No Brainer/ Riduclous sale priced products you actually use..or don't

I know this is an odd topic title and hopefully I will be clear enough to not cause confusion. I made a post similar to this regarding freebies and got a lot of good suggestions  Over the past couple of years, lots of great "deals" have been posted. Honestly, although I have jumped on some of these sales, I don't use most of them.  As I find myself cleaning up my computer, i decided to share some of the hits and misses from the last year:
 
Hits:
 
Geist for $49
Solved most of my drum sequencing and sampling issues all in one shot at a no-brainer price. Even came with an extra expansion pack.  I can cretae entire EDM  or hip-hop songs in Geist.  Even the effects are highly useful, including Breverb modules not included in the version that comes with Sonar.
 
Spark Dubstep for 99 cents
Surprisingly the Spark Dubstep for 99 cents was better than i thought.  Not crazy about interface and have not even attempted to make a dubstep song with it, but the sounds work well in other genres and and the kits fit well together.  I find myself inserting it in places i used to use Session Drummer 3 for (mostly electronic 808 kick, snare, clap sounds) and a few of the non-drum sounds just fit.
 
Mongoose by Bozdigital Labs forgot the sale price but it was ridiculously low
 
IMHO a better version of Waves Max Bass without the WUP.  Simple but useful
 
SoundIron ironpacks $2-$4
 
Although they really make you long to own Kontakt and get the full version of their fuller offerings, the small samples are useful, even in SFZ format.
 
Udemy Sale various prices
I included this because it was posted here and music courses are part of their offerings.  Although one class I took ended up being so-so, one class i got for $19 has been awesome if only for the facct it included a year of free web hosting that totally negates the cost of the course. Thanks Larry
 
 
Misses (but still holding out hope for them)
 
Harrison Mixbus $19
 
It is probably not quite fair to lump this as a miss, because it is a good product.  Just could never figure a justification to constantly jump between DAWs to get a couple extra features.  Perhaps if the next version includes more of Ardours feature set minus the ugly Linux GUII may give this another look.  For now, it is just taking up space.
 
AAS String Studio 2 upgrade price (forgot exact figure but was too low to pass)
 
Another one I cannot find anything bad to say about but hardly use it.  Like it's predecessor, it seems to be a product waiting for expert sound designers to truly unveil it's usefulness.
 
Hitfilm Xpress free (usually $149)
I know, not a music product directly, but many here make videos and I posted it about a year ago. This may have been ore useful to someone who did not own other products, but i found it useless. Too many limitations on file types killed it for me.  The fact that shortly after, Black Magic began offering a powerful free alternative that had limitations but better support.
 
 
 

AAS String Studio 2 is remarkable. For me this is a great example of how modeling software can bring new things, new instruments, new music. And not just emulate or mimick existing hardware.

RobertB
Dub, Hitfilm may not have dome much for you, but I have gotten some mileage from it, so thanks for that.
I had previously been using an older version of Pinnacle, but it is trapped in a dead XP machine.
I have actually been turned on to three video related programs via this forum, Hitfilm Express, Fusion(Black Magic), and Messiah Studio.
For me, these have been real eye openers, and I'm glad you guys have mentioned them here.

I'm glad i posted it then.  I am sure the program is good if used properly.  i just got highly annoyed with it early on and  never really used it.  i think that is a prime example of why i will sometimes post offers that are of no use to me. I lik,ed Pinnacle back in the day before Avid bought it.

Nothing to add to this post that wasn't mentioned in the OP. I picked up Geist last Christmas for $99 (no expansion pack), but still a great deal over the standard $249. It has definitely gotten high mileage from me as well with my sampling/sequencing issues. To me, it comes across as a software version of Maschine (although I do not own Maschine so cannot assert this). One feature that I use the most is its utility plugin called "Spitter," which allows it to sample another audio track... this has opened the doors to using AD, as the kit can be sculpted in AD then pulled into Geist for pad layering (one issue I had with AD was the inability to put samples into AD, so Geist solved it in the reverse manner). Geist is not limited to percussion only, and can similarly fire any audio in mix.

For me, most "no-brainer" purchases have ultimately fallen into the Miss category. When a product goes on sale for $10 that normally lists for $199, there's usually a reason: nobody was buying it at the regular price. And nobody was buying it because the product wasn't strong enough to justify the asking price. 
 
Waves' Super Tap delay was a case in point. I got it for a ridiculous price like ten bucks or something. Used it once and didn't even bother moving it over to the new DAW. Ditto for Renaissance Bass and Doubler.
 
