Craig Fowler

I used to love coffee from Intelligentsia in Chicago when I lived in the US.

https://vstbuzz.com/deals/50-off-hammers-waves-acoustic-by-skybox-audio/

$89USD and Kontakt Player compatible. Well worth it!

Worth searching this subforum for recent posts with Microsoft or Windows  in the title. I used one of the Groupon links that was posted in the last 2-3 months, I think.

Not gonna lie, my first thought on hearing the demos was 'meh.' The more melodic stuff sounded pretty good, but for conventional use (e.g., part of a trio or quartet), I just thought it sounded like someone playing a bass part on a rompler.

Pretty pricey though once converted out of Sterling! I'm holding out for a sale on the new Kawai Shiregu library from PremierSounds. Until then, all pianos are verboten!

The developer is excellent, @PavlovsCat. I have their Atelier/Austin trumpet, sax, and clarinet. I don't use them much because for the mellow jazz sorta stuff I like, StraightAheadSamples is hard to beat. But with SAS, the wonder happens when you activate SmartDelay, so just playing in on a keyboard isn't necessarily much fun. The strength of Musical Sampling instruments like this is that you can just noodle and it will sound really good.

With that said, all the scripting in the world won't stop an oboe from being an oboe, so I'll be passing on this.

The library I'd like to try out from Musical Sampling is Soaring Strings, which often goes on sale for $129. Check out the 'Commanding the fleet' demo. It's stunning, and probably the best product demo I've ever heard.

Don't know if I need this (actually, I'm pretty sure I don't), but I *really* like their stuff. What cheapy gets me there best, anyone? 🙂

8 hours ago, Wallace said:

Are there any good SDX recommendations for Pop / R&B / Jazz / Funk type of sound? Currently looking at just grabbing three from Hitmaker, Decades, Rooms of Hansa, and Stories.

Decades is the obvious choice for jazz, depending on what you want it to do. I really wanted nice, smooth, snare swirls that were easily programmed, so I upgraded to SD3 and bought Decades. It didn't get me there, whereas spending $30 on Klevgrand's Borsta got me exactly what I was after. Decades is fantastic, but even though it has brush articulations, I think of it more as a big band jazz sound.

I really like Rooms of Hansa. Fields of Rock is the other 'modern' SDX I have. Honestly, I wonder if SD3 is overkill for what it sounds like you want - the genres you mention seem better represented in the EZ Drummer line - Superior is much more tailored to acoustic drums that 'sound' acoustic. The Pop/R&B side of things has tons of EZD3 expansions.

26 minutes ago, Release said:

It's different.  I find it warmer than Noire and any of H&W ones.  But I usually play it solo so I don't need it to cut through anything else.  Not sure if it would get lost in a mix.  

To me, this is one of those rare libraries where the demos sound exactly like what I can pull out of it.  I have a few that sound completely different from what I was expecting.  I thought I got it for around $75 but that might have been the intro price?  Can't remember.

This is not helping! Stop enabling me!

I also have been hoping the newish Premier Sound Kawai Legacy VI goes on sale...might have to wait

Grrr. Have wanted this for a while. Must resist! Surely if I have Noire, Ascend, and Hammers & Waves, this is overkill, right?

36 minutes ago, Sander Verstraten said:

Where's the group buy😂

That's a group buy I could get behind!

On 3/14/2024 at 12:35 PM, User 905133 said:

Is Movavi any good?  Fanatical has a Movavi Bundle. This is all I know about it (only because I Googled "vegas pro v. movavi."

I like Movavi a lot, but my needs are basic - pretty much simple edits for online teaching that I do. It's not especially 'handy-holdy,' and I appreciate how fast it renders (compared to Magix, especially!)

32 minutes ago, 53mph said:

Wait! Is Tonex from ik multimedia?

I used to use IK plugins years ago but I moved away from their ecosystem because I found them too resource heavy and glitchy.  

Have they improved any?

Echoing Brian's comments, Tonex isn't glitchy at all on my system. It isn't especially light on CPU, but it doesn't cause me any problems.

I don't love the GUI and find navigating between presets and tone models + things already on your system vs. stuff you can download from ToneNet to be a bit of a chore. But they seem to be working on improving the interface.

And more importantly, it just sounds really, really good. I have lots of the Nembrini, tons of PA amp sims, most of Kuasa's offerings, and the majority of what's available for Amplitube. I still really like Kuasa, but almost always reach first for ToneX!

5 hours ago, Max Arwood said:

I have to agree. It is the best you can get right now. As far as I know, it is the only official B-3 VSTi that has been “Hammond” approved. 

I'd say it's a toss up between this and UAD's Waterfall B3...but I'd give the edge to UAD 🙂

Both are fantastic - what a time to be alive (for music tech - not much else mebbe)!

8 hours ago, audioschmaudio said:

It's bad? Why is that?

Like Fleer said, there's a *ton* of content, and some of it is good...even very good. But very little of it (at least in terms of acoustic instruments) matches the level of dedicated libraries. 

The biggest problem is that actually *using* SampleTank is such a pain in the ***** that I just can't be bothered to fight with the tiny, user-unfriendly GUI. I really like some of the synth libraries, but working with SampleTank takes all the fun out of it for me.

If some talented chap/chapess was  starting from scratch, strapped for cash, and sufficiently motivated, I'm sure they could make amazing sounding tracks with ST4! But they might lose the will to live before they pulled it off.

Some tasty goodies there!

Pricing seems a mite ambitious given Sampletekk's regular and generous sales!

23 minutes ago, ralfrobert said:

Kuassa is a very underrated company IMO. 

100%

Now I have ToneX, I don't know how much I'll end up using 'traditional' amp sims, but Kuassa consistently make great sounding plugins that actually sound like the amps they're meant to emulate. Love everything I have of theirs, but especially Matchlock!

Record for fastest update?

Nova is so good!

2 hours ago, Brian Walton said:

Have both the DI Carr pack and the "cab baked in" one for the core tones.  It is one of the only amps where the clean, mid, and higher gain feel like they are on equal footing.  Other amps might be better at one particular area, but quite rare to find an amp that does all 3 as well.  

I've had my eye on that pack. I've got most of the Tone Junkie ones (at 90% off, would have been rude not to) and three of the Sadites ones; Deluxe Reverb, AC30, and one of the Dr. Zs. Generally, the Sadites ones seem more consistent, and I'm pretty darn impressed with ToneX.

There are a few of the Amalgam capture packs I'll pick up at some point, but then I'm done (famous last words!).

Depends on the unit I s'pose...For the first time, I now have a keyboard without a 5-pin midi output! I was skeptical about plugging straight into the PC via USB, but it's kinda nice not having to go through my audio interface.

Looks interesting - thanks Satya!

I was going to post something snarky about how I was glad someone had finally decided to model this amp, but when I saw this was a free download I decided to bite my tongue 🙂

I love Klevgrand too. Borsta has quickly become one of my absolute favourite VIs and Shaka isn't far behind.  Borsta does what I bought Superior Drummer 3 + the Decades SDX to do! The creativity of these folks is amazing.

One Shot is kinda in a different pricing tier, though, and I'm not sure what it gives me that I don't already have between their own products and the obscene amount of ToonTrack stuff I have. Gotta love the Swedes and their percussion!

Kudos again to Klevgrand for their brilliant way of handling demos!