musical

1 hour ago, Matthew Sorrels said:

So against my better judgement I picked this up yesterday.  Downloaded reasonably fast (I have gigabit FiOS) but was dead on arrival.  Would crash Cubase on insert, Cakewalk it wouldn't crash but there were no instruments or presets at all.  My version of the plugin was 1.0.2 even though they released 1.0.3 on Friday.  But with no way to manually download and the Spitfire app claiming 1.0.2 was the only version, I was pretty much hosed.

This morning the Spitfire app let me see and download the 1.0.3 build, but that only fixed the crashing.  I had to manually repair all the sections (Winds/Brass/Strings/Perc) in order to get presets/instruments to show up.  They finally got back to me on the support this afternoon with completely unhelpful advice, pretty much let me solve the problems myself.  I'm still kind of pissed off about it.  If getting my money back was an option I would have returned it last night.

Every fear I had about their plugin is pretty much true.  It doesn't load/stream very effectively.  No way you could even think of using this without having the samples on a fast SSD (takes up 527 GB for me).  Some poor soul converted the Logic template Spitfire made available to Cubase.  (Seems like if you aren't on a Mac running Logic they don't care about you at all).  Using the converted template and loading/enabling every track the whole things takes about 25-35gigs of ram (I think that's just the Mix 1 mic).  Some notes seem to get cut off and just stop playing then you release the key and the release tail plays.  Maybe it's a streaming issue but that's with the whole instrument loaded.

I placed a two bar ostinato on every track, tweaked all the tracks to use short notes and moved the notes into the right ranges.  Playing that back in Cubase it is pretty clear they aren't multi-threading really well.  One thread gets pegged at 100% and the rest are barely moving (it's possible this is a Cubase problem, Cubase isn't very good at breaking up soft synths to multiple threads).  Reaper would be interesting, I bet it would do better.  Not sure about Cakewalk yet, since I have no template.  In any case even though they force you to load separate instances of the plugin for each track, it's not helping spread the CPU load at all.  Which is kind of like the only advantage not being a multi-tembral instrument has.  DLL's on Windows can share memory (so if multiple apps load the same DLL or a single app loads multiple copies of a DLL) they can all use the same pool of memory (they don't have to).  It appears BBCSO may be doing that (every plugin instance reports the same ram usage and shows the same loading even if that instance isn't being changed), which may kill the advantage having all these separate plugin instances would have with spreading the CPU.  May be very different on the Mac, again I suspect they have never used a Windows PC, ever.

I'll admit I'm a little confused when I load up the Violin 1 Leader (the solo violin 1) and enable just one of the mic options (like the mono mic) and play a single note, the UI shows 6 voices active (with the legato articulation, other articulations have a different voice count, but still not just 1).  I'm not 100% sure what all those voices are doing exactly but having that much mixing going on with a single note is unlikely to scale well with a full orchestral template.

The UI is so stylish as to be nearly unusable.  Things you need to know are tiny little blinking dots with no text (only way to tell it's still loading samples is this little led light in the corner, it flashes when loading, what is loaded and selected is often another little tiny led like dot, etc).  The amount of wasted space is near epic, the amount of actually helpful tooltips are minimal.  The mic control options are all on multiple pages(4 pages!), so you can't actually see all the mics and set their levels without paging forward and backward.  Which is crazy stupid on a 4096x2160 monitor and 20+ different mic options.  This is also true for articulations.

The insane number of mics I'm not sure is a big win.  If you load all the mics for the solo violin it consumes 12gigs of ram.  You can't seem to purge articulations you aren't using (just mics).  You load the instrument you get all the articulations, even though that means it eats a bunch of ram you most likely aren't ever going to use --  I think.  With the UI designed by ustwo I'm not sure anyone could tell.

I'm sure none of these things will matter to most of their customers (and even less to their near rabid fans).  What it sounds like will most likely mask any of the engineering and design flaws they have made.  On the sound front, to be honest, it sounds like every other high-end orchestral product I own.  Not worse but also not better.  The VI forum has a number of posts pointing out specific problems, but that's pretty much par for every library ever made.  For very high end users these things may matter.  For me, not so much.  How the keyswitching works, how the plug manages thread, memory and disc -- these things do matter to me a lot.  And on that score they aren't doing so hot.

I got it at the intro discount, but $750 is about double my "acceptable" library expense point.  If I paid MSRP $999 for it I'd feel even more cheated.  This is not a good deal at either price point.

