John Maar

There were also 3 other freebies that I hadn't installed yet, so I added all 6.

I agree that the posing "that's me!" B.S. really undermines my impression of them. Would I spend the money on a concert ticket or CD of theirs? No. There's more to talent than just technical proficiency. And I really didn't like the drummer's work or the way the drum audio was mixed (too dry).

Plasmonic is from the dev who coded Absynth in NI's Komplete suite. When NI decided to kick Absynth to the curb and removed it from Komplete, he gave us Plasmonic. I originally purchased it to support the dev, but it's really a good synth and a very capable next gen upgrade from Absynth (which I still have installed). Also, if you have Absynth, there's a library available for it from PluginGuru (home of Unify!) that is absolutely worth checking out. All 149 patches have been updated for Unify! They also have a library for FM8 as well. Absynth Power Pack

I use the U4 Upright in Pianoteq a lot. It has 25 different upright presets, including "a la Monk" 👍 One thing that is fun with the Pianoteq is to load the "Tacky" preset into one instance and the "Honky Tonk" preset into a second. I map the Tack piano to the right hand and the Honky Tonk piano to the left. Loads of fun. I learned that trick in high school in '67 from the brother of Tim Davis, who was a drummer and cofounder of the Steve Miller Band. He had put large, unpainted tacks on the middle C and up hammers of the school's upright in the lobby across from the auditorium and would play during class breaks and lunch. Really sounded cool. Boogie woogie, baby!

Note that their pianos run in the free UVI Workstation or Falcon. Their pianos are exquisite, especially the Ravenswood 275. The only one I don't own yet is the Modern U upright. I've got some other really good uprights and I just can't seem to pull the trigger on this one at over $100 on sale, no matter how good it is.

I installed it and opened to make sure it ran, but haven't done any work with it yet. First impressions: 1) I really dislike the interface (green on green), 2) the GUI is resizable (good) but the text/font doesn't scale on my 4K display running at 200% scaling), and 3) no PDF manual yet, and the online "manual" is a whole bunch of click-throughs. Here's the video that got me into reMIDI. There are several others that incorporate reMIDI on his YT channel. I also just bought The Orchestra Complete v3 (TOC3; really nice!).

This is one great limiter. Used it for years. There's only one thing it can't limit...GAS!

Finally, something for me! Purchased both. Already installed.

I took me a moment to realize that I'd purchased reMIDI 2 at Plugin Boutique. My upgrade price for reMIDI 3 there was 18 € (15 € + 3 € VAT). I hope they provide a PDF of the v3 User Manual soon. The online manual structure leaves a little to be desired.

When there is a separate MIDI pack available for an EZX, it is ALMOST always unique new MIDI files, not included with the MIDI files in the EZX. If the files are the same, it will say so in the description of the MIDI Pak. Normally, there is a statement like the following: This MIDI is unique and not the same as the library included with The Blues EZX.

Note that this EZX requires EZDrummer v1.4 or higher, which means it's a 16-bit library. The 24-bit EZX's are the ones that require EZDrummer v2 or higher.

Arturia makes some really good VI and FX plugins, but I will never buy another one. Why? The painfully slow download and installation process. I started running the update to Analog Lab Pro 5, then ran the IKM, NI, Softube, Toontrack, UVI and XLN product managers, and downloaded and installed all of the available updates. ASC is still installing AL5. Pathetic.

I have been using the free VirtualMIDISynth by CoolSoft as a replacement for MS's GS synth for many years. It's terrific. I actually never noticed that the MS synth disappeared. 😄Don't let the Windows warning from the install bother you, it's legit. Just run anyways. I just installed the latest update, and that file is fine, it just doesn't have MS certification, which doesn't bother me for something that's free. One thing I did learn is that the soundfont file you choose all gets loaded into RAM, so choosing a really large soundfont consumes a lot of RAM, which can be a problem on older systems with limited RAM, especially 8 GB systems. There are a number of free soundfonts listed at the bottom of the web page. I've settled on the Arachno soundfont for it's balance of sound quality vs. size, but you can try others to see which works best for your type of music. VirtualMIDISynth

Just bought Vertikal Mk II. You can never have too many uprights! Also, props to SampleTEKK for the speed of their download server. I purchased Vertikal and download it (around 5.5 GB) in less time than it took Simeon to cover two of the instruments in the bundle (video running in the background while purchasing and d/l'ing)!

