Reid Rosefelt

The Vocals are the COLORS instrument BRONTE. That library is the superstar of the collection. I told the guy from Evolution that he should make a real legato library with Bronte the singer. He might do it. Every sound heard in the video (aside from the water in the credits) is from the COLORS libraries. Even what sounds like a drum is hitting the Chinese Guqin. I would have done the music very differently if I didn't restrict myself to COLORS. I know I would have reached for a frame drum, a bell tree, and other new age cliches. It was way better to restrict myself to the weird articulations in these libraries.

bought the COLORS series and I've been messing around with them for a few days. One thing that's struck me is how well they blend together. You wouldn't think off the bat that a VI made of paper clips noises would necessarily work with a vocal library, a violin and cello, and a bunch of Chinese instruments. But in a lot of ways, they are all very peculiar in similar ways. There's nothing standard about them. They all feature very offbeat articulations, and the way they are designed allows for a lot of happy accidents. And those happy accidents work very well together. It was very easy for me (and a lot of fun) to just layer a bunch of these sounds and make a little piece using only COLORS instruments. Then I grabbed some stock footage today and made a little video. That was one part of my experiment. The other part was my first foray at a binaural mix, using another product I bought on sale, dearVR MUSIC. So you need to put on a pair of headphones or you'll miss the 3D spatial stuff I was attempting. Not to mention it will sound awful. Do me a solid and grab the best headphones you've got. 😀

I believe the Mac sale is sometimes towards the middle of the year. Maybe May? I also thought the Groove3 course was great. It helped me a lot.

Everybody makes different kinds of music and has different kinds of workflows. BIAB has become a useful tool for me. Maybe not for you. I started using BIAB when it came out in the 80s. It was a fun toy, but I would have abandoned it decades ago if it stayed all MIDI. What interests me are the Realtracks--audio tracks played by real musicians that are put together with algorithms. And I also wouldn't be interested in BIAB if I didn't have as many of them as I could own. I've never once used BIAB as a way of generating musical ideas. I always write everything on my guitar and/or MIDI keyboard before going to BIAB. Once I spend a few minutes putting my chords in, it's a way of checking out the chords of my song in various styles and genres. I can hear over dozens of different styles with a click. Imagine how long it would be to do the same using the appropriate expansions for EZDrummer, EZKeys and EZBass. You'd have to go through them one by one and explore all the different expansion packs. And of course, BIAB also has acoustic and electric guitars of and dozens of other instruments. (Obviously Toontrack instruments have other benefits) I may have thought I wrote a folk song when it actually works better as a rock or jazz or synth-pop song. How about a ukelele? Or maybe speeded up or slowed down. I can experiment with keys to make it easier to sing or play. Easy experimentation. I did a video about this. Working with BIAB I can easily figure out whether out how many bars the intro should be, verses, choruses, whether I have a key change, and coda. Once I decide on a structure, I can send it to my DAW (I don't use the plugin) where I can perform the song. I find it easier to play with a band than with a click track or even drums. In the old days I would always play the guitar parts, but now, with my arthritis, I'm more likely to use other guitar VIs. I might even use EZBass for the bass part. But if there's something BIAB does that I can't do, I have no issues with putting some BIAB tracks into my songs. The background vocals you can get from BIAB are more realistic than any other product currently available, so why not use them? A sax solo is pretty hard to do with a VI. I did a video on generating a sax solo, but that video is now completely obsolete, because the new version of BIAB makes it super-easy to do within the program. It's almost like they watched my video. 😀 To me, there's no difference in building a sax solo in BIAB (which takes dozens of creative choices and gives you control over the result) over hiring somebody on fiverr to play a sax solo for you. So there is no question in my mind but that I will buy every style they sell. I regret not going for their bonus paks in the past. As that database of musical possibilities expands, BIAB becomes more useful for me.

$314. It was $240 yesterday if you had the Discovery version.

Thank you Larry for everything you do. The world is in a rough spot now, but I feel that I am very lucky in many ways. I do appreciate every one of you in this community. Lots of great music and deals in the New Year!

Oh man that is sad... can you send me the link? It would cheer me out of the depression of trying to make this work. The truth is I never reached out the developer. I just loaded Unify and went back to having fun making music. 😀

EDIT: Never Mind. 😀

I like the idea in theory. I generally buy and sell on VI:Control. It's been great because I am selling and buying from people I "know" from their posts. That's a vote for how it could be a very good thing here. And I think it's also true that I am more motivated to buy from somebody I know on VIC and like. That would definitely happen here. Who wouldn't want to buy from Larry? https://vi-control.net/community/forums/for-sale-music-gear-classifieds-free-service.66/ But there are rules on VIC. For example, you can only bump once a month. This keeps it fair and keeps out people who are running a 365 day a year store. Mike Greene and his moderators do that. Who would do that here? How would it work? Because if there aren't rules in place, the sharks will come. Another place I have used is Knobcloud.com. There is no fee and try to provide some protections for you in selling. They know the rules for selling software and won't let anybody offer to sell something where the developer doesn't allow it. Here's their reselling information database, which is useful to have. https://www.knobcloud.com/developer-database.php The main problem with KnobCloud is it's relatively new and nobody knows about it. I list everything but I've sold very little there.

