Reid Rosefelt

After May 31, it will no longer be possible to register some older and discontinued products. These include Guitar Rig Version 1-2, Battery 1 and 2 and Komplete 2-4. You can still use these products in your projects, but the initial or new installation is no longer possible after the deadline." Link is HERE Here is the list of discontinued products: PRODUCTMANUFACTURER Absynth 2 Native Instruments Absynth 3 Native Instruments Absynth Sounds Volume 1 Native Instruments AC-Box Combo Native Instruments Akoustik Piano (before 1.1.0) Native Instruments B4 Native Instruments B4 II Native Instruments Bandstand Native Instruments Battery Native Instruments Battery 2 Native Instruments Battery Studio Drums Native Instruments Electronic Instruments 2 XT Native Instruments Elektrik Piano (before 1.5) Native Instruments FM7 Native Instruments Guitar Combos Native Instruments Guitar Rig Native Instruments Guitar Rig 2 Native Instruments Intakt Native Instruments Kompakt Native Instruments Kompakt Sony ACID Pro Native Instruments Komplete 2 Native Instruments Kontakt 1.0 Native Instruments Kontakt 2 Native Instruments NI Essentials Native Instruments NI Spectral Delay Native Instruments Plex Combo Native Instruments Pro-52 Native Instruments Pro-53 Native Instruments Reaktor 2.3 Native Instruments Reaktor 3 Native Instruments Reaktor 4 Native Instruments Reaktor 5 (before 5.1.5.0) Native Instruments Reaktor Electronic Instruments Native Instruments Reaktor Electronic Instruments 2 Native Instruments Reaktor Session Native Instruments Studio Collection Native Instruments Traktor 3 Native Instruments Traktor DJ Native Instruments Traktor DJ Studio Native Instruments Traktor DJ Studio 2 Native Instruments Traktor DJ Studio 2.x Native Instruments Traktor FS 1.5 Native Instruments Traktor FS 1.5 Native Instruments Traktor FS 2 Native Instruments Traktor Hercules Native Instruments Twang Combo Native Instruments Vokator Native Instruments Boesendorfer290 East West Colossus East West EWQLSO Gold Ed East West EWQLSO Gold Ed Pro XP East West EWQLSO Silver Ed East West EWQLSOSilver Ed Pro XP East West Hardcore Bass East West Hardcore Bass XP East West Percussive Adventures East West PSP Adrenaline East West PSP Drumkit From Hell 2 East West PSP Percussive Adventures 2 LE East West PSP Stormbreaks East West PSP Vapor East West Ra East West SO Brass East West SO Brass Pro XP East West SO Percussion East West SO Percussion Pro XP East West SO Strings East West SO Strings Pro XP East West SO Woodwinds East West SO Woodwinds Pro XP East West Stormdrum East West Stormdrum Intakt East West Symphonic Choirs East West Artist Drums Best Service Artist Grooves Best Service Chris Hein Horns Best Service Classical Collection Best Service Cult Sampler Best Service Ethno World 3 Complete Best Service Galaxy Steinway Best Service Galaxy Steinway 5.1 Best Service Latin World Best Service Orient World Best Service String Essentials Best Service Altered States Zero-G Analogue Sequencer Loops Zero-G Beats Working in Cuba Zero-G Morhology Zero-G Nostalgia Zero-G Outer Limits Zero-G PSP Afrolatin Slam Zero G PSP Koncept & Function Zero-G PSP Nu Jointz Zero-G PSP Vol 7 The Operating Table Zero-G PSP Wired - The Elements of Trance Zero-G Sounds of the 70s Zero-G Sounds of Polynesia Zero-G Vocal Forge Zero-G Celtic Instruments Big Fish Audio First Call Horns Big Fish Audio London Solo Strings Big Fish Audio Raging Guitars Big Fish Audio Garritan Jazz Garritan Garritan Personal Orchestra Garritan Vitual Grand Piano Art Vista CM Session Computer Music Future Loops Future Music Virtual Drumline 2

Thanks. But I'm hardly an expert. 😀 I didn't know much of anything about world music when I first started messing about with Kontakt libraries in 2016 and going to VI:Control. UVI's World Suite really got me going because it has a zillion instruments. And when I played the stuff I got curious about the real instruments and checked out YouTube videos and live concerts. And it became this obsessive, expensive hobby that never ends. After a while you get to know a thing or two about how the instruments are supposed to sound and be played--and you can make your own opinions about which virtual instruments you like the best. I just learn from the music libraries. I never heard of Morin Khuur until Sonuscore came out with "Strings of Winter." I imagine that the Strezov library will be a real learning experience for me. If any of you want to go down this rabbit hole, I highly recommend the Discovery series in Komplete Ultimate and EthnoWorld 6 instruments as good places to start.

