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

[RBH]

I went with the Famous E. Rhodes is probably my most important key instrument samples need, I have a bunch but I want the best I can afford. I'm a guitarist so all those awesome libraries that are guitar and electric bass centric don't really find a home with me. But - I have the Rosewood Grand, Marimba, Vibes, Core Bass Pear in my catalogue already. OTS are probably my favorite libraries for authentic instruments.

Edited July 6, 2022 by RBH

[Craig Fowler]

10 hours 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 know Fleer loves it, and it does sound great. But, like you I have Rhodes coming out the wazoo, and can't bring myself to buy another...especially after picking up Keyboard in Blue for $25 (also Fleer's fault...). Realistically, I'll probably always turn to Pianoteq for EPs anyway.

 

I did register for the mandolin, though! I'm doing it!

[abacab]

2 hours ago, Bad Penguin said:

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]

Take a look at deCoda by zplane: https://products.zplane.de/products/decoda/

https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/zplane-decoda

Quote

Learn Any Song with deCoda, the Song Deconstruction Tool

Learn and Analyze Any Song

• Import an audio file and deCoda will tell you the key, the tempo and chords as well as identifying verse, chorus and other sections of the track.
• Dive deeper with deCoda’s easy-to-use tools to help you really perfect playing a song. Bring the tempo down to hear nifty musicianship or change the key of the song to find one that’s more suited to your playing or singing style.
• An intuitive Focus EQ helps you identify parts of the song that you want to filter out or hear isolated.
• deCoda was inspired and informed by professionals in the music and recording industry to help you learn songs faster and easier than ever.
• Created by zplane, deCoda is powered by the same technologies that are used by leading music-makers and producers all over the world.
• zplane technology is included in many leading DAWs and can be heard on countless chart-topping hits.

Musical Navigation

• deCoda's knowledge of a song's beat, tempo and structure let you navigate in musical terms rather than in samples or seconds. Explore the song in parts, bars or beats just with a keyboard hit or touch screen swipe. Automatically have a section loop and expand these loops just as quickly. Concentrate on your instrument, not the navigation.

Chord & Structure Recognition

• deCoda decodes your song's musical data such as beat, tempo, key, chords and song structure. Using AI, deCoda makes educated guesses for each providing a good starting point for your edits. In some cases, you won't need to make any edits!

Piano Roll With Spectral View

• The Piano Roll shows the melodic content of your song and lets you pick the notes that you can use for transcription. Results can be played back and exported as MIDI to your DAW or notation software.

Focus

• Focus mode lets you highlight the instrument in the stereo mix that you want to hear. And, when you're done figuring out the part then switch to inverted Focus mode to remove the instrument and practice with the backing track.

Change Tempo, Pitch or Both!

• zplane's elastique Pro is one of the best and the most used time-stretching algorithms in the world. And of course, it's also inside deCoda. You can slow things down or speed them up and change the key to make it fit your instrument or voice. deCoda also detects the tuning frequency of the song and matches it automatically to your preferred tuning frequency - no manual setup needed.

 

Edited July 7, 2022 by abacab

[abacab]

49 minutes ago, Craig Fowler said:

I know Fleer loves it, and it does sound great. But, like you I have Rhodes coming out the wazoo, and can't bring myself to buy another...especially after picking up Keyboard in Blue for $25 (also Fleer's fault...). Realistically, I'll probably always turn to Pianoteq for EPs anyway.

You might want to dump all the the other Rhodes in the trash bin!!! Haha, just kidding... 😜

But this thing is really good! And apparently Mr Rhodes himself said that this particular "E" model piano was the best version he had ever heard. And this is the first time this one has been sampled. The sound is authentic, so I guess it would all come down to whether this virtual instrument is playable and responsive enough for you.

 

[Fleer]

1 hour ago, Craig Fowler said:

I know Fleer loves it, and it does sound great. But, like you I have Rhodes coming out the wazoo, and can't bring myself to buy another...especially after picking up Keyboard in Blue for $25 (also Fleer's fault...). Realistically, I'll probably always turn to Pianoteq for EPs anyway.

Yep, those Pianoteq tines are mighty fine, and above all they play wonderfully. 
But the Famous E is something else. 
I’m sorry, Craig, it really is. Just read up on its history, you’ll be amazed, as was I. 

[PavlovsCat]

3 hours ago, abacab said:

You might want to dump all the the other Rhodes in the trash bin!!! Haha, just kidding... 😜

But this thing is really good! And apparently Mr Rhodes himself said that this particular "E" model piano was the best version he had ever heard. And this is the first time this one has been sampled. The sound is authentic, so I guess it would all come down to whether this virtual instrument is playable and responsive enough for you.

