I'll have more details within the next two weeks. There will be some changes to the process but it will be back to being active here again.

This is my opinion. You don't have to agree with me but this is how I feel.

Earlier I got a few promotional emails from companies who were using the war in Ukraine as a means of promotion to sell products. This caused me to instantly see red and I sent a few strongly worded emails to these companies about doing so and I believe now I need to post my stance on it as we will likely be seeing more of this in the coming days.

Let me make one thing absolutely clear: I find the practice of using tragedy as a means of promotional material completely despicable. I found it tasteless during the first year of COVID with all the virus sales being done and to use a very fresh, very bloody and very tragic issue going on as a means of selling product for profit is beyond reprehensible and I will seriously reconsider posting any company here who takes part in such a thing.

Now that said, there are also people with some very big hearts that will be donating to charity. To these people, I can only say: tread lightly. Again using Covid as an example, I found even many of those doing charity sales to be disingenuous - just another way to promote products under the guise of charity while donating a minimal amount and reaping the benefits of promotion and further profit from the sales. I find these practices to be highly unethical. My suggestion to these companies: if you're going to do a charity sale, do it right and give all the profits you make from it to the proper charities or don't do it at all. Again, this is my opinion and a company is free to make their own decisions but the way this is handled will cause me to make possible changes with who I am willing to continue supporting on this subreddit by posting them here.

Lastly, to people who wish to comment on this post, to you I also say tread lightly. Leave the politics at the door as I will not put up with it. Many of us, myself included, have friends in Ukraine we've been worrying about and unable to get in touch with. My one and only concern is that they get the help they need quickly to get out safe. This will not turn into a discussion about politics and what people believe should be or shouldn't be done concerning this war. This is simply about how music companies are handling charity sales or other sales they will be getting involved in.

Edit:

As this has been posted on the Discord already, I'm going to post it here. This company, r-loops, has not gotten back to my message at all whether they have not checked them or didn't care to but I wanted to give them the opportunity to make things right by issuing an apology to their list before naming them. I don't like the mob mentality that Reddit often has and my goal is not to start trouble for people. That said, the other company I will not name as I spoke with them one on one and they were genuinely embarrassed and quickly removed their post the moment I brought it to their attention. This message was mostly to serve as a warning to other companies in the coming days and weeks of what not to do rather than to publicly shame specific people.

I do not believe in bullying so I would ask that if you're going to speak, speak with your money instead of with untamed words. Regardless of how I or others feel about this, things like threats and hurling insults is never okay either.

That said, for now I am going to lock this thread as I've had to remove quite a few posts in it already.

https://imgur.com/m5ZxJa0.png

https://i.imgur.com/ZQGwuyD.png

Ladies and gentlemen, here we are again. November is going to begin tomorrow, and I hope you all are prepared. This message will be a little longer than my standard welcome to November message.

This year has been difficult for everyone to say the least, and I don’t really have any idea what to expect for these upcoming sales other than there will be a lot of them. I’m going to ask you all to bear with me as they get posted and if I miss small details here and there (always check requirements on something you’re planning on buying anyway!). It’s going to take a lot of time to gather and post them; especially as we get closer to Black Friday.

First off, I want to give a huge thank you to the Patreon supporters both current and past. You guys are awesome, and I appreciate the support. I’m going to whore myself out a bit. As this subreddit has grown, I’ve been spending more and more time tending to it every day, usually 7 days a week. Last November I was averaging between 6-10 hours a day gathering sales, checking to see what was posted and when and getting new sales up. My list of companies has grown significantly since last year and I expect it’s going to be far worse as many companies are banking on the holiday season this year. The issue for me is that this also takes time away from my work in the studio which I don’t have an issue doing at all, but it also means I make less money so I’m going to post my Patreon link. Again, I have no expectations when it comes to this but if you’re feeling what I’m doing worth a few bucks, I’ll appreciate it.

https://www.patreon.com/audioproductiondeals

Next, I would like to talk about some changes I’m going to try here. One of the things that has been weighing on me for a while now is how things are posted. Generally, I would check each site and post the link to the cheapest prices. There have been a couple issues in doing this: mailers are sent out at different times meaning the cheapest prices may come later in the day or even a few days later for some discounters, some places offer different benefits beyond just a cheaper price such as free plugins or virtual currency you can use on that specific site to bring costs of other products down and some people want to support the developers more by paying a couple extra dollars on the developer sites. I want to try posting the links for the regular discounters in the actual comments section and sticky them at the top so they can both be updated as other discounters sales start. I’m also going to try listing the developer’s direct sales in these posts but they will still be making their own posts if they have posting access here so keep that in mind. After a few days, I’d like to see what everyone thinks about doing it this way. The biggest issue is that it’s going to be much more time consuming so I will try it for the first week in November and see how it goes.

