Brian Lawler

Well, that was quick.

I bought my S49 MK1 just last Christmas. It was direct from NI via their Reverb store and although it was "refurb", it looks brand new. I would be very P.O.'d if I paid full price for this, given that they probably had the plan in place to drop support back then. To be honest though- It is a pretty nice keyboard vs the competition for the $175 I paid (with free shipping). I also don't find myself using the Komplete Kontrol app very often because it is such a resource hog. Guess they were giving the deal to blow out inventory.

Orb Composer was overpriced and abandoned by Hexachords (developer). I have seen forum mentions that they are working on bringing it back. The Orb Producer series are much more usable, and based on the Orb Composer code, I am sure. They don't try to be orchestral tools like "Composer" was marketed to be. The key caution I would give regarding Hexachords or "Orb Software", or whatever their moniker- If you purchase their product(s), do NOT ever expect any kind of updates or bug fixes. Maybe you will get them, but maybe you won't. After running a BF/Christmas "blowout" on Composer, they deleted their Discord "support" (marketing) channel and disappeared until they released the Producer series.

Not a deal at €37, but if you bought Rhythmizer 2 (€15 a few months ago), the upgrade price is €6. Futurephonic does do occasional sales. https://www.futurephonic.co.uk/products/rhythmizer-ultra

It is really good. I got it during a previous sale. Only other title I have is a Pigments lib that is good too. Lunaris "point" upgrades have been free and version update from 1 to 2 was quite reasonable.

I have only used it for chord and key recognition of audio files, but it has been very accurate (better than Melodyne). Studio One chord recognition is also quite good, but I have not been using that DAW much lately.

Also- All of the series now has MIDI out and are available as VST 3. I got that from the announcement- I've not had time to update them and try it out yet.

"Mutated Foley Patterns Requires AudioModern's Loopmix plug-in https://audiomodern.com/loopmix-packs/

It works very well, but it is only in the beta (21.2) Might be limited to Producer Edition? I don't recall. They also added AI assisted mastering and a loop/sample library (like Loopcloud), which they teased on the forum as eventually offering a couple terabytes of free content to FL owners.

My guess:

This a good one. Fairly priced I think. Instacomposer tries to do everything (Chord sequences, melody, etc.). This is more of an arp or pattern generator based on the chords you feed it. I really like tools like this that have pattern memory slots so you can dink around with the settings/randomization to easily compare several phrases. Nice UI.

Skaka is a nice shaken percussion sample player/sequencer. I've had my eye on the Tomofon synth. Hope they will beat the new release discount on this sale.

https://www.pluginguru.com/products/ Bye Bye Summer! 40% OFF Weekend It’s getting darker sooner in the day, the kids are back at school, so let’s stock up on some new inspiring patch libraries for the fall and winter season! Other than MegaMagic Guitars V3: BLISS, Modern Cinema Back to the 80s and Unify, all other libraries for Unify, Omnisphere 2 and many other Plug-Ins are on sale until Sunday night at Midnight!

-outdated-

Following is a snip from the Rob Papen newsletter that he sends to subscribers (today's edition). The first video is referenced in the newsletter, the second is his weekly YouTube post that went up yesterday. RG is an awesome ‘all in one guitar’ groove machine. Packed with 70ties Rhythm Disco styles, Steel string guitar, Muted Guitar and even Power Chord grooves. RG uses a specialised built in sequencer to create its rhythmic unique guitar like patterns. Although RG won’t replace a real guitar player it has its own character and usefulness within your songs and productions. RG is a perfect musical tool for creating rhythmic guitar grooves in your House, Hip-hop, Game music, and commercial tunes. Before your purchase of RG it is essential to watch the introduction video for RG to help you understand its concept and features:

https://audiomodern.com/playbeat-packs/?utm_id=894 OUT NOW: DECONSTRUCT for Playbeat Our new Playbeat Expansion is inspired by the Tech House names of today. Loaded with a huge selection of sounds & patterns including Kicks, Hats, Atmos, Percussion, Weird sounds and FX. A collection produced to the highest standard which comes with 20 fully unlocked customizable preset kits where each can be re-arranged and remixed into infinite combinations with our cutting-edge pattern generation engine.