Anybody who's decided to get this because of ORAKL, get it now. I'm waiting for my serial.

Be patient. It will soon be a freebie at Plugin Boutique. Or part of Komplete 14 Ultimate.

I didn't get an alert on this. Maybe you need to put @Reid Rosefelt ? I love the Symphobia update so much. In fact, it caused me to watch the True Strike video a few times. I never investigated True Strike before because I thought I was reasonably covered with Orchestral percussion. But not like that. The interface creates all kinds of possibilities I never imagined. Really thinking about it. One because I want it and two, because ProjectSam deserves more business from me because they do free updates. I've got the first two Symphobias, the Swings, and Animator. I use Animator constantly in my videos. I love that company. That UI is even better in some ways as it has a visual stereo field. I think I will send them a recommendation to use this for the Symphobias.

Default locations? 😀 According to Mntra, anyplace you put them is fine. After writing about my issues with the Mndala engine, I felt bad because I like to support small developers, and I truly love the Mntra instruments. I searched on VI:Control and found this thread where people talk about using Mndala with no issues. Also, they say the customer support is first-rate. https://vi-control.net/community/threads/introducing-mntra-instruments-vst-au-sound-sculptures-40-off-until-august-16th.112905/ There is a lot of info in here about how to use the instruments and even a link to a manual. So I will engage with customer support and see if they can help me. I've already got it working a lot better. But I hope I can get my problems sorted out, because I may take advantage of this sale. One good thing about the long VI:Control thread is I can find out what libraries people like.

Congratulations! You are going to love that last Wednesday of every month. 😀

It's hard to think of many examples where it works well. But I understand why people want to get out from the control of NI. And everybody who is frustrated by buying a library and having to wait for the developer to buy more licenses from NI.... I think UVI is fine, as is the Gorilla Engine that ujam uses (and Virharmonic is moving over to). It's better I think for companies just to release plugins that don't need to reside in engines. Whatever AmpleSound does seems to work okay. But oh boy... Engine, Play, SINE, Spitfire's player, I love HALion, but it does not have an easy interface. It would be so nice if Kontakt was open source and everybody could build libraries for the free player it without having to pay NI.

Yes, I agree completely. Their instruments are fascinating and make me want to explore them. They are very deep. I think they could work well with ambient music. For me they are worth the trouble, but the developer should try to work out some of the bugs. I'm going to write them. If they can update Mndala and make it function properly, I would probably buy more stuff. Wow! You're having even more trouble than me! Keep trying, because the interfaces are great. I uninstalled Mndala and installed it again. The thing that's very clumsy about it is how long it takes to load samples.

For those of you who are new to Mntra, you should know that they always have a freebie named RASA, which is kind of a sampler. But until 1/15 they are releasing their new library, FRCTURE, as a freebie. I like that one much more than RASA. (Maybe Larry already mentioned this, but it's relevant to this thread, I think) https://www.mntra.io/frcture I'm going to pick this deal up, but two things I would say about Mntra. One, they make really interesting instruments, but the presets only come alive when you mess around with the X,Y, and Z parameters. You can of course drag the interface around with your mouse, but I advise mapping the three to a MIDI controller in settings. Three knobs or something with MPE is even better. Two, the Mndala engine is not the greatest IMHO. It would be so much better if these were kontakt instruments. And you have to jump through a few hoops to get the stuff you need to get up and running. I have experienced a lot of bugs. I eventually discovered that you have to wait a while when you change patches or you'll crash it. I've never been able to switch an instance or close an instance in Unify--it crashes it every time. (Anybody who knows the super stable Unify knows this is very unusual) It crashed Cubase too. Of course, maybe you'll have better luck than me, or maybe I'm doing something wrong, but I'm not closing any instances from now on. What has your experience been like with the Mndala Engine?

It's now clear now that I was responsible for this problem. When I reinstalled SampleTank on a new drive I guess I didn't use the latest install. And then I didn't update it. That caused the problem. The only thing that's odd is that the IK Customer Service didn't recognize that immediately. But anyway, it works and that's all that matters. @Tim Smith I also have a few issues with the SampleTank interface. With all the scrolling required, it always seems like I click more things than I want and have to hunt around to turn them off. Also it's too many GB for stuff I'll never use, like the ST4 strings. So I've been doing some customizing and I like working with it much more. Plus it's smaller. I may do a video someday showing how I'm doing it. It's a work in progress.

The SampleTank instruments are all installed when you run the Instruments Installer. But they won't play without the samples. This is what this error message means. These samples are missing in the folder where they're supposed to be. I looked through my installation folders and it looks like you didn't install the Acoustic Samples Part 6. That's where this file is located. See if that helps.