This time every year I always get a lot of messages asking me if I know when a company is doing their sale and what it will be. If it's not posted on here, I'm likely in the dark as well. Companies don't always do the same sales every year so I'm don’t want to say without 100% certainty a company will do a sale or what it will be. The best thing to do is look at the sale history of a company. You can do this by using the search bar to see what has been posted here from them in past years or google "company Black Friday sale" and see what the history is like beyond the few years I've been doing this. Like I said above though, this year is functioning a bit different than past years and I have no idea what to expect this year.

I also want to address something that has been on my mind a lot lately. I’ve noticed there is a lot of downvoting on certain companies or posts. I'd like to ask that this stop. Standard Reddiquette is to not downvote an otherwise acceptable post because you don't personally like it. Every post made on here is legitimate. I take time to vet every new company I add to my list for this very reason. Developers, whether you like them or their products, work hard on what they put out and shouldn’t be downvoted just because someone personally doesn’t like them. It's better to either ignore the posts or by all means, come into the comments section and post about what you don’t like in a well thought out manner because often times, companies tend to miss the actual issues with their products because they feel like they are just being attacked. I know this is wishful thinking on my part and just asking to be downvoted myself, but remember the companies come here and see the posts, comments and votes being made. There are more companies lurking here than you may realise but have no interest in posting their own deals. I’d love if they’d become more active in the discussions at the very least though. Just something to keep in mind, especially this year when we’re all a little more emotionally spent.

As usual, here is my yearly tips on how to deal with the coming sales:

1. Make a budget. Know exactly how much money you want to spend, give yourself a buffer and do not go over that amount. What I mean is to walk in with a goal amount and a hard cutoff. "I have $400 I want to budget for plugins/libraries/etc. and would like to keep it in that area but I will give myself a $100 buffer that gives me some wiggle room if something is over the budget I have set or a sale pops up I really want but I will NOT go over that $500 mark."

With all the sales that pop up, it's very easy to spend more than you anticipated on spending. I've done it, pretty much everyone I know in this industry has done it. We'll buy a lot of the things we wanted to buy including a few surprises but there are always one or two companies that do a late sale that leaves us head-desking because we hit that hard budget wall already and we end up spending more than anticipated. This brings us to...

2) Make your list; check it twice. Walk into sale season knowing exactly what you want. Vet the products now and list out what you need, what you'd like to have and maybe a third section of possible buys if they go low enough.

Ask yourself if you truly need what you buy. This will help you budget things better. There have been things on my list that I've had on it for three or more years and never bought because I never truly needed it because maybe it wasn't something I'd use in a project at that point in time. On the other end, I've bought things I wanted to buy that never got used. With as quickly as the tech changes in this industry, some libraries can get outdated just as quick so ask yourself if you need them for an existing or upcoming project before you buy because it sucks to spend $150 on a library that sits unused for 2 years only to have another company put out a similar product that is much better than the one you bought and never used.

3) For the stuff you know you want to buy, it's a good idea to search and look at the company’s sale history so you know exactly when to expect their sale to hit. Many companies will do their sales around the same week every year and some of them end up being late season sales in which case you may have already spent your budget and have nothing left by the time their product goes on sale. Looking this up beforehand will also give you an idea whether a product or company does a winter sale (i.e. Xfer Records does not do sales so if you were hoping to get Serum for less, you will be disappointed. Same with Spectrasonics if you were hoping to get Omnisphere at discount from them).

