My Best/Worst Purchases

[Tarekith]

I wanted a Venom so bad when they came out

[kitekrazy]

This topic has been done before. How about best/worst for 2017?

[pencilrocket]

My Best Purchase is not purchasing Live Suite.

[Stromkraft]

My Best Purchase is not purchasing Live Suite.

That's technically a decision and not a purchase. You didn't buy any goodies for the money you saved?

[Da hand]

Best:

Echo Gina 24 sound card. PCI and still rocking! The only thing I would trade this for is an RME...maybe, haha!
Clavia Nord Modular. At the time it cost me an arm and a leg, but I have no regrets. It sounds and plays awesome.
d16 Nepheton (TR-808) plugin. I love the 808 sound. I use it in most of my productions and the Nepheton really sounds great!
Fender Stratocaster. This and a Gibson Les Paul are my favourite electric guitars. The tone and action on this Strat is just incredible, I love it!
Gibson Les Paul. Unfortunately, my Les Paul got stolen years ago, but I loved every minute that I had it!

Worst:

M-Audio Audiophile. Years after only 64 bit laptops were being made, they still didn't have 64 bit drivers for this card. I was forced to buy a different card.
M-Audio Soundtrack Pro. Anything but "pro". The specs say one thing, but the actual outputs were sooo low that I always had trouble with my live gig levels in clubs.

[EnjoyRC]

This topic has been done before. How about best/worst for 2017?

Good idea

[sporkles]

I'm trying to decide where to draw the line between "worst purchase" and "objectively a waste of money"... I've bought so many Kontakt libraries that I'll probably never get to use. Stuff that I could potentially use if I really got into scoring. I'm such a sucker for cinematically oriented libraries.

That being said, it's hard for me to deem either of those "worst purchases", so here goes:

Best:

• Komplete Synths (an ancient, discontinued bundle of Massive, Absynth and FM8 that I got at 50% off in a local store many years ago. Yes - a DVD.) I use Massive all the time, and Absynth occasionally. Even though I have now got all these synths in Komplete Ultimate, Massive must be the one plugin I've used more than anything.
• Keith McMillen K-Board. Perfect because I love having easy access to both mouse, computer keyboard and keys.
• NativeKontrol's Arsenal scripts for Live. Absolute game changer for me.
• Ableton Live itself, of course.

Worst:

• All the dust collecting MIDI controllers I've bought in my search for the perfect setup. To name a few:
• Korg PadKontrol
• Line 6 Pod Studio Keyboard
• Some NI Traktor controller I don't even remember the name of.
• M-Audio Oxygen 8v2
• And, arguably ... Push. I would really love to love it, but the fact is that I've never invested the time it takes to learn to use it efficiently. I'm so much faster without it.

[killingtime]

Worst

NI Komplete, its a time wasting black hole I wish I had never gone down, much better to stick with Live suite if Live is what you use IMHO

Best

My MEK, so deep and flexible and has all those lovely knobs to turn!

Melodyne, just so awesome for audio manipulation

M4L Dub machines, gives all sorts of analogue loveliness to digital audio

[Stromkraft]

Worst

NI Komplete, its a time wasting black hole I wish I had never gone down, much better to stick with Live suite if Live is what you use IMHO

Interesting take. I think the key to Komplete and Live, or any bundle really, is to choose a few instruments and stick to those and get deep with them.

M4L Dub machines, gives all sorts of analogue loveliness to digital audio

Oh, yeah!

[Sional]

M4L Dub machines, gives all sorts of analogue loveliness to digital audio

Surely digital software must be adding all sorts of digital loveliness to digital audio.
As for my purchases

Best:
Yamaha CVP 305
Yamaha EX5R
Virus Snow
Maschine
Live

Worst:
Elektron Monomachine
APC 20 and Push (as per a previous poster, I am much more efficient using Live with mouse and keyboard).

[Stromkraft]

Push (as per a previous poster, I am much more efficient using Live with mouse and keyboard).

I can see that. Two of my friends have gone that way for different reasons. However, Push is not about being efficient, I think. It's more about that, what actually comes out when playing and twiddling is very different from what you get with only keyboard and mouse. With the latter you think more and with the Push you don't. Which is very positive for music creations. To get there can be a struggle though.

[nuxnamon]

best:
Event Opal
Focal SM9
silver bullet tone amp
ubk fatso
api 5500
burl B2 ADC
dramastic obsidian compressor
Reloop 8000S
NI Z2
innofader faders
PUSH 2
dangerous d-box
Sonarworks

Worst:
m-audio interfaces of the past (FW1814).. drivers are crap
m-audio trigger finger.. pads sucked
m-audio keystation 88.. keys sucked
sonivox vocalizer

[pencilrocket]

Worst: Noavation Automap

[sporkles]

Push (as per a previous poster, I am much more efficient using Live with mouse and keyboard).

I can see that. Two of my friends have gone that way for different reasons. However, Push is not about being efficient, I think. It's more about that, what actually comes out when playing and twiddling is very different from what you get with only keyboard and mouse. With the latter you think more and with the Push you don't. Which is very positive for music creations. To get there can be a struggle though.

I know, and I love putting my feet up and just play around with Push on my lap. Which I have time for exactly never. This is the reason why I don't use Push, because if I actually want to make coherent music, I have to "sit up straight" (metaphorically speaking), and get some stuff laid out in Arrangement.

[miyaru]

My best purchases:
- Ableton Live Suite 9 ( I came from Cubase last year!)
- Ableton Push 2
- NI Massive
- Presonus Eris E8 studio monitors

Bought nothing bad in 2017/18 yet..... LOL