PavlovsCat

Also @Soundwise, as an example that great musicianship is still alive and well, just not as popular in live venues and in record sales, I present to you, Polyphia. TIm Henson (the guitarist) represents an astounding level of virtuosity and he's savvy enough to write catchy hooks.

Don't go completely sour. Go explore some of the amazing young musicians out there today, you'll be blown away. And I'm sure that you and I can find tons of musicians from the past that we both love too. But the art and craft of music and musicianship isn't dead and gone. Sure, great forms of music aren't popular, but that's been the case for a long time. Young musicians like Tim Henson are taking things forward from a musical standpoint (as a virtuoso guitarist, in his case). I'm certain Jimi Hendrix would love what Henson is doing if he were still around. 
 

On 3/1/2024 at 1:01 PM, Soundwise said:

I think, new generations - Millennials and especially Zoomers - are not very keen on creating music in old fashion, like it used to be common for old-timers such as ourselves. IMO, that's the main reason why both hardware and software manufacturers face a decline in sales. We are still here, and we still buy their stuff and keep them afloat, but let's face it - the music part of show business is not about innovative records or talent anymore, it's just a craft with a niche demand. Music is just content crafted with little to no passion, soulful expression or extraordinary skills. We already see symptoms of the MI market collapse, so the crumbling down of leading MI software and hardware companies is inevitable.

There's no doubt that like every generation, tastes in music and musical instruments shift. So it's not a giant surprise that there are significantly less accordinists in Gen Z than Boomers. But you stated that there's been a decline in hardware and software sales, when both have actually been growing pretty well (with more than 8% CAGR in music software sales over the past few years). I think you're going off of perception as opposed to research.  I did some quick checks for research. I write as part of my living, so I regularly turn to researchers and research studies and tapped AI to find research on this topic.  An excerpt: "A 2020 YouGov study found that two-thirds of American adults have played a musical instrument at some point in their lives, with younger adults slightly more likely to have played than older adults. A 2023 Gallup poll found that over half of US households have at least one person actively playing a musical instrument, suggesting continued interest in music making. "

Now, you then brought up the MUSIC recording industry. That is and always has been a very different story. The demand for live music definitely appears to be much lower than it was decades ago in the US and Europe.  Then we have record sales, which have radically changed (lessened) from sales levels a few decades ago. Radio is no longer the main source of exposing people to new music. Spotify lists and video games are. So once again, technology has changed the game. Because consumers are not buying physical or even online music -- albums -- as they did decades ago, the music recording industry is all about volume. I don't know about you guys, but I have friends who had limited success in the music industry and they're not making much off of Spotify and other streaming services, because the money isn't there, even if you're getting 1 million streams a year. It's all about volume. Consequently, it's driven the recording industry to be risk averse when it comes to signing and promoting artists. A few months ago I remember reading a Billboard article that rock was surging in popularity and had become the number two most popular genre in the US. But I wouldn't expect record companies to be signing the next Beatles, Radiohead, Yes, or Steely Dan. They're more apt to sign the next Nickelback. Pop music is becoming more like simplistic ad jingles and I don't see that changing, as record companies know that simple music sells to a wider audience. 

But you shouldn't conflate musical hobbyists with record industry signigings and promotions. Look at YouTube and you'll see a wealth of young musicians who play at a level the world hasn't witnessed in pre-web generations. Yes, there are not a lot of accordion players, but there are a heck of a lot of incredibly talented pianists, guitarists, bassists, percussionists, drummers, etc. I come from a family where my mother and eldest sister were music teachers. I was trained on piano, organ, drums and guitar. I have a bunch of friends -- just lost one last week who taught music at a HS and jazz at Purdue University -- whose been responsible for some award winning bands filled with talented young people. My son's college roommate (19 yrs old), is a tuba and trombone player who plays at his college's Big Ten basketball games and football games. Both of my two kids were in school band. My daughter is a talented singer and I go to all of her school performances and one of my friend's daughters is a very talented singer ( a HS freshman) who is doing community theater musicals. I have other friends whose kids play musical instruments. So once again, we have the music recording industry -- which I completely agree with you, they are promoting simplistic, incredibly similar music that sounds like it came from ads. But the doom and gloom you're stating about the collapse of musical instrument companies and musical software companies is incorrect. Both are growing. The recording industry is in trouble. I've worked with a bunch of small record labels back in the day and at least some of them are hanging on, but it's really tough. But that's a completely different story than individuals playing musical instruments, and that is growing. It's not all doom and gloom. Except for the music recording industry, that's toast and all we can do is support live music and the artists we appreciate. But if you're willing to dig a bit, you can still find really talented young acts. I've learned about some really talented new acts from hearing the soundtracks to video games my kids play.  I live in Chicago and, sadly, even local college radio isn't play young unsigned acts like they once did back when I was playing with our band. So it is a lot more challenging to find new acts. But if you dig, you can find them. They're just not getting signed with major labels like the way things used to be. It's been a over a decade since I first heard  one of this band's songs in a video game my son was playing and googled them and became a huge fan. The singer has the kind of vocal talent Jeff Buckley had, with more control.  Bands like this are out there. It's just that we don't have radio stations playing them and people going to record stores to learn about them and buy their music. 
 

