Reid Rosefelt

They knew when they said no to you that they might lose the sale, but that was their choice.

You all know a lot of this stuff, but this is my particular take on negotiation. I've run two companies and have had many people ask me for raises. It might seem like I had all the power as the boss, but in fact it was much more complicated. To give a raise I had to think about how much I would have to give everybody else in the company, as these things always get around. And then, having raised my overhead for the year, what will happen the next year if business is bad and other monthly expenses go up? And then people come to me for raises then? And what if my most valued people go to other firms because they pay more? In all these situations, I thought of a producer I knew named Michael Peyser. He would give my fair rate without haggling (so many producers try to get you to cut it, which is humiliating) but then he would tell me that he was going to try and get me more. Of course he never did, but he made me feel valued. So he used the opportunity to essentially give me no more than I always got, but to increase my affection and loyalty to him, which made me work harder. I assume he did this for everybody, which is why his films came in under budget. When a movie crew is unhappy they tend to work slower, which leads to double and triple time and millions of dollars in over-runs. This story was supposed to get into this video, but I had technical difficulties (my first video with a DSLR) and what should have taken an hour or two took 8 hours and I had to quit. Such are the trials of an aspiring YouTuber.

Hey Larry, Merry Christmas! Isn't "Snaps, Claps Slaps Stomps & Shouts" from Red Room Audio not ISW? Some of the same people, but different companies, right? For anybody who doesn't know it, it's a great freebie.

Same to all of you from Brooklyn! 2021 has to be better! Cinematic Studio Woodwinds is coming out!

Aria Sounds doesn't get much respect, but I think the Bansuri sounds pretty decent. The one in the NI India Discovery may be "better," but this has an interesting approach, with articulations at the beginnings of notes. I'm going to take a look at my Bansuri collection. 😃 The Xiao shows its age--it's been overtaken by all the libraries that have been released, particularly lately. I expect another solid one in the new NI library. Based on the video, the last time APD offered this it had the panpipes too. I have no idea why they took it out. I think I would have bought this if they hadn't removed it. Maybe the next time this deal comes around, the panpipes will be back. 😃

I always buy the yearly upgrade, but this year I just didn't see features that got me excited. I'll wait for the summer. The thing I truly like the best about Steinberg is Greg Ondo and Club Cubase on YouTube.

King Larry! Saddest words I've ever read on this forum.

Dear Steinberg Customer, As a very difficult 2020 draws to a close, it's that time when we will all be contemplative and hope that next year brings better, happier and healthier times for all. We hope that, in some small way, Steinberg products have been able to help provide you with a positive focus during this year and sincerely thank you for your support and the continued trust that you have placed in us. Best wishes and here's to a fulfilling 2021! Where's our @#%@!$% Holiday Gift??????? Thanks for nothing, you cheapskates! 😡

Finally a NewBlue deal I took. I use Titler Pro several times every week. There's some nice new features on this that I will definitely put to use in my YouTube videos.

Mimi plays! The YouTube page for the Music Confucius Institute at RDAM is a great place to learn about Chinese instruments and music. It's a collaboration between Beijing and Denmark. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSlYSwXRMrzFmAmZh1_yFSg

it's decent, and a lot better than the Yangqin in JEO. But it's very bright compared to others. Most Yangqin VIs use the hammers with the rubber sides, so the instruments sounds more muted. I suspect the NI one uses the other side--the bamboo side. (See the video below) Anyway, they've gone on the Hi EQ side of things. The best one by far is Three-Body Technology's Raindrop & Blade, which has both. You can do practically everything the real player does below. But Silk is damned good. I don't have Phoenix. https://www.threebodytech.com/en/products/raindropandblade One thing that's cool about this is it has MIDI patterns that can be dragged into your DAW.

@Dzilizzi is more knowledgeable about this because I think she owns Anthology. So don't quote me, but... there was a series called Adagio that had very good qualities but there were a lot of complaints about it . For example, Cory Pelizzari did a video, which, if I remember correctly said, just buy the violins and the cellos and forget the rest. So 8dio addressed the problems with a new version that brought all four libraries into one. But people still complained about this version #2. So they then came out with version #3--Anthology--which they gave away free to people who bought the previous version. This was considered finally getting things right by most people, although there was irritation about them repackaging the same samples so many times. There's more to it than this because they also released Adagietto, which was.... oh I don't know. 😄 Anthology doesn't include all the features of the separate Adagio libraries, but it lacks the flaws and it brings them all into one interface. I think that is close to what happened. I have Adagio Violins, which I like. There are things like separate crescendo patches that I don't think are in Anthology.

I have promised myself I will never, never, never buy another string library. 😡 But IMHO this is one of the best deals of the year, both the singles and the collections. Even if you have some Adagios laying around it's a good deal because they have different stuff that Anthology doesn't. I just don't need it. Arggh! I won't be able to stop myself from watching demos again. The big deals are suddenly starting to hit. Strezov Storm Choir for 49 euros?

