fret_man

I put Relay on each track (placed first to use it's volume trim) and Neutron on the master track (again placed first).

So, it's been over a week that NI announced this sale, and T&S is the ONLY discounter participating? Is that right?

Do I need to register one of their products in order to become a Sound Collective member?

Mine!

I'm thinking it may be wise to go ahead and get the latest update while it's on sale and before they move to a subscription service. At least I'd have the latest version if/when they do.

Be aware that this is a 200 yr old mandolin, so it's a bowl-back with its inherent rather strident, super-bright sound. Good for classical music. If you're looking for a more modern, folk/bluegrass sound, your only options are Bolder Sounds or Orange Tree. However, the former has the A-strings not tuned together and the latter has too much fret noise and only 1 very slow tremolo speed. I'm convinced a good mandolin VSTi has not yet been made. I wish I could see the 8dio manual to determine if 1) the tremolo speed is variable and 2) the volume can be changed while the tremolo is active ( I guess you could always do that with automation but it wouldn't sound the same as making the pick more/less aggressive). Their demos are not very useful unless you're interested in sound design. They do not show enough tremolo to get a feel for how well it's done, and tremolo is a KEY mandolin technique. I just want you to be aware of what you'd be getting. If you wish, you can read some detailed info on mandolin VSTi's here.

I got a 50% code and I don't think I'm a V8P member.

Hmmm, I got the 30JP, so more than one person got it. I know this doesn't help matters....

Liking those demos...

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I picked up Auxiliary because it has castanets. I got "dinged" for not having realistic castanets so I'll give these a try over Sampletank's versions. Although... it may be due to unrealistic playing rather than unrealistic sound samples.

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I am utterly impressed with the support given by Ilya  Efimov for their instruments. I was hearing click when I had a tremolo'd articulation adjacent (or close) to a sustained note. Envision a player ending a string of tremolo'd notes with a downstroke and letting it ring out - CLICK right at the intersection there. They has a patch within 24 hrs that solved the problem. Upon further working on the piece, I noticed the same issue on two other instruments. Again, I had a patch within 24 hrs. What a GREAT company! I have no financial interest in their success. Just a very happy customer.

Good idea! Attached is a short clip where the castanets enter. They don't change very much from this for the rest of the song. The low clicker is on each down beat while the high clicker plays all the other notes. From my research, this is how they're supposed to be played. Granted, there isn't much difference between Hi and Low clickers in IK's samples, but I hear many real ones like that as well. But I'm curious if the failure is my playing or the samples. FYI, the strumming guitar and main guitar lead are Ample Sound's AGL (nylon string) while the higher harmony is Ample Sound's Ethnic Uke. Clip with Castanets.mp3

Yes, I do. I believe that's the one I used. I mistakenly thought it was part of Miroslav. I used the one that has the "menu" to choose ~12 different sounds (some of which I can't hear any difference but OK).

In the AS non-free version, specifying the fret position causes an automatic fret sliding sound (that cannot be turned off), while specifying the string does not. This gives you a great way to choose not only which "G" to play, but whether it is accompanied by fret noise or not. Very flexible. I'm a fan. In addition, this would make a GREAT teaching tool. You can program it to play a piece exactly where and how to play each note. "Watch the fretboard and play it like THIS." They got the left hand down. For the right hand, unfortunately they do not model ponticello - right hand playing close to the bridge. But they handle other right-hand techniques pretty well - mutes, partial strums, up/down strokes (but notice there's no full upstroke strum, unless you place those notes manually), etc. I'm glad they went with their own GUI. They have a pretty good system going there.

I recently got a few Spanish instrumentals rejected by a music supervisor for a variety of reasons, one of which was unrealistic sounding castanets. This can either be due to bad sounds or bad playing, or both. I studied up on how to play castanets here (all 3 parts plus "how to choose") so, assuming I did that correctly, I'd like to solve the "unrealistic sounds" part of it. I used the castanets in IK Miroslav Philharmonik 2, since I thought they sounded better than those available in SampleTank 4. Those are all I currently have. Rightly or wrongly, I kind of view that collection of sounds as "better than nothing". Do any of you have recommendations for castanets that may sound more "professional" and "realistic"? Thank you!

I'm finding the same thing. Mixing on headphones and then, when "done", listening on my studio monitors and mono on the Avantones. Reverb is really exposed on the Avantones.

And just to be complete, you can adjust each tuner to go down 2 half-steps (to low D1 on the low E string, for example) on both AS guitars and basses. Not sure if this is available on the free version, tho.

Yes, thank you, Reid. I auditioned that mandolin but that sound was more like classical "Italian style" bowl-back mandolins rather than bluegrass "German style" archtop mandolins. I'm looking for the latter.

Yes, but I thought Neoverb could reproduce all (or maybe most) of the equivalent EA reverbs.

I just wish the mandolin owner had his mandolin properly setup beforehand. There's way too much fret buzz. You can get rid of it by limiting velocity to less than 50, but this limits your dynamics. Still, it's the best mandolin VST out there, except for tremolo (which is a BIG part of mandolin playing - I end up manually entering the tremolo note-by-note to get it to sound right, very tedious). Sorry, about intercepting this thread but I very much want a better mandolin VSTi.....

AS can read TAB, and you can drag it to the piano roll (well, I *think* you can, so maybe it's also a TAB - MIDI converter?) AS forum seem to be a lot more active OTS models moving the right hand closer/farther from the bridge, although it doesn't do this with samples but with an algorithm. AS does not have this feature.

I thought Neoverb kind of included all of these. No?

And there's an Update to Amplitube 5.0.3 to go with it!