To my knowledge, the Kong Audio one is the only dedicated virtual instrument. It is in a few group libraries though. EthnoWorld 6 has Morin Khuur Ensemble, Morin KhuurViolin and Small Morin Khuur. There's also a Mongolian Ih Khuur Bass. The first two are Vol 4, the last is Vol 2. EW instruments tend to get better as the series goes on. The Mongolian State Morin Khuur Ensemble was recorded with multiple articulations in Sonuscore's "Strings of Winter," which is included in "The Orchestra Complete." I think it sounds beautiful. Strezov Sampling's "Jade Ethnic Orchestra" is due out soon and I am pretty sure it will include it, because it's going to be huge. On the other hand, if it's like Balkan Ethnic Orchestra, I doubt there will be many articulations. Just the basic sounds, albeit sampled beautifully. On the future front: I am dreaming that Komplete 13 Ultimate will have a Discovery library that is Asian themed. But it might be just China or Japan. If it does happen, it will be out this summer, which is not so far away. The Middle East Library came out the summer before Komplete 12. I'm still waiting for Tarilonte to make a Silk Road ERA. It's time. That would be the one to get. Nada has "asian instruments," but they are not intended as such. The sounds are just used as the basis for New Age Instruments.

Tarilonte's Epic ERA Persia is the one that includes Desert Winds, and it costs $159 to upgrade. And I've never seen them discount upgrades. But Epic ERA Persia ($259) goes on sale every Black Friday for 40% off, which is $155. Something to think about. With the full library you get a whole set of great middle eastern percussion instruments, plus strings like Oud, Tar, etc. It's my favorite Tarilonte library, although Nada is starting to give it a run for its money.

Secco Strings is a highly customizable collection of Viola, Violin, Cello and Bass articulations, which goes into great depth on short strings sounds. All of the different layers and round-robins add up to over 5000 individually recorded samples. You can also add your own samples. More info HERE The intro price is £70.88. After 25 days it will be £94.50 If you have bought any of Osterhouse's previous products, you can get a discount on top of the intro discount which is currently going on. Secco Strings will work with the full version of Kontakt 5.8.1 and Kontakt 6.2.1. It will not work with Kontakt Player. Sample Import (Drag 'n' Drop) is only supported in Kontakt 6.2.1. Presets are saved in .nka format. In Kontakt 5.8.1 presets are loaded using the load button on the interface. In Kontakt 6.2.1 presets can be dragged onto the interface to load. There are two automatable XY pads: The Tone XY pad crossfades between different versions of the same articulation, in order to achieve a wide variety of timbres. The Main XY pad is more complicated. It makes it so that many parameters can be controlled interdependantly, in an intuitive way which is ideal for creating happy accidents. The Main XY contains a "mic" and "steps". It's kind of like a sequencer, except instead of each step going in a line, left to right, you can arrange them however you want. Where each step is placed in the XY pad can affect how it sounds. So, steps' positions along the X-axis can determine their panning, or it can also determine their start positions and playback directions (forward or reverse). Moving along the Y-axis can be made to determine the formant (this is done via shifting root-keys), or to add octave doublings to steps. The closer the mic is to a step, the louder its velocity will be. This way you can emphasize different steps, mixing their volumes in an intuitive, spatial way. Kontakt 6's new Drag and Drop feature allows you to use this clever interface with your own samples, opening up a lot of possibilities for creating your own new sounds. There are 3 play modes, and each one sequences the steps in a different way: The Single notes mode plays through all of the steps very quickly in order to create an ensemble effect. The Rhythm mode is kind of like an arpeggiator, looping through the steps at tempo-synced intervals. Texture mode loops through steps in order fairly quickly, with random amounts of time between each step. This is useful for creating randomized textures.

I didn't know it had SUPERTONE! 😁 Insta-buy!