5 hours ago, Anxiousmofo said:

It is free compressor day.  I have this several times over but will take the free WUP'ing.

Same here. I pick 'em up for the WUP. 

I've seen a number of folks post in this forum, now in this thread, a misperception that the digital music software production industry is declining when every study I've seen in the 12 months (a total of two) indicates that the industry is growing. The below linked study indicates a CAGR of more than 8% . The acquisitions in the industry aren't occurring because the industry is falling apart. The firms making these acquisitions do so because they anticipate growth, not decline. Well managed developers I know are doing well, not suffering. For anyone posting doom and gloom, it's not reality -- fortunately. 

https://www.globalgrowthinsights.com/market-reports/music-production-software-market-100157

Wow, the guy who wrote that has no small amount of venom for NI, which I notice someone pointed out and he reacted -- not well -- as if he was engaged in fair and balanced journalism, claiming he was objective.

He should have reported the facts first and shared his opinion afterwards. That lack of ability to write facts clearly and  the attack headline harms his credibility and does make one question his ability to present facts without overly injecting bias. I'd heard, but don't know, that Dirk has a pretty strong ego. Could that have been a factor in things not working out in this capacity? I suspect it was a big factor. He went from being the head honcho to a role that requires diplomacy and the ability to influence without direct authority and that requires a very different set of skills than he needed when he was the guy signing employees' checks. 

Very nice! Jacob is so incredibly talented.  Plus, he has an amazing musical imagination. 

8 minutes ago, v394 said:

Have definitely used your recommendations cat. Having to install an extension did sound super shady, so I'll pass.

Hey, it's your first post on the forum. Welcome aboard, @v394!

Everything is now working. The developer resolved the problem.  (I haven't heard back from them yet, but I just went through the process, and saw that when you click, it now includes a code that lets Fast Spring know that it's a free product). Give it another try folks. 

I like Muse. The band, that is. I don't feel similarly about the developer with the same name. 

Very candidly, Muse is not a high quality developer as many forum members on this and other forums have noted in their posts.

There have been accusations that the developer pirates other developers' libraries. I don't know if that is true, but one criticism I've seen a lot that I know to be true is that Muse bloats up their libraries. For instance, I downloaded several of their libraries that they regularly sold when they were released for free on promotions, and all were excessively bloated, likely only in an attempt to play on the false perception that that file size equals a detailed library.  For example, one of their full piano libraries.  The library was a larger file size than more detailed sample libraries like Noire, Evolution Rosewood Grand or NI Grandeur (three libraries I regularly use). However -- and I'm going on memory -- not every note was sampled, I believe it was something like 3 keys per octave that were sampled and there were only two velocity layers. Beyond the specs, it simply sounded and played like a SoundFont piano from 20+ years ago.  It was unusable. I downloaded and tried other sample libraries from them, included another piano library, and it followed the same template -- ridiculously bloated and not a detailed sample library that one would expect for anything even close to the file size. It's in the realm of what most would consider trickery.  

