PavlovsCat

I don't have Serum, but I've been an Echo Soundworks customer for a few years and the developer is talented and very nice to deal with. HIs sample libraries are not "deep" sampled / detailed sampled, but I think they're pretty good for what they are, which is tailored to pop, hip hop and EDM, and they have their own unique charm. https://www.echosoundworks.com/free-downloads

Wow. This is quite nice. The developer is very generous to give it away. He appears to be a teenager, a talented young man. Very cool. Great find, satya!

My heart goes out to the man. Back in the early 00s, I'd given Michael Kleps of reFX, who Markus worked with around that time, some free advice after he violated a Roland trademark, got a C&D and had to rename a synth. I don't know Markus, I just know of him from back then. But my perception was that Markus was a talented developer and a nice guy. People in forums can be pretty toxic and I've known a lot of developers and musicians who've shared that they need to take breaks. He's clearly very stressed and he might just need a break. Developers are human like anyone else and dealing with toxic behavior day in and day out can get to you. I've managed digital marketing at companies before founding my own dot com -- including leading social media globally (which includes forums) -- written about it, spoken around the world about managing this stuff and how companies should manage this area. People often think that because you've managed this area or are seen as an expert that suddenly toxic behavior doesn't bother you. But that's not reality. People can behave terribly in social media and I'm not immune to the toxic behavior getting to me either. It can take a toll. I regularly take breaks. According to his statement, Markus isn’t planning on abandoning his products. After a break, he may end up feeling inspired enough to create something new. He's just saying that he doesn't feel like making new products now. Support is still being offered through his website, just not on KVR. I've always thought he was talented. I wouldn't avoid his work because of this announcement.

Hey, you're the one who found it, so I blame you! lol. We're a bunch of sample hoarders enabling each other. But at least this one's cheap. Under $15 USD is hard to resist.

I don't even have the hard drive space and I wish it was a Wurli. But this is a talented dev and that price!!! I have a bunch of great Rhodes libraries in KONTAKT (the Famous E), SoundPaint and other formats. So why I am a still a sucker for a deal on a nice electric piano library? Here's a preset playthrough video I found useful. I'm going to have dinner and think this one over. I'm leaning towards getting it at the price just to have some cool additional presets. I really like the "slight edge" preset largely due to the clunk of the keys.

I'm sure it's a false positive and this developer, Cherry Audio makes some really nice plugins. I think this one regularly goes $49 USD, but is presently on sale for $29USD, so getting it free with the magazine is a superb deal. I'm pretty excited about it. If you like that vintage Korg sound, you should pick it up. EDIT: I just installed the PS-20 and I really like it.

I love Rush, but talk about trademark and copyright infringement. This is textbook trademark and copyright infringement, exploiting a band's intellectual property. It's not so much a compliment as it is an exploitation of band's IP -- from their logo, name, photos and work for a developer's profit. I can't say I'm a fan of that. It's one thing to create a library in tribute to an artist, but to blatantly exploit them for a profit. Not cool. I very much would not support this developer. He has to be aware that what he's doing is unethical, illegal and deserving of a C&D by Rush's management. I would urge fans of Rush and fans of ethics to steer clear of this.

Thanks so much for taking the time to write all of that outcase, Aidan. You convinced me. I appreciate you and everyone being so helpful. I needed to get this a while ago and am trying to get this stuff in fiscal 2023. If anyone has advice on a camera for video and lighting, I'm also shopping for that too.

Your inner Ron Burgundy beckons.

FLUTE WARS!!! Oh, this is awkward. And, Bapu, your thread title literally made make me crack up. I'm good friends with Greg (Orange Tree Samples) and I'm also friends with Tawnia (8Dio/SoundPaint). I didn't know that Greg had a flute coming out (OTS has another flute library that's superb, BTW, like all of their libraries). And no, these developers are all really nice people and it's not really flute wars, just me finding the idea funny. I'm definitely going to be using the phrase "flute wars" in texts to both of them because that's how I roll. It's clearly a great time to be in the market for a flute library. Orange Tree Samples doesn't put out any libraries that aren't superb. Their libraries are as good as it gets, IMO.