Yup. That's the file. I bought Rain Piano so long ago that I didn't remember that the fix file was visible and available for download. I did have a situation where a sample file was not sorted properly. The dev sent me a fix, but didn't update the distribution file because it would have broken existing projects whose file paths to the samples in the faulty version would no longer be valid and existing projects would break due samples not being found. I appreciated that he took the time to properly structure the distribution file and send me a personal update. That saved me a bunch of time having to restructure the install myself.

I put the fixed sample in my Google Drive. Here's the link. Let me know if you can download the file. Fixed sample file for Rain Piano Mk II

After you install Rain Piano, check the samples folder for the sample file "9_E3_Up_-24.07_Rain.ncw". If it is dated earlier than 23/07/2016 (or 07/23/2016 for those of you on the other side of the pond), then you have the bad sample. There is a fix for it, but I don't know if it's included now. Also, props to SampleTekk for comping me the Mk II Kontakt version after I bought the version for Studio One's Presence sample player from the PreSonus shop. I also have several other of their sampled instruments that are decent for the price. One sort of odd, but cool one is the INIL Choir (I'm Not In Love by 10 CC). If you don't know story behind the dozens of overdubs they had to do to create that sound originally, Google it.

This video in the Studio One Revealed channel on YouTube was released yesterday. It's target audience is Cakewalk users who are or are considering migrating to or adding Studio One to their DAW arsenal. It starts out very basic, but I found it to be informative.

I bought your Disk #17 and like it. And your Expanded Styles! Any updates based on the newer Micro-chords feature in BiaB? Norton Music Style disk 17

I just checked. The Audiophile Edition (uncompressed .WAV files) is not available for download, only via HD. While it's certainly downloadable via a gigabit internet connection like mine, it would be such a huge d/l that server load would be expensive. The current UltraPAK version (compressed .WMA files, which is the one I have) is still really big and is offered for download or on HD for those with slower internet connections. I checked just the current RealTracks folder. Mine is 130 GB in 197,395 files. I wonder how long that would have taken to download via my old 9600 baud modem in the '80s? 🤣

I agree, but... I still remember what SONAR went through with the development of the Skylight GUI after v8.5 into X1, then X2, then X3. That was far from painless. From a visual perspective, BiaB is really cluttered, with huge menus. It's just got a ton of options. Very much like Reaper, which I like and have great respect for (as I do for BiaB). Development resources are finite. Back in the day when I worked for the original Motorola, we had three development teams for major software packages: next point (bug fixes), next dot (minor feature additions and major bug fixes, and next version (next big release), all running in parallel. I doubt that PG Music has those kinds of resources available, so the resources required to code a major change in the GUI would take away from something else. And now they've got a Mac version, whose development requires separate resources. The first 64-bit version of BiaB crashed on Win10, but they got that worked out pretty quickly. BiaB now runs smoothly on Win11. The inevitable crashes and instability that would come with a new GUI have to be considered. I manage OK with the current GUI for BiaB, but don't even install Real Band. I use Studio One and Reaper for DAW duties, and have no interest if figuring out a third DAW. The reference to the growing pains of the SONAR Skylight interface have been discusses on this forum in the past. Here are a couple of links for reference. Is Skylight interface getting obsolete A nice comment from Reid Rosefelt

A real visionary, he is. Their first mention was the posting of all of the 2024 videos on their YT channel yesterday (Tuesday, 5 Dec). I first checked their website. It was still showing the 2023 version. I watched the videos, then went back to the website, and 2024 was up for sale. At the time I purchased the update, the web pages for the bonus packs and the 49 extra pack had not been updated, and the links were broken. But all of the extras were offered during the purchase process. Bought them all and used their nicely updated Install Manager to install all of the files. Seamless.

BiaB 2024 dropped yesterday. Kind of surprised that hasn't been mentioned here yet. The Multitrack selector and Tracks view are two highlights and IMO justify the upgrade cost. There are a bunch of videos covering the update on their YT channel. PG Music YT channel

Not the most straightforward download, installation and authorization process, but it was worth it, IMO. This is a great sounding orchestral library.

287,40 €, including French VAT, the exact same price as on Sonuscore's website. Better to buy direct.