Reid Rosefelt

Cool to get a freebie, but I don't know if I'd call a Koto a RARITY!!!

I own a lot of Neewer camera equipment. They are a Chinese company that knocks off other people's products. My experience has been that the cheapest stuff is decent and works, but doesn't look like it will last too long. But when you go up a level or two, they make some really great stuff. They sell cheap light stands, but I own two of these $50 ones (now $65 I see) I love these stands and I keep them in a great Neewer bag I bought. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0711LMYK9/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 So my educated guess is that this thing is probably worth the money at $10. It won't be junk. But if wanted something like this and didn't want to pay much, I would investigate whether Neewer has a slightly more expensive version. See what it costs to go up one tier

Of course no guitar virtual instrument can do what a real guitar and guitarist can do. Not if they spent millions and a hundred years creating it. It's too complicated. Still, I have four guitars and there are definitely things I can do with the NI guitar libraries that I can't play myself, even though I have played for over 50 years. Certain exotic voicings. Playing harmonics anywhere. But mainly, keeping in more steady rhythm. Also, I have arthritis nowadays and am very grateful that I have all my guitar VIs. As my skills decrease, I can keep going. And I think that the fact that I know how to play guitar helps me get better results out of them.

This looks kind of cool. Note that they seem to be pricing IK style, so it is $39 even though that is a bit less than €39

Looking at the stuff I was purchasing before (World Music), the prices that were 50% off are now back to their original price. But not all of the Sound Pools were 50% off so this may be a good deal depending on what you want to buy.

This sounds really good, but I just bought Naroth Audio's Mood Guitars, which is somewhat similar. Also, Zero-G may put this on sale eventually. But it does sound nice. I have a good-sized template of Ambient Guitars, so I need to look at that before I'm tempted with yet another one. 😃

Not what I would call the most professional instrument for creating Jazz Manouche, but tremendous fun, particularly the virtual bands:

I’ve been playing this for some time now and love it. Tracy doesn’t do sales—only intro pricing, so this is an opportunity. But his prices are always low anyway. Great news that he is working with IK, as they will bring a whole new market to his work. His guitars are cheaper than ones from AmpleSound and OTS, but they have features you don’t find anywhere else, like having harmony as a switchable articulation. They are fun to play and sound great. I totally recommend this.

@Jason Morin is there any deal on this if you have the three other Ample Sound Chinese instruments? I checked out the bundle while signed in and it costs $291, even though the Dongxiao alone is $98. Thanks, Reid

Sorry, Eusebio. I searched for Humble Bundle and this didn't come up. HumbleBundle. 😃

This is $25 and offers 30 items. There is much more sound FX than music. https://www.humblebundle.com/software/music-sound-effects-for-games-files-content?hmb_source=humble_home&hmb_medium=product_tile&hmb_campaign=mosaic_section_6_layout_index_2_layout_type_threes_tile_index_1_c_soundeffectsandaudio_softwarebundle I picked it up instantly. For a guy like me who often uses silly sounds on YouTube, this is an amazing deal. Some of these sounds would have really helped the videos I've done. This is Volume 2. I wonder if they will release Volume 1 again because this is cool.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUjj_T--Ljg Among the topics we discussed were Reverbs EQ Modeled or Sampled Sketch Libraries We announced the winner of our drawing for Ben Osterhouse's Pattern Strings. He is Emilio Navas. A big thank you to all of you who entered. We are excited to announce that the very talented young developer Maxime Luft of Organic Samples (now at Orchestral Tools) will be joining us for our next podcast, Wednesday, August 4th at 2pm EST. Like Ben Osterhouse, he is young and a total original. There is nobody making libraries like he does. We will be talking about his career as a musician and virtual instrument creator, with a focus on his new library TABLEAU CHAMBER STRINGS. I've been a superfan of his since Solo Opera. I did a video on it, even though I wasn't even doing videos at that time. Get ready for the podcast by getting Maxime's amazing Majestic Horn if you don't have it already. At two euros, it is one of the best deals you can find on a virtual instrument. Pick it up here: https://www.orchestraltools.com/store/collections/majestic-horn All the best, Reid

Exactly. It’s not just the notification of the deal. It’s the conversation around it.

