Amicus717

These are good libraries, generally speaking. I've got three of the Synchronized Special Editions, and they see a lot of use. The woodwinds, in particular, are really nice. 

I had this deal sent to me via email by Steinberg, as I'm a Cubase user.

Tutti looks more useful, from what I can see in the tutorials. Useful for my purposes, anyway.

It seems less of a phrase library than an effects and textures library. 

Pretty nice little freebie, in fact. I'll be using this for hybrid stuff.

Yep, just got mine literally about 10 seconds ago.

It doesn't have a serial number, as I think its not intended for Kontakt Player. At least, my account doesn't show a serial number on the Sonokinetic site -- it says "N/A"

I got it, loaded it up, but it only seems to be in Demo mode in Kontakt. Anyone else seeing that?

And the site, so far, hasn't crashed out or become inaccessible....

Just now, Matthew Sorrels said:

I don't really use it all that much.  That's true for all the Sonokinetic phrase libraries though (and I have almost all of them, only missing Tutti and Espressivo).  They are great libraries but at the end of day it's just loops.  Magical and mixable loops with all sorts of interesting overlaying abilities sure, but still just a loop.  The drag MIDI does help a bit though.

Yeah, that's kind of where I'm at with their stuff. There are times when it is exactly what you need to put a realistic final touch on an orchestral piece - and their libraries are gold when those moments come around. But mostly, they don't get used a lot. 

55 minutes ago, Matthew Sorrels said:

Largo is the 2nd largest Kontakt Player library I own at 100.6 GB.  Only thing I have larger is Spitfire's Bernard Herrmann Toolkit at 136.5GB.

Matt, what do you think of Largo? Use it much?

Oh, I know what Sonokinetic is all about - I own Grosso. Maximo and a couple others.

But they are kind of hit and miss in regards to usefulness. However, based on the demos and walk-thrus, Capriccio's articulations and phrases strike me as being a bit more useful in more situations, but its kind of hard to tell...

Does anyone have Capriccio? Looks like a really good (and quite large) library, but I'm wondering how useful it actually is...

Rob

24 minutes ago, Matthew Sorrels said:

Maximo is nice (for a phrases library).  I think the first freebie will totally break their website.

Yeah, I have no illusions about my chances of grabbing it, this year. I was getting gateway errors on the site within seconds of the countdown clock hitting zero. 

504 Gateway Time-out! I remember this deal from last year, too. 

Great track. I really like it.

I have a few RSM albums (Of Mists and Magic, Elevation, Fiery the Angels Rose), and I really love them. And I listen to their tracks on YouTube, so I've probably listened to other stuff you've written without even realizing it, Tapsa. 

This is actually pretty nice -- at least for what I do.

I already have quite a few vocal libraries like this, but it never hurts to have some options and variations. I can think of whole lot of uses I could find for this library. 

A nice steal at $15

This is a nice freebie. Sounds great. I use this one occasion when I need a rich recorder tone, and it works pretty well.

I just grabbed this, because I like having light, easy-to-run sketching tools on my laptop -- and for $29, well why not? I spend more on coffee during a regular work week.

I've had Virtuoso for about an hour, and played through the various patches, so this is a really preliminary impression.  I can say that Virtuoso is pretty much exactly as Reid described: efficient and fully-featured library for sketchpad work, and sounds very decent for its type. I don't find it hugely realistic, and I suspect it will create sketches that are going to be a bit synthy to my ears. But they will be detailed and realistic enough to test ideas, and give a good sense how an orchestral arrangement will sound when rendered on higher-end stuff.  And that is going to be very handy. 

It's got the usual Kirk Hunter quirkiness about the interface and performance options, but it's easy to get a grasp on how it all works, the controls are simple and it has way more articulations and variations than I would have expected given the size of the library.  

Some of the sounds are surprisingly decent -- the brass and string section legatos are better than I expected, the kettle drums patch is actually really good, and there are some nice rolls and hits.

I don't like the piano at all; some of the the timpani samples have a rather ugly ringing to them; and the brass and string shorts are less then stellar.  I also haven't come across a harp patch, which is a shame. 

The woodwinds are perfectly decent, although they are all solo instruments rather than sections. There's a full set of percussion, including totally useable cymbals and snares. 

The overall sound is kind of hazy and ambient, and I very much doubt any of these patches will end up in my main template or in any of my finished productions.

But's that not why I bought it. I think Virtuoso will be a really great sketch tool, and I think it might even work better in that capacity than the libraries I am currently using for that purpose, including Da Capo, Symphony Series Essentials, and Red Room Palette. I like those other libraries, and they will remain in use, but Virtuoso seems like it will give me a lot more options in a much smaller footprint that will run easily on my laptop. 

I'd have never paid $299 for this, frankly. But $29.99 is totally worth it, if you need this kind of tool. 

Yeah, a brand new engine: "Our brand new OPUS software engine replaces PLAY and has been years in development. "Many improvements were made to the PLAY software engine over the last decade but we suddenly had a unique opportunity," says producer Doug Rogers, "we were able to bring Wolfgang Kundrus in as head of software development. He was the mastermind behind the creation of Cubase, Nuendo, and Studio One. Then we were able to bring in Wolfgang Schneider, the creator of Kontakt. With these two titans of the music software development now on the team, we decided it was time to develop a brand new software engine from the ground up. The OPUS software engine is the realization of this effort. Not only is it faster, more powerful, more flexible, and better looking than PLAY, it comes with some incredible new features such as individual instrument downloads, the ability to start playing instruments while they're loading, customized key-switches, new effects for the mixer page, scaleable retina GUI upgrades for legacy products, a powerful new script language, and many more features that allow you to completely customize the sound of each instrument. It's one of the most exciting developments in the history of our company and will be the launching pad for many exciting new products of the future."

I am very curious to try it.

If I'm reading their promo copy correctly, this sounds like maybe a new sample playing engine?

"It includes brand new pristine recordings, reimagined original content, and powerful new features, all housed in our new revolutionary OPUS software engine."

2 hours ago, emeraldsoul said:

Middle and Dark Ages, here I  come. Oh, wait, it's 2020 so already there. 

 

Do it!

Both Era and Dark Era are awesome.  I’m using them a lot, and really enjoying it. 

Using code: BFSAM2020

Info here: https://projectsam.com/black-friday-2020/

At least the Eduardo Tarilonte libraries are included.

I have Joshua Bell Essential. So far it does everything I'd want a solo violin library to do, and at the moment I have no urge to upgrade to the full version. It's a very nice library.

I have the Friedlander one, too, and it's solid and expressive. I find Joshua Bell to be a bit more refined and elegant. Both are really good.