Steve K

I'm a sucker for inexpensive (and good) guitar libraries, so I took advantage of the code to buy the Wrongtools Jaguar electric guitar library (20 Euros after the coupon). The sound reminds me of the guitar part in Jeff Buckley's version of Hallelujah. It sounds great! Perhaps a little harpsichordy in the upper registers, but adding a little extra delay and reverb fattens fattens up the sound nicely. This is built for arpeggios and sustained chords. I'm very happy with this purchase. I've been salivating over Fjordheim drums, which are also on sale for 49 Euros. There is a fair amount of complaining in the usual places about the inability to control the volume of individual drums, and I have so many great-sounding drum libraries already. But on the demos on the Wrongtools website, it sounds organic and alive. I think I'll likely resist this time around, but it is on the wishlist.

Loops de la Creme released Linn Supreme and have it on a 16 Euro intro price. https://www.loopsdelacreme.com/linn-supreme. My favorite feature on their latest drum kit plugins is a beat-repeat/fill feature on the mod-wheel for making fills and beat variations with their built-in groove patterns. From the webiste: A tribute to the legendary Linn Drum machines LM1 and LM2 383 samples (24bit, 48kHz mono and stereo WAV) organised in 13 folders 15 Kontakt patches Includes dry and punchy samples, classic gated reverb samples, and creative sound design samples Samples processed using world-class studio gear 3 Bonus acoustic sets of ride and crash cymbals 12 Built-in grooves and rolls with MW variations One ‘full set’ instrument with 8 custom kits Intuitive GUI with rich overdrive, retro tape saturation, parallel compression, 3-band EQ, and custom reverb. 10 custom Impulse Responses full Kontakt 5.8+ required!!!

There definitely are some odd design decisions in this new version: Omission of instrument mode, particularly since they do have it in Carbon 2. As Soundwise points out, the pitch keys are definitely playing the wrong notes relative to a real guitar. This is actually really poorly implemented -- the third and fourth strings play the same pitch -- this is a bug or perhaps user error because rarely it does work correctly. Almost all of the presets seem to be geared to creating synth sounds rather than guitar sounds Small number of pattern presets, at least compared to Carbon 2 and Silk 1. Patttern presets are a key feature, if not the key feature, of an instrument like this. MIDI drag-and-drop only works with Silk instrument mode. It would be nice to use the patterns with a different instrument (acknolwedge that this wouldn't work for strums, but it would for arpeggios). AAS GS-2 has the same limitation. But also some good things: Key triggering works better than Silk 1 -- less choppy, more playable than its predecessor Remove the stomp box and finisher effects and, in my opinion, the guitar sound is better than in Silk 1. But it doesn't sound nearly as good as NI Nylon. And the patterns aren't as good either. Silk 2 is better than AAS GS-2 nylon guitar models -- although I think the AAS nylon models are actually pretty darn adequate. I am finding that the best use for Silk 2 is playing its synthy/guitary presets alongside Silk 1's more traditional arpeggio patterns. The keyswitches are the same between both so this is easy to make happen. I understand the complaint about not having an instrument mode, but I think most folks who can proficiently tinkle the keys might be happier with Heavyocity's free Foundations Nylon Guitar, which sounds amazing.

ReMIDI 2, which I have always found to be a fun tool for inspiration has been upgraded to ReMIDI 3. Upgrade price (at least mine) is $19. Regular price is a staggering $128! Here's the link: https://store.songwish.ca/p/remidi-3/ They upgraded the UI which will greatly simplify scanning MIDI files for chords and other variations -- very useful! They also added a semi-randomized chord-melody generator, separate from the MIDI file scanning -- not really as useful, IMO. There's a tutorial video on the page.

I really like this kit and find it quite usable outside the black/death metal genres due to its lo-fi character. I've been working on a 60s garage rock throwback song, and these drums are (to my ears) perfect for that recorded-in-my-parents-living-room sound that I was looking for.

I'm not sure its a necessary add to your guitar sim arsenal. If I really knew the sound of the Celestion speakers and was trying to emulate that, it would be great. But I don't. I bought it for $39. It's nice that it integrates with amp room, but I think the other Softube IRs sound really good already. I'll tell you what I have found that it does really well. I set the speaker diameter low to medium, 1x12 cabinet, whatever speakers, whatever amp set to medium dirty (not high-gain), a distortion pedal up front, eq out the lows/boost the highs at about 1k, and then a spring reverb (not Softube's, which to my ears sounds too springy for this application), and I get a very reasonable lofi 80s punk/hardcore sound. Guitar volume at 50% for Minutemen; 75-90% gets Black Flag/Circle Jerks/Minor Threat, 100% get my absolute favorite - Iggy Pop Search and Destroy.

I think Jamstix is the cleverest, most useful audio plugin ever developed. If you have in your head a drum part, Jamstix can be fiddly and hard to tame. But if you have a vague idea and are looking for inspiration, Jamstix is the GOAT. I have written entire song parts around what Jamstix generates. Its like having a drummer who says… “what if I do this?” Only, he doesn’t complain when you reject the idea and do something else. I use Jamstix all the time. Ralph should be rich living on the French Riviera having sold his incredible IP to any of the big-name drum packages. If he ever does return and release an upgrade, I will buy it immediately... without even waiting for a sale!