I would never dream of competing with His Majesty Larry, but I have done a Black Friday post on VI:Control for the past three years. I categorize all the deals by type and put them into alphabetical order. I think that I have had the most comprehensive and organized list of BF music software deals on the web--but this year I am going to add a LOT more stuff. It's pretty much all I do in November. https://vi-control.net/community/threads/tiger-the-frogs-alphabetical-list-of-november-2020-sales.100595/ But Larry ALWAYS gets the deals fastest and I only do this once a year. I have no idea how he does it all the time. When I get to December, I need deals rehab. Wait....

https://www.volkoaudio.com/product/volko-alaturka-drum/ $74.99 ($149.99) Full Commercial $49.99 ($99.99) Discounted Commercial I have looked at this for years, but today I finally downloaded the free demo. So beautifully put together. The drums sound great and there's the equivalent of like five EZDrummer packs. Drag and Drop is painless, and there is so much control. The MIDI is what this is all about for me I have the Zero-G Eastern Percussion Module, That's a little bit more "middle eastern" than this, as it a big ensemble of hand drums like Bendirs, Riqs, Darbukas, etc. and this is more a regular drum set, which makes it a beefier sound. But this has a lot more MIDI and its easier to get to patterns as they're on the first page. I think they complement each other perfectly, as Eastern Percussion Module has a lot of instruments, but to me, this sounds better. It's going to take me some time to put all this together. The only problem (aside from the price) is that the interface is tiny on a 4K monitor. But I'm going to be using it to drag variations and fills into Cubase. Their Baglama or Saz is now $19.99 (normally $39.99) https://www.volkoaudio.com/product/volko-baglama/ They also have the Darbuka-Nut (once a freebie) which also comes with a lot of MIDI https://www.volkoaudio.com/product/darbuka-nut/

$49 - But if you sign up for the mailing list your get 15% off https://narothaudio.com/products/mood-guitars FREE KONTAKT PLAYER - NKS READY 5 multi-sampled Modern + Vintage Guitars 11 articulations Custom-Built Smart Dynamics Intimately + Delicately recorded Up to 36 Hi-Def samples per Guitar 3 Sound Design Layers over 800 MB Uncompressed .Wav • Acoustic • Acoustic Harmonics • Fender Bass • Fender Bass Picked • Fender Bass Harmonics • Nylon • Nylon Harmonics • Stratocaster • Stratocaster Harmonics • Telecaster • Telecaster Harmonics

There's a lot of stuff that's 50% off now. I ran out of vouchers so I picked up some world loops yesterday to use in some music I'm doing for my next video. I've never liked Music Maker, but those Sound Pools (with the ability to change keys so easily) are awesome for Ableton. I can't wait until the next Magix promo. I like their World Collections a lot. I wish it didn't cost $20 to get commercial rights. Even their subscription doesn't include commercial rights. But due to this sale, one of the libraries I wanted went for $4.99 and the commercial was $9.99.

Thank you so much. That's the funny thing, I was on those locations for months. I was in the cathedrals and on the boats, but I didn't meet Vangelis. : ) Yes, it's so hard to get the most out of what we already own, and our attention keeps getting drawn to all the imaginative new releases. The only thing that works for me is to make templates. If I didn't have a Chinese instrument template, I'd be lost. How many Guzhengs do I own? I need to have them all together. And I have the same for everything I reach for a lot, like electric guitars, ambient guitars, pads, pianos, percussion, etc. I'm always building these things. I actually enjoy making them. Kontakt opens the door to so much free stuff. I think full kontakt is the best purchase a young musician could make. My training mainly comes from YouTube videos. I watch lots of performances and training videos. I learned a lot about the Yangqin from the teacher from Singapore who let me use his student's video--he's got a channel with courses. I included more information about how to play a Yangqin in earlier versions of the video--but I had to find a balance between all the other things I was trying to do. But definitely if I had shown more about technique it would have made watching the girl more interesting. Because her technique is impressive for someone so young. It's also good that I bought a pair of sticks. It's good to get your hands on something. My next purchase is going to be a wood or bamboo flute.

Thanks, Jerry. Celtic music is so beautiful. I hope someday I’ll be able to give it a serious listen. I have many accordion libraries, including Tarilonte’s, but nobody has done a real Cajun accordion yet. Of course, if you know how to play one like that, maybe you’d get close I agree with seeking out quality solo instruments. But there are often some quite good ones in collections Working on my next World Music video now If all goes well, it will be better than this one

Brilliant video as always Simeon. I love the part where you say something like "we just did that in a few minutes!" No, we did not, Simeon. YOU did. 😃 But fun to think about how I could have done it too, if I could just go back to my birth and be more serious about my playing . It seems to m+ that Hunter looked at libraries like the Sonokinetic Ostinatos, Pattern Strings, and STRIIIINGS, and said "I can do better than that!" And I don't think this is going to be topped by anybody. PLUS, this is on an intro price of $99.99 out of $149.99. And if you are on the KH mailing list you'll get an email today for another $10 off. Simeon demonstrated one of my very favorite libraries, Virtuoso Ensembles, which I think is the number one sketching library. Last BF it sold for $29.99. Simeon, this seems aimed at epic music, and I don't really do that. Do you think this could be useful for other kinds of music?