No, I thought it was Beat that once made an announcement that they were limiting their magware freebies to subscribers only. So knowing that's currently not the case, I definitely want to pick up this issue. I love the sound of vintage Korg synths. I used to own a DW-6000 (yes, I wanted the DW-8000, but couldn't afford it) and another Korg (I can't recall the model) back in the day. I've always loved their sound, but also owned Rolands, Yamahas and other synths. EDIT: @satya I just got the magazine and picked up the PS-20. Thanks for posting the deal!

Haha! Someone probably won, just not us. Probably a decade ago Sampletekk had some kind of sweepstakes giveaway on VI-CONTROL and I won that. I had already been a customer with a lot of their libraries by that point. I think that's the last time I won something in a sweepstakes or contest.

Lawyers are as bad as marketing professionals. Or visa versa. 😉

It's funny that you suggested Megaphone, because I've contemplated buying that and at 5 bucks, why not? Thanks!

Same.

Carl, you know there's no way that I'm knowledgeable enough to make those comparisons myself or anywhere close to as knowledgeable as you. The quote -- or more accurately, paraphrase-- from a KONTAKT developer was an initial reaction after spending a day with the SoundPaint sampler. He loved it. You can probably make a better guess why he might have said that than I can, as you're an Omisphere user and a SoundPaint user and you know this stuff at a level far beyond me. I don't own and have never used Omnisphere. I thought it was interesting as I later found the video from the developer Oliver Codd, the fellow behind Audio Ollie, (I included the video in an earlier post) and he also made an Omnisphere comparison. If you have a chance, give it a watch and maybe it will make more sense to you as someone who uses Omisphere, why multiple KONTAKT developers have made that comparison. When you wrote, "It does absolutely eclipse Omnisphere in the ability to build multi-sample instruments," did you mean for the ability of the average user to build their own instruments? In any event, I think there are two big facts worth mentioning. Omnisphere has been around a very long time and sells for around $480 USD. SoundPaint has been around two years and is free. I'm not ready for it to replace KONTAKT just yet. I think I said it earlier in the thread that as a musician user of sample libraries, the area where KONTAKT absolutely shines is scripting, IMO. I was very involved in the product development (as an input, like a product manager capacity) of Orange Tree Samples Evolution line of guitars and yeah, I'm definitely not leaving them. I'm also not leaving Superior Drummer. But before 8Dio ever reached out to me, I had around two dozen SoundPaint libraries and had made a bunch of programs for it and had been telling friends about it and had posted about it in this forum. While it's not KONTAKT and it's not Omisphere, I think it brings something different and worthwhile to the table. KONTAKT remains my most used sampler, SoundPaint has become my second most used sampler over the past year or so. When I wrote that the effects in SoundPaint seem better than those in KONTAKT, that was my observation, but after I heard that from a KONTAKT developer and found that developer Oliver Codd said the same thing in his video, I felt more confident that my own observation was accurate. And again, I wouldn't profess to have even 1/100th of your knowledge, Carl; I would defer to your expertise; I just felt the effects were better and when two experts stated that, I thought that it validated what I thought for myself, I've truly learned a lot from reading your posts. So everyone absolutely can take my opinions on things with a grain of salt, that I'm no expert, just a hobbyist user. But I thought the effects that I've used in SoundPaint seem a lot better to my ears than the similar effects I've used in KONTAKT and I'm able to do things programming/sound design-wise in SoundPaint that either I can't do in KONTAKT or I just have never figured out how to do in KONTAKT. All I know is that I'm doing things in SoundPaint that I can't do in KONTAKT and it's actually fun to do that stuff in SoundPaint. But I'm absolutely not an expert when it comes to making those comparisons, and to be candid, I wouldn't even share them without a bunch of caveats if I didn't hear the same thing from expert developers and as I've said before, I post here as myself, sharing my own thoughts and opinions, I don't post in any capacity for a developer. So there's no way I can match your expertise in analyzing this stuff, I would definitely defer to you and your expert opinion. I'm just a hobbyist with very simple observations and then reporting what I've heard from experts. On another note, I think you owe all of our red-headed forum members an apology -- and my daughter plays the flute, mister! It's a lovely instrument,

I'm not a spokesperson for 8Dio, just a fan who happens to be doing some independent consulting. So I'm just responding here as a fellow forum member, but I would suggest you contact their support person. I mean, I'm friends with Tawnia, the CEO, but when I have questions, I contact support and their support has been consistently excellent and very friendly.