That settles it. My dream has come true. NI is definitely doing a Chinese or Asian Discovery series. That is an insta-buy for me. No waiting for Komplete 14 on that one. I also dream of a Tarilonte one. I've certainly made that clear to him on VI:Control. He reads this forum too, by the way.

It is, but I think I will wait for Reason 12 to upgrade. The difference between this and $129 isn't so much. Reason used to be my favorite thing, but as years go by I have better instruments than their stuff. Like for example, I would rather have real Soundiron instruments than their limited edition Soundiron instruments. But they do have some things that look tasty, particularly if you go for the Suite.

I guess I do believe that it is always fine to buy whatever you want, if it makes you happy. Sometimes buying stuff makes me unhappy, because I buy it and see that I don't like it. I talk about how I sometimes deal with that in my next video. I always used Arctic Strings. Since I made my pads template, I haven't used it. But that doesn't mean I won't use it again someday. And it certainly doesn't mean that Arctic Strings and everything that Frozen Plain makes isn't great. Arctic Strings is kind of a classic for pads. And it looks as cool as it sounds. To sum up: buy! buy! buy! 😃

The flautandos in the Inspires are great, but I agree with everybody that there are great ones elsewhere. The only thing that's unique about them and all stuff from OT is Teldex, which means tons of room. It's like a lot of reverb that you can't turn off. I love it but it's not for the VSL how dry I am squad. I you watched my video about the templates, I should say that what I learned from putting my soft pianos together was that I should use the Inspire 2 Delicate Piano because it is beautiful. The Bosendorfer Staccatos are the only thing from Organic Samples that I don't like very much. At least not in comparison to everything else. By the way, I screwed up this voucher deal. I tried to buy the Erhu (33 euros) and the code worked great, but I had a problem checking out through Paypal on my music computer. So I did what I regularly do, I tried to finish the order on my other computer. It informed me that I had already used the code. 😡 Even though I never got anything. I've written them. Their customer service is usually pretty good, but if not, I will be very disappointed. I really wanted to try out one of the instruments from Phoenix (I would have done it eventually) and this gift was potentially a real blessing. FIXED! They have great customer service!

As anybody who follows my stuff knows, Solo Opera is one of my favorite VIs ever, and I don't really like opera that much. There are some people who prefer Eternal Vocals, but I just don't get it. Even though it is the same singer, I don't see it. Something happened in the recording and coding of Solo Opera where everything came together. This was an early video, so it's not one of my best, but you do get to hear what Solo Opera sounds like right out of the box. The point of the video was just playing it with no messing about with settings. It amazed me. Because I liked it, I had to think of something operish that I actually liked, so I picked this song by Puccini. Believe it or not, I have found many places to use it, including in a kind of Morricone song.

OT doesn't display the individual prices for me. If I only was going to buy one patch it would be from Inspire 2. The Flageolet Strings is a particular favorite as are the children's choir and violins, the delicate piano and the harps.

It’s just an ensemble patch of the whole orchestra playing at once. Not my favorite Inspire patch.

It's pretty good, but it takes a bit of time to organize.

FYI, these are the base prices on the APD Store if you have sufficient money in your APD Rewards Wallet: Arctic Strings $12 Colourform $12 Phoenix $14.99 Slow $29 Terracotta $14.99 The Chordophones $9 Dual Music Box $4.99 Wraith $29.99 Obelisk $9 Frostpoint $4.99 (Affiliate Links)

I'm aware of Microtonic and it does look cool. What interested me about Rhythmus is it has what the developer calls "found object percussion." It has stuff like cooking pots, and paint buckets and body percussion. I have become very interested these days in collecting weird noise and sound effect libraries like that, which I play in XO. Rhythmus is a really interesting four-part engine. Importantly, you can drag your own stuff in. So it was an insta-buy for me. Also the developer has an interesting story, working as an assistant in Hollywood. I'm going to buy his expansion soon. I realize that packages of things like that always go on sale later, but I'd like to support him. He also has a freebie called Hallo, which is an early version of Rhythmus, focusing on Halloween sounds. I haven't downloaded it yet.

I've bought pretty much everything Sonuscore sells (including all the NI stuff) except for their phrase libraries. I just have their Ethnic Flute Phrases freebie. This is quite stunning, so I'm currently making a palette template and will be doing a video using this. It does make me curious about their other phrase libraries. PS you do get the HALion and the Kontakt instrument. I'm not sure why I would want it in HALion though. You need a serial for HALion but not for full Kontakt.

I got this and like it a lot. He has already released his first preset pack, Dark Motion for $9.99 https://www.narothaudio.com/product-darkmotion