A flute works well. The little piece I did at the beginning was Yangqin, flute, Guzheng and percussion. When the instrument started it was just an accompaniment instrument like a piano. But they kept adding bridges and octaves, until it became a solo instrument that you can also accompany yourself on like a piano. I think anything that works with a piano will work with a Yangqin. The piece that the girl plays is actually an orchestral piece which was rearranged for the Yangqin. The damper pedal was a big addition, because the notes used to keep ringing. Also it's a super-quiet instrument--generally they put it in front of the orchestra, in front of the conductor. So there are electrified versions. There's all kinds of stuff I didn't get into in the video. There are sticks with two hammers, so you can play in thirds and fourths. There's also a ring-like thing that lets you play it like a slide guitar. A pet peeve for me is that Orchestral Tools, Strezov Sampling call the Yangqin a plucked instrument. Yes you can pluck it, but I don't think that's accurate. You can pluck a violin too and you often do, but I wouldn't call the violin a plucked instrument. There are a lot of instruments hit with hammers, including pianos and most percussion instruments--that's how it should be categorized, I think.

I only own SILK, but I did spend a lot of time looking at the other ones. RA is very old and the consenus is it shows its age. There's just better world libraries than that. But SILK is still great. There are still things you can do with SILK that you can't do with any other world library. I love the performance patches. You can get some really interesting results. And its authentic. The Yangqin in SILK sounds like a real Yangqin. The one in EAST ASIA is way too bright. I love the NI Spotlight Libraries, but they are way too bright. I guess they think that's what the customers want. So you have to go into Kontakt and turn the EQ down, or else use your own EQ to roll off the highs. To compare SILK to RA: RA covers the whole world and it's 14 GB. SILK is just Silk Road (China, Persia, India) and it is 25 GB. I used to spend a lot of time in Rio when I was married to a Brazilian woman. Talk about a rich musical culture. You really learn about a culture's music when you're there. I know a lot about Brazilian music, but I've never made any because I don't like to think about my crazy ex-wife.

Thank you all so much. My heart and soul went into this one. I used Reid Rosefelt instead of Tiger and I didn't blow myself up once. When I started making YouTube videos I was ALWAYS worried that people would get bored and lose interest. So I jammed every kind of baloney into them that I'd seen other YouTubers do. So with this one, I just said, "if they don't like it, fine." Click off, it's okay. What matters is that there are a few people like you who it meant something to. This is what I want to do going forward. Probably won't be doing much in the future with software-on-the-screen unless it is something I'm passionate about. I love that Simeon feels about the young student, Lee Xhi Xuan, the same way I do. Yes, her performance is to show people a glimpse of how the instrument is played and to hear a bit of Chinese music. But I had access to performances from her teacher and many other students. There's something special about her. She has the artist's look. At 15 years old, she's got whatever it is that music should be. There's so much precision and focus in what she does. And the joy. I had to jump through some hoops to get the ending. Where she stops and takes a moment. On the posted version, other videos come up on the screen and block that beautiful last moment. The teacher erased the original video because he needed more space on his iPhone! So I talked him into removing the videos at the end for a day so I could record the screen without them. I was really hoping that I could transmit my love of this instrument through her. I was hoping people would fall in love with her. What a great kid.

I feel like politics are about what keeps us apart. I think music has the power to bring us together. It doesn't care about borders. Everything is a blend of influences. The more fusion the better, in my book. But I'm glad you brought up this issue of "cultural appropriation," because it will fit in well with the video I'm writing now.

I agree completely. I do say in the video that in my opinion, it's good to focus. Explore a lot, using free instruments or something like EthnoWorld or World Suite, and then stick with the ones you like the most. I don't understand people who are interested in all the thousands of instruments in the world. I started out with Middle Eastern instruments and then I started getting interested in Chinese instruments. And within those things there are particular instruments I love more than others. I agree with you about the Dudu too. I even bought one! They are not easy to play.