4) There WILL be things you didn't expect, so expect to spend money you weren't anticipating spending even if you make a list. There is sure to be many announcements in the coming weeks and released before Christmas. For some reason, companies have this wild idea that it's great to announce a new, previously unannounced product this time of year. If you're a developer, it's not. Stop doing it. :P

So, expect that there may be something coming out with an intro price and try to set something aside for that possibility as well. Worse comes to worse, you have money left over for Christmas (or the inevitable January sales)

NOTE: NI is not doing upgrades and crossgrades for this Black Friday Sale. It will happen instead in June.

Kontakt Upgrade Instructions:

Every year we go through these, so I figured this was as good a place as any for them. Typically Native Instruments Black Friday Sale is Upgrades and Crossgrades. This is a good time to pick up Kontakt or even crossgrade to Komplete. Here’s how:

Go to and get the free Embertone Arcane library: https://www.embertone.com/instruments/arcane.php

They will email you a key which you register with NI’s Native Access application (you’ll want to make an account here if you don’t have one already, as well): https://www.native-instruments.com/en/specials/native-access/

Once the Arcane key is registered in Native Access, you should be able to crossgrade to Kontakt Full when it goes on sale. You can check this early by logging into your Native Instruments account on the website and clicking “Buy Now” on the Kontakt page. There will be a drop down menu to buy the full version, upgrade or crossgrade. The total price should be somewhere around $125 USD during their sale. https://www.native-instruments.com/en/products/komplete/samplers/kontakt-6/

So that’s pretty much it, I know it was a long read this year. You guys have really made this place an incredible community. Please, please, please stay safe out there.

What are you hoping to pick up this sale season?

Edit: Thanks for the support and kind words, everyone. It means a lot to me.

Edit: Well this quickly became way too difficult to keep up with. :| Going to unsticky it.

Being that we can only pin so many libraries and many of them get pushed down quickly due to the sheer volume of posts that get made during this time, I'm going to keep this thread pinned with the deals that are the most popular over the next month. Things posted here will be dependant on both upvotes and community engagement. Every time something new is posted here, I will change the flair to whatever date it is updated on so you'll know whether or not something was updated in here. Comments will remain turned off for this post but all links will direct back to the page where you can leave comments on those particular products as usual.

Store Sales

ADSR Sounds

Loot Audio

VSTBuzz

Plugins

Black Rooster Audio Black Autumn Super Sale 2022 - "The ALL Bundle" ($99) Single plugins ($29/Each) 10% of the profits will go to three charities that help musicians in need, at-risk youth, and people affected by conflict and war. Extra 10% off with code: EXTRA10

Glitchmachines Early Black Friday Sale - Up to 89% off plugins, up to 91% off sample packs, "Plexus, Phenotype, & Palindrome" ($10/Each) through 10 November

Image Line Black Friday Sale - "FL Studio Producer Edition" Digital Audio Workstation ($149) "FL Studio All Plugins Edition" Digital Audio Workstation with all native plugins ($399) through 30 November

iZotope Early Black Friday Sale - "Neoverb" ($25) "Neutron 4" ($199 | $99/X-Grade) "Ozone 10" ($199/Std | $299/Adv | $149/Std X-Grade | $249/Adv X-Grade) Up to 75% off "RX 10" through 20 November

MeldaProduction MBlackFriday Sale - 50% off all plugins and bundles through 27 November

Plugin Boutique Black Friday Sale - "Scaler 2.7 - Updated" MIDI chord and progression utility ($39 | $49/Scaler 2+ Bundle | $59/Scaler 2+ Advanced Bundle | $9/Upgrade from Scaler 1) through 5 December

u-he "Zebra 2" Wavetable synthesizer with four oscillators each with 16 waveforms ($155) for limited time.

BFD Drums "BFD3" acoustic drum studio plugin with mix-ready presets and modelling technology for tom resonance and cymbal swells ($49.99) through 5 December

Pulsar Audio Black Friday Early Bird Sale - "Echorec" ($29) "Mu" ($49) "Smasher" ($19) "Pulsar 1178" ($59) "MASSIVE" ($89) "Pulsar Mu + MASSIVE Bundle" ($129) through 24 November

AudioThing Early Black Friday Sale - Up to 68% off vintage valve emulations, convolution processing effects & Kontakt libraries through 13 November

Arturia Black Friday Sale - "FX Collection 3" ($170.57) "Pigments" ($81.43) "V-Collection 9" ($252.86) for limited time. NEW

