As for cracked FX plugins : believe it or not in most of the cases you can get very similar results making your own complex FX chains, yes even using the barebone FX bundled in your DAW, and then you have a gazillion of free plugs and a ton of free music languages that you can code or modify as you like (CSound, Faust, Max/MSP, Jesusonic) and then again there is Synthedit 64, and much much more.

I see people praising EchoBoy as the ultimate Echo reverb/delay, this is ridicolous, you can get very good alternatives with a decent FX chain, of course don't expect to replace Altiverb or Lexicon reverbs, but ...

The issue at stake is always the same : nobody want to really go deeper and learn the internals of computer music, and that's why they're ready to pay big bucks for ready made apps and plugins that are designed to be easy peasy and promising to "save your time" ... yes they will save some time but you learn nothing and that's the point, you'll be always at the mercy of the developers.

Why you guys should deserve a free meal ?

 

i usually buy legit plugins, those never cracked ilok2 protected ones only during sales time at minimum -50% -60% OFF

fuck anything priced above $100

 

There are no self replicating viruses on Mac OS. Only malware. I am certified in Mac hardware and software. You are incorrect. If you can't make great recordings with what is available for mac, you should find another hobby.

 

Some products over 100 ($/£/€) are fantastic such VPS Avenger or DUNE 2. Of course, you'll can find similar for example free OB-Xd and "under 100" OP-X Pro-II (both are excellent Oberheim OB emulations, but OP-X Pro-II also emulates Roland Jupiter-8 synth, OB-Xd can't do). Sometimes, the best solution is waiting for Back Fridays...

Defining a price limit may be an useful solution, however, maybe you're right...

Of course, buying (expensive) Cubase Pro it's not really a big problem (why not, despite its protection scheme), but paying again for major updates, I'm sorry, I say In the same idea about Waves Audio (and his can of worms about waveshells and crappy installer). I prefer Ableton sales policy (but the best IMHO remains Cockos for his REAPER, very fair licensing policy).

Also I don't install any iPoS on my PC (even software), it's my policy, but I'll use "fine-cracked" (for testing purposes first) then I buy a license (only if really I use it often), simply to be legit (AiR Music or SONiVOX, for example). Otherwise the product is trashed.

Don't forget this: you can't buy a Traban or a Rolls-Royce at the same price.

 

Last edited: Jan 16, 2017

Yea the Mac era is probably over.Fact is most warez team crack mac stuff out of compassion, since its a system that caters to the dickless and balless millenials.
This aint no fashion statement, music production is war, against yourself, the system and consumer zombies.

 

I guess all of the studios I record with, and Developers I deal with, and Universities I teach at are all dick-less and ball-less. Who would have known? Its awesome to have someone with your expertise to set us all straight.

 

Yea, the music industry today is pretty dickless.

 

There was definitely a time when I would have argued about just how wrong you were ... but sadly, I don't think you're wrong here. The MBP I own now is likely going to be the last Mac I ever buy. I'm not sure why Apple doesn't have any interest in making professional machines or software anymore, but they decided at some point that they're going to make different versions of the iPhone and the iPad and that's it. The latest Mac Pro? A $4,000 iPhone. If you own a Mac tower from a few years ago? Hope you enjoy either running Windoze on it or want to sell it, because it will be obsolete in a couple more years. Don't like Sierra? Hope you saved that El Capitan installer from a year ago, because it's virtually impossible to find it on Apple's own site. It's not enough that they overcharged you for one computer, they want you to upgrade everything every year, like some middle-management guy who has to lease this year's model of whatever the trendiest car is, so it looks like he has money falling out of his ass. Speaking of which ... that had better be the case if you want to stay current with Apple, because they expect you to buy the computer, the iPhone, the Apple Watch and maybe an iPad Mini for the kids. That used to not be the case.

As for k'd stuff, that shouldn't be the deciding factor in which system to support. Support the one that's not actively fucking you over.

 

Yep, can't argue with that. I had students tell me the other day that Sir Paul McCartney must have been honored to be on the same stage as Kanye West (the dick-less wonder).

 

Look, my statements on AS are sometimes populist and ridiculously one dimensional, its my weird humor.
Of course its pointless to generalize entire mac population.

