Carl Ewing

Have been chipping away at Time Micro / Macro. But Salu has been on my list since it was released. Very much considering the quartet, dreamstate, evolving and the other sound design-ish patches. Such a gorgeous sounding library. Just not sure what to get first. Picked up the entire Ark series (0-5) during 2022 sales season, and Sine player still hasn't grown on me. But for the sound of these libraries, it's worth the headache.

It's a fantastic delay. Quite deep, and can achieve some fantastically cold / digital pitched delays that are really common in techno / EDM / synthwave. I would not use it as a warm / tape delay though - even the vintage / tape modes. It is extremely cold sounding imo - but I'm guessing their target audience initially was EDM. Quick 30 second demo of that 'spot-it-from-a-mile-away' tone: The same style delays with Echoboy will sound much much warmer - more in the dub / reggae / hip-hop territory, and more difficult to get that brittle / squishy digital tone. But for what it does, Replika doesn't really have competition. It's the only delay I can think of that does that tone so well. Which might be a very bad thing if you're looking for a warmer delay - for that, there are much better alternatives imo. And the micro-pitcher & diffusion mode are fun as hell.

That is absurd. KSHMR is a maaaaasive electronic producer, who has products through a gazillion companies. It would be like trashing Native Instruments/ Splice.com because the KHSMR sample packs are one of their biggest sellers / partnerships, despite controversies with those sample packs over plagiariasm with Mick Gordon's Doom OST. Lifeline Console / Expanse have absolutely nothing to do with any of the KSHMR stuff. They are exceptional plugins - both have replaced most of my lo-fi plugins, including RC-20 and Lo-Fi-AF (Unfiltered Audio), as they are far more versatile , with great programming / UI, and sound far better (specifically the full versions). Free lite versions are a no-brainer, since upgrading to full is often on sale for dirt cheap.

Having cowbell without timbale is sacrilegious where I'm from. Strange too, because a lot of the rhythms in that library walkthrough have a Cuban / Latin vibe. Looking through the percussion list, it's odd they left out so many key percussion instruments. It's a really thin list, heavily weighted to light percussion spectrum, that likely cripples the library's versatility. Hopefully they add to it in the future.

Good catch - thanks for pointing that out. Totally missed that - thanks!

Watching the update scroll, it took the most time to update the EW 25th Anniversary banner image. lol.

There's so many items on NIs site now that it's probably impossible to tell what will / will not be included in K15. They are not only reseller for a bunch of companies, but some of these companies also have Komplete partnerships. However - 99% sure these NI produced products will be in K15 bundles (that aren't in K14): Valves Pro Fables Vocal Colors Schema: Dark Guitar Rig Pro 7 Spotlight Collection: Ireland Session Percussion Session Ukelele Desolate Guitars Low End Strings Rudiments Rolling Tides Bazzazian Tapes These are all NI productions which usually get auto-added to the next Komplete series. Everything else would be up in the air, although I'm assuming more iZotope & Plugin Alliance stuff will be added in the next update. FYI - Cremona Quartet is already in K14 Collector's Edition - but each instrument is listed separately instead of labeled as "Cremona Quartet". So you have Stradivari Cello, Stradivari Violin, Amati Viola, Guarneri Violin. I wouldn't be surprised if these are moved into lower Komplete tier on the next update.

Glad I saw these posts. Was able to get the code to work post-tax total, instead of buying another item. Thanks y'all!

Not too bad. Added a $35 expansion, and can get Fables & Vocal Colors for $93.50 CAD, or $70 US. Will sleep on it lol.

I highly doubt they would ever lock everything into subscription. That would be absurd, considering the size / diversity of their catalog...losing out on a **** ton of single items sales of individual instruments, expansions, to DJs, producers, etc. Makes sense for Adobe as they can offer industry standard applications for a small monthly fee. Komplete series makes sense as it caters to multiple tiers of hardcore users. Problem is - for people like myself, who are constantly needing new libraries for new projects, I want access to all the new stuff as it's released, but I'm not willing to buy single items knowing I'll get them in the future anyway. This creates a gap - and subscription would solve that. I'm surprised they haven't offered it as an option yet. I'm guessing the people most likely to use a lot of these new libraries (Valves Pro, Low Strings, Vocal Colors, Fables, Session Percussion) are working composers / producers who already have Komplete, but won't be using any of these products until K15 a year from now. It's an odd model.

