Patrick Derbidge

And the sale is back on! Just got an email from them. Must have been a glitch.

Maybe. I have a ton of Pianos already between Komplete Ultimate, Acoustic Samples, 8Dio, EZkeys, UVI, East West, Sampletank, Msoundfactory and a few others I'm sure I forgot. I figured that Sampletekk would make a nice addition. I have a few Sampletekk libraries that aren't pianos. I just thought it was odd that they would end the sale before the day's end, but still have an advertisement for the sale on their homepage.

Looked at site earlier today, sale price was still there. Went to make a purchase just now and everything is regular price? Still advertising 90% on main page though. I guess I'll have to pass.

Thanks for the post. I remember demoing this one alongside others and really liked it, but the others inched it out for me. Now that it's on a deep discount, I bit. Should be a nice addition to what I already have.

Thanks for making me aware of this. I had no idea they had "undongled" their freebies. I'll give it a try. Not to derail, but I've also seen Spitfire also act churlish to those who dared give constructive feedback. Nevertheless, they have good libraries and I still own some of them, so VSL isn't the only one. If devs want an example of how they should act towards customers, they should observe Paalo from Fluffy Audio. I've seen him take some very harsh criticism with complete grace. I'm always impressed with how humble he is.

Some people don't like the fact that their products aren't constantly updated like other developers, thus making them incredibly stable and usable 🙂 Unlike others.

Songwriting Guitar is terrible but these others are good. Not as good as NI session guitar series but at this price it's worth it.

Great mic especially at this price. The AT2035 is also on sale for $100 and a good step up from this one.

I enjoy all my 8dio string libraries, especially given the prices I got them at. In my opinion, they are right up there with Spitfire and the likes. I own Albion, East West Hollywood Strings, East West QL, Symphony Essentials, Sonokinetic libraries,LASS and a few solo strings from various developers (Embertone, Cinesamples etc...) and I still looove my 8dio strings. The only downside is the load time for the new Adagio Strings is abysmal, however, I may need to go into each individual string arc and do a batch resave. I did it for the full instrument, but that didn't do the trick.

True. Ni could have kept it relevant by adding more standard FX to make working with Absynth a little easier, while still taking advantage of all those great envelopes. On the plus side, this probably means we'll see a price slash for those who don't own it. If you add plugin guru's sound-sets, you'll have some fairly modern patches to keep it relevant for a while longer.

I have a love hate for these guys. On one hand these are some of my better sounding amp sims but on the other hand, what you get for what you pay sort of feels like going to a fancy restaurant and spending $100 for a tasty meal but still leaving hungry.

I agree. You really have to decide what your purpose is when it comes to these purchases. For me, organizing samples was one, but the other was the fact that I don't consider myself a seasoned beatmaker so when I do music like that, I need a tool that can adapt. I don't want static loops without flexibility, but I don't want to bang out beats on my keys or my pads either cause it would just sound amateurish. Having the extra sample library and the built in grooves and beatmaking tools like you get with the traditional EZD and AD2 software is what these types of software were missing in the past. Of course there were the drum machines but it wasn't probably til Giest that the groove and beatmaking software started to get a facelift and even then I'm surprised that it has taken so long to see products like Atlas and XO. The idea is to have instruments that are bit like having a band mate where you give them an idea and they know what to do with that idea. I still use battery quite a bit but only when I know exactly how I want the groove to sound and when the beat is not too advanced for my puny brain.

I have no doubt there is truth to that but the price tag!!!! It better be stomping on AD2 for what it cost. The great thing about AD2 is that you get quite a bit for what you pay. I have just about every drum program out there except SD2 and I still use AD2 in my rotation.

There used to be a way by getting a qualifying cross grade product (there were some free ones) and then crossgrade to komplete for around $250 from there but that seems to not be an option anymore. I suppose it changed when they introduced Komplete Select. I think there may still be a deal on select ($99) and from there you can upgrade. If you do this the best thing to do is wait to upgrade til the next big upgrade sale.

There are basically 2 main types of yearly sales, not including the nks update sales done with developers. These are the komplete update specific sales for previous komplete owners which was earlier this year which is where I updated to KU13 for $199. Then there is the 50% off everything which is this current sale. Usually it makes sense to just wait til the next version of komplete and the update sale to get the latest but sometimes there is something you want right away, that you can sell later when you decide to update. Since Electric Vintage is not in KU13, I'm going to get it now and sell it when KU14 comes out after upgrading..

For me, the first thing in deciding on a library like this is it's sound. This one definitely has a good sound, comparable to more expensive strum libraries. I own a lot of these types of libraries and it seems the only limitation is the number of strum patterns but it doesn't seem any more limited than what you get with the 8Dio guitar strum libraries and at this price I think it's hard to pass up, unless you are already a decent guitar player which of course there is no substitute for.

