iZotope's Alloy 2 Promotion ?

[Edouardo]

Hi there,

As mentioned in a previous post I switched from Reason to Digital Performer. When it came time to work on some mixes, I hit a difficulty: I am not really convinced with the tools at my disposal. Plugins from MOTU and Native Instruments are great in terms of sound, but not flexible enough in terms of routing: I sculpt my sound a lot with sidechain EQing (or if you prefer sidechain based multiband compression), something easy to wire up in Reason.

I checked what was out there, and found Alloy 2 from iZotope. Seduced, it has everything I need, and seem to be very practical: 1 plug in for everything you need. I am still setting up a standard workflow on DP, it appears like a great simplification. Unfortunately, Alloy 2 just came out of one of these promotion period.

It irritates me to spend that extra 200$, while I have been breaking the bank for DP, Komplete Ultimate and an orchestral plugin, when Alloy 2 was just a 100 a few weeks ago. In your opinion, how often these promotions occur? or even if it is possible to negotiate with iZotope, as a loyal customer (I own Ozone), to offer me a deal?

Greetings

[Edouardo]

Actually I just wrote to iZotope asking them to consider extending the summer sale a little for me… Let’s see 🙂

[Ulla]

I once did this with Propellerhead, but they were very strict with their policy. No extension for me! Can’t blame them. Good luck and let us know if it worked!

[Edouardo]

Hey Ulla, they were quick to respond! Just a few hours…

The email was very cordial, but firm… 🙁

[MichaelL]

Hi Edouardo,

I have Alloy 2 and most of Izotope’s products. I think they only have a sale once or twice a year. They cycle through their products. Ozone’s on sale now.

Check with some of the popular discount resellers.

_Michael

[Ulla]

Sorry to hear that, Edouardo – gotta act quick the next time! 😉

[Bobby]

You can grab it for around $125 on ebay using “best offer” — maybe less. They can’t post it for a deep discount, but most of those shops will bring it as low as their agreement with Izotope allows. I dig Alloy 2 (esp for grit on a bass) and bought it on ebay as part of a bundle.Good luck!

[Art Munson]

Quick Google search $139.00 B&H Photo-Video-Audio – Download.

[Edouardo]

Thank you very much Bobby and Art. I checked out B&H, looks like a good deal (close to that of the promotion), and I think I’ll take this option. Can’t wait to boost my DP Mixer with this audio army knife.

[Edouardo]

Wow! I am grateful I was prudent enough to demo it before buying…

When inserting Alloy2 as a plugin in DP8 in an audio track, there was no sidechain box appearing in DP’s plugin window menu (like it does with other plugins that accept sidechaining). So I cannot assign any bus to the plugin’s sidechain that consequently appears greyed out in the plugin itself.

I enquired… and found a 2-3 year old post in a forum: DP8 64bits doesn’t seem to handle the Alloy2 Sidechaining protocol, yet DP8 32bits does (According to the post). I work exclusively with the 64bits version, so back to square one… (i.e. searching for another affordable plugin that does that and in the meantime, back also to the super tedious compression by hand by automatising an EQ 🙁 ). Man, I miss Reason’s wiring capability!

Ideas of a work around anyone? or suggestion for an affordable sidechain EQ or MB compressor plugin ?

Greetings

[woodsdenis]

Audiodeluxe is a great site for sales and offers on most plugins. Probably MotuNation is your best bet for the answer Edouardo.

[GM]

I’ll post my 2 cents here.
Izotope products are excellent (I bought an old version of Ozone, years ago). However … I am lately more and more convinced that it is possible to build a complete arsenal of top-notch plugins and tools for very little money. A few examples:

From Klanghelm:
– MJUC compressor, just came out. 24 dollars. Three character compressors in one. The vast majority of guys at Gearslutz claim it’s one the best compressors EVER, if not THE best ever. No kidding. I bought it. I agree.

– DC8C compressor, probably the most versatile compressor on the market. Superb quality. It takes some serious learning, but with this one you can do ANYTHING. Price? 20 dollars.

– SDRR superb saturator, I dont use it a lot, but when I need a saturator, you can’t beat it. Extremely flexible, incredible sound. 22 dollars.

From Tokyo Dawn Labs:
– Kotelnikov compressor: this is a mastering compressor. Absolutely superb. By far, the best clean, transparent mastering compressor on the market. Very flexible, very innovative, very … everything. And it’s FREE (yes, free) (a gentlemen edition is available for a few dollars, and it doesn’t add anything crucial. The free edition is more than enough for even complex tasks. But, if you’re a gentleman …)
– SlickEQ equalizer: a masterpiece. Simple as that. Just the auto-gain thing alone changed the way I mix. Superb sound. FREE (again, if you’re a gentlemen … in this case the gentleman edition adds something useful like a VERY nice tilt function).

From Variety of Sound:
– All of their plugins are absolutely brilliant and FREE. Use them all the time. Nice variety too. I particularly love the HDR (very innovative concept … very useful for mastering) and Ferric, amazing sound. But you’ll find a very good reverb, SUPERB equalizers (several) etc. And they are all FREE.

From Sonimus:
– I have their console emulations (Satson and Britson) and SonEq Pro, a brilliant, brilliant eq. 39 dollars for the consoles, 49 dollars for the eq. I did splurge here 🙂 Great products, small prices.

From SKNote:
– brilliant plugins, some very innovative, super cheap. I have no direct experience here, but I’m about to buy a couple. But the good folks at Gearslutz are in love with SKNote products. Prices? Very, very, very cheap.

These are the ones that I know because I use them (besides SKNote). All FREE or close to free plugins, TOP QUALITY, at least on par (or, more often, much better!!) to those from larger companies that charge hundreds of dollars per plugin.
Judge with your ears, not with the price tag.

[Author]

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