If nobody mentioned it here--I couldn't find it--there is update 4.16 for SampleTank 4. This new version optimizes various functions and features as well as includes different fixes for issues some users might have experienced. This update offers additional Syntronik 2 instrument compatibility enhancements and we recommend that all users update to SampleTank version 4.1.6 for the best experience. Now here is my story... I've recently got around to reinstalling SampleTank 4 and a lot of those new ST4 libraries that came with Total Studio 3.5. While some of them installed easily, there were others like Shipwreck Piano that installed but made no sound. So I had some communication with IK about this issue, but after a time I didn't hear from them for a few days. Then this update, which solves all of my problems. This is the first time I've been one of those people who "had issues some users might have experienced." I'm guessing there were a few people who had my problem, so they fixed it. Thank you, IK!

I wrote this on VI:Control. Maybe it will help some of you make up your mind about this. The COLORS series has 10 instruments with 8 GB and sells for $198. Prepared Steel, Vocal, Erhu, Dizi, Bawu, Guqin, Pipa, Suona, Violin and Cello. With less than a GB per library, I supect these are more about textures, hence the term "colors." Based on Reuben's video, though, at least some are playable and sound nice. There is "legato" on the interfaces, but maybe it is scripted rather than recorded. I doubt that this is going to be the Erhu of my dreams, although I expect it would be a great supplement to anything that might be released someday by 3-Body, Ample Sound, or anybody else, because it will offer a lot of exotic articulations unlikely to be found anywhere else. The WORLD SERIES only includes 5 instruments: the Guzheng, Oud, Saz, Tanpura and Harmonium. This package is 119 GB and sells for $296. I’m going to take a guess from the GB and the price that these are more fully-realized instruments, not just textures or "colors." I know that to be the case because I own the Guzheng and the Oud is well-regarded, so maybe the Saz, Tanpura and Harmonium are similar. Aside from the Oud and Guzheng, The CHRONICLES series (49 GB and $279) is the only thing in the NI sale that isn't brand new. so Evolution has made videos on Bukhu (5), Brass & Wood (5) and Miyabi (6). So there's everything you need to make an informed purchase on them, although YouTubers can offer different perspectives. COLORS seems like something I'd be inclined to buy at $198. I'd like to see a video or two, but there's enough in Reuben's video to make it very appealing, not just for all the world instruments, but for the Vocal and the Prepared Steel. I've also been eying the CHRONICLES libraries, and came close to picking up Miyabi in November at the intro price of $139. The package is a good deal if you want CHRONICLE. But if anybody wants CHRONICLES and COLORS, that's $477 and you might as well go for the whole thing.

They are staying independent. Here's the story from Anthony at Evolution Series on VI:Control: Regarding the mysterious nature of this sale... I'm also sorry for the confusion. To cut a long story short I have been working for what seems like an eternity on multiple new products and updates all at one time. In an unexpected situation we ended up finishing all the libraries at once lol So my good friends at Native Instruments wanted to do some sort of sale with me. After having a think we decided to do something crazy and put all the 'NKS' libraries even the unreleased ones in this big sale. So think of it this way you are buying a number of products that are not officially released yet... that is why there is no information on my site. Once this sale is over these new products will not be available for a few months while I slowly work on the offical overview videos (these take ages!!). I can honestly say there is so much cool content. The NI overview video is just a small look at everything. I'll reach out to some reviewers and see if they can put something together sooner rather than later to provide a deeper look at the sounds Until then I'll do my best to answer any questions. I've suggested to Anthony that he give a copy to @Simeon Amburgey so he can do a video. I think that's going to happen. Simeon has another video planned before this, and it's going to be a lot of work. FYI, Anthony goes by the name @pulse on VI:Control.

And Larry points out that there is a sale on all Sound Particles stuff!

This looks interesting. Energy Panner uses the intensity of a sound to control its movement. From traditional stereo to immersive, this plugin enables artists to add dynamic depth to their panning techniques without any effort or additional routing. £24.86 (£38.22) about $33 At Loot Audio Key Features Stereo, Immersive & Binaural Outputs From stereo, 7.1, HOA to Binaural and Dolby Atmos, Energy Panner gives you several output options based on virtual microphones technology. Dynamic Movement Easily set how the sounds will move. For instance, will they move from the speakers position to the centre or will they move clockwise starting from a custom position? Sidechain Use external signals to control the effect of the plugin instead of using the track’s sound for this. Visualization Dome Track every single movement the sounds are making through the main component of the plugin’s UI: the dome. Randomization Running out of ideas? Don’t worry! The Energy Panner has a randomize option that outputs a new result each time you click it. Absolute Control Energy Panner brings you all the options you need to have complete control over how the sounds are moving in the panoramic field.

SINE is free and they have some free libraries, so you can check it out yourself. 😄 https://www.orchestraltools.com/sinefactory