abacab

4 hours ago, JoeGBradford said:

The demo is showing up in my free Kontakt Player but I haven't tried it yet

FYI

Kontakt Player Demo Timeout

https://bedroomproducersblog.com/2020/04/23/kontakt-demo-mode/

So, again, if you see the “demo mode” message in Kontakt, this means that you are using the free Kontakt Player plugin. The majority of free third-party Kontakt libraries will work in “demo mode” in Kontakt Player. The “demo mode” means that you can only use the library for fifteen minutes. After that, there will be no sound on the output, and you won’t be able to access the editing features.

9 hours ago, Brian D'Oliveira said:

@abacab this is definitely in our roadmap ( with extensive additional controls ). We would have loved to roll it out already but we had to focus on core features in order to be able to ship within a reasonable time frame

It would even be cool if you could do so by allowing browsing and selection between all installed sample sets. Maybe working in sample import at some point afterwards.

33 minutes ago, Jeremy Oakes said:

Was it ever available in stand alone mode ?

My favorite standalone solution for VST2 plugin instruments without their own executable is the free lightweight NanoHost by Tone2. https://www.tone2.net/nanohost.html

Just drop a copy of the "NanoHost64bit.exe" directly into your plugin folder, then simply rename it with the name of the plugin .dll that you wish to run.

For example, if I want to run Massive X in standalone I just rename the "NanoHost64bit.exe" to "Massive X.exe". You can make multiple copies of NanoHost so that any number of your VST2 plugins can each have their own executable. When you run the executable that launches the related plugin .dll.

7 hours ago, User 905133 said:

As a Cakewalk user with no official affiliation, I don't think it is my role to tell a business that they have violated the rules

That's the moderator's job to decide and communicate. All you can do is report any post that you feel breaks the rules, if you feel that action is justified.

28 minutes ago, antler said:

I don't have any of their upper-end libraries so I can't say if they offer any advantages over Kontakt (other than being in-house). 

There are several sample library developers that have moved away from Kontakt. One of the reasons is that Kontakt became so successful, and it became a de facto industry standard. Once you achieve that level of success, and have so many 3rd party developers dependent on that platform, the pace of new features has to slow to a crawl to avoid creating incompatibilities for existing Kontakt catalog titles.

So a quick, possibly incomplete shortlist of developers creating their own players so that they can add any features any time they wish is Spitfire, Orchestral Tools, Soundpaint, Mntra...

Of course that is sure to frustrate users that are heavy users of Kontakt, but some devs assume that it unlocks them from a slow moving monopoly and they think they can do better.

4 minutes ago, Pilutiful said:

Do you have an idea of what this swirling chorusy sound FX is?

Not right offhand, without experimenting. But it should be some combination of standard effects. That's why I suggest trying guitar effects, because you can usually quickly combine and swap until you find a sound that you like, either using stomp boxes or rack FX, or some combination of them.

NI Guitar Rig 6 has a lot of interesting special FX presets that may be useful, but it's not free. Works well with synth sounds!

2 hours ago, Pilutiful said:

Can anyone recommend a more "high-end" alternative to Cakewalk TTS-1 synth? There's a preset in TTS-1 called Echo Drops I really like (Presets -> Synth FX -> Echo Drops). It's a organ-like with "swirling" sound.  I have tried to look into f.ex. Waves Element, but what you get is like 1000 presets and none of them seem to sound anything like it (and I don't even know how to begin to create this sound)..

TTS-1 is mostly used for the standard GM (General MIDI) sound set it provides, although it seems that you are looking into the Synth FX category.

Ordinarily I would point to a GM alternative for TTS-1, like the virtual Sound Canvas from Roland Cloud. But in your case, if it's "Synth FX" you are seeking, the sky is pretty much the limit with the free soft synths and FX available today.

You could buy the Sound Canvas for the GM sounds since the "Synth FX > Echo Drops" appears to be a standard GM2 sound.  But it would probably be cheaper to try some experimentation with a free synth organ sound, possibly layered with another sound, and some free FX to re-create that sound (definitely FX is what makes that swirling chorusy sound). An idea for the FX might be to try using guitar effects such as the free IK AmpliTube 5 CS.

Also consider that the GM spec and sound set are decades old by now, and since the TTS-1 was powered by Roland, I'm not sure how much of a "higher-end" GM alternative you will find out there. The original hardware Sound Canvas (1991) is likely what the TTS-1 was based on, as well as the "classic" virtual Sound Canvas that Roland is selling today. https://www.roland.com/us/products/rc_sound_canvas_va/

Yet somehow Spitfire manages to keep the LABS project free, with lots of unique quality instruments. I believe that most of those are derived from indy samplists.

An FX processor that can make any instrument sound like a Mellotron is cool in my book.

"The Mellotron, introduced in 1963, was a keyboard that had a tape playback mechanism under every key. Tape MELLO-FI’s sound and behavior is inspired by Mellotron V, our software recreation of this legendary instrument."

Already had that. Don't miss out!

Already had that. Good one!

Installed.

Installed.

I think we need a poll of how many people get what they need from Neoverb, with the AI setting it up for you.

1 hour ago, craigb said:

Maybe we need to create a new sub-forum: Plug-Ins Anonymous! 😆

PIA™

2 hours ago, Wookiee said:

No direct links in the body of your post if you are going to profit in anyway.