Sound Theory "Gullfoss, Gullfoss Live, and Gullfoss Master" intelligent equaliser with new live version for low-latency tracking and live mixing ($119.40) until 1 December NEW

Soundtoys Black Friday Sale - "Soundtoys 5" ($229) "Effect Rack" ($129) & Up to 80% off plugins through 28 November NEW

Aberrant DSP Black Friday Sale - 40% off lo-fi, tape and compressor plugins through 5 December NEW

Tokyo Dawn Labs Black Friday Sale - Up to 40% off plugins and bundles until 4 December NEW

Three-Body Technology "Kirchhoff-EQ" 32-band parametric EQ with refined sound quality, analogue-matched curves, 11 filter types with continuously variable shape and 30 vintage EQ types modelled from realworld devices ($149.99) for limited time with code: KIRCHHOFF-14999 NEW

Devious Machines Black Friday Sale - "Duck" ($19) "Infiltrator 2" ($86) "Pitch Monster" ($74) "Texture" ($74) through 11 December NEW

Ableton Black Friday Sale - 20% off Live 11, Push and Packs for limited time. NEW

Orchestral Tools Metropolis Ark Sale - 50% off all Metropolis Ark libraries for SINE Player. "Metropolis Ark Ø - The Prototype Orchestra" - Intro Price (€75) and 50% off Creative Soundpack Bundle until 1 December NEW

Modartt "Pianoteq 8" physically modelled instrument - Intro Price ($104.25/Stage | $201.75/Standard | $299.25/Pro | $674.25/Studio Bundle) until 28 November NEW

FREEBIES

Soundtoys - Little Radiator | until 2 January

UVI - Prime8 | Unknown End Date

Arturia - Tape Mello | Ends 10 November

iZotope "Audiolens" track referencing and comparison by analyzing audio from any streaming platform or audio source (FREE) through 22 November

In Session Audio "Fruit Shake" percussive shaker library for Kontakt Player (FREE) through 22 November

Pure Magnetik "PM-8910" Intellivision Chip Sounds for Lo-fi Explorers captured entirely from an original General Instruments AY-3-8910 three-voice programmable sound generator for Ableton Live 9.1 or Kontakt 4 or Logic 9 (FREE) through 6 November

Waves Annual Free Black Friday Plugin Signup - Plugin will be received on 25 November

Karanyi Sounds "Vapor Dimension" modulation plugin that adds rich, vintage colors and wideness to your synths, keys, pads, guitars, vocals and more! 20 built in DSP algorithms, easy on CPU and user-friendly interface (FREE) for limited time.

TheNatan "Devil" Aggressive multi-mode distortion Plug-in programmed to thicken up or destroy any sound in unique ways (FREE) until 20 November

I'll be back later tonight to post what came out today. I will not be on tomorrow morning if any companies decide that Christmas morning is a good time to post deals, but will likewise be posting things up tomorrow in the late afternoon. I hope you all have a very merry and safe Christmas or what ever else you celebrate even if it's just a day off.

Welcome back, everyone!

Let's get right into this and go over some of the changes happening here.

The biggest change you're going to see less posting here than before. I've gone over a lot of the posts from the last few years and what I found is that there was a lot of needless sales being posted. Products that didn't gain any sort of traction or that no one clicked through. Reposting those over and over is a little pointless so I'm going to cut them out and focus on the things that people actually want to see here. Likewise, companies that do revolving sales of the same products over and over will be posted less in favour of the actual larger sales they do.

On the topic of developers, I've made a hard decision to not reinstate developers posting their own sales. The reason is that much of the time, we would end up with a lot of duplicate posts because we would post the same sales to include links to other stores on them. I didn't take this lightly and I hope that developers continue to be active with the community. Likewise, please contact me if you think I've missed a product that is on sale.

With my schedule, there's going to be times when I take days off because I have other things I need to get done or will be travelling for various reasons. Likewise, my weekends are mine and I will be doing very little posting on them as I need time to decompress from the week. I will try to get everything done in a timely manner but I won't be watching emails like a hawk as I did before, trying to get everything up immediately as soon as they come in. Also, if you're a developer reading this, I have a humble suggestion: stop posting sales on actual holidays. That's so uncool in ways I can't describe to expect people to be sitting at their computers on Christmas Day or other holidays.

