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Amicus717

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Posts posted by Amicus717

  4. Posted · Edited by Amicus717

    Full disclosure: I work in advertising, so I'm getting an inside view of how the current pandemic situation is affecting various sectors and industries. It's a genuinely terrifying time, and a lot of money is going to be lost -- which doesn't just affect the corporate bottom line, but also the lives of the employees who depend on those industries for their income. In the case of the marketing opportunities that crop up in a time of crises, it's a very difficult set of decisions that the business world in general will have to confront, and some really choppy waters to navigate: they are watching their markets collapse (or drastically change as people transition to working from home and alter their shopping and buying patterns); they are watching their earning projections and marketing plans become basically meaningless overnight, and with so much chaos they have no real idea what tomorrow or next week will hold; and they are trying very hard to minimize the impact this will have on their employees and customers. And so they are trying to find what positive side they can to this crises. I personally have no problem if a company tries to flow with the times and get through this with minimal damage, as long as what they do isn't exploitative. And by exploitative, I mean things like price gouging, tasteless advertising that makes light of the crises, product or service offerings that have too many strings attached or are offered as a generous bonus for the times but in reality are merely old deals in new clothing, etc. Folks like Fluffy Audio giving away things for free and/or redirecting money to a worthy cause is great, and they set a wonderful example and deserve credit for it. But Folks like Steinberg offering fully functional versions of their products for two months free, with no strings attached, doesn't bother me either. I believe their normal demo time is 30 days? They don't have to do anything at all, and if they can give folks something to use for a little while and NOT lose money in the process, I have no issue with that. Part of their reasoning, I'm sure, is they want to give folks exposure to their products -- you use Dorico Elements for two months, and love it so much you decide to pay for it. Good for you, great for them. That doesn't bother me, either. They are not forcing anyone to do anything, and selling their products is their business and the only reason they exist, and in the end everybody gets something. There is nothing inherently wrong with that, as long as they are not exploiting anyone or anything to achieve it.

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  6. Posted

    Cinesamples just announced they are going to extend the Choir sale through April 1st (original end date was today, I believe).

    FWIW, I finally caved and bought a copy of "Voices of War: Men of the North" over the weekend, and spent some time messing around with it. Sounds really good, and I found it to be a very nice companion to Dark Era's voice stuff, and the Era Vocal Codex stuff -- all of which are libraries I use a lot.  

    It's obviously got a really specific sound and intended use, so it's not for everyone, and you get exactly what it says and nothing more (Michael Patti's video walk-thru covers it pretty thoroughly). But it is totally built for the kind of stuff I like to do, and $119 is a pretty good deal...I'm pretty happy with it.

    Rob

     

    • Like 1

  10. Posted · Edited by Amicus717

    "Working from home means more studio time! To keep the vibes colorful, here's Analog Dreams on us."

    From the email: "It’s a challenging time for music, but we’re all in this together. That’s why we’re giving away ANALOG DREAMS free until the end of March – wander through the technicolor world of vintage tones with one of our favorite Play Series instruments. Make the most of the extra time inside, and keep making amazing music – we look forward to hearing what you do with it."

    Site is sloooow, right now: https://www.native-instruments.com/en/products/komplete/play-series/analog-dreams/

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  11. Posted · Edited by Amicus717

    I was somewhat critical of their main sketchpad library in a previous thread, but credit where due: the update they released a couple weeks ago (which I had not had a chance to install previously) helped a bit. Seemed to fix the problem with the Glockenspiel in particular. 

    I've heard good things about both melodics and the runs library. They are available individually, at $79 each, which seems a decent price. I don't recall exactly, but I think I pad $99 for sketchpad (or somewhere in that range) and while there are things I'd like to see improved, I don't regret the purchase. $79 for Melodics is tempting. 

     

    • Like 2

  12. Posted

    I bought a used original Babyface for $300 about 3 years ago, and it has been -- hands down -- the absolute best interface I have ever used. Clean sounding, solidly built, rock solid drivers that are still supported and updated, great latency and designed to last.

    RME pretty much locked me up as a permanent customer going forward. They're the best, in my books.

    Rob

    • Like 3

  14. Posted

     

    1 hour ago, Reid Rosefelt said:

    You obviously know more about Palette than me.  

     

    Nah, I make it up as I go. :) The dudes who make Palette do talk a lot about how blendable their library is, I think partly because it is fairly dry compared to others. I think they consider it a feature, and folks who have other libraries will benefit from adding this to their toolbox because it will compliment what they already own. So, possibly I am just using it incorrectly, maybe not getting the correct balance of mic positions. 