That's what I've been doing with NI this time around. I always used to wait, but this time there were a few libraries I just wanted to get right away and was able to buy with a slight discount with vouchers. Aside from those libraries, NI hasn't brought out anything else that I want at all. It's possible that I'll upgrade to Komplete 13 Ultimate and sell my old libraries, but I might let it pass. With these things it's not just about money. Sometimes you want to start using something and it's worth the money to get it right away. So maybe I'll lose my resolve and buy something from IK before Total Studio 3 comes out.

Also, if you buy Total Studio 2 on a MAXGrade, you may have some duplicate serial numbers after that. Like I had an extra copy of Syntronik then, so I sold the first one. But you can't resell the MAX product you used to get the MAXgrade. There will only be one serial number for that.

Best deal ever on this great plugin. If you missed the crazy deal on Output's Portal, or even if you didn't, check this out. Get it HERE until 3/31

Oh boy, that is awful Larry. They should find a way to do something for a longtime loyal customer like you. Not fair. Particularly with all the free promo you give them here. Every time I read what happened to you it makes me feel very guilty about how blessed I have been with my IK purchases. I've been lucky because I came into these products very late. If any of you are also new to the company, if you buy any MAX product like T-RackS MAX, Amplitube MAX, SampleTank MAX, etc. then Total Studio MAX 2 cost $179.99 during the promo. You can make it even less with Jam Points. And with this you get Modo Bass, Lurssen, regular Syntronik, all the SampleTank expansions, Miroslav 2, all the Amplitube MAX expansions, plus Fender 2, SVX 2, and Fulltone Collection. Plus a CE version of Sampletank 4, so you get the resizable interface. Before getting Total Studio 2 in December, the only thing I had from this list was Syntronik, T-Racks MAX and basic Sampletank 3, So I got all the rest for $150. I was even able to sell my extra copy of Syntronik. Total Studio 3 will come out someday, and it will then go on sale 50% off at some point. And it will likely include everything that IK brought out after Total Studio 2: Sampletank 4, Modo Drum, Dimebag Darrell, Brian May, Joe Satriani, all the new T-RackS like the tapes and Sunset Sound, etc. And who knows how much more. I expect to pay less than $200 for all of it. But I'll have to wait. To sum up: the best deal with IK is to buy one MAX product and wait for the next Total Studio to be released.

I really like ONE. The interface is simple. It's not a preset thing. You just move a knob and listen. You can get some very subtle effects with it. Very Fließbandy. It's the Fließbandiest plugin in T-RackS!

I think the basses are the best thing ujam sells. I particularly like the Mellow one.

AIR Structure is another one.

The problem with HALion, and it's a big one, is that it's such a beast that you would have to stop making music for a long time just to learn everything that's in it. It's like exploring the presets in Omnisphere or trying out all the instruments in Komplete 12. I think that people get it and don't explore it because it's too much. They'll try the guitars and decide they have better guitars and move on. I've spent many weeks trying out the various FlexPhrasers on different guitar-type instruments and pianos, and I don't feel I've scratched the surface. When you start stacking pianos on top of guitars you can get some amazing results. And then I moved to a new music computer and I lost all my presets! Well I know how to make them now. Anyway, imagine combining various synth sounds with flexphrases... That could keep you busy forever. And I want more of them! 😀 I also watched some videos on making your own instruments and did some explorations. It's kind of like Falcon, you can take any feature and turn it into a knob. Only Falcon has one knob and HALion has a whole set of knob and slider and switch designs. Just drag them in. Make your own interface. I never did much with this. And I never used any of the features to automate sampling, because I don't do that. I will take the HALion guitar strummers eventually and put them in my template next to the other strummers I own. I'll see how they stand up.

Yes, they have great support. I own Symphonic Sketchpad and Melodics Following their instructions I had to download 14 2G files for Sketchpad and 19 2G files for Melodics. I have very fast internet so normally these kinds of downloads take an hour. It took basically an entire afternoon. I admit I stepped away now and then and there were pauses, but normally I don't have to step away. The unpacking was also equally slow.. And that's kind of a start it and walk away type of thing. After all that, I got two new percussion instruments in Sketchpad and new legato for Melodics. I think it would have been cool if they could have figured out a way for me just to download the files that had the percussion, but I guess there are bug fixes in the whole thing so it had to be that way., But in retrospect I wouldn't have done the Symphonic Sketchpad update. I don't need temple blocks and a cymbal swell. Only the Melodics. That's a big deal, improving the legato. I have nothing to report about any of this because I only dragged the unpacked files over at 11:30 PM after I finished my Sunday night TV. It worked flawlessly but no time to play even though I started the process in early afternoon.