The next few weeks will be a little rough as I am testing out new ideas to help me streamline this process while I have other obligations that must be fulfilled at the same time. I've appreciated all the offers for help, but the reality I learned while working with Supernova is that help is often counter-productive to accomplishing the task. I'm going to start with the emails I have coming in as of now and move forward rather than trying to dig up sales that are already in effect.

I'm sure there will be some edits to this over the next few days as I think of things I forgot to add to the list.

Some important links:

The subreddit rules and other information

Subreddit FAQ

Subreddit Discord Server

https://www.soundtoys.com/product/spaceblender/

iLok Account Required

Please keep the topic about the plugin itself. Any information, comments or opinions on iLok, please take here: https://www.reddit.com/r/AudioPlugins/comments/pxnrn4/ilok_information_29_september_2021/

As many people know, we've been a supporter of Yurt Rock for a while including being on their affiliate programme. Recently we went to collect our earnings from them for pushing sales through our platform here. We were met with excuses and then... silence. They also quietly also removed the affiliate panel so anyone signed up to it could no longer access our information. I typically do not get involved in the administration side of this place but even I have reached out to them multiple times now to get to the bottom of what is going on only to be ghosted by them.

This is not good business practice for a company we've driven a lot of sales to. I will be reaching out to friends who I know have also worked with them making packs and informing them of this situation. I believe in good ethics in business and this is not it, so we will no longer be working with them now or in the future.

-Batwaffel

Okay, figured this might be worth doing. Feel free to post anything you find that is permanently free as I don't typically post those on here since there are so many of them (and many aren't that great).

Try to stick to things that are newly free so that the comments don't get filled with things that have been free for a long time.

Also, users be aware that companies posted in the comments will not be vetted by me. Also, check your links before posting. Remove any extra strings from them that don't need to be there as they may contain affiliate links which may end up getting you removed.

As I live on this side of the pond now and have an excuse to binge eat, I'll be spending the morning and afternoon cooking and eating. I'll get more deals up later today. Be safe, all. <3

Forgot to make a post here earlier but did leave one on the Discord. Took the morning and afternoon off to celebrate Thanksgiving. Despite not being native, I do love turkey. I am just finishing up everything now then I will be getting started. I expect it's going to be a very long night so bear with me as I get everything up.

Thanks all!

Edit: Okay, I'm here. Bear with me, I have 252 emails to go through and more keep piling in.

Also, CHRISTMAS MUSIC IS ON AND NO ONE CAN STOP ME!

https://www.arturia.com/products/software-effects/filter-ms-20/overview

https://www.pluginboutique.com/product/2-Effects/19-Filter/10087-Filter-MS-20#a_aid=605d605c4aba7 Affiliate Link.

Some of the links here are affiliate links. We receive a commission for paid purchases which helps support the continuation of this subreddit.

https://www.soundtoys.com/product/little-radiator/

iLok Account Available But No Longer Required

Please keep the topic about the plugin itself. Any information, comments or opinions on iLok, please take here: https://www.reddit.com/r/AudioPlugins/comments/pxnrn4/ilok_information_29_september_2021/

https://www.pluginboutique.com/deals/show?sale_id=11973#a_aid=605d605c4aba7 Affiliate Link.

If you don't know the story here, these sales Freakshow does are just for fun. They allow you to "steal" their products from their own website for free and then purchase them if you want to support the company.

And yes, I got permission to post like this from Batwaffel because let's be real, these sales are hilarious.

(This is a very serious sale)

Exclusive Sale. This is an affiliate link. We receive a commission which helps support the continuation of this subreddit.

https://www.plugin-alliance.com/en/blog/blogpost/items/introducing-soundwide.html

PA Soundwide Welcome Bundle

We're giving away some of our best-selling plugins ever! The freebies include some sweet analog saturation and compression with Black Box Analog Design HG-2 and Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor, plus an Ampeg SVT-VR Classic emulation – the bass amp sound that changed low-end tone forever. Also included is Brainworx bx_masterdesk — a complete analog mastering desk inside your DAW, as well as the iconic analog synthesized sound of bx_oberhausen, and the rare sound of the bx_console Focusrite SC.