I only own two Soundpaint libraries (in addition to their free offerings). One is the SG Guitar (I looked it up- their name is "Soul Guitar" and you hated it 😆) that was released soon after Soundpaint came out, and a tenor sax that I got a discount on for owning the 8DIO sample source. Given that these were $15 or less each, I thought they were/are "good enough". SP can really get a lot of expressiveness out of the velocity changes, and I thought that the legato scripting also sounded very good, especially for the sax. Realistic? Nope! But worth the few $ for me to have a lot of fun getting those sounds out of a keyboard. I listened to most of Troel's Adastra demo, and I would agree that realism is not there, especially when you are using the scripted vibrato. It was also clear that he was using the SP capabilities (and he mentioned it in the video) to play some of the samples above and below the natural instrument ranges for effect. I have a metric ton of orchestral libraries, so that is the main reason I am not interested in it. A gripe I have with SP- unless I am missing it (and I still don't see a manual to check), we are at version 2.6 and still no support for Aftertouch (channel AT even?)? CC is supported, but I think they are missing an important tool for more expressive patches. I also agree that the Soundpaint engine has a nice UI and decent features (except for the AT oversight). TLDR- No realistic instruments, but maybe some fun sounds to be made.

RE: Adastra I got a $45 crossgrade offer from Soundpaint for owning 8DIO Anthology (also applies to Adagio Bundle owners). Regular price is $90 -also- the four parts are available separately for $30 ea.

I was happy to get the UAD Minimoog as part of the recent creative bundle deal, since I quite like their PolyMax and Opal. TBH though, the Cherry Audio version scratched MY Moog itch pretty well (and it may have been a feebie, IIRC). But it has been a few decades since I had hands and ears on the hardware, so foggy memories are easily reconciled.

A talented dev, but I will be surprised if the strategy of marking new Rigid offerings to 10x the price of past titles generates greater income.

https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/911-operator-585edd I miss the free Epic Games posts that used to be here. If it is considered too far afield I will cease. I keep forgetting to check every week and I liked the reminder. I bought 911 Operator a few years ago on Steam and I really like it. You can set the city map to any real city in Open Street Maps. I actually worked nights as a 911 dispatcher when I was a college student. I won't compare this to reality (for one thing, back then our maps were on paper), but it is fun.

Looks interesting, but I gotta cut back on UVI. They release so much new stuff that the subscription is looking like a good deal, and I hate subscriptions, don't I? 🤪

v1.1 CHANGE LOG ­ Bug fixes: * Tremolo rate clicks and pops fixed; * Plugin bypass sync issues fixed; * Reverb size clicks and pops fixed; * OSC tail bug fixed; * Noise tail bug fixed; * Infinity mode bug fixed; Feature improvements: * New presets added, including new "guitar" category; * Various graphical improvements; * Randomizer algorithm improved; * Macro knob response improved; * Global safety limiter option added; * Lock/Unlock design improved; * Volume consistency between presets improved; Additional shortcuts: * Shift + click on the range of dynamic parameters + drag for shifting entire range; * ctrl (cmd) + click on global lock locks/unlocks all parameters inside modules; * Easter egg shortcut added * Pro Tools Automation shortcuts enabled;

I think travel insurance is a good deal for peace of mind when you have to make all those non-refundable non-changeable reservations . It sure saved us on one big family trip. If you don't have it though, you might get something out of your credit card provider. We got stranded on the far end of a trip when Braniff went bankrupt for the last time (yep, I'm old). Citibank covered the cost for the same-day purchase of United tickets to get us all home, so we didn't lose a dime. (They were the card I used for the cheap Braniff tix).

Yeah, and I already have the Singer Songwriter EZK MIDI pack, so... pass.