If you haven’t spent every last penny you own on the latest playourwiibox, your strength hasn’t been taken away from coma-inducing leftovers and you’re in the mood for some jaw-dropping music tech bargains, well just read on dear CDMers because we have the best sales to help you start your new year of music-making off right.

Note: most items listed are either clearance or limited time only deals. CDM makes no promises about the availability of said bargains.

Wusik.com
THE ULTIMATE WUSIKSTATION VSTi GROUP BUY! – $50

Voxengo
Holiday Sale – 15-25% off selected products!

Synapse Audio
Holiday Sale – 50% off Orion Platinum & Synth Pack

Audiomidi.com
Quantum Leap Hardcore Bass – $145
Waldorf Edition – $79
z3ta+ – $100
Vapor – $46
Wizooverb Bundle – $130
Komplete 4 – $995
Minimonsta/Guru Combo – 350

Musiciansfriend:
Kinetic – $30

Sweetwater:
Guitar Combos – $70

Computers And Music
Kantos – $175
Finale Guitar – $65
Amplitube 2 – $150
Ampeg SVX – $235
Amplitube Live – $49

Platinum Records:
Vestax CDX-16 – $200

Scitscat:
Sonik Synth 2 – $219
Trigger Finger – 180

JRR Shop:
Bass Station VSTi – $50
Steinberg Warp VST – $50
Gigapulse – $200
Minimonsta – $125
Gigastudio 3 Solo – $79
Tracktion 2 – $99
Live 5/Trigger Finger Combo – $400
Moog Modular – $180
Arturia Vintage Collection – $600
Beatburner – $50
Oddity – $90
Creamware Noah Bundle – $999
FXpansion BFD Sonar Upgrade W/ Free 8-Bit Kit – $266

If you’ve got a deal that fell through the cracks, post it bellow so that we can catch it. Just remember to make your order before you do. Otherwise we may just buy it out from underneath you…

ATA

Full details from KVR Audio

Here are some power features that make this stand above the deluge of soft synths we see each day: customizable tool tips, effects on individual layers, a modular filters and effects SDK for building custom sounds, matrix scripting, and plenty of effects: bit quantizing distortion, “stereo double” distortion with 2x oversampling, 3 tap mono and stereo echoes, reverse echoes, ring mod, stereo phaser and flanger, and a 32-band analog vocoder. All the effects are here now, but some of the other power features (including some undisclosed new functionality) will be in the update.

As always, the synth is microtunable, skinnable (custom skin shown here), and yet somehow still accessible.

The best part: the updates are free. It’s nice to see a developer adding features for its user base for a reason other than squeezing upgrade inventory. Wusikstation users out there, I’d love to hear from you.

Wusikstation Version 3 (production information and preorder)

There’s a gig of new sounds in the HQ Acoustic Collection with more on the way, plus lots of advanced new effects, filters, envelopes, modulation, and other features. In a rare sign of developer honesty, the developers, currently in beta, say that version 3.0 will include “Other features that will be defined as we code it.”

There you have it, folks. Check out the FAQ and sound samples at the product page for further details.
Previously: Wusikstation 2.0 Windows Super Soft Synth: I Love the 80s

Soft synth overload: it’s a debilitating syndrome where people wander around, unable to recognize loved ones, glazed eyes, muttering incoherently “VST . . . Native Kontraktimpakgutoek. . . polyphony . . . sampledgigabee…..” etc. So, let’s cut to the chase: big sample-playback synth, user skinnable and customizable, and (B3 organ aside) lots of great 80s-digital synth content, ready to play. It’s Wusikstation 2.0 (VSTi), one of the best soft synths for Windows.

I love this line from the creators: “Sounds from keys like: ARP, Chroma Polaris, Elka, EML, Juno, Roland Modular, Matrix 12, Oscar, Waldorf, Roland 202, Hammond B3, Casio CZ, Alesis D4, JP6, Mellotron, Micro XT, MiniKorg, Moog Basses, Moog Source, Oberheim, Odyssey, Arp Omni (3 sounds), 3 Piano sounds, Polaris Ominous, Pro 52 Saws, 2 Rhodes and many more… Very 80’s Digital.”

You had me at Casio CZ. And with a lovely, compact interface and high-end features like flexible effects sends and support for Scala microtuning files, it’s no wonder this independent synth has been a sleeper hit. You can add on more digital sounds — even a massive Alesis QuadraSynth library.

This also means the rumors of Wusikstation’s death were greatly exaagerated. A major controversy on KVR broke out this spring over this same synth; we reported that users might be planning a buyout. I never understood what happened in the first place, so maybe someone knows what’s happened now? In the meantime, it looks like Wusik’s future is safe — so go hit your Polaris sample and have fun.

It’s hard to get solid information, but a storm appears to be brewing on KVR Audio. The developer of Wusikstation is allegedly calling it quits — a combination of business and personal reasons, and sales lost to warez. That’s led to an unprecedented solution for some of the users: band together and try to acquire the software, either to continue it commercially or open source it. Why the groundswell of public support? Aside from users who love the instrument, there are plenty of developers who created sounds for this engine; if Wusikstation is gone, so is their work. Some of the KVR threads have been deleted, and it’s not clear how serious this group is or whether they’ll succeed. If they do, it could change the business of independent music development — instead of software falling off the face of the earth (see Opcode), users might wind up owning it.

Let me know if you know any more about this.