Patrick Derbidge

I edited my post to clarify. It was Subdivine I purchased so sublab may very well be the better option.

I bit the bullet on Subdivine and I'm a bit disappointed. I think the sounds are great but there's a major glitch going on. If I play fast or even normal speed the notes cut out as if the notes are being muted to avoid clipping even though it's not clipping so all you hear is the attack of each note so basically a bunch of clicky sounds. I even tried playing as soft as possible . If I just draw in the notes everything's fine but there are too many times I want to play the notes in or at least play along with the track before committing. It could be it's just my system or it doesn't play well with reaper. I'll have to reach out to the devs and see. This issue alone makes Sublab look more enticing.

They are worth it. The recording quality is up there with OTS, Amplesound, Prominy etc... Orange Tree has some of the best presets you can find for quickly getting started and Ample sound has a better strumming engine than OTS but as far as quality of samples, Efimov has all the quality you need to make good stuff and given the sale price they are worth it. If you like to have options like me then add this to your collection but if you have a Holy Grail library you really want then save up and make sure you get what you want and don't be distracted by the sales.

The Retro is good. I don't think you'd be dissapointed but I do feel like the Classic is the most versatile, followed by the Modern. I think the Classic can cover the same ground as the Retro and then some.

I have almost all their Guitars and Basses. They are all top notch. Right up there with the OTS and Amplesound ones that I also have. I particularly like their Basses, especially their Classic and Modern Bass. I have the Fretless as well and love the sound of the demos but haven't had a chance to use it yet.

I don't even use Plugin Alliance plugins anymore. Not because I don't like them but they have consistently been the cause of multiple crashes in my projects.

I knew there was a hole in my template and now I know what is was.

Of all the ones I've tried including a few cheap free ones, this one gets me the most realistic results. The key is to layer some of the different claps and don't make them too on time.

Merry Christmas!

I think this one sounds pretty cool!

I have another cure for GAS. 4 kids! Ah, who am I kidding, they'll be fine on rice and beans for the next month(:

I've never quite understood the Loop Craze either, although I have gotten a few when they were super cheap or free just to see if I could find a way to incorporate them into my work but so far I just haven't felt the need to try and use any of the loops I have. Phrase based companies are a different story and can be useful but even then they are for niche cases. Since this is their first time, it seems, making a non loop based VST I can understand the skepticism but I have to say I am actually tempted by this one. Although I have plenty of Virtual Synths and Kontakt libs that can cover this ground I can see how useful it would be to have a tool with all the sub bass sounds you need with options to manipulate them further with Drive and ADSR. At $20, I'm still thinking about it. At $10 I would have probably bought it already.

True. Many good keyboardists (unlike myself who is not a keyboardist) like the Roland Approach. Still, the problem is if you want to use the mod wheel to control the expression of a String library you can't have it bouncing back like it does with the Roland approach and holding it in place doesn't seem all that practical. Of course, you could just reassign the expression parameter to a slider which would solve that issue but also an extra step when most string library defaults are to have expression tied to the mod-wheel.

If only Roland would make a more standard Mod and Pitchwheel or even a breakout box style mod and Pitchwheel that could be plugged in and override the Built in one for those who prefer the standard for studio work.

This won't be a problem if you use this library for more of a playing style reference than a piano melody reference, although that can work too. I'm pretty decent at banging out chord progressions but what I don't have is that playing style that a real pianist/keyboardist has. There are many times that I looked for that playing style I needed in EZ keys where the chords sounded nothing like what I needed but was able to take the style and mold it tho the chord progression I already had in mind thanks to EZ keys flexibility . There are piano arrangements EZkeys helped me with that if you were to A/B the end result you would have no idea that B started out as A.

I believe it's more focused on sub bass than being a typical electronic bass lib. This can be quite handy for all genres from cinematic to pop rock and dance music etc. Of course you can get these sounds from synths you might already own but the point of this is to be a swiss army knife tool for layering those sounds in fast and easy way. I don't own this but I'm considering it. Could I live without it? Sure.

I love their XCTR. Very versatile saturation plugin. Only thing that concerns me about these guys is their lack of response to some questions I had a while back. At these prices I almost consider them freebies and don't expect support but if they start charging more then they are going to have to improve their support as in actually respond to an email.

Since I own a ton of Waves plugins I've started making my own list of Wave alternative plugins preparing for the day they stop working and I don't feel like WUPing to get them working again. Luckily, to Waves credit and despite their awful installation procedure, they have been rock solid plugins. That list should also include Limiter no.6 which is better than most limiters you can buy.

True, picked Acoustics wasn't on this years half off sale because it's so new but will most definitely be on next years. I think they only do it once a year. I had used the coupon for Strummed Acoustic 2 once before instead of waiting for the sale only because I had a project that it was useful for but normally I'd just wait.

Deleted: I need to correct myself. I was thinking of Audio Assault and NOT Audio Damage. I'd hate to start nasty rumors so I deleted my response. I can't say I've had a bad experience with Audio Damage but I also have never had to reach out to their support either.

Thanks for the explanation. I think for $49 it seems like a steal but since I already have Albion and Albion One as well as many other String, Brass and percussion libraries from the likes of 8Dio, Audiobro, NI, Soundiron, etc.. I probably don't need it. If my priorities weren't so focused on upgrading studio hardware at the moment I'd probably still buy it though, even though I don't need it. Seems like you can never have too many flavors, especially when it comes to orchestral libraries.

Curious, What does this message look like that is asking for a dongle other than the standard message stated above the download button?

I don't think it's required anymore. My license file was downloaded to the program data file on my PC and seems to be working just fine. I think it's been this way for a while because I remember demoing Revalver a couple of years ago and don't remember having to have any kind of USB to run it on. I don't like USB dongles either but I have caved to run a few VSTi's like some of my East West libraries.

Once you have clicked download and you see that message you can click quit and then in the main application go to the Cog Wheel Icon (settings) and there is a button for "License Folder". Click on that and it will show you where the license file was downloaded. No reason to move the license file, just leave it there. On my Windows System it downloaded to: C/programdata/peavey electronics/Revalver 4/License I think I had to close and open Revalver about 4 times before I saw that some of the Modules had the "D" removed allowing me to use them without the annoying beeps. Because of the dark interface it's easy to miss the fact that the D was removed from some of the modules since they all kind of blend together.

Reaper used to be a pain to route a lot of VSTs , especially Kontakt and Sample Tank but these days it's dead simple. If you decide to give it a try again you might find you like it, however if you're doing fine with what you use now and are happy with it then just make music. That's much more important.