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Instruments You Really Tried To Like, but...


dubdisciple

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Piggybacking off of my previous post. Are there instruments you really wanted to like, gave more than a few chances, but found it useless?

 

Iris 2: It sounds great in theory. It is a powerful beast of a synth/ sampler... and I NEVER use it. Once a year I will go through some tutorials, tell myself "this could be amazing if I took the time to learn it".  Not happening. 

 

Beatscape: This is going way back but this may be the biggest disappointment I ever had with an instrument.  I loved Renee's synths and I just knew he was going to give cakewalk the sampling drum solution it needed. Nope. 

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SONiVOX Orchestral Companions. Several articulations, *but no mod wheel expression control.

SONiVOX Big Bang Cinematic Percussion. Lots of presets but no drum maps.

The  samples are good, but the user interfaces? Yikes!

https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/sonivox-film-score-companion
 

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Although some older sound libraries failed to survive the sampler format shifts of the early ‘00s, several important orchestral collections re-emerged dressed in new clothes. One such survivor is Sonic Implants’ Complete Symphonic Collection: released in stages between 2002 and 2005 and boasting what was then the largest strings volume in the world, the library received a warm welcome from the orchestral sampling community — you can read the SOS reviews at www.soundonsound.com.

Since its Gigastudio-format heyday, the collection has undergone various metamorphoses: after Sonic Implants changed their name to Sonivox in 2006, a Kontakt 2 version was released, followed by budget-priced, themed DVI ‘downloadable virtual instruments’ of selected ensembles. All these versions were subsequently withdrawn, but the good news is that the heart of the library still beats on inside Sonivox Film Score Companion, a suite of five instruments which can be bought separately, or collectively as a competitively priced bundle.

Film Score Companion (FSC for short) comprises Orchestral Companion Strings, Orchestral Companion Brass, Orchestral Companion Woodwinds, Big Bang Cinematic Percussion and Eighty Eight Ensemble. The first three are cut-down versions of instruments and ensembles from Complete Symphonic Collection, while the explosively titled Big Bang compilation includes orchestral percussion samples from the same source, as well as African drums and Latin percussion. As its name implies, Eighty Eight Ensemble is a multisampled concert grand piano with built-in additional instruments, pads and textures.

 

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 * rather than being controlled by the mod wheel, dynamics respond to velocity, MIDI CC7 (volume) and CC11 (expression) commands.

 

Edited by abacab
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Captain Plugins. I know it's not really an instrument although it comes with some pretty decent sounds (e.g. Piano Strings) and Beat for drums.

I just find the UI extremely clunky and unintuitive compared to other similar things and the constant need to "phone home" is also frutsrating.
There's allegedly a new version out soon so I will keep my fingers crossed for an improved experience.

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7 hours ago, ZincT said:

Captain Plugins. I know it's not really an instrument although it comes with some pretty decent sounds (e.g. Piano Strings) and Beat for drums.

I just find the UI extremely clunky and unintuitive compared to other similar things and the constant need to "phone home" is also frutsrating.
There's allegedly a new version out soon so I will keep my fingers crossed for an improved experience.

I tried to like captain but i always end up going back to scaler

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My vote goes to Surge.

Love the background and history, commercial-to-open source, all of that, but I just can't find or create usable sounds with the thing. I always wind up going back to Hybrid 3 or Vacuum Pro and getting what I want very quickly.

The Orchestral Companions were a great way to get orchestra sounds for cheap 5 years ago, but since Orchestools came out for free, and is a better product both in their own ROMplers and as Sampletank libraries, I don't use them much anymore.

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59 minutes ago, Starship Krupa said:

My vote goes to Surge.

Love the background and history, commercial-to-open source, all of that, but I just can't find or create usable sounds with the thing. I always wind up going back to Hybrid 3 or Vacuum Pro and getting what I want very quickly.

The Orchestral Companions were a great way to get orchestra sounds for cheap 5 years ago, but since Orchestools came out for free, and is a better product both in their own ROMplers and as Sampletank libraries, I don't use them much anymore.

