PavlovsCat

MY BLACK FRIDAY WISH LIST: A GREAT SCRIPTED KONTAKT SOLO CELLO LIBRARY I've been picking up some of the pre-Black Friday deep discounted deals that have been going on, like 8Dio's drum libraries (I bought all three of them, even though I literally need to buy a new hard drive to install them) and I'm a sucker for beautiful or quirky/character piano libraries. I jumped on the rarely discounted deal on Spitfire's $49 USD and under deal to get $10 back -- and someone posted an additional discount code here that I also used (thanks). But what I really want for BLACK FRIDAY is a well scripted solo cello library. How badly do I want it? Well, enough that I PMed the developer of NORDIC Cello to ask if he would be doing a Black Friday sale on his cello, and breaking news, he will be and he told me the amount, and it's significant. I don't know that developer, I just bought one of his other libraries and thought the NORDIC Cello demos sounded really good. I also think Sonixenima's Solo Cello sounds really good. I own Fluffy Audio's Trio Broz Viola and it's a super well scripted library and I would buy their cello in the series, but I don't think that the libraries in the series can be played with polyphony. At least, I can't figure out a way (I contacted the developer, but he never responded; from watching videos, it seems that polyphony -- not legato polyphony, but non-legato polyphony -- isn't an option). So, I'm interested in what my fellow forum members are looking for? I think it would be kind of cool if maybe we could list what we're looking for in this thread and, perhaps, other forum members, might be able to chime in with advice and maybe even make us aware of deals we were previously unaware of.

It's not as sophisticated as Orange Tree Samples Evolution or Ample Sound libraries, but it's ten bucks (USD) and for that amount, I think it's great.

Yes. Referral programs are focused on acquiring new customers, so only a new customer making their first purchase gets a $15USD discount (once). Some people are creating new accounts, but, of course, that's completely dishonest and I wouldn't recommend it for ethics reasons.

Larry, you know I missed you when you weren't here for you personally, not just your ability to post deals -- which is of course, unparalleled and awesome. But it's stuff like this, when someone posts a deal and you find an even better deal, that frankly, when you weren't posting, made me hesitant to buy. Dead serious. Every time I saw a tempting deal, I kept thinking -- if Larry was around I could buy confidently knowing that I had the best possible deal. Nobody can touch your deal skills. Nobody. Respect Doctor Deals, folks. We learned what life is like without him. I don't want to go through that experience again. Glad you're here, Larry.

This is exactly why Larry is the boss -- or king, if you prefer -- when it comes to deals. How about this, Doctor Deal? I do think that Larry has a slight resemblance to another doctor.

Wow, you're really doing a great job with your site, @Music Software Deals. From the content to the design and your responsiveness, great job.

Both markets are very crowded. IMO, the best bet to establishing your new business is figure out something that no one is doing or no one is doing well. Are there certain sample libraries that are really difficult to use or not as good as you think could be where maybe you could do it better? Cinematic libraries can be extremely costly to record if you focus on the orchestral end and require a serious investment with studio time, musicians, engineers, etc. Look at the niche developers like Ben Osterhouse. He focused on a different spin on string libraries. He's a very talented guy at a lot of things, that's rare. Greg Schlaepfer of Orange Tree Samples is like that too. He was a genius at scripting KONTAKT that developers like Cinesamples used and he made a name for himself as an innovator in KONTAKT scripting. Back when Greg was working on Evolution, there was nothing like it on the market. The closest thing was RealGuitarist, which was cool, and I owned it, but the samples weren't very good and it didn't sound realistic. Just cool as a toy. Greg created the first guitar sample library used in commercial productions. I could tell you the names of film composers who used/use it -- which includes some of the most highly regarded film composers today -- but it also showed up on lots of television productions, games and in pop music (I think the first use I knew of was a hip hop track; if you go to the OTS site, you'll see some hip hop producers giving testimonials). So figure out what area no developer is knocking out of the park -- or an area where you are certain you can build an easier to play and better sounding library. Forget about over saturated areas. You're not going to love this advice, but there are already more than enough guitar, bass, drums and piano sample libraries on the market. I would suggest that you don't attempt to go after bread and butter sample libraries because you're going to be competing with the very big boys and they're heavily discounting and the market could easily be considered oversaturated for instrument libraries of pianos, guitars, basses, drums and percussion (although I think there's still some opportunities here, but that's soon to change too as I know about an upcoming library that does what percussion libraries have always been poor at). Right now, another grand, baby grand, upright, felt or prepared piano, a drum kit, a guitar, a bass, or an electric piano sample library from a new developer is not going to get a lot of attention unless it's clearly superior in some way -- and I don't think price is going to be a good enough differentiator for a new developer (because the established players can easily beat your price and wipe you out). It's going to have to be something truly unique to breakthrough for a bread and butter instrument, and even that might not yield significant enough sales to keep your business going. It's a very challenging market for a new developer. The best advice I can give you is that I believe you're best off working for a successful developer who does things the right way, learn from that and then go off on your own. But if you do it on your own, find a niche. Do something no one else is doing, or that few else are doing, and do it differently in a way that's really immediately clear to sample users. I really don't think low price is enough these days because discounting has gone crazy. Look, 8Dio is selling a very detailed drum library recorded at a respected studio for $20 USD. SampleTekk has sales where they have high quality sampled pianos for under $10 USD. Anyone who owns KONTAKT can download a great little cello library for free with PocketBlakus as well as a bunch of free orchestral and choir sample libraries from Spitfire, Orchestral , VSL, Project Sam. I must have picked up two dozen free music box libraries for KONTAKT over the years -- most of them are super nice. A branding strategy lesson to consider. When Target came around, they established a completely new niche. Kmart and Walmart were the cheap discount retailers. But the store experience was and is terrible. I don't know about you, but I want to shower after going into a Walmart. Target created a new type of store that had low prices similar to Kmart and Walmart, but was cheap chic. They created a low priced brand and retail experience you didn't feel icky about. They thought differently and created a new category. While that's easier said than done, I would recommend starting there. Take a look at LootAudio and study how common the categories of sample libraries are. Then do Google searches on every category of sample library you're considering creating. Come up with say three types of buyers -- say a pro games composer, an old rocker and a young person doing current pop music and do the searches from each of their perspectives. Check out the various libraries and make your call on what you think they're doing right and wrong. Unless you can find a category that is solidly priced very high, I would not create a plan and make a sample library whose only advantage is price over existing players, because I think the price competition has become too intense for that to be a sustainable advantage. Yes, a low price can help you penetrate the market, but you need a greater form of differentiation than that too and, even more, you're going to be able to have to easily communicate that differentiation to your audience to succeed. Oh well, that's it on the topic, This is basically me writing an article! But you and I have had a number of conversations and you've always been cool and I like seeing nice people succeed.

