antler

Can't help with getting your plugins to work, but I can log in both to Product Portal and my account on the website.

2 hours ago, Marc Cormier said:

This is the perennial battle of revenue generation vs. technical debt.  The latter provides cost savings over the long haul but potential reduction in short-term sales.  Kicking the can down the road only makes it a messier bed for whoever owns/manages them in 3-5 years.

Thanks Marc - I know the battle all too well. I've been in the game for a while now, and I've known only one time where the entire team pushed back, and we went into 'maintenance mode' for a short while.

3 hours ago, Carl Ewing said:

It's just terrible software engineering with non-existent consideration for backward compatibility. This could be fixed quite literally by one guy working full time for a couple months. I'm sure NI can afford it, considering it's their flagship product and the vast majority of their product catalog is built on it.

To be fair, it's not always the devs' fault. People come and go along with management changes, and sometimes that means overall knowledge of the product decreases within the team. And in places with higher levels of bureaucracy, management might decide over the devs on what gets built. It's possible (hypothetically speaking - I've no association with NI) the devs want to spend more time learning and fixing code infrastructure, but the higher ups insist on new features because that's what 'will' get more sales.

1 hour ago, Magic Russ said:

They called Kontakt 6 just plain Kontakt, and I was hoping they were going to keep on that track so that you don't have to keep older versions around.

Perhaps that was the vision - just one version (with the same plugin ID), which updates with new features over time. But that might have been before the merge with iZotope and PA.

4 hours ago, GTsongwriter said:

Well they continue to support windows 10?

Not sure, but Microsoft will end support for Windows 10 in approximately one year from now.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/end-of-support?msockid=28b0994457f860b707078b21561861ed&r=1

3 hours ago, kevin H said:

They now have the unlimited web app for $29.

https://audioplugin.deals/product/mindful-harmony-web-app/
 

it is not only very mindful but also very demure.

It looks like something you could get from Scaler, which you'd have the additional advantage (depending on your point of view) of being able to run from within your DAW. Scaler doesn't seem to have buttons to explicitly show 11th or 13th chords, but you can type those variations in to get them if you need that flavour.

5 hours ago, ralfrobert said:

But you still have to install the PACE software to run Sonible plugins, right?

That used to be the case, but isn't anymore:

https://help.sonible.com/hc/en-us/articles/5333228997010-Do-I-need-the-PACE-License-Manager-to-run-sonible-plug-ins

6 hours ago, MrFigg said:

What do ADSR have for under $1? I don’t want to give them a penny more. 

Because you're on a budget, or because you don't like ADSR?

I've never looked at FL Studio before today; I had no idea it could be used as a plugin from another DAW.

40 minutes ago, MusicMan said:

That almost reads as though you might not if you have Producer as an example, but might if you had the All Plugins bundle as it's the premium one.

Might be the same concept as Melda. For example, let's say you had MEssentialsFXBundle. They then release a new plugin that goes into MMasteringFXBundle. If you have MMasteringFXBundle, you get the new plugin; if you have MEssentialsFXBundle, you don't because the new plugin is part of MMasteringFXBundle (and MComplete).

20 hours ago, overbit said:

I like triaz and waited for expansion release but £69 is more than I expected..

For a limited time, it's £49. Not sure if September 19 refers to the intro price, or the bonus Flow sample pack.

20 hours ago, Jeremy Oakes said:

What is enshitification ?

It means to make things worse or degrade. It's a word that was probably made up in a similar vein to how 'embiggen' means to make things bigger.

20 hours ago, Jeremy Oakes said:

The Oxford dictionary doesn’t have it.

It's not a formal word and will very likely be frowned upon if used in such contexts.

6 hours ago, fitzroy said:

Does anyone have a working installer for the PA unlocked edition of Gig Performer 4? I had to do a complete system rebuild a few months ago and I just realized I can't install GP; PA no longer hosts the installer, and on Deskview's  own download section, their version (including 4.5.8, which I believe is the last one under the PA license) requires activation via email + serial. 

3 hours ago, Brian Walton said:

I've been wondering the same with a new computer build I've been doing.  Hit a road block when that installer basically doesn't exist.  

Terrible practice.

3 hours ago, dumbquestions said:

Welp that adds another one to my list of reasons I’ll be stuck on my current OS for eternity

Under their support FAQs, there's a section for PA customers. That page lists links for files hosted by PA (assumption based on the domain in the links' URLs) for their legacy version installers.

https://gigperformer.com/plugin-alliance-legacy-download-links

@smallstonefan Have you checked out the UJam pianist series?

https://www.ujam.com/pianist/

Alternatively, there's Toontrack EZKeys - but that's further away from what you're describing.

For chord types/inversions possibly Scalar might help?

I hope you don't mind me chiming in despite not having it.