I got a Canada code and a US code. Of course they've perfectly calculated the voucher so virtually every combination of either 1 or 2 items comes up to about $1 short of the voucher minimum in either currency, even when doing upgrade sale prices. So in Canadian, I can add Fables & Vocal Colors, and it comes to $129, since I get $64.50 upgrade price for each coming K14 CE. But the voucher minimum is, of course, $130 CAD. Same applies to buying 1 item without the upgrade price. In US it's the same, except it's $99 ($49.50 each) and the voucher minimum is $100. Bastards. They've bamboozled me again into needing to buy more to use the voucher. But I just want these two - specifically for a current project. Even knowing I'll get them in a year with K15 CE. This is another reason I like subscriptions. I hate playing these sales / voucher games. Just give me the whole catalog and all new products for one yearly fee. I pay it for upgrading CE anyway, and I hate waiting a year+ for newly released products I want. Hoping they add that option in 2024.

Let's hear your music. I want to hear the genius that comes out of your clearly superior libraries that somehow eclipse the endless stream of great scores and albums using this stuff daily. Can't wait!

Source? lol. I keep seeing these nonsense opinions around various forums. I don't think I've seen so many NI products being used as much in studios the last few years. That cinematic series (Arkhis, Straylight, Playbox, Noire, Thrill, Mysteria, Sequis, Rise & Hit, Lores, Ashlight, Cremona Quartet, Symphony Series (specifically brass & percussion), etc.) are all over film scores, trailers, ads, game scores, etc. They are used all the time in **** you hear every day. Their synths (Massive X, Form, TRK, Super 8, Razor, Monark, Prism, Blocks), their Play Series & gazillion expansions are all over EDM, hip-hop, trap, r'n'b, pop, world-pop (especially afropop, which is now taking over Western charts) & k-pop (which already has), and on and on. Things I routinely see being used at large studios or routinely hear in pop music: Modular Icons, Deft LInes, Glaze (especially), Analog Dreams, Hybrid Keys, and of course Massive X which has an enormous userbase in electronic pop. Maschine Expansions are of course a staple of charting drill, trap, rap / hip-hop. I see their effects being used everywhere, especially Replika XT, Raum, Softube emulations, RC set, and I guess now you can put PA and iZotope in the list, which are also ubiquitos, especially Ozone & PA's channel strips. And then Kontakt, which needs no explanation. Add to that all their legacy & new libraries: percussion (orchestral / trailer...including Action series, Damage), tuned percussion (inc. Mallet Flux), drums (incl. Abbey Road series), Session series, world music, guitar / bass (incl. entire Scarbee series), piano series, organ, choir, electric piano, the Battery 4 library & expansions.....like holy ****, what more they got to do? Haha. Honestly - a single subscription that covers the Native Instruments / Plugin Alliance / iZotope catalog would be a cash cow for NI. Every single studio I've ever been in, and every producer I've ever worked for / with would subscribe on day 1. As would thousands of production / composer studios all over the world. We're talking 100s and 100s of instruments & effects that cover every genre...at a very high level of quality & chart relevance.. and effects that cover the entire production chain, from mixing to mastering. You could work exclusively in this iZotope / NI / PA ecosystem and need literally nothing else. So ya - I hope they do a subscription. I have to update Komplete CE almost every year anyway. iZotope products constantly need updating. Already have PA sub. Combine ALL that **** into one yearly subscription fee and I'm in on day 1. Along with a gazillion other people. I don't think NI needs a survey to tell them this.

Holy ****. This might be better than house flipping. Going to pick this up and re-sell it for $2500 once the sale is over. That's like $2350 profit! And I'll for sure be able to sell it for $2500, because that's still almost 50% off the regular price according to PA. Wish me luck y'all!

I just wrote all that and I'm looking at another plugin. Haha. I totally understand. It's like being in a constant Twilight Zone episode. It's also because I only bought (I think) only 1 effect plugin this whole season. Maybe a couple for super cheap / free. I bought almost 100% instruments. But now there's a dark cavern in my soul that needs to be filled with new effects I don't need.

