Orange Tree Samples 2022 Group Buy - Now At 60% OFF [ENDED]

[chris.r]

3 hours ago, Yan Filiatrault said:

East West Gypsy

 

3 hours ago, PavlovsCat said:

 

@chris.r  Evolution Django is exactly what you're looking for. 

https://www.orangetreesamples.com/products/evolution-django-jazz

Thanks! I'll have a look.

I realize it's possibly one of the most demanding tasks to do for virtual guitar. I also realize OTS was probably the best place to ask for it 😃

Edited July 5, 2022 by chris.r

[PavlovsCat]

On a side note, there's a good reason not to call the style of music Django Rhinehart played  "Gypsy jazz."

That label came about many years after Django Rhinehart's death to describe the style of jazz played by Romani musicians.  It wasn’t something he used or the Romani people used to describe their style of jazz.  The term is from an era where Europeans and European descended people (which is my background,  BTW) regularly used the slur "Gypsy" to describe the Romani people, half a million of whom were put to death during the holocaust. American literature, film and TV had routinely disparaged Romanis, even until recent decades. I grew up reading and watching this stuff and had no idea until I was an adult that the term was a slur, as is often the case for many Americans. Consequently,  Greg, who is a very talented jazz musician,  was respectful of this when developing the Evolution Django Jazz guitar library.  Granted,  from a marketing and search engine optimization perspective, it would have been easier to market the library using the slur containing phrase, but Greg chose to respect Django and the Romani people. 

Edited July 5, 2022 by PavlovsCat

[chris.r]

Tell that Gypsy Kings  

[PavlovsCat]

2 hours ago, chris.r said:

Tell that Gypsy Kings  

Some Romani people are okay with the term, despite it being a slur, because it's been used in such a pervasive manner to describe the Romani people, just as there are people of other ethnicities that use slurs against their group with the mindset that it takes the power away from those who used the term against them. It's definitely a complex situation, especially with a genre of music defined by white European descended people to describe Romani style jazz. My personal choice is to avoid using slurs. But, of course,  Romanis have the right to choose to use a term used against them. I respect and understand that. My own (late) paternal grandmother used to use a slur against our own ethnicity, which some people choose to do.  

Now back to our regularly scheduled program. 

Edited July 5, 2022 by PavlovsCat

[chris.r]

@PavlovsCat sorry to hear that

to me personally it's a beautiful term as is the music

[PavlovsCat]

8 hours ago, chris.r said:

@PavlovsCat sorry to hear that

to me personally it's a beautiful term as is the music

I always defer to how the group the slur is used against thinks of the slur.

Some Romanies  see it as simply a disparaging slur that Europeans and European descended people have long used to describe them that is just a fact of life they can't change, while others are profoundly offended and see it as similar to the N-word. I think Romani jazz musicians, like the founders of the Gipsy Kings, faced a complex situation when they founded the band during the late 1970s, because that slur was very popularly used to describe the Romani people in the Western world with very little resistance and was being  used to describe the Romani jazz style at the time the band was founded and the Romani population is very small (25 million globally), so it's not like getting awareness is easy for a minority group that small.  I think the founders of the band saw an easier path was to make light of the label,  where other Romani are profoundly offended by the slur. I come from a family that is part Jewish,  so we are especially sensitive to other groups that experienced a great deal of prejudice against them, like the Romanies, leading up to their being targeted by the Nazis in the holocaust. 

The European Roma Rights Centre does a good job of explaining the Romani (also called Roma) perspective:

"A term used to describe Roma. Amongst most Romani communities this is an offensive racial slur. It derives from the word 'Egyptian' due to the misconception that Roma arriving in Great Britain originated in Egypt."

Okay, I promise, back to the group buy! I just thought it was a good time to spread a little awareness, understanding and respect for one another,  as most Americans and Europeans have no idea that this term is a slur, especially those 40 and up who grew up hearing it used on TV shows. Most white people use this term without any awareness that it's a racial slur and I think because the Romani population is relatively small, there's not much awareness of this fact. 

Here's a review of the Evolution Django Jazz guitar library. 

 

Edited July 6, 2022 by PavlovsCat

[PavlovsCat]

Back on topic of the libraries, for those who looking into Orange Tree Samples acoustic guitar libraries,  I think this video from composer Guy Michaelmore is pretty useful, as are most of his videos, IMO. 