That clarification is direct and to the point! Don't see how anyone could be confused by that!

24 minutes ago, Keni said:

Now for me to try remembering how to post a proper trouble report. I take it the Bakers are still doing things that way?

Well, since the issue seems to be split between so many DAWs, my gut tells me that the plugin may be doing something improperly. As with my earlier suggestion, opening a ticket with the plugin developer first to confirm its functionality may be faster, but that's up to you! KV331 Support has usually responded to me in a reasonable amount of time.

15 minutes ago, Starship Krupa said:

I love Break Tweaker, I just use it as a drum machine. When I first got it I was really stoked and tried the deep dive into microedits and other programming and whatnot, but it didn't stick. To me they're just sound effects and drum sounds and I'm okay with using ones that someone else has come up with. The content that comes with Break Tweaker Expanded is....extensive.

I got BreakTweaker Expanded included when I upgraded to iZotope Music Production Suite, but haven't really spent much time with it yet. It's on a very long to-do list! 😜

But PluginGuru John "Skippy" Lehmkuhl is a big fan, and that's enough of an endorsement for me! He designed 3 libraries for it that I may explore at some point. https://www.pluginguru.com/products/category/breaktweaker/

54 minutes ago, cclarry said:

As does Acustica also

I have uninstalled all of my Acustica freebies. The ship was sinking and I had to throw them overboard! 😂

On 10/26/2022 at 4:57 PM, InstrEd said:

Now I will agree that IK Miroslav-Philharmonik is not a top tier orch library but for my needs it isn't too bad. 

Miroslav is not top tier, but you don't really need to go top tier unless you are serious about scoring for film or video. And if anyone was that serious, they wouldn't be asking about Miroslav. 😉

I agree that for most average users that just want to dabble in orchestration or add orchestral layers to their projects, Miroslav should be fine. Things I like about it: Miroslav has some good solo instruments, where you sometimes just get sections at the entry level. And Miroslav also has some decent orchestral percussion.

IMO, the Amadeus Symphonic Orchestra is my favorite entry level orchestra. It's a great scratchpad and even has a full orchestra preset that lets you play all of the sections with both hands on the keyboard! Lots of fun! The Kontakt Player version was programmed by Tracy Collins of Indiginus, using curated samples from Sonic Scores, the developer of Overture.

By the way, you can now get the Spitfire BBC Symphonic Discovery Orchestra for free. That's a no-brainer for sure. It's a cut-down version of the BBCSO Core and BBCSO Pro versions without all of the articulations, round robins, extra mic positions, and some instruments. But it has the solid orchestral essentials!

27 minutes ago, Keni said:

Could be. ...but could also be that two different routines are used in Cake. One saved with current settings (typically I change settings on synth and Cake remembers the changes without the need for me to save a preset. Doesn’t appear very necessary fir such a simple task. The other saving that data to a preset?  

@KeniOkay, just tried it with 3 more DAWs, whew! 🤪

Ableton Live 11 was the same as the other 3 DAWs that I tested, but Bitwig Studio 8-Track and Tracktion Waveform 12 Free saved the FX state with the project. No saving in the DAW's native preset format required.

So it appears that these last 2 are in the same category as @Starship Krupa's Mixcraft.

So here is the breakdown so far as tested...

DAW project saves SynthMaster Player preset FX state:

• Mixcraft
• Bitwig
• Waveform

DAW project doesn't save SynthMaster Player preset FX state:

• Cakewalk
• Studio One
• Reaper
• Ableton Live

Ugh!!! 🙄

5 minutes ago, cclarry said:

Plugin count is VERY deceptive, and some plugins have "multiples" for different purposes,
which each gets counted as a plugin, when in reality, it's one plugin that has two or more
"types"...i.e..Mono and Stereo (just as an example)

Waves does a lot of that.

And the Ozone and RX Suites from iZotope have a lot of individual plugins that are all separate components. That's not the same thing as what Waves does, as each has its own function, but it still pumps the count up.

11 minutes ago, Keni said:

BTW, I did save the patch with fx disabled as a preset in the Cakewalk frame. When I use it, the fx status is correctly returned (fx disabled)

Well that indicates that Cakewalk is able to save the preset state of the plugin. Sounds like a plugin programming issue to me.

39 minutes ago, abacab said:

I'll give it a go in Reaper and Studio One... also will compare with the full SynthMaster 2 vs. the Player.

Okay, here are my results, and the 3 DAWs tested are all consistent.

• Cakewalk
• Studio One 5 Pro
• Reaper

SynthMaster Player does not save the plugin FX settings, but the full SynthMaster 2 does save them (at least here).

IMO it's possibly a KV331 design intent to block the saving of effects settings in the preset as they are technically part of a preset that is blocked from edits while using the Player. I would open a support ticket with the KV331 support team first to confirm this.

Here is the web form: https://www.synthmaster.com/contactus.aspx

I cannot understand why Mixcraft works differently with the Player on Starship's machine.

1 minute ago, Starship Krupa said:

Yes I must have my system configured in such a way that allows Mixcraft to handle it correctly but blocks poor sensitive Cakewalk.

Where do you think I should start looking? Audio interface driver? Motherboard BIOS update? Chipset drivers? Video driver? Disable C-states? Turbo mode? 😄

That should almost cover it! Did you try rebooting, reinstalling Windows, or maybe replacing the machine? 😂

You did notice the winky emoji on my post, right?