List Price $599 - FREE until April 26 with code: JOINSOUNDWIDE

iZotope Neutron Elements

iZotope's Neutron Elements is a more innovative way to mix your tracks with ease and confidence for home studios and hobbyists. Neutron Elements offers futuristic, assistive technology like Track Assistant and EQ Learn, to give you a head start on your mix – and even help you become a better mixer! Neutron Elements also features four powerful audio processors to improve the overall sound of your tracks in seconds: Compressor, EQ, Exciter, and Transient Shaper.

Native Instruments ETHEREAL EARTH

Create new, atmospheric soundscapes and textures that transcend the ordinary. Native Instruments' ETHEREAL EARTH combines acoustic world instruments, from swarms of sitars to synthesized gongs, and adds creative processing for unique sonic environments. Get started with extensive presets, then customize your sound with one-knob blend control and powerful built-in effects.

Get 10% off extra at NI, IZO & PA - with this unified voucher code!

To top things off, we’re also throwing in a 10% discount that you can use on plugins in the Native Instruments, iZotope, and Plugin Alliance online shops with the code:

SOUNDWIDE2022

Simply enter this code during checkout at all partner companies’ online shops.

The Soundwide Welcome Bundle is available from April 12, 2022, until April 26, 2022, at the Native Instruments, iZotope and Plugin Alliance online shops.

The 10% off voucher is valid for all Native Instruments software products in the NI Online Shop, excluding NKS products, hardware, updates, upgrades, crossgrades, educational versions, and products already on special offer. The 10% off voucher is valid for all iZotope products except memberships and academic SKUs. The 10% off voucher is valid for Plugin Alliance & Brainworx products excluding hardware, updates, upgrades, crossgrades, educational versions, and products already on special offer. Please note that the 10% off applies only to single plugins at the Plugin Alliance online shop, and not for bundles, subscription plans, or the Plugin Alliance online mastering service.

The last year went by way quicker than it should have but here we are yet again getting ready for another massive season of sales. Once again, I have no idea what to expect this year for sales. The past year has given some unexpected differences in sales of the past years so it's going to be a game of wait and see. As always, if you have a question about past sales or wondering what a sale might be, please use search and look for either the company name or product name. That will be the best way to get an idea of when a sale may start and how deep the discount has been in past years.

I can't stress this enough - please be patient. If you don't see a sale up, it's likely because I've not gotten around to posting it yet. If you're going to send me a sale that you believe I've missed, please search for it first and make sure it wasn't posted. I'll be getting things posted as fast as I can but they do take time to gather and post. It gets even worse as we get closer to Black Friday.

Next, I need to once again give a huge thank you to the Patreon supporters both current and past. When I made the decision to go affiliate, I was planning on taking this down but several people messaged asking to keep it up because they wanted to continue supporting the efforts here and I am so very thankful for all of you.

https://www.patreon.com/audioproductiondeals

I also want to remind people that Marcel of Free To Use Sounds has been kind enough to continue the sale on his complete collection for r/audioproductiondeals users to get all 431 sound libraries of his for under $18 with code: BATWAFFEL

For each sale $5 goes direct to support the Audio Production Deals Subreddit. Instructions on applying the code can be found here: https://www.reddit.com/r/AudioProductionDeals/comments/p2olik/get_all_my_431_sound_libraries_for_under_18/

You're going to notice some new things starting this month. We're going to be posting more r/AudioProductionDeals exclusive deals by developers now. I've been getting a list together of developers to get on this and they will have announcement posts which keep them at the top of the subreddit for a specified amount of time. This is something I've been wanting to do for a while now so keep your eyes open for them.

We also have something special coming up later this month for you all which I will make a post about as soon as the details are hashed out. It will be a bit different for the sub but also something fun.

Once again I want to address something the downvoting on certain companies or posts. I'd like to ask that this stop. Standard Reddiquette is to not downvote an otherwise acceptable post because you don't personally like it. Every post made on here is legitimate. I take time to vet every new company I add to my list for this very reason. Developers, whether you like them or their products, work hard on what they put out and shouldn’t be downvoted just because someone personally doesn’t like them. It's better to either ignore the posts or by all means, come into the comments section and post about what you don’t like in a well thought out manner because often times, companies tend to miss the actual issues with their products because they feel like they are just being attacked. I know this is wishful thinking on my part and just asking to be downvoted myself, but remember the companies come here and see the posts, comments and votes being made. There are more companies lurking here than you may realise but have no interest in posting themselves. I’d love if they’d become more active in the discussions at the very least though. Just something to keep in mind.