If you are a professional music composer writing music for games, TV, movies, or media you might be able to get your money worth out of this.  Depends on what you already have (people with all the other Spitfire libraries are going to find this is a bit of a step down).  If you are just starting this isn't unreasonable.  It does seem slightly easier to use than EastWest's Hollywood Orchestra.

For me it's going to depend on if their software development is willing to bridge the gap between what the BBCSO plugin is now and what say Kontakt is.  In theory a year or so from now this could be very solid.  Or it could turn out that engineering doesn't mix with composing/art all that well and the plugin doesn't get the kinds of improvements it needs, like what happened to EastWest Play.

Right now as I'm writing this I have the A3 trumpets loaded up and I'm playing on the MIDI keyboard a three note sequence then I play all three notes as a chord.  When I switch from the single note to the chord the whole plugin stops making sounds (a sharp cut off) until I let go, then I hear the release tails.  I'm not sure why it can't play a three note chord with THREE trumpets.  Maybe it's because I have all 19 mics loaded (but I like how that sounds).  I'm not sure a $1k library should fail to play a simple chord, no matter what I did to the mics.

 

This is an extremely useful review.

I'm not sure I'd be as polite and reasonable as you if I had wasted $750 on this.

Let us know whether they are honourable and give you a refund.

Reviews at Sweetwater...

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/ModoBass--ik-multimedia-modo-bass/reviews

4 minutes ago, Monomox said:

OK, so I logged into my IKM account and it shows $24 Jam Points. Ooooooh boi.... oooooooooooooh boi, oboi,oboi,oboi

This is it guys, I'm getting MODO, I mean I'd be losing money otherwise, right?! 

You can download the demo first...

Though, to be fair, there aren't many VSTis that make me think 'Wow!'

11 minutes ago, ZincT said:

Agree with everything you say! Wait 'til you try the slide bass. One of the best sounding slides in a bass plugin imho. Used it in a track recently. There's actually two ways of doing it but I just used the pitch wheel method. 

Yes, was playing with the slides.

The download for all these different basses was tiny in comparison with even one sampled bass. Even just Evolution Rick takes up nearly 5GB of my hard drive. And costs $99.

9 minutes ago, Peter - IK Multimedia said:

...or that Black Friday is saturated.     Our Krazy Deals might top some BF deals but we should have some nice surprises in there on Black Friday too.

Yes, last year it was pretty obvious that vendors went early with their sales to try to capture the available revenue early. Expect vendors to run sales prior to Black Friday and then repeat them if ended beforehand on Black Friday itself. That way they get two potential bites - those who went early and those who waited.

3 hours ago, Monomox said:

Also, IKM is very disciplined with their pricing. If I wasn't happy with the bass VSTis that I have, I wouldn't hesitate to pull the trigger. 

This is so cheap, it makes me think v2 may be coming? Or they're feeling the pinch of the competition? I don't know, maybe I'm wrong and this is not such a big deal.

I've just been playing with it and it is absolutely fantastic. As good as nearly everybody says and musically inspiring. For $70 with 30 jampoints it is a complete no-brainer.

Just paid £71.90 using a fee-free credit card and 30 jam points with the wretched VAT (comes out as 83.99 euros).

Good deal but will be annoyed if it goes cheaper on Black Friday.

1 minute ago, Fleer said:

I wonder if O8A will continue to work under OSX Catalina. 

The joys of owning a Mac... they just work...

What a bargain! Is it really three plugins for only $250? I'll be straight in there. Wow! Thanks, Larry. You're a deals genius.

1 minute ago, Carlos said:

Hey mate, I registered my 2i2 (first gen), and I can download 1 and 2 already, the other ones are not available, is that normal?

After you register, you can download the software bundle that came with your interface and the current offer. Every time the offer changes, you'll have something else to download. You can only get the previous offers with a Tardis or sometimes they do a bundle of earlier offers as the offer.

Quote

 

OVERVIEW

NEW! ANOTHER BLOODY SUBSCRIPTION EMAIL WILL BE ADDED SEPTEMBER 17!

All of these subscriptions emails are also included in the new MEGA Subscription Email Bundle, which offers 100+ subscription emails from 25+ brands, at just $1.99/mo or $2999.99/yr. Or you can buy subscription emails individually for the special offer price of $500,000 each which makes you realise what a bargain the bundle subscription is, doesn't it?

Based in Southern Spamland, subscription emails was founded with one simple idea: endless annoyance for musicians. They have repeatedly cleared their inboxes with their ever expanding range of spam that inspires and pushes boundaries. Which is why artists like Spamie XL, Richard Spamine and Jody Spamernoff are sick of it.

