Black Friday 2024 Cheat Sheet For Producers

Black Friday is without a doubt the best time to level up our music production gear. Great deals and massive savings all around, but with the plethora of great plugins at insanely low prices things can also get a little overwhelming.

We all know which plugins and bundles we want to buy. The difficult and sometimes overwhelming part is to decide, which of all the insanely good deals from the brands we love we should not buy. Because we all – or at least most of us – have a limited budget and we don’t want to wake up with a Cyber Weekend hangover.

I’m not scared of a hangover! Take me to the deals!

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The Big Problem

The big problem, and it may be bigger than you think, is that we often end up with gear, plugins and sample pack bundles we actually never use. We just bought them because the deal was too good to resist. Now we have wasted money – despite the deal objectively being a great deal.

Even worse, we have also wasted time by purchasing the stuff, downloading it and installing it, time we could have spent producing. But that’s not all – it gets even worse. Because now we have cluttered our hard drive with software and sounds we don’t feel inspired by.

Okay, you might say, you have a huge and ultra fast SSD, so it doesn’t make any difference. But wasted storage space is not the worst point.

The worst of all is that all the plugins and samples we never use slow down our production process. They disrupt our creative flow, simply because now it takes longer to find the good stuff, that we really love.

Now imagine how it would be if you scanned through your plugins and samples and ALL of them would make you feel excited. No stacks of fluff that you need to work your way through until you find something you love.

The Big Question

Now the big question is…

How can we really get the best for our money? What is actually a great deal for us? Because it’s not the same for everyone.

For example, as much as I love 1073 EQs, it would’t make sense to buy all the 1073 plugins available from all the brands I like. Because I already have more than one and that’s already too much, because one (a good one of course) is enough.

Obviously it would make a lot more sense to add a plugin to my arsenal, that does things, that none of my plugins can do, a plugin that fills a gap.

For me, the brand new drum layering plugin Snapback from Cableguys is such a tool. I have no plugin that can do what Snapback can do and it’s very likely that I’m going to use it a lot.

Sometimes, during all the Black Friday craze, it can be difficult to stay clear on which plugins really do fill a gap in our production arsenal, and which plugins are just a tiny variation on something we already own.

The Cheat Sheet

So here is what I suggest – and I promise you if you stick with my suggestion you will end up picking the best plugins and samples for YOU this Black Friday. The ones that inspire you, increase your workflow and don’t clutter your computer. So here it is:

Before exploring all the exciting deals that will be thrown at us in huge numbers and in high frequency, ask yourself the following three questions:

Which plugin can fill a gap in my production arsenal?
It should
- A) Increase my workflow or
- B) Add new colors and textures to my sound
What plugins have I been wanting for a long time?
If I’m pulled towards a certain plugin or bundle again and again, chances are I’m really going to enjoy using it.
How much money do I want to spend?
This may seem obvious, but it’s a psychological fact that as soon as we spend money, we are more likely to spend more money. So in order to keep our budget in check it’s a good idea to determine your budget before buying and not while buying.

That’s pretty simple, right? Three simple questions.

The Answers

Now it’s time to answer these questions four yourself. I recommend writing them down and keeping them in sight until the Black Friday madness is over.

What are your long time favorite plugins you still don’t own? Which plugin or sample pack would fill a gap in your music production arsenal? And how much money do you allow yourself to spend this Black Friday?

Don’t overthink it. Your gut feeling will tell you pretty quickly. Trust that feeling. It’s right most of the time.

Done?

Great!

Now that you’ve answered all three questions (you have written them down, right?) you are ready to jump right into the Black Friday craziness and grab the best deals, the ones that help take your production game to the next level.

Some Suggestions

In case you are interested, let me suggest a few plugins that I believe can make a big difference to your productions. These are all time tested plugins and brands. I’m using most of them on a regular basis. The plugins in the list that I don’t use myself (like the ShaperBox bundle), are plugins that producer friends of mine love and use a lot.

Please note that not all Black Friday deals for the mentioned products are already live. But most are. Simply click on the link to check them out.

So here’s the list in no particular order:

Universal Audio

Without a doubt the leaders in vintage gear emulations. If you want to give your tracks mojo and depth with ease, here you go.

Softube

Another manufacturer of top of the line emulations of vintage gear.

Soundtoys

The Soundtoys bundle is around for quite a while and steadily but slowly growing. Their Decapitator is still one of the best, most versatile and most easy to use saturation and distortion plugin you can get.

By the way, they are offering their Phase Mistress plugin for FREE right now.

Scaler byPlugin Boutique

Great if you are running out of ideas for chord progressions. Also a big helper, if you are not good at music theory. Simple to use but very deep if you want to.

LIFE by XLN Audio

Easily turn ANY recording into a percussion loop in no time at all. Comes with an app for smartphones, so you can capture any sound anytime anywhere and infuse your beats with unusual percussion loops later on.

Turn your friends freaking out at a party into a percussive loop? Or the barking dog of your neighbors? LIFE is also great for rearranging and mangling your favorite drum breaks.

Too much fun not to use.

RC-20 Retro Color by XLN Audio

A modern classic for adding Lo-Fi vibes to your tracks. Also great for turning mono instruments into stereo. Simply set the Wobble and Magnetic modules to stereo and listen to what happens to mono hi hats.

You can read my full review of RC-20 Retro Color here.

Sketch Cassette II by Aberrant DSP

THE cassette tape emulation. Also great for adding Lo-Fi texture. You can also get really quirky sounds of Sketch Cassette if you want to.

You can read my full review of Sketch Cassette II here.

Arturia V Collection X

The biggest bundle of superb vintage and modern synth plugins combined with a massive preset library and a smooth workflow. Endless inspiration and vibe. You simply can’t go wrong with these.

KNOCK by Plugins That Knock

THE plugin for making your drums hit harder. There’s been quite a hype around KNOCK, because DECAP, the developer of the plugin is also the creator of the sample pack series Drums That KNOCK. If you are on Splice, you know them.

During their Black Friday Deal buyers of KNOCK also get a “Drums That Knock” limited edition sample pack with the bundle deal.

Total Studio MAX by IK Multimedia

This bundle probably contains more plugins, sounds and production software than you’ll ever need, all at an insanely low price. I’m a happy user of their ARC room correction software (speaker calibration software would be more accurate). Amplitube and Tonex are great if you play guitar or bass, but also great as multi effects plugins. Mixbox is cool for sound design and fun to use and Syntronik comes with a lot of vibey old school synth sounds. Their T-Racks mastering suite with every plugin and a ton more is also included.

Smooth Operator by Baby Audio

One of those plugins, that does a lot of complex things and is super easy to use at the same time. It’s a combination of EQ, resonance control and dynamic processing. Works great on the master bus but also on buses and individual channels, i.e. on everything.

Transit 2 by Baby Audio

Developed together with Andrew Huang, this plugin is great for creating all kinds of risers, drops and transitions. Great for building tension before getting from one song part into the next.

Pro-Q 3 by FabFilter

The standard for graphic EQ. With a clear user interface, a great workflow, pristine sound and a lot of options like dynamic EQ and match EQ under the hood. I mean all their plugins are awesome, but Pro-Q 3 is the one you’ll probably be using all the time once you get your hands on it.