PavlovsCat

Best guitar, bass and electric piano sample libraries in the biz.

Wait, @cclarry:

I think all of us forum regulars check that box whether we admit it or not.

I'm pretty sure that I stumbled across someone trying to sell the NI Session Horns Upgrade to Pro when I was doing searches at the unfortunately-named KnobCloud a couple of weeks ago. If you're not familiar with the site, it was created by a forum member from VI Control as a place where people can resell their sample libraries and plugins (in the cases where the developers permit it). I've found that people sell NI libraries for a small fraction of their list prices there. I've only done one purchase and it was Abbey Road Modern Drummer, and I bought it a couple of weeks ago, and paid around $21 USD, which is less than half of the lowest price I've ever seen NI sell it for. Everything went smoothly (I bought it from a seller with a lot of transactions with a top review rating). I think Izotope allows resale, so you might want to check search on that there too.

We've PMed a bunch of time but I don't believe I've ever talked about what genre (s) of music you do. What kind of music do you do? There's a lot of former rock musicians in this community (me among them) and then EDM seems to be the next largest group.

I mostly do rock and I have Century Strings and Intimate Studio Strings which are in two different bundles and I'm pretty sure that I paid more for them than each of these bundles! For my tastes, Intimate Studio Strings is more of my style as I have no plans for big orchestral pieces. But personally, I'm interested in the choirs. I've seen the choirs get a lot of praise even on VI-Control! So if people have the guts to praise them there, you know they must be pretty passionate to deal with the high probability the forum owner could be triggered. So personally, I'm probably going to start going after the choirs next as I think it would be awesome to use in even my rock songs and holiday songs.

Superb developer. I love every library I own of his.

I even keep checking the unfortunately named KnobCloud for deals on Toontrack libraries, but I think the fact that Toontrack charges a $15 transfer fee keeps even ezX resale prices a bit inflated. I picked up Abbey Road Moder Drummer for around $21 the other week (yes ,I realize no one seems to talk about that library, but I like it) which seems ridiculously cheap, IMO.

I've long been thinking about Ben Oesterhouse's Pathfinder Cello and Soneximema's Solo Cello. Bunker Sounds Viola sounds gorgeous, but it's already on sale and I'm trying to manage my spending pretty carefully this year plus I just bought an 8Dio library that has a solo cello that might be all I need (the reality is, my three SSDs are near capacity and I have a new one sitting around that needs to be installed, so yes, I just bought a bunch of sample libraries I can't install until I install the new SSD). If there's a huge discount on a Toontrack drum library I'd absolutely snap it up. So there are certain libraries here and there that if they are discounted enough, I'll buy them. From Toontrack's deep discounted flash sales last year, that I think were at least 70% or more off, they've taught me to hold out for the next one of those. I'm ready this year (I hesitated last year, then I forgot to buy by the time the sale ended).

You're good. It's appreciated. Larry's on vacation this week, so there's much less risk that we've double posted. So thanks for taking the time to post, it's appreciated! I'm a long time KONTAKT user and use it in literally every project.

Thanks Saverio. You've given us so many freebies and so many great deals this year that I feel guilty getting another free plugin. But thanks for your generosity and I'm sure I'll be making more purchases soon. - Peter AKA Pietro

90% Off All SampleTekk Grand Piano Libraries SampleTekk, if you're not already familiar with them, is a developer, mostly of piano libraries for KONTAKT. They've been around a long time. I think I've been a customer at least 20 years. They don't have sophisticated GUIs, features or a bunch of presets for their libraries and most of their libraries were originally sampled a decade or more ago. However, their libraries are high quality, and at these sale prices, I think they're a fantastic deal. https://www.sampletekk.com/

Unquestionably, you should be getting either a cash refund or that amount credited back. Please keep us updated.

Thanks to my friend @Peter - IK Multimedia for advocating for this change. It's greatly appreciated! You're a hero to our little group here. I'm grateful. I have a few libraries I've put off spending $10 to re-download that I can now start using!

