection, for example, are great and they do an awesome job.

Sometimes, those little extras can go a long way. When I saw ProQ 2 EQ by Fabfilter, I knew I had to get it. After seeing the Fabfilter EQ and then looking into their other plugins, I knew it was the suite I wanted to work with. I’m a very visual person and if a program isn’t visually pleasing, I can find it difficult to work with, these all looked gorgeous.

A few other reasons cemented my reasoning for wanting to work with these plugins. While at a few studios, I noticed the supervising sound designer was using Fabfilter. Then pushing this even further, I heard nothing but praise about Fabfilter Volcano, which I highly recommend looking into. 

That was that I needed them. 

So I did research, I checked out if Fabfilter does any Black Friday type deals. I then discovered they do, around wintertime they offer a 25% discount on all of their products. So I waited for the email… and finally, it came.

Now I’m proud to say I bought the Fabfilter FX bundle. Did it get better after that? it did.

Hidden Extras

Something I wasn’t expecting was that on Fabfilter Youtube they have amazing tutorials. This was another huge factor in me wanting the FX bundle. Fab filter explains their plugins so well. I want to get more in-depth knowledge of my tools and this afforded me the perfect opportunity. Another advantage to using 3rd party plugins is that you can use them in most DAWs, so you don’t have to constantly relearn Plugins if you switch over to an unfamiliar DAW.

Bonus

As if I couldn’t love Fabfilter more, soon after I bought the FX bundle, they released ProQ 3. I was actually a little sad…i’d missed out on a brand new product by days. Fabfilter did not let me down, however, approaching the release date I got an email offering my ProQ 3 for FREE since I had just bought the FX bundle and they have a grace period between new purchases and new releases.

Fabfilter, you have thoroughly impressed me for a long time and I have not been disappointed after finally buying your products, I can’t wait to dive in and make them apart of my workflow.

A little Luck

Sometimes sales just have the right deal for you, something you haven’t been thought about. Let me rewind this a bit.

I was browsing the game audio slack channel, ran by the AWESOME Matthew Marteinsson. Some fellow sound designers were talking about transient designers and I honestly, had no idea what it was. I quickly realized having one at my disposal would be a great addition to my sound design arsenal. So I did some research, but they were a little out of my price range.

And this is where luck comes in. Plugin Boutique had a ridiculous deal in which you buy ANYTHING and receive a copy of izotope Elements for FREE. I’d seen this deal forever, I had no idea what elements even was. So, I looked it up randomly, and low and behold, it’s a plugin in not only worth about £120 – It also has a transient designer included. Did I take advantage of this? HELL YES.

So, being on a budget, I searched Plugin Boutique for a plugin that I wanted. I wanted something cheap enough to get this deal, but I also didn’t want to buy something I wasn’t going to use. Then I came across a multi-fx by Glitch Machines called Convex. Glitch Machines is another company I’ve had my eye on for ages, their stuff sounds so good. Conves was heavily discounted to £4 or something.

So I picked up Izotope Elements and Glitchmachines Convex, worth about £160; for £4. That’s a ridiculous deal.

Be Smart

So, these sales aren’t as devilish as they seem. What I would strongly advise is research products that you want well in advance. If you can afford to pay the full price, do it, support those hardworking women and men than create these amazing tools. However if you can’t afford full price, and there’s no shame in that, I certainly can’t right now, make a game plan for these sales. Make a list of things you want, make a budget and keep an eye out for your chosen tools to go on sale. Then also with a little luck thrown in, you might come across a deal that won’t break the bank that includes some tools that you haven’t even thought of too. most importantly don’t go crazy on them, be smart.

There’s still a bunch of plugins I want to pick up I’m looking at you SoundToys),  but I’m going to wait until either next time, or a time I can afford them.

So friends, now that I’ve rambled on, keep safe, stay smart, spread some love, until next time.

Fenderbee

Sound Designer For Video Games Based In London England. Writing About Game Audio, Productivity and Rambling On About All Things Nerdy.