simon

45 minutes ago, El Diablo said:

Has this happened before?

yes

and

If I had to fit Stockholm into that list, it would be between Rock Foundry and Hitmaker

it's not nearly as good, varied, versatile as most of the other recent stuff such as Legacy of Rock, Fields of Rock, Rooms of Hansa which you already own.

I'd put Legacy of Rock, Fields of Rock, Rooms of Hansa, Area 33, Hitmaker, Decades all in the same 'quality' ballpark.

Also don't overlook the EZD expansions which work ok in SD3 - I love 'In The Pocket' EZX for example - very different from most SDX

@Bajan Blue

obviously it's down to personal choice, but here's my take.

I'll go in reverse order:

Rock Warehouse - an older SD2 library - sounds good, but I think TT have got much better at sampling and producing SDX in the last few years , wouldn't be my first choice from that list - actually it's my last choice (20gig)

Rock Foundry - also nice (from 2017) - 7 kits, including a 'mono' kit - good selection of solid 'rock-type' sounds - possibly a bit 'vanilla' compared to the next two  (68gig) 

Hitmaker - one of the most recent releases - Hugh Padgham's 'sound of the 80s' set - think Phil Collins, The Police - full recreation of 80s electronic / processed stuff from the engineer/producer who invented the drum sound from that era  (94gig)

Decades - Al Schmitt's SDX - a huge cross section of kits 'through the ages' (hence DECADES) - beautifully recorded in full surround sound.   Less gimmicky than some of the other stuff but covering a huge range of drums/techniques (99gig)

If I had to pick one then it would be Decades, but of course ANY of them will work in more or less any 'modern' genre.    Decades does the least 'steering' for you.  When you load one of the Hitmaker presets it's really asking for you to play/program in one of the 80s styles.  Try loading the 'phil collins' preset and not trying to do the famous fill.

So short answer is Decades - long answer is Decades and Hitmaker

14 minutes ago, Bajan Blue said:

just wonder what this one could add?

I not sure it adds that much ?

it's a decent set of straightforward drum sounds, well covered already from other SDX libraries.    It doesn't have much added 'sparkle' or interest unlike the others you listed.

3 hours ago, Pluto Gabo said:

FIXED: The really expensive piece of gear that no one would ever buy me that keeps on giving 😆

I bought Helix Native, so no "gear" for me.  It was heavily discounted in a summer sale around 4 years ago so wasn't too expensive.  It's had multiple updates with lots of great improvements and add-ons since then, all for free.  Zero complaints here

11 minutes ago, Bapu said:

Also, for me today, all EZKeys sound modules needed an update.

I'm assuming for EZK2 in a couple of weeks

the gift that keeps on giving 👍

worked fine for me on the 2nd download - it says it's 1.0.0 when it's downloading but there is a 1.0.1 patch hidden in the updated download

Just finished downloading but now I get a file error: 8763

@Bapu - has this installed ok for you ?

EDIT

I see others are having problems over on the TT forum

EDIT2 (for those following at home  )

I think they patched an issue with the installer during my initial download - so 🤞and downloading again.

6 hours ago, Yan Filiatrault said:

Anyone tried it?

yes, I have the Opus edition   - That's a good price for Ensembles, but this library is looking very long in the tooth in 2023 (much like me !)

It's a Halion instrument and the GUI is very klunky - sound is only just meh - usability is also meh.  Never gets used here.

If you only have $99 and HAVE to have a Halion orchestra then yes, go for it....but much better options out there....in my opinion.

always grateful for a freebie but I suspect that link is for 'personal use only' ?

41 minutes ago, Reid Rosefelt said:

  I love the Session Guitarist series. 

I love the Session Guitarist stuff too - I wonder how this will translate to bass ?

is anybody buying enough 8DIO stuff to make a product downloader worthwhile ? 

in case anyone was wondering they have disabled the monthly vouchers for this 

(it's in the small print)

Smasher free again

10 minutes ago, abacab said:

I wasn't the one asking. That was @mettelus.

ahh sorry - I was flagging it because you were saying that you didn't think you could use your own MIDI -  apart from in 'Bandmate'.

17 minutes ago, abacab said:

Here is what the EZbass manual says about user libraries. I assume that EZkeys 2 will be similar:

 

you can add entire folders of existing MIDI in EZbass,  just the same as you can in EZD3.  Meaning you can add your 3rd party or self generated MIDI into both products.

it's in the 'Groove' tab > User MIDI

isn't that what you're asking for ?

here's it in action in EZD3 

3 minutes ago, abacab said:

Unless I am mistaken, that only applies to "Bandmate" where you can drag and drop your own MIDI there in order to find matching MIDI in the EZkeys 2 MIDI library. I haven't seen anything related to adding you own MIDI styles to the EZkeys libraries.

"Bandmate: Get chords and grooves based on your own audio or MIDI".

you can import MIDI into EZD3 and SD3, I suspect you will be able to do that in EZK2

9 minutes ago, MrFigg said:

Question I'm asking myself is do I "need" emulations of old harware? 

Answer - yes

(plus it's not all emulations of vintage hardware)

28 minutes ago, Fleer said:

They told me any remaining EZKeys sound expansion serials won’t work for EZKeys 2. And they told me to register them before May 16th. But I’m out of options. That’s a Waves kinda policy. 

although a Waves kinda policy probably wouldn't have told you anything useful -  and said that you check back in after May to find out

you'll still be able to use them for EZKeys 1 expansion though ? - the MIDI and sound should work in EZKeys 2 ? or if you have the entire set maybe try to sell 'em on  ?

As has been pointed out I think the EZK expansions are changing to be more like EZB and EZD - they are calling them EKX (I think)

2 minutes ago, Fleer said:

And the one from Relab?

I've got the cheaper relab LX480 essential (which is based on a 480 not a 224) and it really feels like a demo for the full version.

It's got one of those really annoying GUIs that it seem,  wherever you click on it, it fires open a web browser and takes you to a website to encourage you to buy the full version.

It might well be a more accurate emulation - but really, who cares ?

28 minutes ago, dumbquestions said:

Waves back on at 3rd parties?

https://everyplugin.com/plugins/shopby/manufacturer/waves.html?p=2

very interesting 👍

@John Maar it's basically a badged up Merging Technologies Anubis (Sennheiser own Neumann AND Merging) 

There are some reviews on the Sound On Sound website of the Anubis units which give an indication of the latency - obviously we don't know if this will be an updated driver.

USB 2 or 3 - well it's almost certainly not relevant as we are not at the channel count / bitrate needed for USB3

https://www.rme-audio.de/rme-usb-technology.html

unfortunately also a "Price of the Future"

5 hours ago, Johnbee58 said:

Got mine pre-ordered.  I just hope they do this like they did EZ Drummer 3 last year where we got to keep EZD 2 along with EZD 3. 

yes, somewhere on the website it says you get to keep the EZKeys V1 installation - so old project etc work just fine