Michael A.D.

I had figured out how to use it when I got it.  And that's why I called it unusable!    What a nightmare of a workflow.  Your diagram shows how crazy it is to use!

And I see that you are using it with Ample Sound's ES-335 which already gives you the ability to create sophisticated chord patterns with precise strumming patterns.   

But hey, it seems like you're having fun with InstaChord and getting something out of it.  I guess that's what matters most!

Horrible product.  Avoid!

Save your money and buy Scaler.

I too paid for this on a sale and found it unusable.  I presume it's only for people who know absolutely nothing about music theory.  

As Zo said - very unintuitive.   

If you can get this for free, then you have paid too much!  Avoid at all costs!

Ample Sound is great!   They keep making substantial improvements to their instruments - i.e. adding 2 GB new samples in this case - and then giving those upgrades for free to their customers.    Thank you Ample Sound!

20 hours ago, Doug Rintoul said:

If you were to get one good guitar, which would you recommend?

I like the Ample Sound guitars - their Martin is my favorite acoustic and their Strat is my favorite electric.  I also love their upright bass.

These guitars sound good, but are VERY difficult to use.    I bought these on a similar sale many years ago and they never get used.   Save your money and get one good guitar - there are other, much better, much easier to use guitars that the ones in this sale. 

I grabbed Dumpster Fire... paid about $11 with my points.   I knew I wanted it -  had just been waiting for it to go on sale.

Watch out for that MTM freebie... it wants to install a whole bunch of other demo programs.

Sonokinetic

(Great customer support!  I was having a VERY minor problem and they could not duplicate my problem so they could not give me an immediate solution.   Several months went by and I received an email with a patch that solved the problem. )

NI has been doing a lot of updates for macOS 11 (Big Sur) and Apple M1 compatibility.   Perhaps that's what these Scarbee updates are...(just guessing!).

I gave the Dumpster Fire demo a trial run a few months ago and really had fun with it.   However, at $20 I think it's a bit overpriced.   When they have a sale for around $10 I intend to grab it.

APD has become the music software equivalent of those real-world places like Dollar General, Dollar Tree, etc.  You browse around in those dollar stores and you can't help but say "I could use that... and it's so cheap... oh what the heck..."

You need to check the MIDI channels for each clip.   Sounds like the flute and drums are using the same MIDI channel.

20 hours ago, Sander Verstraten said:

I really like and use riffer. How is playbeat?

They have a demo to try:

https://audiomodern.com/shop/plugins/playbeat/

I bought it on a bundle sale - creates interesting grooves - worth the cost.

Ableton Live can do some great generative music stuff with it's clip Launch modes.  (This is one of the only things I like about Live.)

Others to check out:

Transition (free!):

https://www.codefn42.com/transition/index.html

Stochas (free!):

https://stochas.org/

Here's another for only $9 thought it does require either free Sforzando or full Kontakt:

https://www.karoryfer.com/karoryfer-samples/swirly-drums

Straight Ahead Samples has Straight Ahead! Brushes & Mallets:

https://www.straightaheadsamples.com/sa-brushes-mallets

If interested, it's frequently on sale for 50% off,  so wait for one of their sales.

Also for Reaper.... SWS Extensions updated.  Now v2.12.1 #3.

https://www.sws-extension.org/

A very nice free upgrade!  And they make it easy to see/try the new patches as they are highlighted.

22 hours ago, Starship Krupa said:

Arturia Analog Lab Lite is something along the lines of Kompakt Komplete Start or A|A|S Swatches or Sampletank 4 CS.

Like those others, it's not a timed demo or feature-crippled version, rather they include hundreds of useful sounds with the expectation that you'll be so impressed by the quality that you'll want to spend money on more libraries.

Sounds interesting so I took the link and read all about the wonderful free program they were offering, but I could not figure out how to download it.  I saw a demo for Analog Lab V but it only offered a time-limited 20 minute demo.   So, any advice how to get Analog Lab Lite?    thanks!

10 hours ago, Glenn Stanton said:

it's been that way for years

Yes, you could always see all the kits, even the ones you don't own.  So, that was a kind of a soft-sell showing you their products.

But now they have buttons that say "Read More and Buy". 

About these recent XLN updates - they are inserting ads for the drum kits you don't own... so as you cycle through your kits, instead of just seeing the kits you don't own, they are now enticing you to purchase them.

It's an excellent freebie - highly recommended!

I grabbed this as soon as I heard the demo.    Nice 'vocal' type synth sounds - great fun!

23 hours ago, synkrotron said:

But it may well be still too rigid and structured for what I am into at the moment.

Want to get a little wilder?  Try out this free chord generator:

https://chordi.co/

On 11/28/2020 at 7:18 AM, Piotr said:

@Michael A.D.

So my conclusion still the same: the more you buy the bigger save

But maybe I missed something?

Yes, you do save more but there is a massive drop-off in savings that begins after the 3rd guitar - from saving less than another $5 per guitar down to $1 per guitar depending upon how many you are buying. 

That's all I was trying to point out.