Saving Money When Making Purchases For Your Studio

Everyone loves a deal, so I decided to do a post showing how I save money when buying studio gear. My engineer friend Darius Lyles inspired me to write this post because I am always saving on purchases I make and he told me I should share. So here is 5 tips on how you can save money when making purchases.

1. I “NEVER” pay full price for plugins. Companies like Waves, McDSP, Slate Digital, always have sales. If there is a plugin you want, unless you feel you need it right away, be patient and wait for it for it to go on sale. If you know you want McDSP plugins for example, then go to the website and sign up for their news letter, follow them on twitter, like them on facebook, Anything to make sure you know about sales when they happen. Trust me, you don’t want to hold out for a sale only to find out later that you missed it. Softube recently ran their first ever sale and it was a good one. I’ve wanted Softube plugins for a long, long time. I’ve been watching them for almost a year. I finally got that email about a sale and took advantage buying pretty much their whole collection. Some plugins, like McDSP retro pack, wasn’t on my radar, but the sale at the time was an impulse buy. And I’m glad I did because I use them on every mix now.
2. Always price match before you buy. You never know when you can catch a company slipping because of a wrong price on their site. I got a sweet deal on my Empirical Labs Mike-e because of this.
3. Buy in bulk. Most companies will you give you a discount the more you buy. I got a couple hundred off from Sweetwater when I bought my Dangerous D-box, Profire 2626, Art Pro VLA II, and m-audio SBX10 all together. If your looking at more than one piece of gear find out how much it will be if you bought them together. Then decide if its worth it to save and get it together or just one at a time.
4. Don’t under estimate 10%. When we hear 10% a lot of people blow it off, its just 10% right? !0% off $100 is $10. Ok, not a big deal. But when buying studio gear 10% can make a big difference. I got 10% of my Lynx Aurora 8 from a sale Sweetwater was running at the time. That 10% brought my Lynx Aurora 8 from $2,000, to $1,800. Big difference! If your saving for gear and not quite there yet that extra 10% could be just what you need. Frontend Audio has 10% off weekends frequently, as well as a reward for reviews program. This gives you 2% up to 10% for each review you submit. If you roam the site you will find many of my reviews.
5. Shop during holidays. Of course Xmas is the big one but most companies run sales every major holiday. And seeing that there is a major holiday every few months, you won’t have to wait long to try to catch a sale.

I’ll say more than 75% of the gear and plugins I own I got on sale. As a bonus tip make a wish list. I have a Google Docs document saved with a list of gear I want. Once I made the list I prioritized them according to need, and wrote purchased next to ones I’ve acquired to keep track of my progress. If a sale comes up for something I want that's not top on my list but may be 3 or 4 spots down the list, I go ahead and get it. Even though its not at the top of my list, you never know when that sale may come around again.