 

Edited July 5, 2022 by PavlovsCat

[Fleer]

Yeah, love that Guy. 

[Bad Penguin]

Have not yet had an opportunity to rtfm.

Quickly, am I am to install OTS to an external ssd? Is the process straight-forward?

Will the individual instruments appear as icons with Kontakt? (I guess they have to be "Player" compatible for this to happen).

TIA !

[abacab]

22 minutes ago, Bad Penguin said:

Have not yet had an opportunity to rtfm.

Quickly, am I am to install OTS to an external ssd? Is the process straight-forward?

Will the individual instruments appear as icons with Kontakt? (I guess they have to be "Player" compatible for this to happen).

TIA !

You authorize any Kontakt Player compatible libraries using Native Access. Then you unzip the libraries into your Kontakt library folder, on whatever drive you would use for them.

Greg previously posted details in this thread about which OTS libraries are Kontakt Player compatible, i.e., they show up as "icons" in the Kontakt library browser. The gist of his explanation is that all of the Evolution Complete Bundle titles, plus the Famous E, are Player compatible. You can find such details in each product's listing.

 

Edited July 6, 2022 by abacab

[Fleer]

Back to the OTS Group Buy guys, which instruments did/will you pick?

[cclarry]

6 minutes ago, Fleer said:

Back to the OTS Group Buy guys, which instruments did/will you pick?

I picked the Guitar Bundle.  Haven't finalized yet...may change my mind,
but 19 Libraries for $20 each is a pretty dang good deal!

[Bad Penguin]

13 minutes ago, Fleer said:

Back to the OTS Group Buy guys, which instruments did/will you pick?

Within about 24 hours, went from OTS nothing to OTS everything (now a member of the OTS Bapu club)

Thanx Greg !!!

Edited July 6, 2022 by Bad Penguin

[MusicMan]

I was thinking I might grab the The Famous E Electric Piano..

But I do have quite a few Rhodes patches in various instruments and the IK Stage 73 Mark V along with any others that come with Sampletank 3 / 4...  so I'm a little on the fence with it. I've added it to the order for now though and will decide.

[PavlovsCat]

1 hour ago, MusicMan said:

I was thinking I might grab the The Famous E Electric Piano..

But I do have quite a few Rhodes patches in various instruments and the IK Stage 73 Mark V along with any others that come with Sampletank 3 / 4...  so I'm a little on the fence with it. I've added it to the order for now though and will decide.

I thought the same thing initially, that I already have a bunch of quality Rhodes sample libraries and this has become my go to (I'm hoping OTS will do a Wurly next, as I grew up with one at our house; I do own several Wurly library,  but candidly,  I feel very confident that OTS could create a better one). For me, the differentiator with The Famous E is the quality of the underlying sampling, the ability to customize and the presets. There's a ton of great presets, and I, admittedly, am largely a preset user; I have bought many libraries that duplicate instruments  I already have due to great presets. I do make my own presets too, but I don't have the skills of the real experts that make really great presets, and The Famous E contains more presets, I would imagine, than any other electric piano library I have and the quality of the presets is superb.  You can also get under the hood and do a great deal of fine tuning.

I wish I could find a preset walkthrough of the library,  but I really like this video walkthrough. It will give you a good idea of the library. 

 

Edited July 6, 2022 by PavlovsCat

[Marc Cormier]

I’m a newbie with OTS and went with Roundwound Bass.  I’ve been using MODO bass for years but the OTS demo makes that library sound like it’s in a different league altogether.  You can hide a lot of the artificial-ness of MODO in a mix but for more intimate genres—or where bass plays a more prominent role—it’s just not up to snuff if there are higher quality options available.

I was on the fence for the group buy, thinking the NI Prime Bass might be a solid option, but the price was right and KU14CE is probably still a couple of months away.

[PavlovsCat]

1 hour ago, Marc Cormier said:

I’m a newbie with OTS and went with Roundwound Bass.  I’ve been using MODO bass for years but the OTS demo makes that library sound like it’s in a different league altogether.  You can hide a lot of the artificial-ness of MODO in a mix but for more intimate genres—or where bass plays a more prominent role—it’s just not up to snuff if there are higher quality options available.

I was on the fence for the group buy, thinking the NI Prime Bass might be a solid option, but the price was right and KU14CE is probably still a couple of months away.

