Reid Rosefelt

SSD space is not free. They should pay rent. 😄

This looks like a good deal, but I'm going to wait until it's more than 100% off.

Did you get the sense that they didn't put ALL the stuff in from the various packs? Rave review from you about being better than MAGIX. 😄 Interesting comment on the page: Incredible! worth every penny, took me 7 hours re-sorting through all the content to my own preference. This is the only "world" pack you will ever need. Yeah, the labeling on Zero-G products is often not the best.

I knew this would happen eventually, but not so soon after the release of FRAGMENTS. If you go HERE you can find out how to get Fragments for free or $5 or $10 or $15. Some people have trouble figuring out how these SAS sales work, but basically if you buy immediately tomorrow you will get 70% off. That's just the first 50 people on the site. It starts at 0:00 GMT on 5/21 so figure out what time that is for you. I think it's 8 pm for me today in New York. After that it's 60% off for the next 100. From that point on until June 30th it is 50% off. All discounts can be used either on all single products or even bundles, except the new Paradox Lost, which is already on sale for 50% off. If you already own something from a bundle feel free to write them at support@sasampling.com along with your proof of purchase: Their site is HERE https://www.sound-aesthetics-sampling.com/

I found the manual there and three is a section on the articulations. But it doesn't specify the key switches as your post did. It's not a problem, as it explains what they do, and it's easy to find them within EZBass. I still am not convinced that this is designed primarily to be played. Here are some things spotlighted by Steve Lum on VI:Control from the manual. If you play around on the keyboard, you may notice key switches that are beyond the range described in the Key Switch Layout. These are mostly used in a strict fashion by EZbass and are not easily programmable, or were deemed less important than the twelve main key switches available in the layout. Expert MIDI programmers are free to study how they work, but many are practically impossible to get right by human hand within the piano roll of a DAW." "The most important reason for using the grid editor is that EZbass offers many features that are not easily translatable to MIDI, and therefore complicated to program without assistance. The EZbass piano roll takes care of that programming for you in a way that would make no sense to expect from a DAW. But..! Even once your EZbass MIDI is perfectly programmed, the reality is that not all DAWs support the MIDI specification fully, or may filter out certain messages by design. To ensure that EZbass plays back your song correctly anywhere, the easiest way is simply to keep the MIDI within EZbass. " "If you prefer to program in your DAW, you'll get the results you want 99% of the time. We designed EZbass to be usable as a live instrument, and so naturally the basic functions that matter most are accessible also within your DAW. I hope to be using this over many coming years and will develop my workflow. But while I never bought a piano instrument for EZKeys and just dragged the MIDI over to my other pianos, I think I will need to buy bass expansions, for this as otherwise it will be too much work. It will be anything but EZ! So I figure that I will get at least a P-Bass and an Acoustic bass, if they make one. And I'll be loading up on bass MIDI parts. I relate a lot to what @Gremsays. My bass parts can sound the same because I didn't devote as much of my life to the bass as much as I've done with other instruments, like guitar, ukelele, piano, blues harmonica, violin, etc. I've owned a few basses, and yeah I can play it, but I suck at it and I know it. So getting all those bass parts from TT will make my stuff better. Add variety and realism. I have found that to be the case for years from Band-in-a-Box. Still, one thing I do know from playing bass is that sometimes the best part is extremely simple. You don't have to be a hotdog. The bass player serves the song. If I just want to play at this point I think I will be using a different VI. Those 12 key switches don't work for me, and the ones that are outside the range even less. I'll leave them to the "expert MIDI programmers." I just want to make music.

Well that sucks as these collections weren't that big to start with. I'll take a chance on the $16.95

