Black Friday, the ominous-sounding American retail holiday named originally for the day when retailers broke even (think black ink), is of course on today. Fortunately, for music and sound, there’s no need to get trampled to land some discounts.
Here’s what’s in the CDM inbox – these aren’t paid placements and they’re hardly comprehensive, but some deals I thought were especially nice:
Vinyl lovers everywhere, you may want to check your local store today. Record Store Day’s BACK TO BLACK FRIDAY is on. (I guess they resisted the urge to call it None More Black, Spinal Tap style.)
Audiofile Engineering, the terrific OS X audio developer, has a sale on many of their apps, including the audio editor Triumph.
Twisted Tools, who make some of my favorite creative tools for Reaktor as well as some fascinating samples and the like, have 25% off with code TTblackfriday through the evening of the 2nd of December (11:59 PM California time on Monday).
Native Instruments has a massive sale they’re calling XXL. A whole swath of software is available at 50% off – not everything, but still a lot of choices, including instruments and effects from Komplete, expansions for Maschine, and Traktor Pro 2. Upgrades and crossgrades are also all 50% off, meaning now is a smart time to upgrade. And iOS apps iMaschine and Traktor DJ are also on sale on the App Store. Traktor DJ at US$1.99 is a particular deal; iMaschine is sorely in need of an update but still a fun way of capturing samples for Maschine desktop software and is also at US$1.99.
If you’ve waited to pick up the very-lovely iMini and unique iSEM apps for iOS, they’re US$4.99/€4.49 Friday through Sunday. And they’ve added iOS 7 support with interapp audio, too. Find them on the app store at Arturia’s section, before they revert to ten bucks.
Elektron has 10% off their machines, including Analog Four, Octatrack, Machinedrum UW, and Monomachine.
Wonderful boutique maker Bleep Labs has $5 off.
Serato has a 50% off Black Friday sale, including vinyl and some really pretty swag. (Not the software, though!)
Teenage Engineering have 15% off everything, meaning an OP-1 is €679 instead of 799. The Oplab, a unique hardware platform, is also back on sale and discounted to €237.
Training site macprovideo.com, who cover loads of audio tools, have 50% off HD downloads and 40% off the online library subscription. That includes new training on Logic Pro X, for example.
SSL has their Alpha Channel Analog Channel Strip at US$750, normally $1099, via ProAudioStar through Sunday.
Akai has 27% off their compact LPK25 keyboard and LPD8 pad controller, making them both US$49.99.
Harrison Mixbus, makers of a fine Ardour-based DAW solution, have their XT-EQ on sale for US$19 with code XTEQBF, and XT-MC multi-band compressor for $69 with code XTMCBF.
Applied Acoustics Systems, who make some really great software instruments (Ableton users have special versions of some of them), have 50% off in their webstore until Monday. That could make it a great time to upgrade if you’ve got an older version of their Modeling Collection, for instance.
Turntable Lab has a sale that starts at 10% off US$100 and scales to heavier discounts as you spend more. Also, free shipping to continental USA.
minimalsystem, makers of lots of plug-ins and presets and Ableton goodies and the like, has 50% off absolutely everything this weekend. Coupon code 9786.
With discount code BLK40, The Loop Loft has 40% off their content, plus 75% off bundles on tools like Ableton and Maschine (and MIDI content).
Samplephonics has discount code BLKWKND through Monday for 50% off purchases of £99 or more.
BeatMaker 2, still arguably the best iOS all-in-one groove production app, is on sale for a terrific US$4.99 – 75% off. No reason not to grab that one, iOS users.
US Apple reseller PowerMax – one of the most affordable ways to grab iPads and MacBooks, particularly used – has a big sale on. I’ve bought every recent machine I own from either them or NYC’s Tekserve. Never pay retail, folks…
Finally, for a nice round-up, see Synthtopia, with some 63 deals there now:
Holiday Deals For Electronic Musicians 2013
And Synthtopia picks up on a bunch of deals at Sweetwater:
Black Friday Gear & Software Deals At Sweetwater
Moog Music has steep discounts on their Animoog and Filtatron apps, making now a perfect time to buy – $.99 for Filtatron, $1.99/$4.99 for Animoog on iPhone and iPad, respectively. Highly recommended, and they’ve just done a new sound pack for Animoog. Details on Synthtopia for that, too.
Oh, yes, and one more sale – us.
MeeBlip anode is on sale for US$109.95 / 109,95€ / £94.95 with $/€/£10 shipping to North America, Europe, and the UK ($20 elsewhere). Get one through 3 December with coupon code THANKSGIVING.
Updated: More suggestions, via comments
Black Friday Audio Plugins Sales Overview [Logic Pro Blog]
Deals, deals, deals [rekkerd.org] – loads of plug-ins, software, sounds
£15 for Oli Larkin’s Endless Series V3, 50% off [KVR forum discussion] … this calls for an explanation:
A unique effect based on the Shepard Tone auditory illusion, which generates mind bending risers, infinite scales, psychedelic drones and fascinating sonic textures.
Fascinating. Thanks!