Nah, even if you did make a mistake, if you correct it and you don't keep doing it, I don't think anyone is going to hold it against you. As long as you make excellent sample libraries. People here realize that you're running a small business and that no one is perfect.

Thanks for chiming in! On a friendly note, I thought your demos sound good.

Luca, I think you've handled this very well. I think I've bought from you once before, but candidly, I'm not totally sure because I spend too much on this hobby. But seeing how you handled a simple mistake, I'm now a fan. Plus it's cool that you visit our little forum from time to time. I wish you well. - Peter AKA Pietro

Yeah, to be clear I have no idea if the developer makes good libraries or not, I was only looking at the practice of falsely inflating list prices to make discounts look bigger. If anyone goes to the developer's website, his product clearly shows a list price of $149 USD on this library that Audioplugin.deals claims is $199. But Audioplugin.deals commonly engages in these practices. Some people may see at as no big deal, but it is absolutely a deceptive marketing practice and violates regulations and you've rightfully called it out. My guess is the reseller likely persuades the developer that a huge discount number sells products better and persuades them to go along with the con job. It's certainly not the worst of unethical marketing practices, but it's definitely not ethical.

Fleer, how many SSDs are you up to right now? I want a count! Total amount of storage, come on. I'm imagining you have a giant room full of servers with nothing but sample libraries and plugins.

I just love your thread title! My background is marketing/branding and I realize most people think that means soulless promotion person, but that's definitely not me. I love when bad, unethical practices are exposed. Anyhoo, Kudos to you, @Kirean. A brief explanation of marketing and ethical marketing I'm a believer that ethical marketing is developing products around what people want or what you believe they want. That businesses should overdeliver on promises, not just meet expectations or engage in trickery (like inflating list prices to claim you're giving huge discounts) -- and it's in the long term interests of the business to do so. When you over-deliver on expectations, you make customers happy and happy customers tell their friends about a great experience and become loyal customers that bond with your brand and buy again. That, in a nutshell, is ethical marketing. Marketing itself encompasses marketing research, product development, pricing, distribution and promotion, but most people mistakenly think that advertising and sales promotion are marketing -- and at small companies, marketing people often aren't doing marketing, but sales promotion. And sleazy inflating of prices like this one to claim huge discounts is a common practice, it's actually against FTC regulations (what people sometimes call laws) in the US -- and against stricter regulations in much of the rest of the world. It doesn't stop sleazy little businesses form engaging in those practices, and they're pretty common at some resellers.

My favorite YouTuber, and friend, and only influencer I know who did honest "reviews" of sample libraries just passed. I'm still heartbroken. You have your own style, but you're easily the most honest reviewer of sample libraries I've seen. You don't care if it goes against the grain and that's awesome. We don't always have the same opinion on libraries, but I always know that you're giving your honest opinions and that's significant. Please, don't ever stop. Forums need more people like you who aren't afraid to share their honest opinions.

Everything from Arturia interests me. This dev has figured out my tastes very well. I shouldn't even click. Danger! Danger!

Okay, so no one got the too good to be true deal, but things turned out alight. I have long owned M-Tron, from version one, and totally love it (I'm obsessed with Trons, FTR). I thnk I've bought from this shop once. But this thread makes me want to buy from him again. He seems like a really nice guy.

Thanks for considering my point. I sincerely appreciate it.

I realize I'm going to get hate for this, but I've given free advice to a lot of developers over the years in exchange for them giving free NFRs to low income musicians. My logic is simple, care about others. Developers and e-commerce shop owners are regular people simply trying to make a living. Why be opportunists seizing a chance to profit by taking advantage of someone when they make a mistake? I realize I'm going to be ripped on for preaching, but I'm really only trying to appeal to you guys not to dehumanize shop owners and developers out of greed, but to consider empathy for the person now being taken advantage of. When you see a developer or a store owner makes an obvious mistake, why not contact them to try to help him rather than try to exploit their mistake? This isn't some huge company. This is some little guy trying to make a living; I don't think he's getting rich. Why screw him over and take advantage of him just because you can? Why not take the better option and help him? Just a simple thought.