Pro-Q 3 has been on Version 3 for 5 years. It's an exceptional EQ that can perform any task needed in the history of music or audio in the last 100 years. There's 100x more tech in that EQ than anything used to make 99% of the greatest songs ever made. This is why I buy FF. Modestly priced updates every few years, sometimes major new features added without version upgrades, and every new version blows everything else on the market out of the water, which I'm sure will happen with Pro-Q 4. When I rifle through all my projects over the last 5 years, there are a few plugins that always stay the course. I rarely employ ai / smart type plugins. I see them in my projects a few times here and there. Usually not doing what I paid them to do, and serving some other purpose. However, the workhorses like Pro-Q 3 are literally everywhere. Same goes for Decapitor and Echoboy, despite me having 20 delay & saturation plugins that I bought because they sounded "better". It's weird how that works. It's also interesting, that when I go through these projects, the mixes that sound best are the ones with limited plugin selection. All the disaster mixes are filled with some Black Friday bukkake experiment of trying to use too much **** because "this new thing must be better!". -------------------- EDIT: I can tell the exact time when I bought things like the Waves Abbey Road Bundle, or went through a tape emulation phase and now have 50 tape emulations, despite over time only ever using Sketch Cassette, which I thought was a ridiculous plugin when I got it but now gets used constantly. And I haven't opened an Abbey Road plugin in a year - and I thought a couple of those plugins weird incredible. So weird how this all works out in the end. -------------------- I'm actually realizing - aside from distortion / amp type stuff, I could probably suffice with 20 plugins, despite having over 400 (including bundles, subscriptions). There are just certain plugins - delay, panning, modulation, saturation, reverb, channel strips, etc. that just work in almost every circumstance. These smart / AI plugins just don't do it for me this way. They could easily be dropped and I likely wouldn't even notice. No upgrade for me.

When it comes to EVI 2.0, over 15GB of the total 23GB are instruments - which includes Felt Piano, basses, pads, guitars, textures, percussion, drums, drum loops, sfx, etc. Some of it is quite good imo, although there's A LOT of filler. In total, there are about 250 instrument .nki & snapshot files that are not vocal related. I was actually surprised how diverse the collection is. Definitely worth it for $0.01 imo.

Oh man - I gotta check that Reso plugin immediately - dealing with that very issue today! Thanks for the heads up.

99% of people that got it for free will install it, open it once, click a couple buttons, go "hmm", never open it again, but will be shuffling it around on hard drives for the next 10 years.

I feel the same way about a couple developers. I may make a similar offer next year. That's an awesome thing you did. This gave me a thought though, morbidly. What if I got hit by a bus? I wonder if I should set up unexpected death scenario where all my logins, etc. could be sold off to finance my post-death gambling debts. I don't want the bookies coming after my family. But seriously - there's probably $10s of thousands of software in some people's accounts that would just be sitting there forever. Perhaps there's a service that can handle digital estate assets after death. Back to reading Edgar Allan Poe.

Looking at that list - I'd say closer to $3000+ for me. Although there were a few great bundles that came with UAD2 purchases many years back. I think my Octo came with a coupon for $1500 in plugins about 10 years ago. So that was probably 2 plugins. Doing some relative math, with this new pricing, I'd argue they should give you a coupon for their whole catalog just for buying a $140 Volt 1.

No mention of features, quality, mic positions, articulations when you say "bloated". What does this mean exactly? I have an "accordian" on floppy disk that is 1mb. You're welcome to have it so I can save hard drive space. It feels "bloated" to me. Also - might want to look at Orchestral Tools when you say bloated. There are some libraries with 20 mic positions (spot 1, spot 2, spot 3, spot 4, spot 5, decca, mix, close, wide, wider, widest, in ear, next to kidneys, football field 2 miles away, simulated "moon perspective", sewer under studio, simulated "cockroach antenna", bathroom stall at flower shop next door, and 3D auditory ASMR musicians wisdom tooth contact mic", etc. I think the wisdom tooth contact mic is AMAZING when mixed with the decca mics and little bit of the moon mic. Personal preference.

I just keep my licenses on the key. I have to work remotely and offline for days at a time sometimes. And internet connections go down all the time even with the best infrastructure. The cloud system just seems like a nightmare scenario when deadlines are looming.

I can do more with the original Alchemy's granular engine than most people can do with everything on the market combined. Has nothing to do with age. Has to do with a) features b) quality of those features c) if you know how to use those features. I would say the same for Absynth, which did more with its granular engine 15+ years than most modern attempts. To solo out Pigments - I would file that synth under "crap". Sounds like crap, looks like a casino app that should make "ding ding ding" sounds when you click on buttons. And there are likely free synths with better granular / sampler engines. Pigments is what happens when a company like Arturia realizes 99% of its customers have no idea what they're doing, are mostly deaf, and will buy anything that has a lot of paid for testimonials and has lots of bright neon colors. It might have the worst sounding filters I've heard in a soft synth since...well...since all the other Arturia synths were released. Not that anyone cares, since Skrillex almost single handidly normalized **** filters with his aural abuse (some might say illegal abuse) of Massive's "worst sounding synth of all time" filters. Really - just get Phase Plant.

Paypal follows the same region blocking as credit cards. I don't think you can even get a Paypal account in Canada / US without address verification, which would allow ProStar to block your payment as they'd get the country info.