Summer in nearly done in northern latitudes, and the US has a big holiday weekend – so gear purveyors are here with a bunch of discounts.
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Critter & Guitari
Boutique maker Critter & Guitari has a rare b-stock sale on their Pocket Piano – a multi-engine, battery-powered standalone instrument you can customize with your own custom engines and patterns. US$325 as their Labor Day sale:
Sweetwater: softer side
Sweetwater has their Labor Day Sale running, including software and synths (among other pro audio gear and instruments).
Again, we’ve got a Moog MF-102S ring modulator plug-in for US$9.99.
IK Multimedia’s SampleTank 4 is U$49.99 (usually $199.99)
Universal Audio has one of the best emulations of the 1176 limiter, and the full UAD 1776 Classic Limited Collection is $39.99 (normally $299). Now, that’s one price for both the native version (no special hardware required, other than a reasonable Mac or PC) and the UAD version (for their DSP hardware) – so you can use either one.
Sweetwater: harder side
The Korg ARP 2600M for $1699.99 (normally $1999.99) is pretty tempting as a vintage recreation – that’s the one pictured, created with the input of the original team. It’s 60% of the original’s size, but… that makes it easier to actually fit, and you still have the spring reverb, built-in speaker, and authentic electronics, plus USB/MIDI as an addition. It even comes with its own dedicated case.
We talk enough about the various great Sequential offerings that it’s easy to lose track, but there’s $250 cash back on the Trigon-6 desktop. And that’ll be the red hot new desktop instrument I wrote about just last month.
See all their keyboard deals:
Perfect Circuit Labor Day hardware
Perfect Circuit has a bunch of hardware deals. There’s a whole curated list of Eurorack and – I’m sorry. I’m sorry for sending you to this link. But you know, Miso Cornflakes granular … 1010’s sampler in a module … that 266t Source of Uncertainty again… plus ALM’s beautiful Tyso Daiko drum voice.
If desktop is more your speed, they’ve got a lot there, too:
There’s $100 off Elektron Syntakt, Octatrack MkII, Analog Four MkII, Digitone, and Digitakt. I’d opt for the Syntakt out of that bunch. SOMA Laboratory’s Lyra-8 drone synth and Pulsar-23 semi-modular drum machines are on sale, as well.
1010 Music’s Blackbox is a pretty perfect, handheld-sized sampler
The Cyclone TT-303 is on sale for as low as US$259. I have to say, this is probably the hardware 303 I’d buy today, if just because of its sequencer capabilities and great sound – and it’s something different, especially at that price.
They’ve also got several semi-modular and modular system synths on sale, if you want to go all in and get ready to dive into patching sounds this winter. That includes Pittsburgh Modular’s excellent Taiga for US$699, which is not a bad place to start.
Oh yeah, and they stock Gator bags, so you have a way to tote around all your gear.
Actually, just have a look, as they have a really nicely curated collection:
Perfect Circuit Labor Day Sale: Synth and Drum Machines
Plug-ins
Plugin Boutique doesn’t have a Labor Day sale per se, but a few things are coinciding with this weekend.
There’s still time to get the Native Instruments FM8 for $10!
Eventide “back to school” bundles are in starting at $99 / up to 70% off, including Newfangled Audio.
They have a ton of “Synth Month” picks through September 14, too –
There’s the exclusive D16 sale – choose either the terrific LuSH-2 poly or the Phoscyon 2 303-style bass plug-in for two beautiful Roland emulations with a lot of modern extras and unique twists.
From Cherry Audio, try out the DCO-106 and PS-20.
And others… See their deals:
Got more we missed? Hello, comments!
Oh, and if you’re wondering why “Labor Day” is in September – the Labor Day celebrated worldwide on May 1 did begin in the USA, but it was moved to the present date partly to disassociate it from Communism. Still – solidarity? Forever.
Waves – you know, by popular demand
So the Internet cried out at Waves that you didn’t want subscriptions and did want to own the plug-ins you bought from them. (Their subscription offering was particularly harsh, too, in that other competing vendors have offered a choice of the two models, or even better rent-to-own.)
Well, you got it! And that means Waves sales are back.
I’m going to point this out because it means you can get out of another subscription model – Antares and AutoTune – if you want it. Waves Tune is perfectly solid, and arguably even easier to use as the AutoTune bundle has sort of … splintered. And you can get it for the price of like one month of the top-tier AutoTune sub.
There’s a lot of good stuff for $30 in there, but you know how this works, especially since Waves is probably hunting you down with marketing. (No affiliate links here, ha!)
That includes the Scheps Omni Channel 2, and the Abbey Road mastering chain is pretty tempting. Ovox is an interesting one, too, for special vocal effects. And I really like oldschool approaches like Vocal Rider for transparent vocal mixing effects, more than the overly-aggressive/overly-synthetic options around now, especially those with AI. (Prove me wrong.)
But the bottom line is, I’d honestly consider snapping up a couple of plug-ins this way and really learning how to use them, rather than getting an overwhelming subscription. Your mileage may vary.
Waves plug-ins (sorted by # reviews)
Apogee
Apogee also focuses on Labor Day as one of their rare manufacturer-wide sales, for everything – mics, audio interfaces, software. Good folks, and good prices – and probably the one chance to grab this from them apart from Black Friday:
https://apogeedigital.com/labor-day-deals
We welcome reader tips on the best sales – whether or not CDM is an affiliate; we want to grab useful stuff for you. Let us know!