I finally got a job offer 2 days ago, which is a big relief, I have been living on savings turning down lesser jobs for one I'd be satisfied working and can commit myself to. I have the savings for a new laptop, but it's not essential yet, and living is. Life has been all over the shop, and I haven't had the chance to really work at any depth with X3 until now, so time to buck my ideas up.
I am happy waiting for the moment, even when it is released I'd wait for the dust to settle. I can't think of anything I need, but cake have a habit of making advances that I feel I do need. I'm sure they will surprise me again. I understand why others don't want plug in over funtionality, but a balance between the 2 I can see being best for cake, as it helps bring new customers in, and they need this as well as us oldies.
Melodyne and AD 2 were the deal breakers for me, yet I had VVocal and was happy with Session drummer. I had been looking at their expansion kits for Session drummer, but now I've moved on to AD2, I am happy with that step up. I upgraded Melodyne, and find it far more intuitive.
I bought Dim Pro a few years ago, but it's part of Sonar now, this makes me wary of upgrading to any cakewalk softsyths, in case its part of X4. I have Rapture LE and Rapture, so I guess full Rapture was bundled last time I think. So ZETA+2 can wait for me. This also makes me wary of investing pro channel stuff, even with connected companies.
The association with XLN shows though that any good plugins not just cake's could be bundled in. I already owned 4 Applied Acoustic plugs way before the session version came with X3, so this makes me wary of spending on anything to be honest (just waiting for AAS's next full package upgrade 50% off, like thay had last Thanks Giving to come up). Even looking at Amplesounds J bass, I think, 'yeah this is a small gap in the X3, could this end up in X4, that would make sense?'.
Breaking away from the annual upgrade is good for me, and as we haven't heard so much since X3e, I hope this is a sign that they are really developing some functionality that takes most of us back, something most users think, year that's essential to me, I didn''t even think I needed that. They can take all the time in the world as far as I am concerned, then maybe that new laptop (which ill be even more powerful the longer I wait) will be ready to be purchased too.