PavlovsCat

I was just researching the Montclarion Piano and watching @Simeon Amburgey's video and enjoying his great playing (both Simeon and I can play the piano at a level that would make my late piano teacher mother cry, but for very different reasons!). Simeon pointed out that there was an issue with velocity layers and I was wondering if SoundIron ever fixed that. I'd love to get insights from anyone who has this library. I own several SoundIron libraries and have been very happy with them, but even though this library is very inexpensive, I'm not sure if I want to buy it if the developer hasn't fixed the velocity issue that Simeon pointed out. There is something about the vibe of this piano that I love. When Simeon started playing some Vince Guaraldi, I think he nailed it. It sounds like a piano you'd hear on an old jazz recording.

I'm surprised the developer didn't put audio demos of the reverb on the landing page. I've been picking up their numerous freebies over the years and only recently tried one out recently and found it to be meh. I'd be interested in the opinions of more experienced (than me) mixers regarding 2BPlayed effects. Are there any gems in the bunch that are worth considering?

You know, after reading your post, I went back and listened to the demos for Chromophone, and I agree with you. I do like the sounds in some of the demos for Chromophone -- especially the demo called "Desperation" (a lot of the synth patches sound like reverses and I love that effect). Subsequently, I'll edit my original post. Is $99 USD the lowest price you've (or anyone else reading this) has seen it for?

I really think Venus Theory / Cameron has a lot of talent as a sound designer and he's been very generous with freebies (yes, I realize that they're a way to gain awareness for his paid versions and paid libraries, but it still means giving away a good quality libraries for free and I appreciate that).

AAS has great customer support, but I don't really love the sounds of [EDIT] most of their synths. I have a couple dozen and I don't think I've ever used them in a track. I would trade all of them for Vital or Synthmaster 1 or 2. or just about anything else I have Of course, it's completely subjective and I realize that's not an apples-to-apples comparison, it's just that I've never seen anyone post anything but fondness for AAS until the above couple of posts. AAS completely deserves praise for their customer service -- it's superb. But on a completely subjective level, I have yet to hear a synth from them that really inspires me.

I completely understand where you're coming from, David. While I own Studio One 3 Pro, which I bought when it looked like Cakewalk was closing their doors, I really only use Cakewalk by Bandlab and I've been hoping Bandlab would announce their pricing for Sonar soon so that I can decide whether to upgrade Studio One or go with Sonar. Of course, I'd prefer to know the new Sonar pricing while Studio One upgrades are on sale. My hope is that Bandlab doesn't go subscription only, as that would be a deal breaker for me. I have a lot of Cakewalk projects and the easiest path for me is to still be able to use that format moving forward as opposed to having to convert everything to Studio One. EDIT: I largely agree with mettelus point that, at least some, Sonar competitors are likely to make special offers to Cakewalk users after Bandlab makes their pricing announcement.

I don't use loops and I used to be a drummer, so I especially want to play drums on my recordings. But I've had ads for Yurt Rock loops in my Facebook feed so many times and saw that they mentioned one of my all-time favorite drummers since my youth who was very influential on my playing, Mike Clark, that I ended up checking them out. His loops sound soooo good, I just enjoy listening to them by themselves. The Clyde Stubblefield loops are also very cool. Clyde was a legend. Most famously, Cylde was James Brown's drummer and is most known for his playing on Brown's track, "Funky Drummer." If I were to start buying drum loop libraries, this dev would be at the top of my list, just for those two legendary drummers alone. https://yurtrock.com/products/mike-clark-vol-1

Hi @John Maar. I saw your post and recalled recently doing a search on pianos at Knob Cloud and seeing several VI Labs pianos come up as results. Consequently, I just did another search to see if I could find the piano you're looking for and found that someone is trying to re-sell their license for Modern U, asking €100. I've only made two purchases on Knob Cloud (both from the same seller and everything went smoothy). I paid his asking prices, but I have read posts on this forum that people have successfully made lower price offers. I did make a lower offer on one item and the seller came down €15 on their asking price. You can always ask the seller if they'd accept a lower bid and offer them what you think is a fair price, say €75. It is a license transfer and should sell for significantly less than a direct sale price from the developer. Anyhow, I just thought it was worth sharing. https://knobcloud.com/item/99321

I'm not very familiar with the Keyscape (I've heard people mention it, but I don't really know anything else), but the demos for the AcousticSamples Wurlie sound amazing to me. If I would have heard that earlier in my research process, I definitely would have bought it.