  15. Posted

    11 minutes ago, Reid Rosefelt said:

    For me there is more than a hint of a rasp, and that's my main issue with Palette--and I'm not the only one.   It is about as bone-dry a library as I have ever played.  For me, the sound of instruments include the rooms they are performed in.  This is why I love Orchestral Tools and the Cinematic Studio series.  They sound beautiful to me out-of-the-box, without adding any reverb or any other effects.

    When I add a good reverb like Spaces II and a bit of EQ to Palette, I like it.  And you get a lot more articulations in Palette than in other "sketching" libraries like the Inspires, which have practically none.  There's a lot more bang for the buck as far as sketching libraries go in Palette, particularly if you own Melodics.  

    But I would recommend Palette more not as a sketching library, but  to people who want to use it to combine with other libraries, because it's dry quality makes that easier to do than a library with baked-in ambiance.  When I load up the Inspires, I'm happy to start sketching immediately. The sound makes me want to play.  I also think Kirk Hunter's Virtuoso ensemble is incredibly inspiring.  It sounds good too and it has a very brilliant interface.

    As soon as I got Palette, I asked Red Room Audio to add effects presets.  I wanted them to set up the reverb, EQ and all the other stuff that comes with it to give you a variety of out-of-the-box sounds.  A variety of aural presets as  soooo many libraries, from NI to Sonuscore to 8dio offer, from natural to sound-designy.  And the guy didn't sign on to that but he did say they were thinking about doing something with the samples.  

    Anyway, I was very excited to see this update, and was disappointed that there is nothing like that in it.  If they'd done that, I would heartily recommend it to everybody. 

    That said, I'm excited to try out the legato in Melodics.

     I find the Close mics really dry, but I find the Decca mics to have a lot of muddy ambiance baked in.  It's not a huge space, but I really don't like the sound of it. Do you find it blendable with other libraries? 

  16. Posted · Edited by Amicus717

    15 minutes ago, Fleer said:

    Well, I think Palette is pretty, pretty good. 

    I think it's a pretty decent starter kit, with lots of tools. I can see students getting a lot of good use out of it.

    And its a great library for travelling with a laptop -- which is what I use it for on a regular basis. I'd really like it if they gave it some more polish, though. I haven't downloaded the update yet. Might do that later this week.

    • Like 2

  17. Posted · Edited by Amicus717

    I have the main library Palette Symphonic Sketchpad. It's...ok-ish. 

    It's actually kind of an odd package, in terms of quality. For a sketchpad it is quite complete, with many useful parts -- but also a  bit  rough around the edges and  variable in quality from patch to patch.  I don't like the interface much, and the samples are a distinctly mixed bag.

    It ticks all the boxes in terms of orchestral sections, with  strings, woodwinds and brass being the main players, and  additional patches for various percussion, timps, hand percussion, piano, harp, choir and some synth patches. For the ensemble patches (strings, woods and brass) Palette  has a full set of articulations (all the usual suspects, plus tenuto and major/minor trills). And surprisingly, it has a separate chamber-sized patches for each ensemble.  

    There are three mic positions: Close, Decca and Hall. The Decca is the default, but with  more baked in room ambience  than I expected. I find it a bit muddy and difficult to blend with other libraries. The Close mic is a lot better for that, but needs a fair amount of added reverb.  The sound of the strings players is decent, but not the most refined sound (certainly not the glossy and pristine sound of the Albion ONE strings I regularly use). Rather, it is  solid  and workmanlike, with a hint of rasp. The basic articulations are fine, except I don't like the spiccato - too abrupt and punchy, and not enough velocity layers for my tastes. Admittedly, I haven't really played around with the settings in the GUI, so possibly that can be adjusted. The trills are a nice articulation option, and are the only parts of the package that are currently in my orchestral template, as they are the best  trill samples available to me  when it comes to  blending them with my Albion and 8Dio strings (Albion doesn't have trills, and I don't like the 8Dio ones - and while the Pallete samples  take  a bit of work, they do fit in fairly well after some reverb, panning and eq). 

    The woodwinds are adequate  - nothing special, but they get the job done. The brass is okay when played en masse. But for both the winds and brass patches,  the overlap points of the instruments is  kind of obvious and does  not leave enough room for individual sections to play melodies cleanly. I also don't like the position of the brass players in the soundscape. 

    There are some weird bits to the library...