 

When The Famous E it first came out I was talking to Greg about how its tone really brought back memories of certain songs and artists and the first one I named Greg told me he was on the phone with him the day prior to our conversation.

But Jay Graydon, who he worked with on this library, is a total studio musician legend who's been part of so many great rock and R&B classic songs it's amazing, including songs by Ray Charles,  Marvin Gaye, Joe Cocker, Diana Ross, Albert King, Cheap Trick, Wayne Shorter... Jay was responsible for one of the most memorable rock guitar solos of all time on "Peg" by Steely Dan. I don't have permission to share the names of musicians and Grammy and Oscar winning composers who are OTS customers,  but they include some very heavy hitters. I just want to say this brag -- I recognized Greg's genius in OTS's very early days when a certain major plugin developer was trying to recruit him and I was telling him,  don't do it, you're an innovator,  you are doing things in this space that are leaps and bounds beyond other developers, stay independent.

I will share that one of the developers who told me that he was inspired by Greg's work was Andrew Aversa at ISW, that he basically reverse engineered a less advanced one trick pony version (genre wise) of Evolution. Another developer who told me he was reverse engineering Greg's work did the Big Fish guitar libraries. I haven't heard from him in ages, so I have no idea what he's up to these days as I'm focused on my own business. 

Edited July 7, 2022 by PavlovsCat

[MusicMan]

On 7/6/2022 at 11:03 PM, PavlovsCat said:

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. 

 

I went ahead and grabbed The Famous E Electric Piano and while I did already have some options for Rhodes, this one really is quite nice. I don't even know how to describe it, but it's got a warm an intimate kind of feel and sound to it 🙂

I love the way it sounds when you hold a note for longer and that really nice vibrato. That's probably one of the big differences between what I had and this one. I could probably add some effects to my existing synths/instruments and get a bit closer to it, but some of the supplied presets get it perfect, so for what it cost, it's worth it.

There are a decent number of presets too. I tend to program my own when it comes to synths, basses and other things, but not so much pianos (yet!). There's a good variety in there too.

Apart from the sound though, this company just seems to get it. I haven't brought anything from them before, so I was impressed by all the simple touches, like clear installation instructions with the serials for Native Access built into the instructions, exact file sizes to check the downloads and a few other things that made for a nice and simple overall experience.

I haven't tried the freebies yet either.  I suspect this won't be my last purchase from them! 🤣

[husker]

I picked up the only guitars I didn't have - Vintage Gent, Django Jazz, Rubber Bridge, Dry Relic, and the Bluegrass Banjo.  Special thanks to @Greg Schlaepfer for adding the Evolution Complete Bundle in the middle of the sale.  That greatly helped out some folks (like me) who had an odd combination of products going into the sale.  It makes it super easy to support a company when they look out for customers like that.

I'm really a bit frustrated though.  I've never really played the strumming patterns, and I started to play around with the rolls on the Bluegrass banjo.  They sound nothing like the demos.    I was trying to follow this simple example:

 

 

I watched carefully - it really seems he is just hitting the three notes, as well as the strum string.  My results sound nothing like a banjo roll (on any of the roll strumming presets) - it sound just like some odd combination of the keys I hold down.  I need to look into it a bit more, but I've really been struggling with the strumming.  I agree with the above posters that some simple midi files would really help learn the products.

[Greg Schlaepfer]

1 hour ago, husker said:

I watched carefully - it really seems he is just hitting the three notes, as well as the strum string.  My results sound nothing like a banjo roll (on any of the roll strumming presets) - it sound just like some odd combination of the keys I hold down.  I need to look into it a bit more, but I've really been struggling with the strumming.  I agree with the above posters that some simple midi files would really help learn the products.

Do you have the "automatic chords" mode in the CHORDS section of the interface enabled? It sounds like that might be the key to getting it to work on your end. The automatic chords mode lets you play even just triads and it will translate that to voicings on the banjo that take into consideration the current fretting position, alternate tunings, capo position, etc.

The MIDI files for all the factory demos (and the exact presets they use) are included as an additional optional download on the download page for each library. That way you can see how certain effects and parts were achieved in the demos.

That being said, it sounds like having simpler MIDI files, maybe just focusing on a single groove or style of playing rather than a full song, would be helpful--especially as part of a video tutorial that shows how to create that groove/sound from the ground up.

