Sonic Atoms NAVIA HARP FREE Sample Library; Full Version on Sale $39 / €39

[PavlovsCat]

There is a free version and a paid version of the NAVIA Harp, a concert harp sample library formatted for HALion Sonic 7 Player, which is free. The paid version is currently on sale for $39 /  €39. From my experience, this is a really talented developer who makes excellent sample libraries that sound beautiful to my ears. While I have yet to install this library, my guess is that it will be very good, based on the demos, which sound excellent to my ears, and from my past experience as a customer who has purchased some his other libraries. His libraries are geared towards cinematic music, which I don't do, but I find the libraries inspiring to play and will eventually use one in something I complete.

I also want to share an experience with the developer and a policy he communicated to me that will matter to some here, but not everyone, as I feel the most helpful thing that we can do in this community is to share our honest experiences -- good and bad -- with developers as this information can be very useful to our fellow forum members, and we're certainly not going to get any honest experiences from watching influencers shill libraries and plugins, so I really feel it's important for all of us to step up and share our experiences as we're not sharing for the benefit of developers, we're sharing for the benefit of our fellow users. Anyhow, this really isn't controversial, but I think it will be important to some sample library users. 

I had a hard drive crash several months after purchasing a couple of this dev's libraries a few years ago and I didn't have a backup. The developer has no automated way to re-download his libraries, or at least he didn't at that time. So I sent him an email asking if I could re-download the libraries I purchased several months prior. His  response was to lecture me about not having a backup (which I totally get, but his response seemed clearly annoyed and insulting, like, "another stupid customer" bothering him and it appeared very much like he was venting at me, okay, there's  no doubt,  that's what it was, I was trying to be diplomatic). Anyhow, he sent the links to re-download and added that if I ever need to re-download again he will be charging me. Consequently, I found the interaction less than ideal and also, I wasn't fond of his policy. I have a very large sample library collection and don't have backups for much of it, because I can easily redownload most of those libraries and it would take up a huge hard drive or a couple of them to have the libraries backed up. So considering that someday I might need to re-download again and that I wasn't happy with his attitude, I have not purchased anything from him again -- even while really appreciating his quality of work. Anyhow, I realize that some of you will agree with the dev that I should have had a backup and agree with his policy, others, like those who disagree with IK's similar policy will disagree.  In any event, especially because I'm sharing this library and praising this developer's work, I felt I should also be sharing that information.  It's the kind of thing you do when you're not an influencer, because you can be certain the developer likely wouldn't be overjoyed to know that I shared that experience, but it is something a paying customer who wants to be helpful to other paying customers will share. At least this one will. 

https://sonicatoms.com/navia-harp/

Edited October 13, 2023 by PavlovsCat

[Byron Dickens]

Hard drives are cheap compared to aggravation....

[PavlovsCat]

3 hours ago, Byron Dickens said:

Hard drives are cheap compared to aggravation....

I thought that way more than a decade ago, when it was more common for developers to not have anything setup so customers could easily re-download libraries, but in the last decade its become the norm for developers to allow customers to re-download libraries on demand, at any time at no cost. Offhand from developers I have libraries from or are fairly well known that let you re download for free on demand include NI, Orange Tree Samples,  Toontrack, XLN, SoundIron, Impact Soundworks,  8Dio,  e-instruments, Kirk Hunter Studios, Karanyi, Musical Sampling, MNTRA, Audio Ollie, Xperimenta Project,  Waverinner Audio, Minimal Audio, Loot Audio libraries,  Simple Samples,  Straight Ahead Samples. Have Audio, Sonora Cinematic, Handheld Sound, Majetone, Red Room Audio, Spitfire,  VSL, Orchestratools, Splash Sound, Sound Dust, Edu Prado, Hideaway Studios, Muletone Audio, Rigid Audio,  Triple Spiral Audio, Virharmonic...even Pianobook. You get the picture. For the past decade, most developers have moved to having systems that allow customers to re-download at no cost (I've consulted to more than two dozen sample and plugin developers over the years, so I'm pretty in tune with practices, plus I've spent way too much money on sample libraries and plugins). So it's caused me to no longer spend money and time on doing sample library backups. Now backing up Cakewalk projects is a different story. 

Edited October 13, 2023 by PavlovsCat

[antler]

14 hours ago, PavlovsCat said:

Anyhow, this really isn't controversial, but I think it will be important to some sample library users. 

Thanks for sharing this. I was interested in some of their other libraries. But (I'm fairly sure) I have enough Kontakt libraries to cover the areas, and I don't really want to install HALion.

[Byron Dickens]

3 hours ago, PavlovsCat said:

I thought that way more than a decade ago, when it was more common for developers to not have anything setup so customers could easily re-download libraries, but in the last decade its become the norm for developers to allow customers to re-download libraries on demand, at any time at no cost. Offhand from developers I have libraries from or are fairly well known that let you re download for free on demand include NI, Orange Tree Samples,  Toontrack, XLN, SoundIron, Impact Soundworks,  8Dio,  e-instruments, Kirk Hunter Studios, Karanyi, Musical Sampling, MNTRA, Audio Ollie, Xperimenta Project,  Waverinner Audio, Minimal Audio, Loot Audio libraries,  Simple Samples,  Straight Ahead Samples. Have Audio, Sonora Cinematic, Handheld Sound, Majetone, Red Room Audio, Spitfire,  VSL, Orchestratools, Splash Sound, Sound Dust, Edu Prado, Hideaway Studios, Muletone Audio, Rigid Audio,  Triple Spiral Audio, Virharmonic...even Pianobook. You get the picture. For the past decade, most developers have moved to having systems that allow customers to re-download at no cost (I've consulted to more than two dozen sample and plugin developers over the years, so I'm pretty in tune with practices, plus I've spent way too much money on sample libraries and plugins). So it's caused me to no longer spend money and time on doing sample library backups. Now backing up Cakewalk projects is a different story. 

This may come as a surprise to all you urban/ suburbanites, but not everyone has unlimited high speed internet even available to them let alone the time required to spend downloading multi GB of stuff.

Ergo: hassle and aggravation.

[PavlovsCat]

1 hour ago, Byron Dickens said:

This may come as a surprise to all you urban/ suburbanites, but not everyone has unlimited high speed internet even available to them let alone the time required to spend downloading multi GB of stuff.

Ergo: hassle and aggravation.

I'm not sure what your point is related to re-downloads. Could you clarify? 

I get -- and totally empathize that slow Internet service makes large downloads a hassle -- which I think everyone can agree on. But I don't see the correlation with a developer's policy to charge customers to re-download a library. FTR, if you're disagreeing with my point, that's completely fine, but I'm not sure if you are or what your point is. Are you just making a side note about how painful big downloads are when you have slow Internet and that you think a lot of people take fast Internet for granted? That's my best guess. If so, I agree.

Edited October 13, 2023 by PavlovsCat