Vernon Barnes

Certainly something glitchy going on with the authorization of the sound content. The ST4 serials do not work and there are no other serials in my account. I created a help ticket. I thought it was to good to be true when all my ST3 content and the earlier ST2 and Mirioslave stuff I had imported into ST 3 was added without any drama.

Is it worth the effort if you don't intend to purchase any further content? Having been underwhelmed by ST3 I have had zero intrest in ST4 up to now. What about importing ST3 instruments. The specs seem to imply it can be done using ST3 CS?

B4 is the only one I have on this list. It was good but I never use it now as I avoid 32 bit plugins. My disappointment with NI was long ago when they stopped supporting it. GSI's VB3 is better and its my goto now.

Some of those Zero G libraries regularly go on sale. Do they still use NI for authorisation? I suppose the writing was on the wall for the EastWest stuff when they dumped Kontakt and introduced their own player. Presumably EW will no longer pay NI to support their copy protection / registration on these old libraries.

Because of Corona virus I am panic buying virtual instruments and plugins.

Well I went ahead and bought it. I have been curious for a while but held off on price. I like it. I have some other options like Arturia's Solina V, Hollow Sun's Prog Pack and Soniccouture's " The Attic 2" The Attic 2 is probably closest in range of sounds available. I think the VSM has a certain immediacy that makes it easier to layer different sources together and shape the results. The filter and envelope options for each layer give a lot of scope for editing. Being able to control the filters with after touch is useful too. That said The Attic, being a Kontakt (player) library does leave you the option of building layered multis far beyond the two sources available in VSM and It has non- string machine instruments. VSM has way more presets. I am pretty happy with the purchase even though it was a non essential for me given my other options. These things take me back to the days when as a spotty student oik I got to try a Solina in a local music shop. They had the amp up loud as all it took was for me to play a few block chords to bl-ow me away with the power.

Yes.

This is very tempting. But I really don't need more drums, really. And I have rototoms in BFD3 and............

This happened to me. Never got it resolved, gave up.

I have them all but Strategy, They are good and versatile and will do what you want. They are as good as you will get at this price. As you already have the full version of Kontakt also look at Indiginus, these are close to the Acoustic Samples in capability for strumming but have more articulations for solo work. https://www.indiginus.com/ Alternatively, but a lot more expensive are the Orange Tree guitars for Kontakt player which have a wider range of articulations and features. https://www.orangetreesamples.com/products

I would say the UVI stuff is closer to Arturia's analog lab than the individual Arturia synths. It's probably more directly compairable with IK's Syntronic in concept.

9 point something GB. Looks like you have to download the whole thing again.

Ridiculously slow download at the moment, download estimates in excess of one day. Cancelled, and I will try again later.

Native Instruments Komplete Kontrol gives you a common browser for many different products including EastWest, Arturia, AAS XILs Labs and of course NIs own products. There are even sound clips that give an indication of the sound of a patch before you load it. It's designed to work with NI hardware but you can still use the browser functions without. Downside is instruments need to be NKS compatable to appear automatically, the list is growing slowly. You can create your own mapping however and have anything appear in the user tab. I think AKAI have something similar that is less dependent on a standard.

The saturator is a nice to have for sure, the microphones really depends on what you do. I used them once for some lo-fi vocal processing and they could be useful in soundtrack or game work. Another thing to consider is the status of your WUP, by upgrading your WUP will be extended (to one year from the purchase date of the upgrade?)

Got it for €9. I did get a Window's "not commonly downloaded" message and had confirm installation. Initial impressions are it's a decent upgrade. It's a very nice chorus and like most D16 stuff is capable of unusual effects.

Are you sure you are not talking about ST2 as I recall your experience being similar to mine. ST2 was getting dated but it had a lot of useful stuff that was low on resources. ST3 I found very disappointing and I have never used it in anger. In its defence I has some nice "workstation" features that would make it easy to use live. I never bothered with ST4.

Of your list I would say Massive X, it's the most recent and there are several synthesis methods making it capable of a wide range of sounds. Softube Modular with some of the add on modules is where I go if I want to delve deep into sound design, Routing possibilities are endless and you can do really unconventional things. A cheaper (and possibly more versatile) alternative Cherry Audio's modular. Reaktor has a lot of potential and is less obtuse since they introduced blocks but I admit I have not delved deep.

I was on the fence having spent more than I should recently but I decided to go for it. I am very glad I did, the presets sound gorgeous and it should be pretty easy to tweak. This could easily become my go to for modulation effects.

I had not realised there were versions for Kontakt Player when I made my post yesterday. That really makes at a more attractive option for some one without the full Kontakt.

The Ladies by Realivox https://realitone.com/products/realivoxladies Not cheap and needs the full version of Kontakt but its streets ahead of anything else I have come across for pop/rock You can create phrases for the available syllables and you can stack up to six different singers so there is a lot of versatility. EastWest's new library "Hollywood Backup up Vocals" had promise but its a bit disappointing in my opinion. It would be cheaper than The Ladies if you don't have Kontakt while the intro offer is on. http://www.soundsonline.com/hollywood-backup-singers

Had a early Roland sequencer (MSQ100 ?????) and a Yamaha DX100 as my first MIDI gear, synced to older pre MiDI gear and a Fostex 4 track cassette recorder.

Well it appears the content it re-downloaded was the SD content. It appears all I have to do is point the instruments at the HD content folders from the V10 installation and all is well. However I have not done all the instruments yet so that may change if there had been any updates to the sample content on any of them.. I get diverted, I love the 200 and 88 electric pianos and start noodling.

All the time. Things tend to go in fits and starts. I have currently hit a creative roadblock on my main project. Of the three planned songs two are pretty much ready for vocals, but I don't have singers lined up yet. The third song is proving a road block. I tend to dive into more technical things at these times. I have been getting a lot deeper into some of my VSTis, like Superior Drummer 3 for example. I also find the lack if inspiration or momentum makes one a lot more prone to G.A.S.

I am not in the market for the bigger options but the "lite" version for $49 looks quite tempting from the walk through video. GAS is rumbling!