I listened to all of the audio and demos on the page. It sounds cool, but it's definitely is not an authentic 200A. It's especially noticeable in an audio file of the instrument playing alone. I think sample libraries are still the winner. Skybox Audio and e-instruments make my favorite Wurli libraries; both also make it easy for the user to create their own presets. SonicCouture and AcousticSamples demos sound excellent (but I don't own those). What I love about AcousticSamples Wurlie is how they captured the clunk of the keys that you hear when you're playing. I'd guess that they recorded the keyboard turned off and mixed that in. e-instruments also has that clunk sound and lets you easily mix in as much as you'd like using the controls on the GUI. For that reason, I have to hand it to e-instruments for making a library that makes it easy to get any kind of sound you can think of out of the sample library. Skybox Audio's 145B starts out as a really pristine sounding library and also has controls that let you alter the sound well. It doesn't have that clunk to it, but I think the combo of the 145B and the e-instruments Electric W are a great pairing. I can thank, I believe, chris.r and Bad Penguin for recommending the 145B.

I don't have it and wasn't aware that they updated it. But I think Arturia makes excellent stuff, so I'll check it out. What's your take?

I picked up MixBox last time it was on sale for $29.99 and can recommend it. That's a great deal for some excellent ready to go effects chains.

A free Wurli! The demos sound pretty good. I'll definitely download and install it. https://www.steinberg.net/vst-instruments/taped-vibes/

Did someone say "Wurli"? I'm here. The demos sound very nice. https://www.steinberg.net/vst-instruments/taped-vibes/

Same for Spitfire. Hopefully, it's just related to the holiday schedule and they'll be back next year. The good news is that around the third week of December, Orchestra Tools typically sends their customers a $25 USD or so certificate to use towards any of their libraries -- with no minimum spend. You can find individual libraries within their larger bundles that you can pick up for that price or less. I assume that if they send it, it will go out to people who've never purchased from them before who've only downloaded their freebies as well as past customers.

Satya eagerly awaits the future transfer of your Softube account.

The freebies from this developer are excellent. I'm sure this is no exception. Although I'm already well covered in this area, why not?

Soundtoys FilterFreak $39 USD (reg $149) "Save 75% on FilterFreak and get fat analog sweeps, pounding filter rhythms, and big hardware sound." https://www.soundtoys.com/product/filterfreak/

I don't have use for their phrase libraries and find them very unintuitive. I'm just hoping their Celesta library goes on sale. It's a perfect Christmas library (i.e., The Nutcracker Suite).

That was very generous of you, jngnz, and I agree, that satya is very deserving for all he does to make this forum worthwhile. It was nice to see this. Kudos to you, jngnz and I hope satya enjoys his new plugins.

I'm guessing this will be included in the next version (s) of KOMPLETE (Standard and up). While these may not be detailed / deep sampled libraries. I'm sure that they are good quality, like the other Spotlight Collection titles. I'd be happy to get this as part of the next KOMPLETE. I love Irish music and instruments.

I'm a longtime Rhythmic Robot customer and can recommend them. I love their cool and quirky collections of vintage gear. The libraries are not deep sampled, but the developer makes good quality libraries that are often a bargain, especially when they're on sale. I've been a customer for two decades and always found them to be very friendly and nice to deal with.

When they first promoted the 12 Days, it stated that there would be a €12 coupon. I don't see that in email or in my account when I log in. If anyone has used theirs or can see how it works, I'd be grateful. Thanks.

I was hoping you'd weigh in on this one (as a Brazilian musician). Excellent point. The instrument of theirs I'd most be interested in picking up is Soniokinetic's Celesta. I already have a few nice celestes (Sound Dust has a couple of nice ones), but it's one of those instruments I'm in love with and even though I haven't used them in many productions, I love to play them.

Joy = the ultimate return on investment.