Agree completely... I have the same reaction to Jordan Rudess software demos. However, there are limits. Not even Thiago Pinheiro can make Strum GS-2 sound like a guitar.

I think the benefit of this is outside the DAW recording. For example, Unify is a great environment for playing around with patch ideas -- it has such as simple GUI, loads fast, and is incredibly powerful for fun patch-making. But on its own, it can't record MIDI, so by the time I re-open Unify with my newly created patch in the DAW, the idea has sailed. With this application, I can close Unify, grab a cup of coffee, cuddle the dogs, yell at the (adult) kids, and still have the MIDI idea that I was playing with. I'm thinking of setting this up to run when I start the computer (it is a standalone .exe as well as a vst), so I always have MIDI recording going on. I demoed it, and it does do what it says on the tin. But it seems like such a simple concept. I can't help but wonder if there are cheaper or free-r options out there. I don't really need the audio recording feature.

Thanks! Funny you should call that out. I had to re-open the project. It's just a happy accident. The instrument is from Vacuum Pro (that old AIR synth), but what gives it that sound is a preset in Unfiltered Audio Sandman Pro called Robot Politics. I'd love to say it was intentional sound design, but really it was dumb luck from a preset junkie. My daughter told me she thought it made the song creepy and unlistenable, so I knew I had struck gold.

Ya -- it's not the greatest, IMO. The amp/cab is truly horrible and can be dramatically improved by turning it off and running through any other amp sim. But the guitar doesn't sound much like a guitar, and while I like some of the strum patterns, they tend to sound wooden. The best sounds are the electric "models" playing staccato sounds. The nylon "models" also sound pretty decent to my ears, especially when playing arpeggios. That being said, I've used it in tracks I've produced a fair amount. That's for three reasons. One is that its great for inspiration. It doesn't choke if you play notes that it can't identify as a chord, it just plays them. So you can get some really unexpected harmonies out of it. The second is that it is easy to use and combine the strum patterns in the DAW to do some cool patterns. The third is that if you bury it in a mix, it does have the general timbre and texture of a guitar. Here's an example I did four years ago (I guess I haven't used it recently). Strum comes in at about 1:13 and plays throughout. You will instantly know that it is the AAS product, but I think the average listener would identify it as a guitar. You'll have to turn up the volume... I mixed this very quiet for a very good reason that didn't work out. If you stick around to the end, the guitar solo is me, not Strum. Just saying.

IMO, reMidi is a fun idea generator. It's a bit like Scaler if each key were mapped to a random chord or sequence. It's a little counterintuitive to me how to put MIDI slices I want onto the pads so I could play it like a drum pad. That may be due to my natural RTFM resistance, but I can't help but think that a few design changes would make it simpler to use. I would love to be able to drag and drop a slice onto a pad and end up with a 4x4 grid of slices. But I can't seem to make that happen. That being said, I do find it to be an effective and fun way to generate progressions I never would have thought of. The plugin comes with a plethora of MIDI files of public domain music and of course you can use your own. I use it in one of two ways: 1.) Set the size of the MIDI slice as low as possible and the tempo multiplier low which will generate chords for most key presses. Start pressing keys to find a sequence to which I can fit a melody, then record the MIDI out. Very quick inspiration every time. 2.) Set the size of the MIDI slice low and the tempo multiplier high and put an arpeggiator in front of reMIDI -- I can get some very interesting MIDI sequences out of it. So for quick inspiration, it was definitely worth the $20 bucks I paid for it. It has the same problem that all these chord generator plugins have, at least for my process. I find that tools like this are very helpful to come up with a chord progression and melody. But once I have a melody, and I want to take the melody someplace different (e.g., a chorus or a B-section) the tool becomes a hindrance. I want to find chords to fit the melody, so random hunting and pecking keys either fails to return something I am interested in, or forces me to compromise the melody idea. But that's not just ReMidi, I think it's a shortcoming of all these kinds of tools. Hope that's helpful. I think the $20 price point is about right.

Merry Christmas from Thousand Oaks, CA #2!! (I live near CLU - across from the Rams practice field) I post rarely, but read often... thanks for this great little community dedicated to music production and wallet deflation.

Well... not so great after all. Just got an email from ADSR: To compensate, they say they are giving me some free soundpacks and an offer on their drum machine product for the same $12.50. Which I would probably go for if I didn't already have drum machines coming out of my ears. The software is still working on my machine. I already had Nectar 3 essentials; the main reason I wanted plus was to get Melodyne. So I'm hoping that even if they revoke the Nectar 3 plus license, I'll still get to keep the Melodyne license. We'll see. I'm disappointed that my lucky deal didn't work out, but not outraged or upset. I'm not going to write nasty emails back or boycott ADSR. I think instead I'll go spend some money on the Spitfire sale.

😁😁