Hi Team, with Black Friday here, there's so many amazing deals on VST's so I wanted to share some of the best stuff I bought in 2025. I think this year has been incredible and these products really made my tracks stand out. I also want to hear from you what your favs are. Ok here goes: 1. Westwood Instruments - Novella, Lost Guitar - Make sure to download their freebies! 2. Heavyocity - Gravity 2, Oblivion, Dystropia - Make sure to download their freebies! 3. Keepforest - Appex Guitars, and I'm going to buy the new WILD HUNT (This looks awesome!) - Make sure to download their freebies! 4. Sonuscore - The Ochestra, The Score, Horizon Leads, Elysium 2, Fragments - One thing I don't love about Sonuscore is that I feel like their sounds out of the box need serious compression punch, they sound soft to me. But overall great tools to work with. 5. Lunaris 2 - Amazing pads! 6. Soundpaint - I bought all their strings, I think they're wonderful but I seem to get a bit of latency on them. Ok so it sounds like a lot, but I think I got all of this for under $3000? I'm a working TV composer so it's stuff I actually needed and can write off on taxes, but even if you have $500 this holiday season to treat yourself, these are all great tools! What are the newest things you all bought this year? Matt

Hey everyone, I'm doing something I've never done before and won't do again .. and it ends around midnight. A complete blowout on all my programs. Here's what's available RIGHT NOW: 📚 All My Courses — Last Time to Purchase My entire course library (Trailer Music Trailblazers I & II, Game Music Conquerors, etc.) at prices you'll never see again. After this, they won't be available for individual purchase. 👉 Check the Classroom 🎓 Audio Artist Rise — LIFETIME ACCESS for $497 Normally $2000 or $97/month. Get lifetime access for a one-time payment. 100+ training videos, two weekly live calls, the works. This won't be offered again. 👉 Get Audio Artist Rise Lifetime Here 💼 10x 1:1 Consultation Calls with Me — $997 Normally $1470 10 private calls. 1.5 hours each. Trailer music, game composition, or business strategy — your choice. Direct access to everything I've learned in 20 years. Limited slots only. 👉 Get the 1:1 Consultation Pack If you've been waiting for the right time to grab any of this — this is it. Cheerio, Alex

Years ago, I bought an expensive sample library. For me, at that time, it was a big purchase, not just money wise, but also in terms of storage. The library was around 400 GB, so I even bought a new hard drive just to be able to install it and keep it ready all the time. Once I set it up, it worked like a charm. The sound was great, the player was stable, and it quickly became one of my go to libraries. You know that feeling when a library becomes part of your musical identity? That was it for me. I felt like “Okay, this was totally worth the investment.” Then, a few years later, the company decided to upgrade their sample player and move on to a brand new product, basically a “Strings Version 2” kind of situation. New engine, new interface, shiny new features… And slowly, my original library started to feel like an afterthought, old player in town :). At first, it was small stuff: fewer updates, no real improvements, some compatibility quirks. Then newer OS and DAW updates came along, and the cracks started to show. The old player wasn’t really being maintained anymore(vst2), and suddenly this huge 400 GB library I had invested in started to feel like a “legacy product” rather than something truly supported. That’s the part that hurts a bit as a composer. I didn’t buy a subscription; I bought a tool I expected to rely on for many years. I don’t expect free new products forever, but I also don’t expect my existing purchase to slowly die because all attention moved to the next version. This experience made me think about a few things: - How much we depend on proprietary players and ecosystems - How important it is to keep old installers and working setups - And how “lifetime access” often doesn’t mean “lifetime compatibility” These days, when I buy a big library, I try to be more careful. I save installers, I bounce important parts to audio, and sometimes I even keep an older OS setup alive just for legacy stuff. It’s not ideal, but it’s better than losing a sound that became part of my musical voice.

Hi, Musio (Cinesamples) is slightly modifying its business model. Just create a account for access to musio essentials , free : 8 instruments "included with every account that showcase Musio’s sound and workflow." After Musio 1, the platform is transitioning to a marketplace. https://portal.musio.com/marketplace Marketplace examples: Cinebrass Core: 84.05€ TIna Guo Cello: 50.09€ World series around 40€ each. Some synths around 8.49€ AudioOllie LA Modern Percussion 84 € ProjectSam TrueStrike 135 € Subscriptions remain available. https://musio.com/musio-plus $9.99/ month or $99/yr The platform is also opening its marketplace to other developers.

Hi everyone, I just started my own YouTube channel to share my journey as a music composer and post music-related content—like guitar playing and short tutorials. I received a YouTube notification that this Short was blocked due to copyright-protected audio. The strange thing is, the video uses my own original music. The claim shows up under something called HAAWK for a 3rd Party, which I’ve never heard of before. Has anyone else run into this? I’d really appreciate any advice on what steps I should take next. I’ve linked the video here for reference—thanks in advance for any help!