 

Look mac will always continue to be the benchmark when it comes to important stuff like fingerprint scanners or wasting loads of cash
Not trying to start a war either or generalize and of course there will be two sides but there does appear to be a slow shift in momentum.
More & more long term advocates seem to be considering or actually switching which gotta say something
As more and more shift possibly the less money they will invest which will be a shame in all honesty

 

Having worked for apple for 4 years, I can tell you this is not the case. Sorry, but I personally know engineers that work for Apple. I am really not a fan boy here, I was a tech for them and we were screwed over royally by the successor to the throne. However, there are some very smart people behind the scenes (like the inventor of cell phone technology.) The last time I looked, video and photography are professional industries too. People having been saying this same tired old thing about Apple since the 90's. There are simply too many professionals using Macs for them to abandon. But, I know I'm talking to a brick wall here, so believe what you want and I will keep making music on both platforms.

 

Last edited: Jan 15, 2017

Dude, I love your posts! I am all about weird humor. I'm just poking fun at some of these mindless sheep.

 

A particularly terrible and plastic sounding snare drum, at that.

 

Macs have always been computers for sissies since day one and at best they have 3-4% of the global market, they're just a step above Unix in terms of userbase.
I don't know why they're still so popular for musicians, i guess 30% of the music biz is running on OSX but for how long ? It's so sad, they remind me of some diehard Amiga users in the 90s.

 

I would put a gun to my head before I'd ever use a Windows computer at home. It's bad enough I have to use that garbage at work!

 

Core Audio was a win for us all. I miss that Apple spirit. I can see some of it in their iPad design and love it but I haven't touched a Mac for years.
I second the notion that all these plugins can be replaced internally within your DAW. That's actually a game I used to play. Get the current hot-shit plugin, see what it does, then replicate it using stock Ableton tools. It can almost all be done. If not in my DAW, then with the plugins I already have (thank you NI).
Now I don't even have to download the plug, I can just look at the feature list. The only thing that trumps that is my curiosity and avid and aesthetic love of Graphical User Interface. But that's superfluous.

There was a time when I mourned the loss of the Camel Audio guys to the Apple, dreading I wouldn't be able to experience the next Alchemy. That time would have been better spent learning the ins and outs of Absynth. Now, it's not even a thing. Actually more of a blessing in disguise.

If you think you're missing out with the unattainable uncracked, I recommend taking your mind of it with by mastering what you already have or even with ancient, experimental freeware plugs. Necessity is the mother of invention, yeah?
A good place to start. Learn to recreate these effects with stock tools and I promise you won't be missing what isn't, here, now.

Sincerely,
Windows user.

 

MacBooks are custom mainboard made by Foxconn in Guangdong, the only difference from HP or DELL laptops (also produced by Foxconn in the building next door) is the custom UEFI bios.
Said that they also run their proprietary flavour of BSD unix (OSX), and that's that.
Sure, IPS screen and yadda yadda, all things available in the windows camp, see the HP Envy laptops and many others costing 30-40% less.

Then again, where is the added value on all this i don't know, i stopped trying to convert vegetarians or apple fanboys a long time ago.
The proof is in the pudding, anyone can run OSX into a 300$ laptop (hackintosh) and do the same things as a 1500$ MacBook.

The only reason macs are still in biz is they managed to become a "cult" and a fashion item but it won't last forever, the cracks are already visible for anyone, OSX is a dying platform.

Users buy a computer for the apps, never for the OS.
The OS is irrilevant, and that's why there are so many dead and forgotten OS around.
On top of this also the hardware manufacturer is irrilevant, and this is true even for Apple as none of their cult users complain about paying premium price for a sub-par chinese product, have you ever tear down a macbook ? good luck ...

 

Macs UI has always won hands down but things are changing, Win10 is not so horrible and after a while you won't notice it anymore.
Moreover, there's a real file manager inside, unlike on OSX where it mixes folders and files together (unacceptable !).

There are many tools to disable all the Win10 shit like telemetry, Edge, and all, and finally there's also a Win10 LTSB version that comes WITHOUT all the new shit by design.

 

For decades (I'm trying to calculate that number, but decades is pretty close) I only ever used built in plugins or a few cracked ones. Back then the process of getting a crack to work wasn't as it is today and there certainly weren't many going around anyway. But, that thrill of something for nothing stayed with me for a long time. In recent times some plugins, thanks to the ability to try a cracked version, have proved themselves worthy of purchase and more than anything I love getting an email notification that a new release is available and I can have it straight away. For me it required going down the UAD-2 path to see the value of good product and with that change of mindset, I signed up for ownership of three or four other companies whose products I used frequently. It has the added benefit, which I think was noted earlier, that when you focus on using your favorites, you get better results.