@ZincT As far as I know there's no advantage to using the FlexPhraser in HALion 6 rather than in Sonic. The only difference is that there is a lot more sound content in HALion to use in your phrases. As you noted, they work a little different, but I don't know if that matters. Many instruments in HALion that don't have arpeggios or patterns come with a FlexPhraser. And then when you go to the Edit page and activate the FP, you get something that is probably a default FlexPhraser for that instrument. One thing I don't think I mentioned is that if you use the pads to trigger the various FlexPhrasers, you need to make sure the pads are above the Flexphraser in the menu at the right. And you have to assign each flexphraser variation to the pad you want. For recording, I use Voicemeeter. I had to experiment with the settings. ASIO made a lot of noise, so I tried MIME which worked fine. I don't even know what MIME is. So that lets me record the DAW audio into OBS. For my audio I started by recording from my regular mic into Audacity and then matching them up. That worked well, but I found it a hassle to speak into the mic while I was playing. So I used the Saramonic lav mic I have that records directly into my iPhone. (It's half the price of the Sennheiser and it does the job) I'm satisfied with the quality so that's what I'm going to use going forward. One nice thing about it is that I can see the waveforms being recorded on my iPhone, so I know it's working. The video for the keyboard was a GoPro. I used a backdrop pole, with tripods on both sides, to mount it sturdily, overhead. The GoPro has been a huge hassle because the battery keeps running out. Next time I'm going to turn off the screen and WiFi and see if that helps. I may be getting a webcam too.

Thanks for expressing perfectly everything I wanted to say in one sentence. 😀 Why did I write all that stuff?

The modeled vs sampled discussion is something that can never really be resolved. People should get what they want. I have a template I will be working on forever where I put similar instruments and presets in folders. The other day I put my favorite Keyscape Wurli patch in. I then loaded the Arturia Wurli in. Now the Arturia Wurli has tons of presets and most of them are very distorted or effect sounds. The sampled Keyscape sounds incredible. It sounds like a Wurli. The Arturia Wurli sounds sort of Wurli-ish. It is so unbelievably terrible next to Keyscape that it didn't make it into my template. Now somebody else can use those Wurl presets in Arturia and enjoy them for what they are. But they don't stand up to the samples in Keyscape. I just got Modo Bass and think it is an incredible program. But there is one bass in there that is a model of a Rickenbacker bass I owned for ten years. And I'm sorry, but it's not good. The Scarbee is better. But that's not why you buy Modo Bass. It gives you infinite options that no sampled bass gives you. Also in my template is a folder with 80s chimey digital piano sounds. I owned a DX7 for a long time and I like that stuff. There's the great MKS-20 from Keyscape, a few select presets from UVI digital library, Synth Anthology has some of the best stuff in there because it has Kawaii K3, which is really different from everything else. But the Arturia DX7? Nothing that's good. The free Dexed is SO much better. Probably because freeware can emulate Yamaha tech with more freedom than Arturia can. Maybe they have to make it a little more different because they're selling? No idea. Anyway, for the sound I was looking for, one of the most popular sounds in a decade,there should be a freaking good preset on a DX7 model. Syntronik really blows almost everything away. Because Syntronik has most of T-RackS and Amplitube built in and so the presets come loaded with some amazing effects. Syntronik takes this sound and makes something new with it. One of the best DX7 libraries out there is FM2, a free one on iOS. I love that. To me it comes down to what sounds you're looking for for the music you make. Stack the sounds from sampled vs modeled in your DAW and pick what you like best. The answer will change based on the sound you're looking for. You may prefer a modeled piano to a sampled piano--a lot of people do. When it comes to synths it may help if you've actually owned the hardware. For example, the Korg Collection M1 is to my ears the same as my M1. I think they just took the brains of the M1 and put it into iM1. So that's not modelling--it's Korg to Korg. Anything in Arturia where they have a relationship with the original developer should be great. But who really cares if a synth is "authentic" or not? Having all the customizing options in Arturia may over-ride that. Just as with Modo Bass or Modo Drums. I think Synth Anthology II is awesome and I am very glad I bought it. Its presets will find many, many spots in my template, because they have been curated as best of the best.