Now, this obscure website has a questionable plugin they require you to download that Virus blockers say isn't safe.  I put together two lists of freebies on this forum. You can find vastly superior free libraries to anything from Muse there. For piano sample libraries,  there are two superb free libraries  for KONTAKT -- one from SonicCoture  that includes the FREE KONTAKT Player and one form 8Dio. There are Mellotron libraries on my list that are far superior (Muse gave away their Mellotron library before, I deleted it after trying it out). For synths -- there are a wealth of alternatives, just check out my lists. In any event, the more you know about Muse and no one knows anything about WAYA -- the more you see that there really isn't much appeal to the muse libraries and installing software from this unknown small developer and giving them access to your data and what you do on the web -- that, IMO, is a dealbreaker even if the libraries are good, which IMO, is not the case. 

Hard pass recommended. 

Clearly, these folks set this up incorrectly. I'll look for a way to contact them and shoot them an email or use their web form (if one exists) to let them know about the problem. I'm sure they'll figure it out soon and get things worked out and we'll get our freebie soon.

One thing for sure, I have really been impressed by the quality of this dev's freebies. I have yet to buy any of their libraries -- but that's only because I've been curtailing my spending on sample libraries and plugins, not because I don't find their libraries compelling. Otherwise, I easily would have bought some of their libraries based on how good these freeibes are (my favorite is their electric piano). Well, I'll be waiting for them to straighten this out. I listened to the video for the library and it sounds very nice, as I would expect from this dev. 

EDIT: I just shot the developer an email, as I subscribe to their email that they subscribe you to when you get their freebies. I'll make another post in this thread if the developer responds and tells me that the problem is fixed.  - Peter

52 minutes ago, Fleer said:

Sorry guys. 
Plugin Alliance. 
I stand corrected. 

No need to apologize @Fleer. Stuff like this keeps us on our toes,  challenged -- someone had to figure out where the discount was from. Kudos to smde for figuring it out! 

Now the question for me is, do I finally by that Acme compressor I've long considered (feel free to share your opinion anyone who owns it or has a strong opinion). I am intrigued by your list, Fleer. and will check those selections out. 

It isn't a processor hog on my machine, but, as I recall, it does use more resources than many of my other professing plugins. 

I picked this same deal up last year and am very happy with MixBox. It initially caused a crash in a project, but the problem has never happened again. I would definitely recommend this deal. 

11 minutes ago, ralfrobert said:

Exactly,  coffee here, and not only mags, but also lots of real books.  My 50th birthday is in a few weeks. Half a century,  so I'm really old. Phew, ...

You're in good company.  Most of this forum's regulars are 50ish or more.  Some see you as a youngster! 

1 hour ago, ralfrobert said:

I have to say I sometimes buy Beat (the printed one) for long train rides or for some of the tutorials. And I always find someone who will pick it up after I'm done with it. For those of us who still consume media of the 20th century, it might be worth a look. 

Sounds good. Which train should we get on to get the magazine after you're done with it?

I kid. I kid. I still love to read a magazine or newspaper with a good cup of coffee.  I mostly do it electronically, but there is something cool about holding a physical magazine or newspaper when enjoying that coffee (or tea, if you prefer). 

1 hour ago, fpoir said:

These sound great. They could prove very useful. Thanks for the pointer.

I stumbled on the developer maybe 4 years ago via Triple Spiral Audio.  I love the libraries they sell. Have I ever used one in a production? Nope. But I fell in love with the sounds! 

https://www.triplespiralaudio.com/

Beautiful Void Audio is discontinuing some of their libraries and discounting them up to 90%. They require the full version of KONTAKT.  I own a number of this developer's libraries and really love his work. I suppose they're best classified as ambient, lush, sound design synth patches. 

From the developer (posted in a Facebook group I'm in): 
"I will be discontinuing a few Kontakt libraries after February 29, 2024. Most are discounted for up to 90% until that time! (sorry I'm late on posting this). 
I've created a dedicated page so you can browse these instruments. They all require the full version of Kontakt - version info is in the product title and the product description:
https://www.beautifulvoidaudio.com/soon-to-be-discontinued/

These libraries all use the free photosynthesis engine. My plan is to bring most or all of these libraries back in a dedicated UI and engine, with newer sounds as well.

Thanks!"

jngnz feels strongly against this dev's plugins. Personally, while I have a couple of plugins they gave away free, I've never actually tried any of them yet (although even if I did, I definitely don't feel I'm qualified to have a really knowledgeable opinion on compressors, I barely know what I'm doing with them). Any other opinions? 