Share your thoughts once you have a chance to spend some time with it. I'm seriously excited to worth with 8Dio on SoundPaint because I am a fan and a user of SoundPaint long before they contacted me. I think it's a really exciting sampler and I can tell you guys I was in a meeting and there's some extremely cool things coming up for 2024 that I'm having a hard time not sharing.

I haven't bought the magazine in probably a year. Where's the best place to buy it --Falke Media? Do they still let people who only buy a single issue access all the downloads? I ask because I thought the publisher wrote something about making the downloads for subscribers only, but I'm not sure.

I have a machine that was built for video editing and DAW use a couple of years ago. My concern is that $200 or 300 USD is nothing to spend if the difference is the more expensive product is easier to use. If a product is free, but not easy to use, I'm not going to invest the time. I'm a business owner who has very limited time to do the videos. If it takes off, I might have an expert handle things and just write the scripts and do a voice over. So having talked with one friend who told me about DaVinci and having found every review cites that it's not easy to use, takes it out of my consideration set. I don't plan on dedicating my life to video. I want something easy to use to get really good results. If that means spending a few hundred bucks more, that's a good tradeoff for me. It's for my business anyhow.

They still sell a perpetual license version too, I had in my cart when I posted my question.

I can afford to spend the price for Cyberlink Director. It's a business expense, not for home movies. I want to produce a series of YouTube videos. Around 5-10 minutes of stock footage, TV commercials, print ads, and voiceover (me). I've spent my career using agencies for video, but I'm not looking to go Mac and Premeire. I need something easy to use, that can deliver pro/polished results and that's easy to put together a collage, say of photos, videos edited together, along with a voiceover and music. Considering all of that, what do you guys think are the best choices? Is it still Vegas?

I'm looking at video editing software right now. Any opinions on the various options for Windows. I'm looking at CyberLink PowerDirector Ultimate.

A legend. Just like our cclarry!

TL; DR VERSION The next time I speak with the 8Dio folks, I'm going to talk about the fact that some users are willing to sacrifice deep sampling in order to have smaller file sizes and suggest the possibility of libraries getting a standard definition version once they reach a certain file size, say 10GB. PAVLOVSCAT'S ULTRA-DETAILED VERSION The file size is pretty big. But it's not accurate to call it bloat. The file size reflects the detailed sampling philosophy behind Troels' approach to making sample libraries since his earlier company, ToneHammer. I don't know how many people realize this, but while Troels is known as a composer who has done trailers for a number of blockbuster movies (I know he has at least one BAFTA) and games who is also a developer, his educational background is actually in technology. I believe his PhD is in AI. So he's very much a technologist, not just a composer who does development. Going back two decades, he's the person I first remember using the phrase "deep-sampled." But to your point -- kitekrazy -- I'm sure that there are users and users who in some instances -- would prefer to sacrifice deep sampling in order to have a smaller file size. They presently offer some libraries in standard definition. Perhaps I will suggest that once files reach a certain threshold (file size) that they consider offering a standard definition version. For argument's sake, I'll say 10GB. I think the ultra-deep sampling was a big draw for pros, but as SoundPaint targets hobbyists and pros, I think that the standard definition (as opposed to deep sampled) option is likely more important for many hobbyists. For those not clear on situations where demanding and especially pro users will strongly prefer detailed samples, consider piano libraries. Some developers will sacrifice having both pedal-up and pedal-down samples for a smaller file size and opt for only pedal-up samples. It makes a significant difference in file size, of course, to have both. To the most demanding users, it's a very big deal. However, to many hobbyists who aren't as demanding, it likely may be considered unnecessary bloat. The question then becomes, does the developer choose to make a standard definition version of every library that meets a certain size. My hot take is that it could make sense. SoundPaint is already doing this with some libraries, but clearly, not this one. It also may drive up the overall costs, of course, to have to maintain two separate library versions. So it may not be a slam dunk case. But I'm going to share the feedback and present the best case I can, because it does appear to make sense. It does appear likely to be in the interests of many customers they serve.