I have MODO, which I use for the Hofner, and it is pretty nice but still falls short with regard to authenticity. If there's any library I'm eager for, it's Orange Tree Samples releasing a Hofner bass library. I've been begging Greg for one for at least a decade, so my apologies,  Greg. But you know how much I love that tone. Although, I usually use the Evolution bass library with the James Jamerson preset as it's more realistic sounding and McCartney actually developed his style and sound after that of Jamerson and when you play that preset, it really becomes evident. That said, I'm probably going to go back and redo those tracks when OTS releases a Hofner bass library. 

Edited July 6, 2022 by PavlovsCat

[PavlovsCat]

I realize that guitarists won't be impressed by this and I put zero work into it (that is, rehearsing), it's a series of first takes but the reason I think it's decent is my enthusiasm. All of the guitar parts were played in real-time without the auto-chord/strumming function, as I wanted to be able to quickly go from chords to single notes in real-time. For me, the results  I got from playing Evolution Rock Standard greatly inspired my playing. This was the first complete song that I played from start to finish more than 20 years since tendonitis stopped me from playing professionally or even as a hobbyist (for the most part, I still continued to play and write music for my kids when they were young;  I stopped playing music after they got older). So, for Christmas 2020, my teenage son asked for a gaming computer and midi keyboard. I started playing songs i wrote decades ago and teaching him to play Beatles songs (I love that band and my kids grew up hearing their music all the time). So I started showing him a few Beatles tunes and thought I sounded decent on some of them (I was never a lead singer, just a drummer and keyboardist who did background vocals).  So, a few months later, I decided to get another DAW computer (yes, I still was coming here and buying stuff when I didn't even have a properly equipped machine or any of my midi stuff hooked up to play) and pressed record and got this first take on me on electric piano then I added two instances of Evolution Rock Standard using factory presets and Abbey Road 60s drums. The timing is by no means perfect, and my drumming and playing isn't impressive, but I still think it turned out pretty well and the guitar parts were a blast to play (I'm doing leads all over the second half of the song, largely to distract from my voice). 
 

 

Edited July 7, 2022 by PavlovsCat

[Bad Penguin]

@Greg Schlaepfer

since i am an ots n00b, i'll ask . . . any (chance of) midi files being made available?

[at least I won't be the first to ask]

Evolution Rock Standard - Factory Presets Demo

Quote

Steven Cravis

4 years ago

It's kind of rare for a keyboardist to be able to play guitar style so well as in these demos.

View reply

YoungBlaze

4 years ago

i always recommend them to sell the midi or something of these demos so you can see the actually notes and practice

 

Edited July 6, 2022 by Bad Penguin

[PavlovsCat]

5 hours ago, Bad Penguin said:

@Greg Schlaepfer

since i am an ots n00b, i'll ask . . . any (chance of) midi files being made available?

[at least I won't be the first to ask]

Evolution Rock Standard - Factory Presets Demo

 

I'm sure that if he has midi files used in the video that @Greg Schlaepfer will share them (although he may have made that in real-time and not have the midi files). 

But I also want to chime in to respond to what Steven wrote in the quote you shared. Yes, a ton of sample library demos feature incredibly good playing and Greg is an extremely talented musician far beyond my abilities and his audio demos feature a lot of playing far beyond my modest abilities that are probably equivalent to Greg's abilities at 7 years old. However, I can perform everything Greg did in that video fairly easily and I am a below average keyboardist (I played drums professionally, but piano was my first instrument) and I have only started to play again after 20+ years after stopping and now I have zero technique and get pain after 30 seconds of playing an arpeggio, so yeah, I'm not going to impress anyone). My teenage son has been learning keyboards with a self-study course and what he would do with that video, and what I would recommend anyone interested do, is slow it down to half speed. Open the Evolution Rock Standard library and find the patch Greg is using and try to play the same thing along with him (and then practice it alone after that).  His playing in that video is not at a difficult level, a beginning keyboardist might not be able to pull off the same parts with beautiful timing and feel, but should be able to do it.  What makes those parts sound so convincing is really about the complex sampling, the modeling techniques used and scripting. If you played the same exact part with another library, you're not going to get those results. Particularly with leads. That is where the brilliance of the Evolution guitar libraries really is most evident and I'm blown away by what I can do with it (again, not bragging because I am now a terrible keyboardist with all the technique of a cat walking on a piano). 

Edited July 7, 2022 by PavlovsCat