I'm definitely not discounting jngnz. He's going to school for audio and knows a lot more than me. While he can be pretty savage, I think he's knowledgeable and I take his opinions into account when I look at plugins and sample libraries. His post also reminded me that a YouTuber whose videos I enjoy -- White Sea Studio is the name of his channel -- did a video on a Tone Emporer compressor a while back where he recommended against buying it because of undesirable artifacts. So, with both jngnz and the White Sea Studio guys negative critique of their plugins, I am hesitant to download and install it. (I don't blindly go on others' advice, but I don't have sound engineering expertise, so I tend to check to see what more knowledgeable people have to say about plugins before I buy them, and if they say something isn't good, I pass on it). 

7 minutes ago, MusicMan said:

I am sure, but only just! I refreshed after I posted and your post wasn't there. 

If you refresh a few times so not right at the start of the minute, you will also see my post will show as a minute ahead, so there definitely wasn't much in it 🤣 I'm not really worried either way though, I more just mentioned it because it keeps the history more lean when searching for old posts and sales if we're thinking about buying things.

And you're not wrong with Lars.. even getting a tie would be an achievement at times.. Haha.. 

I take too long to write posts, so I rarely make them (and then I post it and find grammatical errors -- I really need an editor). I should just stick to my freebie threads and leave everything else to the fastest typists. It seems every time I see something in an ad, an email or a Facebook group I'm, it's either up here, or up in minutes. At least I have my freebie threads! I suppose I need to stay in my lane! Hahaha. 

55 minutes ago, MusicMan said:

Already covered, although not by much! 🤣

 

Are you sure? Look at the time. I'm pretty sure we tied. Could it be???

In any event,  it's no big deal if the mods delete mine.  But I'm kinda amused by the possibility that we could have placed it at the same time.  I scanned page one, then did a search and nothing came up before posting. I noticed yours before one hour and it showed the identical post time as mime. So I'm calling it a tie! But I know cclarry, and you and I will never match cclarry!

Anyhow, if the mods see this, you can kill my thread. No problem. 

Tone Empire SoulSquash Soul / Funk Vibe Vintage Audio Compressor Pedal - Reg. $39 USD Now FREE (Not certain of sale end date)

Introducing the SoulSquash Vintage Audio Compressor Pedal: A sonic time capsule brimming with retro allure and modern finesse. Sampled and accurately replicated with Tone Empire's proprietary NM2 Neural Network technology, this pedal embodies a pristine and clean solid-state sound, adding a touch of nostalgia to your audio. 

Its intuitive design and minimalist controls channel soulful and funky vibes, ensuring effortless integration into any setup. From pianos to clavinets, orchestra to bass, vocals to drums, the SoulSquash pedal delivers an enchanting compression that enhances every note with a touch of soul.

Elevate your sound with a pedal that captures the essence of vintage punch and versatility, inviting you to infuse your music with a dash of timeless charisma.

Controls

Compressor: Control the input gain into the compressor processing .

Output: This is the control for output attenuation after the compression processing.

Thick: This switch adds a Lo Eq Bump post compression for a "thicker" sound!

Input Adjust: Use this control to further adjust the input signal gain before processing.

Output Adjust: Use this control to trim the final output of the processing after the dry mix .

Dry Mix: Add the original unprocessed signal to the mix as parallel processing.

System Requirements

Mac

macOS 10.13 or later (Intel / Native M1 supported) (64-bit only)

VST3, AU, or AAX

Intel i3 / AMD Ryzen or equivalent

2 GB RAM / 300 MB HD Required

Screen resolution - 1024 × 768

Note: M1 Mac users running Logic Pro (10.7.2 and above) or Ableton (11.1) please use the 'M1' installer. For all other DAWs please use the regular 'Mac' installer.

Windows

Windows 10 or later (64-bit only)

VST3 or AAX

Intel i3 / AMD Ryzen or equivalent

2 GB RAM / 300 MB HD

Screen resolution - 1024 × 768

https://www.pluginboutique.com/products/11093-Soul-Squash

1 hour ago, kitekrazy said:

NI can lower their prices all day.  Outside of Komplete I rarely ever buy a NI library.  It's mostly 3rd party.  Part of it is no direct downloads and trust that Asshat (cr)app.   It's fine when it works but with 3 machines it's rare I get 100% performance.  Their NTKDeemon is often the problem when it wants to f'upgrade.        