I collected a few orchestral libraries over time. While I like to do an orchestral mock up every now and then (I didn't say I was any good at it), it's not the only type of music I like to make. So one of the things I look for in libraries is flexibility. I believe the patches in Albion One are combined patches - so  e.g. strings, rather than violins 1. Depending on your point of view, this might be a good thing, or a bad thing.

Another thing I've read is the sound of Air studio is heavily baked into it. So if you don't like the sound, you'll find it difficult to use the library.

Personally, I find myself looking towards Spitfire every time they do a sale. But I always think I should use what I already have and manage to talk myself out of it; it'd probably be a different story if I didn't already have the libraries I do.

Finally, something to consider as you asked about alternatives: Musio 1 Perpetual is currently on sale for $199 right now. Musio's a fairly new product. (I don't think) they have all the mic positions of the libraries' Kontakt equivalents (yet?), but I think I saw somewhere it might be coming. That said, its got all the CineSymphony component libraries as well as the CineSymphony library (that contains combined patches for sketching). And it's got a few more specialist libraries too.

11 hours ago, Sander Verstraten said:

They have been pushing so many products lately.

I'm guessing this one was relatively easy to make - it's a cut down version of Choir Omnia that's already in Komplete 14 CE

7 hours ago, jngnz said:

Played around with this for 2 hours now.

It's IMO the first physical modeling synth that can sound like you invented a new instrument that could actually exist in real life. I was having a lot of fun tweaking some patches and got sounds anywhere from something that sounded like a guitar mixed with a piano to imaginary keys instruments between organ and... something, as well as imaginary "world" instruments with decently realistic timbre.

What this is NOT is a realistic emulation of existing instruments. There are patches called "Cello", "String Section" and "Oud" but they sound more kind of close than an exact emulation. I was having more fun layering them in unusual ways, e.g. the Cello beneath a fuzzy baritone guitar and the Oud alongside some piano. With MPE especially , this can give some life to sample libraries or synths that need it and I'm very much looking forward to layering this with brass, synths or maybe even string instruments.

Also, like the guy's other releases, but even more so, it excels at otherworldly noisy stuff and oddball percussion hits, but unlike the others, it is very versatile and I can see myself frequently using this in a melodic context as opposed to just a sound design tool.

Thanks. I decided to try the demo and came to the same conclusion. For someone looking for real world string instruments, SWAM is a much better (and pricier) way to go. But Preparation 2 isn't trying to cover that area, and it's possible to make some really interesting tones from this.

I remember giving Modus a try a while back. It seems like a really cool concept but decided to pass as I couldn't think of a context in which I'd be using it (musically). If you have it, have you found any practical uses for it? Just wondering whether I was lacking imagination when I trialled it and should consider adding it to my BF/maybe-one-day shopping list.

59 minutes ago, jngnz said:

It is. Just upgraded for 30 bucks. Hope it’s more usable and musical than v1.

Once you've had a chance to play with it, let us know your thoughts.

Seems interesting...

But no PayPal option ☹️

.

15 hours ago, El Diablo said:

I've owned two focusrite interfaces.  They are horrible build quality.  Both devices knobs create a hiss / noise when you turn them.  Both my old and brand new interface. 

I'll be buying a different brand next time.

I don't know if the build quality has gone down, but I used to have a (now discontinued) 1st gen Scarlett 8i6. The only 'issue' I had with it was it didn't have a dedicated power switch.

7 hours ago, Rational said:

The following products or companies are gone now:

audio-verge.com

wiggle by 2nd sense audio

Klip from Sample Magic

It Might Get Loud is now Urgitone.com

Not sure if this will help, but...

2nd sense audio has gone, as well as its listing on Plugin Boutique. But, I did find Wiggle listed on Producer Spot - might be worth a shot?

https://www.producerspot.com/product/wiggle/

Also, not sure if it's a typo but Ugritone is (just about) still in existence until the end of the year (or at least that's my understanding).

https://ugritone.com/

If you have any success with either of these, please let us know as it might help others in the same situation.

14 hours ago, Rational said:

Some of the downloads no longer work. Just sent an email asking them if they can help me get working downloads for these:

I'd suggest contacting the developer/s directly (provided they're still around). If you send them proof of purchase, they might add the product/s to your account on their website.

I sent VSTBuzz support an email a few days ago asking if everything (downloads, invoices, purchase history) in my account would be disappearing at the end of August. My understanding of their answer was 'yes', with one exception. As long as any Pulse Downloader codes have been registered in Pulse, they would still be available to download afterwards.

This is sad, but at least we have a heads-up. When T+S closed it happened without forewarning and everything (including downloads in Connect) disappeared.

21 hours ago, Bapu said:

But bx_rooms was probably had by me for $9.99, so hard pass

Hard pass even though it's part of the Mega sub?

7 minutes ago, jngnz said:

bx_rooms, which I don't own because it's awful

I remember reading somewhere that bx_rooms can be quite good; you just have to consider it a special FX reverb rather than a room simulator (as the name would imply).