My son has got me to give Surge another try.  I did find a few usable presets.  I do find that interface unbearable at times

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Surge is one of those classic soft synths, that appeared in the golden  age of soft synths back in the mid-2000's. Alongside other names such as Rhino, Vanguard, Wusikstation, and z3ta+.

So it is definitely dated, but the synth engine under the hood probably deserves a little respect. I agree that the interface could use an update, and hopefully the new open source caretakers will move in that direction. It's been a while since I opened it up myself, as the interface is just not that inspiring to me compared to the dozens of other synths in my kit. Not that you cannot make some great sounds with Surge, but it is a bit more difficult to stay engaged and inspired by the interface. It would just require a bit more patience.

And since Surge is free, there is no risk of buyer's remorse. :)

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On 12/20/2021 at 6:55 AM, ZincT said:

Captain Plugins. I know it's not really an instrument although it comes with some pretty decent sounds (e.g. Piano Strings) and Beat for drums.

I just find the UI extremely clunky and unintuitive compared to other similar things and the constant need to "phone home" is also frutsrating.
There's allegedly a new version out soon so I will keep my fingers crossed for an improved experience.

I bought Captain Plugins last week after watching a video by Kenny Gioia showing how to use it.  Granted, he was working in Reaper but it should work the same way in Cakewalk.  I have managed to make a loop by using his techniques but he didn't go into great detail.  He just gave a simple explanation about how to make a simple loop.

And also, I haven't been able to figure out how to edit a preset to make my own beats... to change the drum pattern into a different beat than what the presets give me.  For example, change a 4/4 into a 3/4 time signature.

I also haven't been able to figure is how to insert one of my own samples to replace the default instrument .

/Bobby

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24 minutes ago, Bobby Thistle said:

I bought Captain Plugins last week after watching a video by Kenny Gioia showing how to use it.  Granted, he was working in Reaper but it should work the same way in Cakewalk.  I have managed to make a loop by using his techniques but he didn't go into great detail.  He just gave a simple explanation about how to make a simple loop.

And also, I haven't been able to figure out how to edit a preset to make my own beats... to change the drum pattern into a different beat than what the presets give me.  For example, change a 4/4 into a 3/4 time signature.

I also haven't been able to figure is how to insert one of my own samples to replace the default instrument .

/Bobby

The drum part didn't even seem appealing, so i skipped and have been ignoring update offers

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On 12/23/2021 at 10:52 AM, dubdisciple said:

 

The drum part didn't even seem appealing, so i skipped and have been ignoring update offers

I was under the impression that you could compose any beat you want with it.  So far, after looking a dozens of videos about it, I've come to the conclusion that this can't be done - but I'm hoping that I'm wrong.  I think it may be great if all you're looking for is to make (what I call) dance music.

Oh well... $60 down the drain.  I'll be sure to do a lot more investigating before I buy something else on impulse.

/Bobby

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6 hours ago, Bobby Thistle said:

 I think it may be great if all you're looking for is to make (what I call) dance music.

Oh well... $60 down the drain.  I'll be sure to do a lot more investigating before I buy something else on impulse.

/Bobby

I know you can do more than dance music. After all, the musical components it creates follow the same music theory rules regardless of genre.  In fact similar products have been shown to be capable of a number of genres. I think it just has an unintuitive workflow that makes EDM the low hanging fruit. I will keep trying since i spent $40(i got version minus drums)

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11 hours ago, dubdisciple said:

 I will keep trying since i spent $40(i got version minus drums)

I was supposed to pay $99 for mine - complete with the drums.  But they had a promo code and it dropped the price down to $60.

Like you, I will keep trying when I have a bit of time to play with it... try to find some videos that go beyond what Kenny shows.

/Bobby

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10 minutes ago, Bobby Thistle said:

I was supposed to pay $99 for mine - complete with the drums.  But they had a promo code and it dropped the price down to $60.

Like you, I will keep trying when I have a bit of time to play with it... try to find some videos that go beyond what Kenny shows.

/Bobby

if I discover anything groundbreaking. I will share

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