This deal came along before and I passed because I wasn't sure if it was only Apple loops, but this time I checked and it is definitely all Acidized Waves and AIFF I don't usually buy loops but I love world music and I'm sure there are some things I'll find inspiring here, even if I don't literally throw them directly into my tracks. This is by no means the only world loops that Zero-G sells, but it is a lot of them. These tend to the more ethnic loops than the dance or contemporary ones. Over 5900 Samples - Over 5 GB This is an assembly of a lot of their World packs, most of which sell for more than this even when they're on sale. If you are curious about what exactly is in them there are manuals on each of the product pages. They've added some new things too. Ends Friday May 22nd at 11:59 BST Afrolatin Slam (African, Latin, and Afro-Latin fusion loops). Celtic (Loops of celtic instrument performances from Ireland, Scotland, etc). Deepest India (Superb, evocative and inspiring instrument/ vocal/ ensemble loops from India). Flamenco Sounds (The world's finest library of Spanish Flamenco loops). Middle Eastern Sounds (A brand new varied collection of loops from North Africa and the Middle East). Sounds Of Polynesia (A wonderful library of loops from the South Pacific islands and Australia). Pure Brazilian Beats (An incredible collection of Latin rhythms with an infectious feel). Pure Tabla (An unbelievable range of sonic beats created entirely with tabla drums!). Tribal Elements (A brand new diverse library of samples from Africa and the Far East. Lots of percussion. Vindaloops (Wonderfully expressive and expertly played Bhangra loops) Approximately 3,000 new unique loops and instrument samples have also been added--so a little more than half of the loops aren't in the above collections. Some of these have only a few hundred loops. Ethnic Volume 1 (A diverse selection of 'world' loops from many countries and cultures). Ethnic Volume 2 (A diverse selection of 'world' loops from many countries and cultures). Get it HERE

Where do I find this PDF?

No, I didn't look at the key switch PDF during my brief test. Thanks for that. I've been playing with them. In keeping with the great GUI, they are shown on screen. It's possible I unknowingly hit the key switches for mutes or ghost notes, but I don't think so. I'm still not crazy about it as an intuitively playable instrument. But I'll keep at it. It's certainly nice that it has harmonics and all that stuff--I just need to get experienced with using those articulations. I don't see the point of the repeater. If I want to repeat a D, it's just easier for me to repeat the D on the D. These key switches will have a big impact on any bass VI you drag it into. You'll have to either remove them or edit them. @cclarry I tried it in Standalone, in Komplete Kontrol, in PluginGuru Unify and in Cubase. I'll be using it within Komplete Kontrol in Cubase. I wil make a KK template for it so I can see all the key switches in the light guides.

I'm figuring that they will do EZKeys/EZBass paired libraries. Maybe EZDrummer/EZKeys/EZBass libraries. Maybe it's not necessary, because EZBass can take any of your EZKeys stuff and make bass tracks out of it, But they are all about EZ Peasy. And a series of EZDrummer/EZKeys/EZBass libraries would be very popular and generate a lot of EZMoney. Is it time to start bugging Toontrack about EZGuitar yet? I am tired of making my own music. 😄

Five. I passed on the last two upgrades.

I'm sorry that I convinced you not to buy it. I think it's great and plan to get a lot of use out of it. I just think that everything I said is true. I did check and you can drag the MIDI into your DAW and use it with anything you want. I definitely will make use of that. The bad news is that it may take a bit of editing to make it sound as good as the EZBass basses. And I expect they will be releasing some great ones.

Finally they release something that makes me want to upgrade.

Larry, I downloaded the free demo and it is terrific. Maybe you could add it to the headline? This is something people won't want to miss. You don't load it in Native Access but it turns up in Kontakt and Komplete Kontrol. I didn't think I wanted this that much but it is so awesome. I'll wait for Komplete 13 because it is coming so soon. But another good reason to upgrade. I think Pharlight comes from Fairlight. I didn't pick up on that until I started playing it.