In this bundle, you will find an endless spam playground that ensures not only life and movement in your deletion process but also opens up a limitless creative scope.

 

What a bargain!

10 minutes ago, cclarry said:

$7.99 a month
https://www.plugin-alliance.com/en/products/unfiltered_audio-bundle-monthly.html?utm_source=ActiveCampaign&utm_medium=email&utm_content=NEW!+Unfiltered+Audio+Bundle+-+just+%247+99%2Fmo&utm_campaign=190913+UnFiAu+Brand+Bundle+%247+99+-+M2M+Launch

I'm certain everybody here has signed up immediately to this first class bargain.

3 hours ago, Matthew Sorrels said:

No the discount is only for you first order, I don't think you can use it twice.

Certainly wasn't my first order.

Assume so.

11 hours ago, Fleer said:

Wow, that one looks interesting. 

Bought. No self-control whatsoever. $7.20 with the 10% code in the pop-up.

That Dirk from PA can even begin to believe that people are going to sign up to these individual brand subscriptions for more than fifty per cent of the subscription to the whole lot shows he really has lost the plot.

Back in the real world, you can buy Saturator X for $26.99 and get another nine or ten plugins to own thrown in. Or, for a similar price, you can buy something like Scheps Omni channel and cover loads of needs in one go.

I'd love to know how many people are signing up for deals like this SPL one for $10 per month.  Very few, is my guess. Madness.

If Dirk doesn't see sense soon, he's going to kill PA.

Heads up that Arc system 2.5 is available on Amazon US for $99 ***WITH THE MICROPHONE!!!***

https://www.amazon.com/IK-Multimedia-correction-measurement-microphone/dp/B0741D3PD4

This gives a value of €199.99 in the group buy [corrected].

With shippping and duties to the UK, the cost is about $125, so much, much cheaper than the €201.29 the IK shop charges with shipping or the £173.53 on Amazon UK.

Even better if you live in the US. 

I couldn't resist.

23 minutes ago, Carlos said:

I bought the 2i2 Scarlett 1st gen... never again I will buy anything Focusrite again... ever never

Well, looking at the software I have received for zilch since owning a Focusrite interface...

1. Addictive Keys
2. Ujam Iron
3. Ableton Live Lite
4. Scarlett Plugin Suite
5. Novation Bass Station
6. Red Plugin Suite
7. Softube Time and Tone (TSAR-1R Reverb, Tube Delay, Drawmer S73)
8. Audiority
9. Venomode DeeQ, Maximal 2 and Pivot
10. Sonarworks for six months
11. Mastering the Mix
12. BIAS AMP 2 LE
13. Exponential Audio R2 Reverb
14. Flux Studio Session Analyzer
15. D16 Syntorus
16. BIAS FX LE 2
17. NUGEN Audio Stereoizer Elements
18. vielklang LE
19. Accusonus Regroover Essential
20. AAS Session bundle
21. AudioThing Valve Filter, Valve Exciter and SR-88
22. SoundRadix SurferEQ 2 Boogie
23. D16 Sigmund Delay
24. Eventide EQuivocate
25. 2 x AAS Sound Packs

I bought the 2i4 for £90 and sold it for £70. So, for two years of use and all this software, it cost me £20. And I will get still more software.

Why the hate for Focusrite?

Try GMCR20.

If you leave the items in your basket you'll receive an email offering you 20 per cent discount. That is still valid.

19 minutes ago, Grem said:

Apparently not. I tried to use it and could not. It kept saying "Not a valid code."

Sent a email to support and got this response:

 

Sorry for any confusion but we've suspended 3rd party coupons during the sale.

Thank you,

Russ
Groove Monkee

 

That is a shame. I had three packs in my cart. 35.95 total. Minus 25% would be 26.99 for 3 packs.

I did have four in cart to get the free pack. 47.80 total. Minus 25% would be 35.95 for 5 packs.

Now I might just get one.

Maybe.

[edit]

For comparison, using B4GOF deal, I would pay 47.80 for 5 packs.

Regular price: 5 packs at regular price= $99.75

$15 is the new $29.

Does anybody know when this ends?

Anybody in the States willing to buy the VI collection for me and send me the serials?

Update: Sorted. Thanks, Larry.

Just now, kitekrazy said:

I wonder if anyone would buy it. 

Exactly what I was thinking.

You do get access. Look under software where it has PC and Mac instruments and effects.