Craig Fowler

That Kuasa Lancaster is a steal! I think their amp sims are about as good as it gets. With that said, I can't bring myself to buy another Boogie sim even though I'm sure it's great.

I like all of them. I'm the opposite of Fleer, though, the compressors would be last on my list - I just don't have good enough ears to make me choose them over the other compressors I have! The Lex reverb is great, and I prefer it to the 480. The channel strip is probably my favourite all-purpose strip, and I'm enjoying have the Studer because it gives me an option to my super CPU-hungry IK tapes. It gives just the sort of sound I'm after when I abuse the settings (again, not golden ears here, so subtle is wasted on me). I just got the Fairchild for $14...it almost seemed rude not to. I don't think there's really anything else I want or need (famous last words).

Simeon, I just want to hear you make a piano VI sound bad 😉 Would make like a lot easier!

Interesting move from IKM. As much as I love some of their other instruments (B3) and effects (Sunset Sounds Studio Reverb), they're pitching this at an odd level. Before I'd bite on any of these, they'd have to convince me they're absolutely light years ahead of the Sampletank pianos, because even the add-on ones aren't any better than OK.

Agreed; there's a *lot* of power packed into that channel strip. I don't know exactly why I prefer it to the PA version, but I do!

I got the same two! Twinsies!

I wonder if it's a single use code. Used it earlier and can't use it now.

Fingers crossed for Borsta which is very cool!

Mine does too. And what bugs me is that I'd set aside money for this pre-order when they'd actually said it would be ready to pre-order. I.e., about two years ago. It's a laughably narrow pre-order/intro price window after stringing people along for so long with 'it's just around the corner.'

I really like the century channel! Lots of flexibility and colour, but not as overwhelming with controls as some of the other channel strips.

Agreed, and hopefully it's a cycle where you can keep combining the thank you voucher with the next $50 off $89. And the native option makes things *so* much better!

Exactly. Pay your $80 to get Lustrous plates at a major discount, treat a year's mag subscription as a bonus, and wash your hands of it. If I wasn't chock full of good plate verbs it's probably what I'd do.

The acoustic pianos are very much of Noire's spirit in terms of combining really well sampled pianos with the fun sound generation engine. I like Noire a lot, but I find the acoustic H&W pianos more expressive - and to me the pair of acoustics uprights are lightyears ahead of the maverick. In terms of the electrics, I don't (yet!) have the Skybox duo; only the standalone featuring the rarer 'tube' Wurli. The Scarbee versions in Kontakt still hold up quite well, especially the Wurli (IMO) - but in terms of realism and what you can do with the sound the Skybox versions are, I think, a long way ahead. FWIW, I don't think you'll find Keyscape the best/most versatile based on what I read on the pianoworld forum (in particular, they seem unlikely to wow people who've got the better VSL pianos). For $150 here you'll get a very nice mid-sized grand, two very different uprights, and both main flavours of e-piano. That's hard to beat, and the only thing really missing would be a concert-sized grand piano (or something that isn't a Yamaha, I suppose). Even if you *only* want the equivalent of Noire 'pure' - the straight sampled instruments - these are really, really top notch. Add in the sound shaping engine, and they're a hard package to beat. A many-trick pony that does them all excellently! Obvs, I'm a big fan 🙂

I know there's been a general post that NI have lots of partner libraries on sale, but this is an especially good deal; haven't seen them this low before. Most of the packs end up at $65 (e.g., the rhodes/wurli combo); the acoustic pack with three pianos still comes out <$90 which is a darn good deal. These are *excellent* instruments. https://www.native-instruments.com/en/pricing/hammers-waves-electric/

Just FWIW, the link you posted says: "Includes Heritage Edition UAD plug-in bundle, featuring Teletronix LA-2A and 1176 compressor collections, 610-B Tube Preamp & EQ Collection, Pultec Passive EQ Collection" So it is the new versions rather than legacy they include. No comment as to whether that matters in terms of sound, but surely it can only be a good thing 🙂

Good time to get the accordion!

https://www.vsl.co.at/en/EDU If you saved any Christmas vouchers and are eligible, it's a good time to use 'em!

Now I'm feeling ganged up on!

Grrr. You seem determined to make me buy the Famous-E!!

Agreed on both counts...and am now hoping I haven't misremembered "other" Craig's comments! FWIW as much as I know you love the OTS Rhodes, the Soniccouture one might be my favourite - and Black Friday's coming up!

The Ravel is far from being my favourite piano VI and if I'd paid anything like the asking price for it, I'd be miffed. But there are some really good players who rate it (e.g., CGR over at VI:Control), and it has its uses. The reverse sound thing is a weird gimmick - and if you have your screen scaling adjusted, you can't always see that you can turn it off/down...the UADx plugins have some weird relationship with Windows scaling!

Both! I have a few of the plugins in that bundle, but I never know how much that affects pricing at UAD.

It's marked at $99 in the store even without a discount code - If you don't already have a good B3, that's worth it just for the Waterfall Hammond + Leslie!

Yup - when I think back to shelling out for hardware synths on the basis of the onboard sounds, ST4 at $49 is a steal. And there *are* some good sounds in there...but damn, if it doesn't make you work to find them! I've opened ST4 to pootle around with out of curiosity, but the GUI just sucks the fun out of playing. I mean, I hate Kontakt's interface too, but the hatred I have for working with Sampletank is at a different level. I know VSL are on the fancy side of things, but their Synchron player is a thing of beauty as these things go.

Yeah, I don't have ABB, but didn't love the demos. IIRC some of the individual sections sounded OK, but I didn't hear the same level of ultra-realism in the context of full arrangements. FWIW, the dynamic range of the solo instruments tops out around forte - you're not going to get the real 'blasts' you'd probably want. I.e., you'd get the timbre you'd need for something like Moonlight Serenade, but not for the later bits of American Patrol.