[husker]

7 hours ago, Greg Schlaepfer said:

Do you have the "automatic chords" mode in the CHORDS section of the interface enabled? It sounds like that might be the key to getting it to work on your end.....

That being said, it sounds like having simpler MIDI files, maybe just focusing on a single groove or style of playing rather than a full song, would be helpful--especially as part of a video tutorial that shows how to create that groove/sound from the ground up.

@Greg Schlaepfer - that was exactly it.  I was using the default setting "disabled" - changing it to automatic chords made it sound just like I expected.   I assume that is why I could never get what I expected out of strum mode.  Thank you much!

Simple midi files would be amazing.  

Edited July 8, 2022 by husker

[PhonoBrainer]

I totally have enough libraries, many of them excellent OTS.

Certainly easy to skip it this year! Super satisfied with my current tools, making the most out of what they offer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

So I just scored banjo, jumbo 12, and mandolin. That is all.

[PavlovsCat]

5 hours ago, PhonoBrainer said:

I totally have enough libraries, many of them excellent OTS.

Certainly easy to skip it this year! Super satisfied with my current tools, making the most out of what they offer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

So I just scored banjo, jumbo 12, and mandolin. That is all.

Yeah, I knew from that first sentence that denial very well. But you're self aware, some here aren't and post how they're not falling into temptation when they're posting in the DEALS forum. 

We're all deal addicts here. We know about that denial. I kept coming here and buying libraries and plugins for a decade when I  didn't even have a DAW PC! I still don't know if I should be thanking cclarry or trying to avoid him!

Edited July 10, 2022 by PavlovsCat

[Grem]

I went with Mind Control and Angelic Keys.  

[husker]

1 hour ago, PavlovsCat said:

I kept coming here and buying libraries and plugins for a decade when I  didn't even have a DAW PC! 

[abacab]

On 7/6/2022 at 8:30 PM, abacab said:

Take a look at deCoda by zplane: https://products.zplane.de/products/decoda/

By the way, as Greg has pointed out, the demo MIDI files are already available as "optional" downloads in your product downloads page. 

[kitekrazy]

I don't have any of their guitar libraries.  Which one would a person get? I'm thinking Songwriter.

[Fleer]

15 minutes ago, Paul Young said:

I don't have any of their guitar libraries.  Which one would a person get? I'm thinking Songwriter.

If you want a fine sounding acoustic, absolutely. It’s a Gibson J-45, think Beatles, Joni Mitchell, Iron & Wine. 

[PavlovsCat]

1 hour ago, Paul Young said:

I don't have any of their guitar libraries.  Which one would a person get? I'm thinking Songwriter.

What styles of music do you do?  If you do singer/songwriter or folk rock, I think Evolution Songwriter is a superb choice (I agree with everything Fleer wrote above). It's my favorite acoustic guitar library, hands down. Just playing it, it's so easy to get lost in it. The tone is gorgeous. probably the guitar sample library that I am most moved by since I started using guitar libraries (in the 1980s). If you're doing straight ahead rock and want something that cuts in a mix, I would check into Evolution Steel Strings. 

 

Edited July 11, 2022 by PavlovsCat

[abacab]

1 hour ago, Paul Young said:

I don't have any of their guitar libraries.  Which one would a person get? I'm thinking Songwriter.

That's a great choice! And I paired it with the Evolution Rock Standard electric.  https://www.orangetreesamples.com/products/evolution-rock-standard

"Evolution Rock Standard extensively reproduces the sound of an iconic electric guitar that holds a central role in the history of rock music. These guitars have continued in popularity through the decades, featuring in countless landmark recordings and performances."

"Its dual humbucker pickups provide bold mid frequencies, supplying ample presence for crunchy and high-gain tones as well as generous warmth for clean tones."

[PavlovsCat]

10 minutes ago, abacab said:

That's a great choice! And I paired it with the Evolution Rock Standard electric.  https://www.orangetreesamples.com/products/evolution-rock-standard

"Evolution Rock Standard extensively reproduces the sound of an iconic electric guitar that holds a central role in the history of rock music. These guitars have continued in popularity through the decades, featuring in countless landmark recordings and performances."

"Its dual humbucker pickups provide bold mid frequencies, supplying ample presence for crunchy and high-gain tones as well as generous warmth for clean tones."

If I had to trim my sample libraries down to only two guitar libraries, it would definitely be Evolution Songwriter and Evolution Rock Standard. I love the tone of those two and I've always been in love with Les Pauls. For electric bass, Evolution Flatwound  with the James Jamerson preset being my go to much of the time.