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Christian Jones

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    Best odd/unique character pianos / pianos with a twist?

    in Deals

    Posted

    I'd like to pick up some or all of these types for Labor day or some other sale. I like those piano libraries that have something cool/strange about them, often with other additional layered sounds added to the piano sound.. thanks abacab for sending me down this 🐰🕳️ w/ Shipwreck piano the other day. Then Peter mentions Death Piano and Fleer mentions Halfling and now I must own them all apparently. Below is what I know of so far. Is this pretty much all there is or are there more worthy mentions? Happy Saturday! 

    Shipwreck Pianos:

    https://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/stshipwreckpiano/?pkey=sampletank-sounds-cinekinetik-shipwreck-piano

    The Halfling:

    https://www.productionvoices.com/product/the-halfling/

    Death Piano:

    https://www.productionvoices.com/product/death-piano/

    Pain Piano (already own this):

    https://silenceandothersounds.com/products/pain-piano/

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    Best small time sample library developers I should check out?

    in Deals

    Posted

    6 minutes ago, Peter Woods said:

    Of course, doing my first demo for a sample library developer is a new excuse to spend money!

    That's actually true. There could be more opportunities for you like that down the line. So don't worry about what stuff costs. Like, Gospel Musicians.. I'll probably buy that now since I don't have a stellar wurli that I know of, and I prefer wurli over Rhodes. They both have their place but I like one better than the other. 

    And yeah speaking of GG Audio, their B3 is the B3 I'm gonna get over the IK B3 most likely. With organs, I really like that organ "growl" or palm glissanndo, which is what I think it's really called where you basically start at the low end of the keys and you sweep the keys w/ your palm and you get that kind of organ explosion growl thing into the chord that you play after it. This guy says the IK B3 was the only organ he found that let him get a proper organ growl, but idk if he ever tried the GG Audio B3. I don't see why the GG Audio B3 wouldn't give a good growl, but. 

     

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    Best small time sample library developers I should check out?

    in Deals

    Posted

    44 minutes ago, Peter Woods said:

    Thanks for chiming in. Interesting,  but definitely not the R&B kind of Ray Charles,  Marvin Gaye, Beatles/Billy Preston kind of vibe I'm after. I just bought the SoundPaint library and will report back later (the installer didn't work so I contacted their support,  completely ruining the moment of my semi-quasi, long contemplated impulse purchase. 

    Maybe I missed it back there but was there a wurli that you said at least came close to what you're after? 

    Best small time sample library developers I should check out?

    in Deals

    Posted · Edited by Christian Jones

    58 minutes ago, Peter Woods said:

    Haha! I went through a stage -- maybe for 30 years where I was obsessed with everything Mellotron.I owned just about every Mellotron out years ago, and I wasn't really playing then, I was just fooling around on the keys, not actually playing/recording any songs. I remember Hollow Sun and the dev -- since passed on -- and I would sometimes chat. A nice guy who had a real passion for sampling. I love seeing devs like that succeed, and I used to throw him and a bunch of other indie devs back then free branding and marketing advice from time to time  and even got to hang out with one, Ben from Camel Audio on a business trip to Scotland back in the 00s. Most of those devs have since gotten a lot bigger since then (or, in Ben's case, sold his company to Apple)! 

    But I've learned more balance in recent years. I totally get what your saying and it's a very good point. You and I don't want libraries or VSTs that are merely good for the price, we want something that has real character; not a library that is cut rate or budget because it's priced low. I would say that Ben Osterhouse's libraries have character and that, to me, makes them more than good for the price, they're just good period. I'm no expert, so I would defer to someone who specializes in string libraries, but I have a few of his libraries and they're like character pianos, but, of course, strings. They really work for a certain vibe, but I don't find them something I'd pick up if I was looking for versatility. Like Sospiro. Listen to the demos. It's great for intimate, slow passages. Again, to your point, they have enough character that for me, even if I  had $1 million USD to spend on string libraries, I'd pick them up because Ben's libraries have this sound and vibe to them no other string library has -- if you like the sound you hear in the demos -- and I do -- they're for you. He's one of those dev's that you can just witness tons of musical ability and he knows how to translate that into sample libraries. That's what I saw in Greg at Orange Tree Samples early on and became a huge fan, later a consultant and in time, a friend. Then, I just found out about Majetone and that's another dev that just has something really special about what he does. I mean, I picked up his drum kit library for 15 bucks (USD) and it only has two toms, and a ride/crash cymbal and he mapped that ride/crash to a single note, because he's a drummer and that's how you play that cymbal -- and before I had an injury, I was a drummer too and I totally get that, even though I'd prefer more cymbals and more toms and the cymbal ride and crash on different keys, but the sound of what he did is amazing. He's not just a technician, he's an artist. I find that about the dev behind Sound Dust. That guy is brilliant. If you listen to his demos and like the sound, all of his libraries are well executed. They're quirky. When I first discovered him, maybe a decade ago, I posted -- at KVR -- that his Ship's Piano and his Dulcitone had a very Jon Brion vibe to them and he responded, "very Jon Brion." There's nothing else out there like that. I think the dev that did Death Piano is worth mentioning too. I only own the free version -- and the problem is, the free version is soooo good, I feel like it does everything I need, so I bought a few of his other pianos. All top notch. Add Production Voices to my list. 
    https://www.productionvoices.com/product/death-piano/
     

    Yeah thanks for the input there, as those are exactly the kind of devs I wanna know about. So that guy mapped the crash ride to one key.. so you're saying it's not two separate cymbals--a crash and then a ride mapped to one key--but one of those all-in-one crash/rides? Yeah if the latter's the case then that makes sense.. then I guess in the piano roll you get the crash out of it by upping the velocity. I didn't like the sound of that when you posted about that drum kit a few days ago but now it makes sense if it's one of those all in one cymbals. I might check out that kit after all then. I don't mind a stripped down kit with just a couple of toms.. in rock n roll and punk that's what the guy actually has. I'm kind of over those Dream Theater kits anyway lol

    II'll definitely check out death piano too as I know I have pain piano from Silence and Other Sounds and character pianos are some of my favorite too. 