    The glockenspiel is really not good -- quite unusable, to my ears, which was something of a surprise. How do you mess up a glockenspiel? The Close mic sounds nice, but it's really dry and in-your-face, and thus hard to place in my orchestral soundscape. The Decca is really ambient, and has the weirdest sound when played hard -- there is a deep banging sound to the highest velocity samples, as though the percussionist is hitting his knees on the glock stand in his enthusiasm. The Hall mic is no better. Quite odd and quite unusable. 

    The Harp has lots of nice strings, and one or two strings that sound brittle and obvious, and thus make the patch  hard to use. Those strings (high C and D) stand out way too much, and draw all kinds of the wrong attention to themselves. They only fit in with their brethren when played at the lowest velocity. So I don't use the harp.

    The timps are perfectly fine, and include a nicely programmed set of mod wheel crescendos that drop in a final hit upon release. They work well, and I've used them to good effect. 

    The piano sounds  surprisingly decent for a small add-on to an orchestral package. Quite usable. 

    The hand percussion, trailer percussion and orchestral percussion are all decent, with a generous number of different  instruments. 

    The choir is very limited, but adequate for the very basic stuff (oh, ah and mm).

    So, it's kind of a strange package -- almost like the alpha release of a good orchestral library, with solid potential but some genuine rough spots. It is good for sketching and works well on my laptop (where it sees most of its use, along with Da Capo).

    I  bought it on sale earlier this year (I don't recall what I paid for it), and it has been useful - but I'm glad I didn't pay full price.

    That's just my two cents. As always, YMMV.

    Rob

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  18. Posted

    1 hour ago, mdiemer said:

     

    I certainly did not mean to imply anything to the contrary. I posted a couple pieces here awhile back out of curiosity, and I did get some good feedback. Many, many rock-oriented people like classical music. I went to a Dan Fogelberg concert once, and he had Bach playing as you walked in. 

    Oh, I wasn't suggesting you were implying anything. Apologies if I gave that impression. I think you made a fair point about seeking out forums that specialize in one's primary musical interest. Makes a lot of sense. 

    • Like 1

  19. Posted · Edited by Robert Caley

    On 2/15/2020 at 1:03 PM, mdiemer said:

    Larry, the problem with posting classical works on this forum is that the majority of people here are not doing classical. So, if you post your music here, out of courtesy you need to also listen to and comment on the other music people post here. but you probably have as little interest in such much music as they have of yours.

     I suggest you join the Ning Composers Forum. most of the music is classically oriented and you will get far more interest in your music. I see that several former members of Northern Sounds have moved over there (Ted Vanya, fastlane, G Prengel to name a few).  

    composersforum.ning.com

    I had not heard of this forum before your mention of it, M, so I wandered over to see what it was about, liked what I saw and signed up. Thanks for suggesting it.  Definitely a good place for orchestral aficionados like me :)

    I should mention, though, I personally have never felt at all ill-served by the folks on this forum. I only do classical/symphonic stuff exclusively, but when I've posted my music, folks here have been generous with their time and commentary. And it's been really appreciated.

     

    • Like 3

  20. Posted · Edited by Robert Caley

    23 hours ago, Starise said:

    FYI- Although Notion isn't integral to Studio One you can "send to Notion" as a command and all the midi will be there in notation form. Something I wish Cakewalk had.That also goes in reverse and you can send notion files to tracks in SO4

     

    This is what I sometimes do, and is a pretty handy feature. I’ve started creating really rough sketches in Studio One Artist (which came free with the cheap PreSonus USB interface I bought for my laptop), and then send the tracks to Notion 6, which has been my notation software of choice for quite a while. I expand and finish the arrangement in Notion, then print the finished score and perform it into CuBase, where I create the final recording.

    Kind of a roundabout way to do it, but it’s pretty seamless. I find the “send to Notion” feature in Studio One is nice and works well. And Notion is great - easy to use and the built in sounds are trouble free  and work perfectly fine for composition purposes. 

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  21. Posted

    I think those normally go for $250 each.

    I have a pair of Adam F7. Sound great, and yeah their signature ribbon tweeters put out some really nice high-end. But I've already had to have one replaced (defect in the woofer cone), and one of them serviced (electronics needed replacing), and they are only 5 years old, so I haven't been all that impressed with the quality of their build or longevity. Personally, I would hesitate to get another pair. 

  25. Posted · Edited by Amicus717

    Really enjoyed listening to this, Dan.

    It sounds really polished - nice writing, tightly recorded, mix sounds good to my ears. Holds interest all the way through, with lots of nice little details -- in particular, I really liked the ending, with the gradual emergence of the hand drums to close out the piece. Great.

    Rob  

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