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Craig Fowler

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Posts posted by Craig Fowler

    The Annual "Show us Your Booty" Thread!

    in Deals

    Posted

    I've bought a few small things, but nothing huge (thank goodness).

    • Boz Labs NY Steinway L Bundle ($22 after BestService coins)
    • Melda Soundfactory ($14 after coupon for signing up for newsletter)
    • Melodyne upgrade from essential to assistant ($49)
    • Klevgrand Borsta + Black Friday bundle ($89)
    • ToneX Max ($54-ish after Jampoint glitch)
    • Several ToneJunkie capture packs for ToneX at $3-4 each. The Mars Astra is an unexpected gem, and the BadCat/Matchless packs have some absolutely killer sounds in them.

    Still a little more than I'd intended to spend because the NZ dollar is weak, but I feel very virtuous for not springing for the UAD upgrade to the Signature bundle when that was available for $150. Fortunately, their 2 for $99 offer runs until Dec 1st, which means I can get SoundCity studios and something else (maybe the Neve 1073 preamp/eq) with my Dec allowance 🙂 (a sad thing to say for a guy closer to 50 than 40, I know!).

    • Like 4

    Your Pick for Best Black Friday Deal 2023?

    in Deals

    Posted

    So far, I've been very cautious with my spending - no really big buys planned or completed. I've got some deals I'm really happy with, though:

    • I had a 10Euro credit at Melda for signing up for their newsletter, so I was able to get SoundFactoryLE for $14 - having heard so much said about Meldaway Grand, I'm looking forward to trying it out.
    • I've got several ToneX capture packs with ToneJunkie's flash sales. Usually $30, but have been able to jump in time to get some of the limited number 94% off codes.
    • Klevgrand! I'd been waiting on Borsta, and then also got the Black Friday bundle. I think Borsta was half price, and the bundle had about 2/3 off.

    I feel like I haven't spent a great deal but have got a lot for my money!

    The only other thing I'd really like is the Fields of Rock SDX, but I can't see that getting discounted - at least not to the point where I can justify springing for it.

     

     

    • Like 1

    IK TonexSE for $39.99

    in Deals

    Posted

    5 hours ago, telecode 101 said:

    I don't think so. These aren't sims. They are sort of captures in time of an  amp and whatever effect (except reverb -- IIRC, it doesn't do time effects very well). I sort of see this as good for people in cover bands and people who like famous traditional electric  guitar sounds. For me,  I am into the werido Fripp/Eno thing where you try to make a guitar sound very  weird and synthy... so for me, AT5 is still my go to tool for that. To play around in an all encompassing virtual environment of simed amps and effects and go in there and see what happens when you mix marshalls, rolands, and  10 delays.

     

     

    This is a good point, esp. if you're running ToneX in standalone.

    I'm very much a 'guitar straight into amp' kind of player, and for me ToneX feels like a big step up from other 'sims' (though Kuassa will never lose its place in my heart!). 

    I bought Max a couple of weeks ago and have been really impressed, but SE would have been better for me because I'm not using many of the IK models. I have lucked out and bought half a dozen of the tonejunkie capture packs at 94% off, as well as one from Amalgam. I'll probably also pick up one or two of Matt Figg's packs at some point.

    The big downside of ToneX is that --in true IK fashion-- you have a product that's pretty amazing paired with a GUI that seems to have been designed by a blind man having a slushie freeze. There's nothing intuitive about it, no batch import of captures from 3rd party vendors, and all kinds of pop-up menus for things that should be front and centre. 

    • Like 1

    Xperimenta Black Friday Sales: Save up to 80%

    in Deals

    Posted

    3 hours ago, PavlovsCat said:

    I bought it many years ago.  It's, of course,  not comparable to the realism you'd get from a detailed bass sample libraries like the Evolution line, but for a lightweight sample library,  I think it sounds very good. 

    I liked the demo tracks; sounds like my playing style...but better. Have bought with the hope that I can retire myself.

    • Like 1

    VSL Black Friday Deals!

    in Deals

    Posted

    2 minutes ago, jngnz said:

    Love that they have their crappy proprietary sampler so I won’t even have to consider it. Can’t be bothered to work with anything but Kontakt. Not even Falcon most times even though I own a bunch of libraries.

    The Synchron player is infinitely more user-friendly than Kontakt, and the Synchron piano player is absolutely fantastic.

    The older player for the VI libraries...well, that drives me crazy, but the instruments still sound good. If they ever port the jazz drums to the Synchron player, it'll be a day-of-release buy.

    • Like 2

    Straight Ahead Samples [NEW RELEASES] Tuba + Guitar!

    in Deals

    Posted

    22 hours ago, PavlovsCat said:

    I actually tried to listen on my phone but their web page doesn't show audio or video so I can't check it out. I've done some savage reviews. I think all that matters is that we're being honest. 

    Just curious are you a jazz musician that's using this for final productions or for demos or arranging? If I was still able to play professionally,  I think I'd  mostly use sample libraries for sketching out ideas/arrangements/demos and have real musicians record the final production. I mostly played rock professionally,  but did a couple of jazz gigs and absolutely love jazz. 

    56 minutes ago, PavlovsCat said:

    Okay, I finally listened to the tuba demo and I completely agree with you regarding the tuba sample library. The tuba simply does not sound well recorded.

    And let me be clear, I LOVE almost everything else I've heard from this developer (okay, I didn't love his free piano). It sounds fantastic to my ears. It has a vibe I never imagined a sample developer could capture. And I've told the dev that at another forum. It's really like Cinesamples Piano in Blue.  But the tuba does sound like a miss to my ears too.  

    Always nice to have your impression validated by someone else!

    I'm strictly a hobbyist with a fondness for jazz standards 🙂 With that said, my hunch is that most people who use the horn libraries from this dev don't feel the need to replace them. You'd have to know really good horn players (and be able to record them well!) to improve on what can be achieved with the smartdelay function. 

    The bari sax and tuba seem very niche - I know there has been some demand for a wider range of instruments, but I hope they're not spreading themselves too thin because they're doing things that no other dev is managing to pull off.

    Harrison - Mixbus v9+9XT Plugins - $48.00 (94.89% off)

    in Deals

    Posted

    Any thoughts on Harrison? 

    I know it's still not fully clear whether our existing Cakewalk installs will work indefinitely, or what it might cost to keep using the new, supported version, and I'm looking ahead.

    $80 for a perpetual DAW license is quite appealing - but at this price, Harrison, Reaper, and Presonus' Studio 1 artist are all in that $80-100 range. I like the look of Harrison's workflow, but recall that it was less stable for some users who run virtual instruments (which I do).

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