As usual, here is my yearly tips on how to deal with the coming sales that was posted last month:

1. Make a budget. Know exactly how much money you want to spend, give yourself a buffer and do not go over that amount. What I mean is to walk in with a goal amount and a hard cutoff. "I have $400 I want to budget for plugins/libraries/etc. and would like to keep it in that area but I will give myself a $100 buffer that gives me some wiggle room if something is over the budget I have set or a sale pops up I really want but I will NOT go over that $500 mark." With all the sales that pop up, it's very easy to spend more than you anticipated on spending. I've done it, pretty much everyone I know in this industry has done it. We'll buy a lot of the things we wanted to buy including a few surprises but there are always one or two companies that do a late sale that leaves us head-desking because we hit that hard budget wall already and we end up spending more than anticipated. This brings us to…

2. Make your list; check it twice. Put together a list of the things you've been planning on buying in November now and rate them by importance so you can gauge how much you're going to need vs want vs "maybe if it goes low enough". Open a spreadsheet and colour code it with names, prices, links, etc.

Ask yourself if you truly need what you buy. This will help you budget things better. There have been things on my list that I've had on it for three or more years and never bought because I never truly needed it because maybe it wasn't something I'd use in a project at that point in time. On the other end, I've bought things I wanted to buy that never got used. With as quickly as the tech changes in this industry, some libraries can get outdated just as quick so ask yourself if you need them for an existing or upcoming project before you buy because it sucks to spend $150 on a library that sits unused for 2 years only to have another company put out a similar product that is much better than the one you bought and never used.

3) For the stuff you know you want to buy, it's a good idea to search and look at the company’s sale history so you know exactly when to expect their sale to hit. Many companies will do their sales around the same week every year and some of them end up being late season sales in which case you may have already spent your budget and have nothing left by the time their product goes on sale. Looking this up beforehand will also give you an idea whether a product or company does a winter sale (i.e. Xfer Records does not do sales so if you were hoping to get Serum for less, you will be disappointed. Same with Spectrasonics if you were hoping to get Omnisphere at discount from them).

4) There WILL be sales you didn't expect, so expect to spend money you weren't anticipating on spending even if you make a list. There is sure to be many announcements in the coming weeks for new releases before Christmas. For some reason, companies have this wild idea that it's great to announce a new, previously unannounced product this time of year. If you're a developer, it's not great. Stop doing it. Wait till Mid-January. :P

So, expect that there may be something coming out with an intro price and try to set something aside for that possibility as well. Worse comes to worse, you have money left over for Christmas.

5) Also remember not all sales happen in November. FabFilter seems to prefer December as does The Unfinished so we wait and wait and end up spending a good part of the budget we had for their stuff on something else only to see them drop it later. Stick to the list, have a buffer if you can for extras. If something you were planning on didn't go on sale, you get to keep some money in your bank account for January when they start up the inevitable New Years sales. (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

Kontakt Upgrade Instructions:

Last year, Native Instruments only did a Cyber Sale that did not include upgrading or crossgrading to Kontakt. I'm unsure if this will be the case this year or not but in case they decide to include it or expand on the sale, here are the instructions for crossgrading to Kontakt and onward:

Go to and get the free Embertone Arcane library: https://www.embertone.com/instruments/arcane.php

They will email you a key which you register with NI’s Native Access application (you’ll want to make an account here if you don’t have one already, as well): https://www.native-instruments.com/en/specials/native-access/

Once the Arcane key is registered in Native Access, you should be able to crossgrade to Kontakt Full when it goes on sale. You can check this early by logging into your Native Instruments account on the website and clicking “Buy Now” on the Kontakt page. There will be a drop down menu to buy the full version, upgrade or crossgrade. The total price should be somewhere around $125 USD during their sale. https://www.native-instruments.com/en/products/komplete/samplers/kontakt-6/

As always, this community has been a true blessing which is the reason I've been so hyper focused on it despite the many other obligations I have.

On to the usual question! What are you hoping to pick up this sale season?