My first reactions, based on a quick runthrough. Overall, I think this is a triumph and it will be a major asset to my songwriting efforts in the future. Toontrack has hit it out of the park. I think both basses sound great. Of course they will be coming out with classic basses--but I like the way these two sound. I'm looking more forward to the deluge of MIDI packs. I am a decent piano player, so I don't buy EZKeys MIDI anymore--but I probably will buy bass expansions. I didn't have time to check it out long, but it seems like it has surprisingly little control of effects. As far as I can tell it doesn't come with the usual pedals for reverb, compression, phaser, chorus, etc. Just 8 knobs to tweak the overall presets, of which there are few. The good news is that these 8 knobs auto-map to the ones in Komplete Kontrol. Maybe I'm wrong about this. But most people will be running this through outside effects and Toontrack might have felt that they were better off focusing in other areas. Based on my first explorations, the pattern based, EZKeys part is as awesome as it looks in the videos. Lots of great patterns that sound good and are easy to tweak. It's a better program than EZKeys in a lot of ways, in this regard--you aren't able to see and edit all the MIDI like that. The GUI is very simple. All those things where you drag in sounds--you don't have to read the manual to find them. This thing is a home run with GUI and looks great too. Love the way the basses look. While the basses sound good, they are definitely meant to be programmed and not played. I found all kinds of problems when I played it fast or at high velocities. You get a whiff instead of a note. This is the kind of problem that would be a deal breakers for any quality bass virtual instrument. If you play it slow and are careful with velocities it is fine. But I kicked the tires and Modo Bass, OTS, ujam, the free Ample Sound bass, etc can sleep quietly. No competition here IMHO. But this product is not aimed at people who have played a real bass and have solid piano chops, and have spent years creating and playing bass parts on a keyboard. It is great for what it is intended to do. But it's weird that it doesn't work as well the other way. Oh well, I already have lots of keyswitched instruments to do that. There is a part at the bottom where you can adjust the playing style in various ways. But this feature doesn't work when you play it--the time you need it the most. It only works when you use MIDI to play it.

This morning I checked T+S ($149) and they said they were Sold Out. So I went to Best Service and got it for the $135.63 price, which was a lot less than I expected to pay today. I wouldn't have been surprised if it wasn't discounted anywhere. I guess T+S and Best Service went through serial numbers pretty quickly. There must been a lot of people waiting to jump on this. I don't see it at JRRShop or Audiodeluxe or Musican's Friend yet. Sweetwater and Dontcrack have it for $149, which I guess will be the standard price. T+S has taken down the Sold Out sign--they're not fools, they probably saw what Best Service is doing. Buy now, get later. So we have to wait . It's okay with me, I don't have time to check it out until tonight anyway.

There is a free demo for Pharlight. I haven't downloaded it yet but you can get it HERE

Knock knock.

You won't have to wait that long. The last few times around, Komplete and Komplete upgrades go on sale for half price during the summer after they are introduced, so figure Summer 2021 for Komplete 13 to be available half price--and that's the lowest NI has ever sold its stuff. You would have to go on a forum like KVR to do better than half price. We should be hearing about the NI summer sale any day now. Most of the libraries above should be half price except for the ones that were the most recently released, like Pharlight and Electric Sunburst Deluxe. Picked Acoustic wasn't in last year's BF sale but it will probably be available in the summer sale.

I was thinking of getting the effect rack because I thought it was basically the same for getting most of them. And it was $99, whereas the full upgrade was $160 something with the stuff I"ve got. But, correct me if I'm wrong, you don't get the presets that come with each module. You only get the presets for the rack. That's still a lot and very useful, but still it was a dealbreaker for me. But getting the rack did sell me on doing the full upgrade during BF when the price is the best.

Add Pharlight to the list for Komplete Ultimate 13, which may be out as early as August, but certainly in the fall. Already released: Mallet Flux Noire Session Guitarist: Picked Acoustic Session Guitarist: Electric Sunburst Deluxe Straylight Super 8 Mysteria Play Series: Modular Icons, Lo-Fi Glow Not yet out, but very likely: New Discovery Series 20 more Maschine Expansions/Battery Kits. New Modpack series of 3 effects plugins, including the Raum reverb And no doubt there will be more. Komplete Ultimate 13 will include everything that is released by NI before it comes out. Sometimes they include a product that isn't ready yet, like Massive X with Komplete 12. And sometimes they introduce a product at the same time as Komplete, like Symphony Essentials with Komplete 11. What will be in regular Komplete I can only guess, but usually they leave out the products that are the most expensive, so something like Mysteria ($299) is unlikely to be included.

Very cool that Kyle Z stands behind all his products and adds all this free content. The guitar expansion was really great.

Well... we've already waited pretty long after the drummer and keyboard player showed up. ⏰

I guess I do need to improve my bottom end. 😳 I probably should stop worrying and just let 'er rip with this purchase.

But if I don't have time to play it now, will it just be silent, but deadly to my bank account?