PavlovsCat

I was away from the forum for a number of years and the last thing I remember was cclarry's epic rant on IK. They are definitely frustrating. Just their policy of requiring loyal customers to pay to redownload a library comes to mind as a company that really doesn't prioritize a good customer experience.  I like their products and I really like Peter, but I really wish they would transform into a customer centric company because they really are not that today. 

Every time I look at how much money I've spent on sample libraries and plugins over the years and think,  maybe I've gone way, way overboard with my GAS, it's comforting to know that I can find someone who's even worse than me.

So thanks for that Larry. You seem to own every plugin I've ever even briefly considered buying and around one hundred more I never even knew about before your posts.

I was going to post this, thinking, maybe I woke up earlier than Larry this morning and will get this one up first. Nope. I was even planning to have a little fun and tribute my post to you. Oh well. There's only one cclarry. 

While I greatly prefer Orange Tree Samples Evolution guitars approach because they permit you to play any ideas in your head instead of being limited to pre-recorded loops, regarding the criticism of virtual Instruments, I see enormous value in them. I spent two decades playing drums semi-professionally (mostly playing clubs, colleges, fests and sometimes touring on the weekends), so I am very aware of how little drummers are being used in recording studios these days. The joy and benefits of virtual Instruments to songwriters and hobbyists is especially invaluable. 

I'm friends with Kirk and have consulted to him in the past (a disclaimer I like to state -- and my consulting doesn't entail hawking anyone's products), but I just have to share how much I love the Honky Tonk piano patch from this library. Listen to the demo and see what I mean.

My teenage son, believe it or not, has taken a strong liking to ragtime and I suppose this is why it appeals to me so much, as I've been listening to a bit of ragtime lately. 

FYI, here's also a video of Jordan Rudess playing Kirk's library. 

2 hours ago, cclarry said:

No extra discount

https://www.jrrshop.com/kilohearts?dir=desc&order=special_from_date

Thanks for adding the "no extra discount." I regularly check for your posts with a code for an extra discount before making a plugin or sample purchase, so yeah, if you say "no extra discount," I'm good to go! 

I just stumbled upon this and thought you did a great job. It's really a well crafted and well executed song with excellent vocals, musicianship and production.

I mean this in a good way, but the drum sound and playing very much evoked memories of Phil Collin's playing from the Duke album -- which I love, BTW. While the keyboard choices reminded me of Banks solo stuff. But the song itself was original, definitely not a knock off, it's just that I noticed influences that I also love. If you were playing this live, I would absolutely be sticking around. 

Just an all around great job. Kudos. 

On 2/19/2021 at 7:21 PM, Tezza said:

I don't mind Warren Huart, he always makes me feel so marvellous. For some reason he always reminds me of Elvis Presley, I don't know why, he doesn't look like him and the accents wrong but whenever I am watching his videos there just seems to be something Elvisy about him.

It's a big plug for Cakewalk though if he's churning out a video about it.

I can definitely see that. It's a combination of his hair, which is a bit reminiscent of a 50s style Elvis had during that era along with his pork chop sideburns, an iconic Elvis trait. 

2 minutes ago, paulo said:

I wish it was.

April 2019. It was a more innocent time. 

36 minutes ago, antler said:

I understand your point, but the "it's been done before" argument could also be applied to pianos, strings, guitars, drums, vibraphones, etc... I'm sure each library offers a slightly different tone, or articulation set, or something.

I've advised at least a couple dozen sample and plugin developers over the years, so I definitely have some opinions.  Yes, one could easily make a similar observation about other extremely competive areas such as drums and pianos. But I think you're lost in the weeds on my point.

I'll stop at this post. I was simply expressing that I find there's far too much of sample developers copying territory that's already well covered and failing to explore new territory. Of course, if a developer can cover that well saturated area and bring something innovative to the table that's great. But I'm saying I didn't observe that on a cursory look -- maybe I missed something. Anyhow, it's just a point of view. Innovation is rare and immitation is the norm. I'm just wishing for more developers to innovate, that's all. 

When Orange Tree Samples, who I've worked with, came on the scene, they innovated. No other guitar sample library was as detailed and innovatively scripted. Truly brilliant, a big leap in a category I care a lot about as a musician too. And there were a lot of guitar libraries out back then, but not with that kind of innovative scripting and not at a level where top movie, trailer and TV producers -- even pop artists -- could use sampled guitar in the final production. So that's an example of a developer that innovated. And of course, a ton of other developers copied Orange Tree Samples' since then. 

I think we're starting to see some great things with physical modeling the past years. Some real innovation.  Anyhow, I'll stop there. Not everyone is going to understand my point or agree. That's okay. 

I was hoping for pianos. I only became aware of Cinesamples Abbey Road Pianos for KONTAKT after it was discontinued. I hope Spitfire releases Abbey Road piano libraries in the not too distant future.  I assume that the reason it was discontinued is that AR has an agreement with another developer. 