     

    Best small time sample library developers I should check out?

    in Deals

    Posted

    1 hour ago, Peter Woods said:

    . I just figured they're long time devs Christian probably already knows about

    There's a lot out there I don't know about, mainly because I try not to collect vsts. Sometimes it's a turn off to me when people say "for the money, it's really good." I want something that's good regardless of the money, so like with Sospiro Strings you seem to get a lot for not much money, but to me those strings sound great (on YouTube anyway) regardless of what it costs. Like, I don't even own Omnisphere and I don't plan to. Nothing against that app but I really try to limit what I own and I also don't like super large libraries that have like 2,000+ presets. That's too many sounds that I'll never really get to the bottom of, and I'm kind of obsessive about being able to audition every preset in a synth. It's why I don't own any of those Arturia nor Akai collections. I like Synth Magic https://synthmagic.co.uk/all-products/ because the dev Steve is super talented at creating presets, and each of his synths has around 70 presets on average and they're almost all killer, plus he's about that same 80's horror/thriller movie soundtrack composer vibe that I am, that John Carpenter vibe. 

    I did go through a phase not long ago though where I was collecting just about every Mellotron vst I could find, including the g-force collection. Those are some of my favorite sounds, but I forget who those Mellotron devs were that I found. I think Hollow Sun was one. 

    • Like 3

    Best small time sample library developers I should check out?

    in Deals

    Posted

    I like finding small dev gems who are turning out great products that are every bit as good (sometimes perhaps better) than the big guys, and for not a ton of money. Since Labor day is coming up, what are the best *small time* devs should I be checking out for sales and any time of year, all categories? 

    Looks like people like Ben Osterhouse's stuff. Who else out there? 

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    FREE! Very nice Wurli electric piano library for the FREE Decent Sampler.

    in Deals

    Posted

    2 hours ago, abacab said:

    https://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/stshipwreckpiano/?pkey=sampletank-sounds-cinekinetik-shipwreck-piano

    "Shipwreck Piano is an audiophile-grade SampleTank instrument library that puts you behind an antique cinematic upright piano with vibey, atmospheric reverbs recorded from several rare and vintage digital hardware units you can also use on any audio track. It includes over 3 GB of sample content and 33 SampleTank 4 instrument presets designed to add character and mood to any composition or soundtrack."

     

     

    Is there any way to get a discount on it? I don't think that BOGO offer applies

    XLN Audio: Early bird sale - 50% Off

    in Deals

    Posted

    2 minutes ago, marled said:

    am missing a kick with real dry samples (similar to the Kontakt nn-Drummer libraries, they sound more realistic to me, remind me of my old group days! 😄). IMO the AD kick samples have too much room even in the base kick track (I mean if you solo without room/overhead). This makes it very difficult to mix if you want a dry kick and if you want to use your own drum room reverb

    Have you tried the AD Vintage Dry? 

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    XLN Audio: Early bird sale - 50% Off

    in Deals

    Posted

    How do you guys like the Funk kit? I've chosen my 9 pack, and for the 10th one I felt Indy was kind of redundant after all the rest (for hard rock and various other styles), but the Funk sounds more versatile for things other than just Funk and I liked it's overall sound. I really wanted to like Retroplex, but I really didn't like it's snares from the YouTube videos. 

    Here's my 10 I think:

    1. Reel Machines
    2. United Heavy
    3. Fairfax 1
    4. Fairfax 2
    5. Vintage Dry
    6. Black Velvet 
    7. Modern Jazz Sticks 
    8. Blue Oyster 
    9. Black Oyster 
    10. Funk

     

    As for companies not coming out with new stuff; what about Sound Toys? Have they come out with anything new at all that wasn't a free update to the already Sound Toys 5 we all have? I mean what are those guys doing over there?? Why aren't they making something else?? I mean the current stuff is great and all that but what if I wanna buy something else? 

    XLN Audio: Early bird sale - 50% Off

    in Deals

    Posted

    1 hour ago, marled said:

    On the contrary there are some developers that I have marked red, because I feel that their newest updates just bring instability, performance issues

    Word. I think it was NI that really p!$$ed me off w/ Battery, when they removed a major feature from Battery 4 - didn't make the feature better, but just straight up removed it. I don't remember what that feature was now, I just remember it really making me mad and seeing on the forums that many shared that anger

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    XLN Audio: Early bird sale - 50% Off

    in Deals

    Posted

    I guess this is finally my chance to switch over to AD from SD2. It's time I updated my SD2 (and I don't even have many packs with it either), and in reading about ease of use and quality of sound w/ AD (and price vs Toontrack pricing) I'm gonna go ahead and change over to AD all together and leave Toontrack behind, no offense to Toontrack. 

    What are the best Adpacks to get? I'd probably get the 6 pack, but maybe the 10 pack if I really needed all that. I know I want Reel Machines, and I like big hard rock and grunge doom type drum sounds, so I'm seeing that 70's kit there. 

     

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