PavlovsCat

If you watch the video, you can hear what it sounds like. It's 3 samples stretched over a keyboard, so, there's an incredible gap between this little freebie and the dev's highly detailed viola sample library.

Sonuscore makes nice libraries, I'd give them a try.

@JoeGBradford I quickly came up with some of my favorite freebies for KONTAKT full version: 8Dio 1928 Steinway Grand and a number of other high quality libraries for KONTAKT for free https://8dio.com/collections/free-instruments Lofi Wurli There's a bit of noise if you hold the samples, but otherwise, this is really nice for a free Wurl library. https://drive.google.com/file/d/15U99DL5BJdPAwj3SDOYvI2EPJ1_eaL8K/edit Red Pack Drums - acoustic drum kit https://www.redpackdrums.com/product-page/the-official-ds-drum-library Prepatato Piano Free An awesome free version of a prepared piano library. It's good enough to have charged for. Grab all of this dev's freebies. https://www.xperimentaproject.com/preparato-piano-free/ Death Piano LE Another free version of a prepared piano library that I like a lot. https://www.productionvoices.com/free/ Analogue Drums Big Mono Kit https://www.analoguedrums.com/drumkits/big-mono/ Pocket Blakus - Free Cello Look around the VST Buzz site for freebies for KONTAKT, there are some nice ones there. There's a glockenspiel, I believe named Jonathan's Glockenspiel that's quite nice. Check out the Ivy Audio piano and other libraries. https://vstbuzz.com/freebies/pocketblakus-cello/ Performance Samples Cello, Violin -- grab all of their freebies https://www.performancesamples.com/pacific-solocellolegato/ Westwood Alt Piano -- an upright felt piano https://www.westwoodinstruments.com/alt-piano-lite-edition/ Musical Sampling Legato Trumpet This is a really nice free legato trumpet library. https://musicalsampling.com/trumpet-freebie/ Sonuscore Free Pipe Organ This is a free KONTAKT Player library, but just in case you don't have it, get it! https://www.sonuscore.com/shop/free-pipe-organ/ Keypleezer Upright Piano A character piano, slightly out of tune, but cool. https://keypleezer.com/free-upright-piano-for-kontakt/ Sinewave Lab Free Mellotron Library I'm in love with pianos, Wurlis, glockenspiels, celestes, drums, guitars, basses, cellos, Wurlis -- and Trons. https://sinewavelab.com/products/free-mellotron-library-for-kontakt/ SoundIron has some freebies that are fun, especially, believe it or not, the free Desk Bell library. Pianobook See my list for recommendations, because a lot of stuff is poor quality. You can use my list to find the best libraries there, and you can also look for high-rated instruments at the site, of course. The Quarantine and Isolation pianos are two that immediately come to mind as some of the best there. Pick up everything from Dan Keen (he does mainly string and piano libraries, and they're very, very good). https://discuss.cakewalk.com/index.php?/topic/65790-best-free-sample-libraries-for-kontakt-a-curated-list-of-recommended-libraries/

I used to be a regular at KVR (under the user name of eDrummist, which I still use when I'm occasionally there) and befriended a bunch of folks in real life from KVR that I've visited on three continents (okay, I live on one of those continents). But it's probably been a decade since I spent much time there. KVR, of course, is a pretty big community and can get toxic from time to time (not VI-Control level toxic, but bad enough that I prefer somewhere friendlier) and I simply find that not to my liking. While no forum is perfect, I think this one, overall, is excellent and I attribute that to a combination of a great community and the standards and moderation of the forum. Also, we have cclarry, which is nice. Please, stick around! - Peter

The only way I would pay for WUP would be if one of the Wave plugins I use (mainly the Abbey Road ones) stopped working. Otherwise, I see no reason. Even then, I would explore buying a replacement plugin before spending money on WUP.

The demo sounds nice! It sounds perfect for synthwave.

This is a great deal on a good magazine. Support one of the most enjoyable reads about one of your favorite topics for only $15.99 USD for a 1 year subscription and get free plugins and samples each month. PocketMags Mega Sale - annual digital subscription to Computer Music Magazine (13 issues) billed annually is 75% off - $15.99 (reg. $27.99). End date unknown. https://pocketmags.com/us/computer-music-magazine

@jngnz I've only had their Wurli library (it was part of their collection and they gave the Wurli away free fir a time; I hated the recordings; they simply didn’t sound professionally done, IMO; they sounded boxy and amateurish) and I avoided the developer after that. What libraries of theirs would you recommend? I've contemplated the solo cello, but candidly, the demos are very amateurish and reminded me of the Wurli library.

B-3X is $33.59 USD at JRR Shop with the code GROUP. I feel like I'm plagiarizing cclarry with this post! https://www.jrrshop.com/ik-multimedia-hammond-b-3x-organ-plugin

I'm a business owner talking to a lawyer. What are these morals you speak of? We're all capitali$t$ here.

It's because they do. But hey, they're not in the altruism business, right? So no surprises there.