I also disagree with the comment about Mike being a bad guy. Quite the opposite. When he took over VI Control things were very toxic and I think he did a very fair job of balancing the desire for open and honest discussion and still helping developers feel welcomed. Maybe the person complaining tried to have a negative discussion about a product in the developer deal section instead of posting in the discussion board section? That's the only way I can see Mike kicking someone out unless the person was just out of line. I've seen Mike let discussions go way further than other members would like. Many in that forum can get pretty tribal about their favorite developer. Anyways, I've always found Mike to be pretty easy going.

Here is a good video that explains what I mean at the 12:50 mark.

Your misunderstood me. I'm not talking about the number of notes but the duration of the notes. The grid falls on a 16th note pattern so if you want 32nd fills then you have to use your DAW.

Good resource. I have to admit that XO does make me feel better about the samples I've collected over the years that haven't been used much. Now I'm willing to consider adding more drum samples knowing that they won't get lost in a black hole anymore.

I finally pulled the trigger on XO during this sale. Although it is over, I'm sure there will be another during BF (probably better than what I paid). I just wanted to give my quick thoughts on XO. First, I would NOT pay full price but for around $100 it's a good deal. Battery 4 is much deeper as far as manipulating with FX goes but XO has grooves built in for inspiration which is invaluable these days but also has the effect of making us all more lazy and sound the same by not learning how to lay our own beats. I don't see it as a replacement to my other drum machines like Battery or Breaktweaker etc... but it's a nice addition. One of the OBVIOUS benefits is the browser and the ability to find sounds quickly. Even if you don't use XO for making beats, using it to find sounds you forgot about is very cool. There are a lot of things to like, especially the fact that it is easy and intuitive to learn. One major downside but not a deal breaker is that the built in grid is only 16th note capable. You would think a software at this price would give you the option to go to 32nd notes or more. You can, however just drag the midi to your DAW and work around this limitation that way. For me, the main draw was the ability to let it organize my sounds so I didn't have to and access to more drum patterns since I'm not a beat maker.

The PR35 is one of the best dynamic mics you can buy and can be used for just about anything. The PR28 Looks like is focused on Toms but reviews indicate that it is an excellent tom mic

Luckily, I have not experienced any issues with XLN products but if I had a constant issue with them that would definitely deter me from using XLN products. For example, I used to love using Brainworx BX Meter in my projects but inevitably the more plugins I added the more my project would randomly crash. I narrowed it down to this plugin. Even after building a new PC it caused the same issues so sadly, as much as I liked it, I had to retire it. I would do the same with XLN or any of my other VST's cause frankly, it's not like there isn't decent competition. It's great that we have all these choices.

Just be aware. It's not a rock kit. It's a unique kit that can be used in Rock when needed for effect but it's got a sound you just don't get with other kits. Definitely more for old skool hip hop although I don't use it that way.

One person's trash is another person's treasure is all I can say. I own AD2, SSD4, EZD2, all the drums programs that come with Komplete Ultimate, Melda Drummer 2, Jamstix 4 and probably some others I'm forgetting. I'm a fanboi of all of them but mostly AD2 and EZD2. One thing that I still find appealing about these two is that the midi grooves are from professional drummers. This, of course, means that you have to invest a bit more to get as many packs as you can to have the options you want but this also makes the drum parts sound professional with the ability to still tweak them to your liking. Jamstix and Melda drummer, on the other hand are getting better with their programming to come up with natural sounding drum parts based on your input. Because of their learning curve I haven't given them as much time as I need to in order to compare but that also is another boon for AD2 and EZD2 since musicians need to be focused on making music rather than learning all the time. It's a catch 22, because without taking time to learn you don't make very good music, but spending all your time learning keeps you from making music. It's a balance. Saying that AD2 isn't good enough for pro music is BS. Saying that you don't like it due to it's workflow or other issues is fair. What I like most about AD2 are the drum kits, especially the Fairfax kits. They sound amazing. The good news is that If I want to use some of EZD2's stellar songwriting tools, I can send the midi out to AD2's fairfax kit and have the best of both worlds. Don't underestimate AD2's own features though. The Grid search is not quite as good as EZD2's tap to find but it still works fairly well. The beat transformer feature also works pretty well. I have used these features with great success. The Mixer features in AD2 is far superior to EZD2's mixer but it's not even close to SD3 or BFD2. Since I always set up separate tracks in my DAW for each drum and prefer mixing them with my own plugins, this is not a huge deal for me. I guess, in the end, if I'm being honest, the biggest selling point for me is the Fairfax Kit. I own almost every EZD2 kit and I still go back to the Fairfax often. I do, however really like the Claustrophobic kit in EZD2, even though it's old. It had a sound that you just can't find in any other kit I've tried and blends well with others as well. To each their own but I am at the point where I know what I like and don't like so a good walk through video and trial run convinces me much more these days than peoples opinions. Other than looking to find out if there are stability issues, I generally don't put much stock in opinions since we are all so different in how we compose.