Vernon Barnes

I tend to gravitate to the EW Gold pianos these days for "straight" piano sounds. And I have plenty of alternatives in Kontakt, UVI, Arturia, and Musio including some interesting prepared and cinematic variations so this is going to have to offer something special.

It looks like we will be getting Keyswitching for Musio pretty soon which is something I have been waiting for. It looks like they are implementing it in a way that keeps the memory footprint to a minimum as you only load the articulations you need. https://musio.com/featured-video/?_kx=7bYm_UvUC-D5nnkU-7zfm17lQtGjIg5vkt1bZPzTVKjwj04Cq1orJhWdIT11iUCq.TQPahU

It is, but it seems very good for highly effected parts, it will have its uses! I managed to pick it up for$17.02 +VAT, less some loyally points from Best Service.

So how does this compare to the vast plethora of other Minimoog emulations? My favourite is GForce Minimonsta, Softube's is probably more authentic (and you can use the modules in Modular). NI's Monark is also reasonably authentic. Cherry Audio's take is cheap as chips.

Rain is a "distressed" upright piano library. It's actually very nice when you want an upright with a lot or character.

Different. Gforce is more geared towards recreating classic string machine sounds where EW have taken a different road and its quite successful, There is not the same range of raw material as GForce and there is no filter section but with four layers some very diverse sounds can be set up. EW is less tweakable but It sounds good straight out of the box.

Does this mean you can get NKS functionality without Komplete Kontrol? That would (almost) be worth getting a MK3 keyboard for. I always hoped they would implement that for the older keyboards.

Probably not your goto for sound design. You can edit envelopes and filter settings etc. but you are constrained by the original sample in the patch and the fixed architecture. That said the tweakability will be sufficient for many people. The layering expands the range of sounds too. But outrageous and outlandish is stretching it.

Looks like the best deals are only valid if you purchased the original software in August so be careful when ordering. The pricing options look pretty complicated. And while I have a lot of the stuff in mps I don’t see an upgrade path.

Looks like I could get upgrade from Komplete 14 to ultimate for £180. I probably won't, but......

Another one for tomorrow.

I look forward to installing this tomorrow!

First impressions. There are some nice sounds in here, while the default interface screen is a bit naf, clicking on the instrument illustration beings up the editing parameters for that layer which are on a par with a lot of sample bases synths with volume and filter envelopes, filter types and filter cutoff, resonance and drive etc. so there is scope for sound shaping but sounds will of course be limited to the original sample. Where as SA3 has a second simple bass layer here we have two full layers with separate editable parameters. As far as this type of sample based synth goes it is pretty versatile. IK Syntronic is the obvious comparison. SA4s browser is easier and Syntronic requires you to layer in a multi, which sounds best will be a matter of personal taste. SA3 has some nice touches if you are looking for "happy accidents" A downside for me with most libraries of this type is browsing through a zillion presets looking for a start point. NKS compatibility or at least NKS style audio previews would be useful.

Thanks, I was going to report it later, no need now.

I am getting this too. I have Sonic Pass and have everything installed and upto date so its not like its looking for something in an uninstalled library. I am also seeing the same problem in Falcon.

Mine downloaded in a few minutes, faster than most commercial libraries of that sort of size.

That's some pretty ancient stuff! I recall mapping some of the samples into soundfonts to use in the built in memory of a Soundblaster card.

I had a 303, a 606 and an 505, I was glad to move on, as particularly with drums, I prefer acoustic kit sounds. I can't ever see me using any samples or emulations of this generation of drum sounds. They are not attractive to me, but good on anyone who wants to use them.

I suppose its inevitable they would do this one at some stage. I used to have the original hardware and sold it when the second hand price was at its rock bottom. If I had waited a bit I could have made a fair bit of cash. I have a couple of emulations I never use so I am in no hurry to jump on this one.

A further advantage of player libraries is the can be NKS compatable. This one is, sound previews mean you can get an idea what a patch will sound like before loading it. And if you have an NI keyboard many controls are ready mapped.

I tried the demo a while back. It's a beast with a price tag to match. It sounds great but I think it's for a real organist with the hardware and chops to do it justice. Most of us mortals are probably better with some of the Kontakt pipe organs.

Brings the sub in line with a WUPed perpetual licence. If you are WUPed you get a second licence. I use a dongle, much less likely to go wrong than a hard drive. Before I retired I managed around 50 dongle based licences (not music, eack licence $7.5K) used in locations around the world. These were moved from location to location frequently. We lost two in ten years, one we knew was stolen and another lost in international shipping. So I don't consider them that vulnerable.

It a very versatile instrument. Yes it can do the 70 quiz sound but so much more. A staple of jazz, soul and prog rock. Jon Lord of Deep Purple used it very effectivly for heavy rock. You do hear it on current records occasionally but I see no reason it can't be used in almost any genre. I think the appeal is in the organic ( no pun intended) sound of the electro mechanical tone wheels, something that has not been perfectly emulated until recently along with the mechanical rotary Leslie speaker. IK have got the closest yet.

It depends on your workflow. I work differently in that I write in the DAW, either recording MIDI or in the piano roll or score editor. I then send tracks to Notion to create a score for colaborators. I find it excellent as chords from the chord track and any lyrics are transfered across seamlessly. I have not really looked into transferring in the opposite direction.

Same here. IF I really wanted the extra plugins it would make more sense to go for the subscription.