Yes, of course, it isn't easy, but Sonic Couture, 8Dio and several other KONTAKT devs have detailed hang drum libraries. I realize that my opinion will differ from others, but I'm just seeing such a great deal of mimicry among KONTAKT devs that I wish they would spend more time thinking out of the box. 

Again, it's completely subjective and I'm  not trying to persuade those firmly set in an opposing view -- that's fine -- but IMO, the KONTAKT world is good when it comes to deep sampled music boxes and hang drums, so how about trying for something different? 

Not knocking the dev at all  -- their libraries sound beautiful in the demos -- but look at how many hang drums for KONTAKT are already out there. I have at least four. It's almost as pervasive as music box libraries. I wish more developers would be original and push the envelope. 

19 minutes ago, Tezza said:

Are the Klangs worthwhile?

I realize that you were asking Larry, but I just wanted to share that I really love a lot of the KLANG libraries. I've downloaded the freebies and also paid for some (they're really inexpensive, small sound design libraries). Check out the demos and you'll know if it's to your liking or not. But I really like what Cinematique Instruments is doing with this line. 

Thanks for that list, @Reid Rosefelt I own libraries from a number of devs you listed as not allowing resale and didn't realize it. 

On 2/17/2021 at 4:36 PM, InstrEd said:

I agree with you and I found I got almost all my IK stuff on a sale.   I just wait it out and I'm usually rewarded. It is IK's model of operation and as a hobbyist mainly I can wait.    For me I like their products but scratch my head on their pricing. 

That's how it works for everything, if you have the time, you can save money, but some brands in this industry do such deep discounting it devalues their products at regular prices. As a marketing pro, I would never advise discounting a currently active product line as deeply (at 75% or more) like IK, Waves and Izotope often do. It can greatly alienate loyal customers who paid full price and it trains the market to wait for deep discounts. I mean, most of us hobbyists and semiprofessional musicians aren't going to pay full price for Waves plugins anymore. They've trained us not to. 

@bluzdog My son's PC is a Lenovo Legion 5. I got a black friday deal. I checked Lenovo and they currently didn't have any gaming tower PCs under $1,000 but I found Best Buy had a Legion for $999 that looked good to me. Here's the link (and no, it's not an affiliate link, just me trying to be helpful).  

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/lenovo-legion-tower-5-amd-gaming-desktop-amd-ryzen-7-3700x-16gb-memory-nvidia-geforce-gtx-1660-super-256gb-ssd-1tb-hdd-phantom-black/6424472.p?skuId=6424472&ref=212&loc=1&ref=212&loc=1&ds_rl=1264993&ds_rl=1264987&gclid=CjwKCAiAjp6BBhAIEiwAkO9WuvtY_efqWiS--I_YA6ovnFfZJeD7p2gYef4tp0q9OOqwapwArRXXDxoCnuEQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

I just bought my son a Lenovo Legion Windows 10 gaming PC for under $1k USD and it's exceeded expectations. I can wholeheartedly recommend the line. 

8 minutes ago, bdickens said:

I prefer to do my own arrangements and put my own sonic stamp on things.

Same here, but for this cover, I'm looking to have some of the same core elements to capture part of the vibe of the original. So, the two elements I want to get close are the sound of the lead vocal and electric piano.

My arrangement of the guitar parts are especially going to be a departure of the original. However, I want to capture some very critical sounds that are so iconic, and frankly, I adore those sounds. Of course, no one can replace Lennon's voice. 

I am soon going to be recording a cover version of I Am the Walrus. I'm not looking to get the exact sound of the original, but I'm looking to get close. I'm going to be using sample libraries and have a Hohner Pianet and a Wurlitzer for the electric piano (there is debate over which was used on the original recording) that I plan on putting through a Leslie speaker. I know Harrison used a Strat with a Vox amp...but what I could really use advice on is effects to use. I don't have strong skills with sound engineering to say the least.

On the electric piano, I know to use a Leslie -- but should I also put some distortion on it? I have read that Lennon used a cheap mic used to communicate with the sound room and they may have used a Leslie on his vocal. I've read some posts where people recommended saturator.  I am going to test out some cheap mics I own that I'd never normally consider for vocals. 

I would really appreciate the advice of those knowledgeable on mixing and effects. 

The only video games I really play are the Star Wars games on my son's Xbox, but when I see these threads, I tell my teenage son, who also has a gaming PC, so he appreciates it! Thanks, @cclarry. 

I've bought just about everything Izotope but am waiting for Vocal Synth 2. @cclarry, you're the master. What's the best price you can recall seeing for Vocal Synth 2? It doesn't seem to get discounted as deeply as other Izotope effects. 

Thanks @abacab@InstrEd,  @Grem

Although I own 4 LE. Does anyone who have SampleTank 4 want to share their thoughts? Are you happy with it? What does it do best? 

3 hours ago, paulo said:

Seeing as we're being picky, should it not be Pavlov's Cat? 😀

Yeah, but at least everyone can pronounce Pavlov, my last name, not so much!