To each their own. I've had good experiences with NI's libraries. I love Noire, like Studio Drummer, Abbey Road  Modern Drummer and many other NI libraries. They run great for me. 

But, as I mentioned, the heavy duscounting is a trend in the industry.  It's notable that NI is deep discounting in the past year, because they're the makers of KONTAKT and the biggest player in the sampler industry.  They set the tone. It was rare for them to go as deep as they have in the past year and to deep discount third party libraries at 70+%. While NI historically have had their summer and holiday sales where they discounted 50 percent,  they discounted their libraries and third party libraries at 70% or more late last year.  Then we have other developers, like 8Dio, that have deep discounted their older libraries at an even deeper level. As a marketing/branding professional,  I'm not certain I would advise a developer to discount that heavily, because it trains the market that is the real value of their new releases. But as a sample user / buyer, I think it's fantastic. Detailed sample libraries are more affordable than ever. 

2 hours ago, Fleer said:

Don’t know. Feels like a smorgasbord…

Absolutely. It is. I certainly agree.  I just strongly suspect that from CInesamples getting very aggressive with their pricing (discounting) for their Musio line and, especially considering the industry trends (that is, that some of their competitors, including NI, are heavily discounting) , that it's very likely that it will impact their KONTAKT line too.  There's just too much going on -- pricing-wise -- in the marketplace that makes it likely to happen. Probably more than anything, NI's increasing aggressive with their discounting of sample libraries is likely to have the greatest impact on the marketplace. It does make sense that developers can afford to heavily discount older libraries that long ago paid back production costs.  

As a sample user, I've been loving it. I picked up Alicia's Keys for 13 bucks this week! Come on CInesamples --Piano and Blue (KONTAKT) for 13 bucks! Make it happen!!!    

If this were KONTAKT formatted libraries, it would be a no-brainer. Cinesamples does make excellent KONTAKT sample libraries. However, I'm less apt to invest in their proprietary sampler plugin and my guess -- based on their heavy discounting of their Musio line since they introduced it -- is that they're soon going to follow what's going on in their industry and heavily discount their older sample libraries for KONTAKT. 

On 2/20/2024 at 4:09 PM, Steve Schultz said:

I'm trying to record using cinematic studio solo strings.  I have inserted four instrument tracks using Kontakt, (Kontakt 7 player) violin, violin II, viola and cello.  Now I record a track.  Play it back, nothing.  If I reload the instrument, it will work one time through and then I have to reload the instrument.  Then I have also had the problem that all the tracks set as sustain notes play as stacccato.   What am I doing wrong.  I am using version 2023 .09 and the cinematic studio solo strings was loaded on 20 dec 2023.

Forgive this really basic question, but when you record a track, do you see a MIDI track recorded for that track? Are you certain that you have the proper MIDI settings for each track you're recording? I'd focus on just one track and see if you can record one track and get the recorded track to play back after you've recorded it. But I'm not sure if we've established if you have successfully recorded a MIDI track. Can you confirm that you have? 

It would be worthwhile to you record your screen or even take some screenshots so we can better understand what's going on.  As you're not certain if you installed KONTAKT as a VST, it is possible that you could be playing it in standalone mode and not recording anything. 
 

7 hours ago, MrFigg said:

Meeee tooooooooooo

Okay, I was reading through this thread and you, @MrFigg, and @Fleer, along with @cclarry of course (the 🐐 of plugin and sample library hoarding enablers!), are my enablers of the day. 😀

Seriously guys, thanks for sharing how much you like this (I have the earlier free version and am curious how this compares).  It helps when navigating the deals to see when a community member has a good opinion of a plugin or library. I value it far above the advice of influencers compensated to promote. Plus, I'm trying to manage my plugin hoarding a little better these days and will be downloading the 30 day trial version of PianoVerb2 before buying. 

Here's the link to the free trial version for anyone else who's interested in trying PianoVerb2  out:

https://www.pspaudioware.com/products/psp-pianoverb2