They're not very sophisticated sample libraries. It's pretty much at the level that was the norm 20 years ago. Yes, it's nice for free, but you can find a number of vastly superior free drum sample libraries. I created two threads that contain lists of free libraries that include drum kits, one is for owners of the full version of KONTAKT and the other are libraries that come with or work on free players. All of those libraries are far more sophisticated than the JRR kits. Personally, I downloaded the JRR kits the last time they gave them away free, but ended up deleting them except for an 80s drum machine-ish kit where I wasn't concerned with it trying to sound like an authentic drum kit. Off hand, Analogue Drums has a very nice free kit called Big Mono, there's the free BFD Player, Steven Slate Drums Free version, Sterzov The Creative Toolbox Drums and Percussion, Spitfire Labs free drum kit and IK's MODO Drums free version -- all of those are superior to the JRR kits. There's more on my lists, but I don't want you to be bummed out over missing these kits. There are much better ones out there.

Okay, I'm not knowledgeable enough to have a valid opinion on this, so I'm going to trust that you guys (mainly jngnz and Bapu) know this stuff and buy it. Seriously. It's $19 USD for me. I Iooked up a review from Mix Magazine and watched a video where Matt Lange showered praise on it and said he uses it on practically everything he does.

Merry Christmas and happy holidays to all.

I own several Rigid Audio libraries and find them to be mediocre. I've owned them for several years and have never used one in a production. Consequently, I've stopped buying them, now when you can easily buy one of their libraries for prices like $1.99 USD. The consensus at this forum tends to be pretty close to my experience, that their libraries are mediocre and there's often posts about file sizes for some of their libraries. I consider Triple Spiral Audio and Karanyi much better at doing synth patches. Of course, that's completely subjective. On a more objective level, I find Rigid Audio KONTAKT files run fine. Historically, Rigid Audio would wildly inflate their list prices in order to promote outrageous (massive discounts) of 90% or more. They seem to have stopped doing that, or they're doing it a lot less lately.

Thanks for that review. Damn, your praise of Broken Wurli really makes me want to pick it up. Once again, I appreciate the raw honesty of your posts. Knowing how critical you are makes it all the more compelling when you praise a sample library like that. It was easily more than 10 years ago I spent maybe a couple of hours giving James Thompson (a co founder of SonicCouture) marketing and branding advice and was fascinated to learn his professional story. He and his business partner worked at Yamaha doing sampling. So these guys have a serious background in this business and know what their doing. I really should have purchased Broken Wurli long ago, but I overlooked it because the name lead me to believe it wasn't about sampling a functional Wurli. But your words intrigued me to the point I'm almost certain to pick it up at some point to find out for myself. I haven't always agreed with the libraries you don't like, but I have found that when you praise a library that I have yet to disagree and I suspect that would once again be the case.

After playing with the Inspire 2 Solo Cello, I'm not in love with it. The Salu Cello is vastly superior. My issues with the Inpsire 2 Solo Cello are: 1. The vibrato on the two legato patches is too heavy for my tastes 2. The looping is poorly executed; that should be fixed 3, There's far too much room baked in for my taste However, the Soft Sustains patch is pretty nice. In fact, I immediately put it in song I'm working on.

TheSteven ruined me so that every time I see this thread I now see the word "Bacon" 🥓 instead of "Beacon."

Make sure you click on the tab that reads "instruments" to view the various instruments that make up a collection. I don't think Orchestra Tools has a very intuitive website design. https://www.orchestraltools.com/store/collections/inspire-2

I'm not crazy about the Sine Player. I'd put it up there with UVI's Player as among the sample players I find to be disappointing. But I own several Orchestra Tools libraries for Sine Player that I like. I just picked up the Berlin Orchestra Inspire 2 Solo Cello for only €1 after using the voucher. I think that's a very sweet deal.

Thanks guys. And yep, I did mean SE! I'll revise my earlier post.

@Brian Walton Brian, I am (correctly) ashamed to ask this question, but I own Guitar Rig 6, Ampitube 5SE (edit: I originally wrote LE instead of SE), Bias FX and Electrum and I mostly either use the presets or use presets as a starting point. I've never even explored to see if any of them allow the use of IRs. You listed Amplitube, hopefully the LE version takes IRs too.

Oops, you're right! I'll fix my earlier post. Be sure to post your thoughts after checking it out.

It's a KONTAKT Player library [edit: I originally mistakenly wrote that the library required the full version of KONTAKT]. I realize that it's confusing that they call it an expansion. It doesn't require anything else. I'm in love with Wurlis and this is the only 145B I own. It was recommended to me by two people in this forum, I think it was Chris R and Bad Penguin. I did a thread about my love of Wurlis and both of them strongly recommended this library and the developer and it was a fantastic recommendation. They have a 200A that also sounds great and it comes with a Rhodes that sounds great. The only reason I didn't get that is that I already have a 200A (from e-instruments) that is really versatile. But I think Skybox's 200A sounds superb. If I wasn't watching my spending, I would definitely grab this offer. While the 200A is my only library from Skybox, it's so well done that it reflects a developer that does exceptional work, IMO. The UI allows you to easily create your own presets. The 145B is one of my favorite electric piano sample libraries.

I picked up the Lite version after a nano influencer named Reid hyped it up in this forum as if it was groundbreaking. It's okay, but I definitely feel he greatly over hyped it. But that is what influencers do. A couple of weeks after I spent 10 bucks on it, they were giving it away free. No great tragedy, but I'd recommend that anyone considering buying the lite version should wait for it to become free again.