AAS String Studio was another flop. I tried and tried, but never managed to get anything close to a "wow" sound out of it.
 
I had to think for a bit before I could come up with an anything that I'd gotten cheap and I actually use. I could only think of one example: D16 Group's Silverline effects, which were bought in a group buy. IIRC it was fifty bucks for all six plugins, four of which get regular use.

For sure I won't be using the $8 Songwriters MIDI pack from Toontrack
(since it was the 2nd time I bought it, DOH!!!)
 

Clint,
I don't  mind if a thread naturally takes a detour when it just evolves that way as opposed to someone coming in screaming bizarre unrelated stuff. Picking a video editor is a little easier than a DAW because there are simply less choices. I have used Vegas. In fact it was my main editing program for years. Vegas is very popular among musicians because it works more like a DAW than any other video program. There are pros and cons to this. The pros are it is far more intuitive for beginning editors and the sense of familiarity  (particularly for Acid and Soundforge users) makes it simple to get started. Other pros include the fact that it has historically had more modest computer requirements than competitors. Also very stable. The biggest con is ironically the fact that it looks and feels so much like a DAW that it seems alien to experienced  video editors. Very minor issue though since most get used to it quickly.  Other minor cons (and I stess minor) is that Vegas is somewhat of an also ran in the editing world. Just big enough to be known, and users will rave about it, but almsot no use in Hollywood and only slight use in indie films. Avid still rules Hollywood and Final Cut and Premiere duke it out for the indie crowds now. There have been a couple high profile films cut in Vegas like Paranormal Activity but we are talking exception among exceptions. Not that it matters for the indie producer if it works for him/her. It does matter for someone looking to get hired by others since no position is going to ask for Vegas experience and solely cutting on Vegas will make picking up  the vastly different guis and workflows of other products more likely to be used a little more challenging. I currently use Premiere and it is a great product. The big knock of course is the cloud system. It bugs me, but tutoring alone pays for the cost every month.  I would not say it is necessarily  a better editor than Vegas since I am comfortable with either, but in the working world it is more practical and combines with more advanced software much better. When things like motion graphics  and integrating 3d objects come into play it becomes no contest.  Even the integration with photoshop becomes a factor. I have rarely used the titler in either Premiere or Vegas because Photoshop, After Effects and other 3D programs offer better options.

I think Scoot nails how I feel about string studio.  Everything i do with it sounds like the background of a dystopian film scene just before the heroine is forced to eat her own love baby. Great, if that's  what you are goimg for but I never seem to be goimg for that. I'm  not giving  up on it but it takes a great degree of notjing better to do for me to even insert it.

I got some good sample packs from Prodyon's going out of business sale (on several occasions).  If you are interested in electronic music, I recommend you get something from the current sale.

Add to that list (for me anyway) the Rhino synth.  I got it for 20 bucks in a no-brainer sale back when I first started acquiring software synths about five years ago, and as a result probably gave it no respect whatever.  But the developer has kept it up to date.  It's been 64-bit for some time now and I believe an upgrade just appeared that includes some new filter technology.  The thing is (and no pun intended), this thing is a beast.  Some of the factory presets are most impressive.

String studio, I think it's all been said, on the face of it it is very good but I have never used it in anger.

Ultra Analog on the other hand is a keeper, unlike String Studio it's pretty ordinary but it's much more useable. I use it quite a bit.

Steven Slate Drums sound great but I have never used them in a track. Some of that is down to the horrible interface.

Another no brained I have never found a use for is the Rob Paping delay.

Reverbs was probably my only mistake.They are all good but why so many? I punch myself on a regular basis to remind me that one would have been enough. 

My motto is that I will never, ever, ever, ever buy another compressor. Or EQ, or reverb for that matter. Even if it's free I won't get it and add even more clutter to my system.

However, it's hard to live by that motto, which I've had for a couple years now. I seem to fail at it, especially when Larry was contributing his plentiful deal info.

Most recently I went for the IK Group Buy and grabbed like 5 of the above for "next to nothing" - considering I had some credits that I'd picked up for 50 percent off earlier in the year. It worked out to about $11 each for the 5.

Still don't know I'll use any of these new IK EQs, compressors and reverbs, or to what degree I may use them. Kind of an impulse buy, but the forum frenzy was on for the IK Group Buy with rave remarks and I went for the 5 plugins at about a $55 outlay, from a list price for those that seemed like $1000. Not sure if I scored a hit or miss. Kind of a blind swing.

I almost forgot about the addictive keys deal for 29 from musicians  friend.  Came with three piano modules that all sound great. There are a couple of pianos that sound better, but not for 29.

glad i passed on throat