ZAK Sound Colorwoods Piano

[cclarry]

We have just released Colorwoods Piano from the Inspiring Sessions series. It's an acoustic piano recorded with six mics and five velocities. There is a 28% discount for one week for newsletter subscribers (expires March 18).

28% OFF with code "NWL28OFF" (expires March 18)

https://zaksound.com/inspiring-sessions-colorwoods-piano/

 

[PavlovsCat]

I completely understand why small developers want to do their own plugins. But as someone who has worked with top experts in software user experience and usability,, has consulted to dozens of sample and plugin developers and as a user of these tools, I don't want to deal with the learning curve, updates and support and potential conflicts and issues of yet another plugin . I've invested financial and in terms of time investment in the KONTAKT ecosystem as a lot of other DAW users have, and even when I listen and hear a small developer make a sample library that sounds good, I really don't want the hassle of adding another plugin when I literally have more than I can learn with any level of competence in the time I have left on this planet.  When I've advised sample developers. I always tell them, when you make your instruments, think about the learning curve a customer makes and do your best to ensure that the user's time investment with the learning curve will benefit the user as they invest in additional offerings you have. But where it's possible, allow the user to benefit from the knowledge they already possess. Always think about things from their perspective more than yours -- they're the ones you need to serve, not you and your ego. 

While it costs money and it's work to license the KONTAKT sample player, there is no cost to developer --in terms of licensing -- to make a library that works with KONTAKT  (the full, paid version), which is the industry standard for sophisticated sample libraries with scripting. There are also other popular alternatives -- not as sophisticated, but widely used, like UVI, Decent Sampler and the SFZ format. I just saw an update from the developer who goes by the name Sample Science. A few years ago we had a brief chat where he was contemplating moving to KONTAKT, but eventually decided not to. Today he just announced that he's now going to move all of his sample libraries to the KONTAKT format. I think that's a great decision and it's very use-centric. And yes, I realize that those who are not invested in KONTAKT will disagree, but for those who are in a market paying for sophisticated, scripted sample libraries, KONTAKT is the best choice. 

Okay, rant over. I wish this dev the best, and I listened to his piano library, but when I found out it wasn't in KONTAKT, his library was no longer in my consideration set. I want to see small devs succeed. I love making music and using sample libraries. I just don't think small devs charging money for amateur level software is a good route.  Focus on making a great sample library and leave the plugin software to the experts. 

Just my opinion. Others are free to disagree and buy as many sample library plugins from as many small developer they like and spend time dealing with individual issues and updates from each of those plugins for each sample library and be stuck with an unsupported plugin when the small dev gets out of the biz -- as happens extremely frequently. We can disagree about this stuff and should still be able to peacefully co-exist.  My bottom line is I want both talented sample developers and people who use sample libraries to succeed. I think we do better when we have less software to learn, maintain and worry about so we can focus more on what we love -- making music. 

Edited March 13, 2022 by PavlovsCat
Grammatical edits; clarification.

[kitekrazy]

15 hours ago, PavlovsCat said:

I completely understand why small developers want to do their own plugins. But as someone who has worked with top experts in software user experience and usability,, has consulted to dozens of sample and plugin developers and as a user of these tools, I don't want to deal with the learning curve, updates and support and potential conflicts and issues of yet another plugin . I've invested financial and in terms of time investment in the KONTAKT ecosystem as a lot of other DAW users have, and even when I listen and hear a small developer make a sample library that sounds good, I really don't want the hassle of adding another plugin when I literally have more than I can learn with any level of competence in the time I have left on this planet.  When I've advised sample developers. I always tell them, when you make your instruments, think about the learning curve a customer makes and do your best to ensure that the user's time investment with the learning curve will benefit the user as they invest in additional offerings you have. But where it's possible, allow the user to benefit from the knowledge they already possess. Always think about things from their perspective more than yours -- they're the ones you need to serve, not you and your ego. 

While it cost money and it's work to license the KONTAKT sample player, there is no cost to developer --in terms of licensing -- to make a library that works with KONTAKT, which is the industry standard for sophisticated sample libraries with scripting. There are also other popular alternatives -- not as sophisticated, but widely used, like UVI, Decent Sampler and the SFZ format. I just saw an update from the developer who goes by the name Sample Science. A few years ago we had a brief chat where he was contemplating moving to KONTAKT, but eventually decided not to. Today he just announced that he's now going to move all of his sample libraries to the KONTAKT format. I think that's a great decision and it's very use-centric. And yes, I realize that those who are not invested in KONTAKT will disagree, but for those who are in a market paying for sophisticated, scripted sample libraries, KONTAKT is the best choice. 

Okay, rant over. I wish this dev the best, and I listened to his piano library, but when I found out it wasn't in KONTAKT, his library was no longer in my consideration set. I want to see small devs succeed. I love making music and using sample libraries. I just don't think small devs charging money for amateur level software is a good route.  Focus on making a great sample library and leave the plugin software to the experts. 

Just my opinion. Others are free to disagree and buy as many sample library plugins from as many small developer they like and spend time dealing with individual issues and updates from each of those plugins for each sample library and be stuck with an unsupported plugin when the small dev gets out of the biz -- as happens extremely frequently. We can disagree about this stuff and should still be able to peacefully co-exist.  My bottom line is I want both talented sample developers and people who use sample libraries to succeed. I think we do better when we have less software to learn, maintain and worry about so we can focus more on what we love -- making music. 

This is a most excellent post.  With Kontakt player a developer really doesn't have to worry about distribution.  The beauty of Kontakt is that the end user doesn't have to worry about machine limit.  I've never had issue with machine limit with Kontakt player either.

When people develop REs and Refills to be sold in the Reason shop, they take a healthy cut, rumor has it 30% for REs, 50% for Refills. The developer doesn't worry about distribution.

I won't fork over large money that involves the Spitfire player or those other ones. VSL is the exception.

 

[fret_man]

As an alternative opinion, using a custom GUI allows the designer to offer a customized experience made just for that particular instrument. My expectation is they would offer more streamlined, easier to access control to get results faster than what can be achieved with a generic interface. But they need to DO this to make it worthwhile.