Yeah, those FlexPhrase patches in Sonic are really great. There's a lot more I could have said about using the FlexPhraser in the video but I forgot. As it is, I think it's kind of long. That's what I have to learn. What to mention. In a strange way I think I should have played more to show how cool it is, but when you're playing you're not explaining features. What I'm hoping is that people will just go in there and just try various phrases from the menus and hear what they sound like with different instruments. One thing that is cool is that some of them of them have empty spots--there could be a few beats of silence, followed by some notes. Weird by itself but very interesting when you start layering different kinds of sounds. Also instead of just layering up guitars or pianos, it can be fun to layer up a one-person band with guitars, a bass and drums. A lot of this stuff you wouldn't actually use in a track but they are fun to play. However, everything can be routed to different outs, so it is possible to do a more interesting mix in your DAW. I did talk to Greg Ondo from Yamaha/Steinberg when I was at IMSTA NY. I really got the impression that the FlexPhraser was not of any interest to them over there. They took everything that was created 19 years ago in the Motif and Montage and popped it in and called it a day. And if something worked in the workstation and not in Cubase... too bad, we were lucky to get such a cool thing for free. They do mention it as a feature on their site, but they've never promoted it, in my opinion. My impression is that if HALion 7 ever comes along, it will have a ton of new instruments and synths. Sampled instruments that Kontakt people will not be impressed with and synths that are excellent but few will use because... they come free with HALion! They also seem to be trying to get third party companies to make instruments for HALion 6. Good luck catching up with Kontakt, UVI, EastWest and Best Service! That's a tall order. HALion is amazing, but when they sell it for peanuts they diminish its value, like Sonible and AIR do. With the FlexPhraser they have technology that nobody else in the business has. Technology that would be very desirable to the main market of musicians who can't play instruments (one-finger arrangements!) as well as still interesting to people who do know how to play piano and theory. Definitely appealing to people who use loops, Toontrack, ujam, and some Sonuscore products. I think those expansions could be sold to people who just own Cubase and have Sonic SE. An even better product would be a FlexPhraser MIDI plugin that would work with any virtual instrument. But I think they will continue to follow the strategy of more instruments, because, as their deep discounts suggest, it doesn't work. To do this video I had to learn how to use Cubase in OBS, set up the video to show the keyboard, how to record my voice separately, etc., but now I know this stuff, so doing another one should be a bit easier. But still time-consuming I'd like to do one on NADA and one on the NKS templates that come from Freelance Soundlabs.

For the record, Spaces II has been on sale before. I bought Spaces II during the holiday 2019 sale at 60% off. At JRRShop at that time it wasn't much cheaper than it is today- $159.60.

When I got the Black 76 from CM and registered it, I got $5 in JamPoints. These CM freebies are smart moves by IK. I liked the 76 so much that I ended up buying all of T-RackS and I'm very happy I did.

As the sale only goes for a few more days (ends 2/24), I decided to finally get a video up on the HALion FlexPhraser. This is something I wanted to do for a long time, but it took me a long time to figure out how to pull it off technically. This is my first video demonstrating software in a DAW. I hope to do more of them and get better at it. Reid

I have a very low opinion of these. In my opinion you are better off getting one or two great guitars than all four of these. Telematic is so poor it's not worth even mentioning. I would strongly recommend buying from Indiginus or AmpleSound or Orange Tree Samples. Indiginus stands out to me as offering real value. The quality is awesome and the prices are very low. OTS has a big sale every summer that is usually 60% off, and usually find them for sale for good prices on KVR all year round because of this. AmpleSound is always pretty expensive, but deservedly so--they also have great acoustic guitar and bass freebies that you should check out HERE. I think the AmpleSound freebie acoustic guitar beats all four of these. Sunbird was considered by many to be the best VI for fingerpicking, but in my opinion, it has been surpassed by other instruments. NI's Picked Acoustic is my favorite, an amazing virtual instrument and it includes a playable instrument as well as the picking and strumming. I also like the ujam guitars. I recently did a video on HALion on the fingerpicking guitars, which I think are the best on the market, but of course, you need to buy HALion. 😀 HALion is on sale and the info and my video are in this thread

Thanks, Larry! This will be a perfect gift for my wife's birthday!

To be honest, I'm pretty boring, I generally just make orchestral music with sections of instruments from the same company, recorded in the same hall. I just know that people always say that dry libraries are good for combining with other libraries. So I made that assumption. You obviously know more about Palette than me.