Using another old metaphor, you need to fish where the fish are. Establishing your own forum would take a lot of work, even established developers have not been successful in attempting to create their own forums. Instead, look at creating a brand forum on a heavily trafficked site like KVR. That also enables people who buy sample libraries who've never heard of your brand to learn about you -- and learn from fellow forum users they already know and trust, which is super valuable, of course. Funny, there are several developers that I helped when they started out that I urged to open communities there and they have very well established, successful businesses. I'm not saying that to boast, I'm saying that because it makes me feel super old.

Here's a quick idea/plan for you as a new developer. When you get started as a sample developer, it's going to take a lot of work beyond creating a good/great sample library. And, there's no doubt that your first sample library is going to be a huge learning experience. Here's some quick advice from my two decades of consulting to sample and plugin developers. And you know, you can always shoot me a PM. You may have already planned some of what I'm going to write out, but just in case... (1) When you get this first sample library finished, do the best you can to beta test it with people on various systems. Maybe you can find people in this forum. But when you officially release your first library, those initial impressions are going to stick with people. It's like the old adage, "You never get a second chance to make a first impression." So make sure that when you distribute the final product, it's been thoroughly tested and problems have been worked out. (2) When your library has been thoroughly tested and is ready to go, you have a lot more work to do before distributing it. If you feel this library is good enough to market under a brand name, register a business name legally, register a website domain name, set up an ecommerce site, social media accounts for your brand, email marketing tool, a social media management tool and analytics. (3) Having a website no one really has a compelling reason to visit is like having a new phone number no one knows about. You still need to give people a compelling reason to use it. And to do that, the reality is, it's going to take money and effort. Even if you committed say 6 figures to promote the business, advertising isn't enough to launch a new sample library developer business. So here's a strong recommendation -- and I realize that the site has some harsh critics here, I would table that concern and use the site for your purposes -- put your new sample library on Pianobook. If you plan on charging, then create a scaled down free version you distribute there. Putting your library on Pianobook enables you to freely promote awareness of your new brand and sample library and creates product trial, something that is often very costly. (4) The next step is to get your library -- and only if it's really top notch, be realistic and ask others you trust to be objective first -- in the hands of influencers. That's largely going to be bloggers and YouTubers. Of course, you want the most relevant influencers with the most followers. Unfortunately, a lot of those influencers are looking for money for their "reviews," sometimes in the form of being affiliate marketers of your product (really, online salespeople) for the "reviewed"/promoted product (I use quotes because, the truth is that influencers are merely product salespeople that are compensated in some way for the products they review -- with some combination of free products, affiliate sales commission from people buying the product they're promoting, and for the most successful influencers, cash from brands for doing "reviews"; of course, such folks are inclined to not give overly negative reviews, but for your purposes, it means that you're going to struggle to find popular influencers to talk about your libraries), so if you plan on selling your library or selling future libraries, it's a good idea to set up an affiliate marketing program and a referral program.

You should pick up the free version of MODO Drums. It comes with one complete drum kit and cymbals-- and like I wrote before, it's good. I own MODO Bass, but I don’t use it anymore. I did use it, but only for the Hofner before Orange Tree Samples came out with Evolution Vintage Violin Bass. It's also good, but I wouldn't put it in the same league as the Evolution libraries, which, BTW, also use a combination of multisamples and physical modeling (samples alone aren't enough for a incredibly realistic virtual bass or guitar). I think MODO Bass does a very good job of emulating the tone of the Hofner bass, but it falls short of being totally realistic. It lacks depth and when you hear the bass very exposed in a mix without distortion or heavy effects, it becomes obvious. The clear advantage that MODO Bass has over sample libraries is size. It's really lightweight, unlike MODO Drums.

I beg to differ. First, there's a reason that MODO Drums is a 6 GB install. While MODO employs physical modeling, it also uses samples. And like everything else, how much one likes the character of the included sounds of drums and cymbals is subjective. I like MODO Drums, I don't LOVE it. I greatly prefer the sounds of Superior Drummer and AD2. So, I definitely don't agree that MODO Drums leaves other drum libraries in the dust. I think it sounds good, but to my ears, SD and AD2 sound better. Of course, if you love MODO Drums, that's great. That's all that matters, IMO.

Thanks so much, @mibby. To be candid, if you only posted, "I recommend it, Peter," I would have picked it up. It was super kind and thoughtful of you to provide so much information. It's very helpful and greatly appreciated.

I know there a bunch of Melda fans here. Does anyone who has MReverb want to weigh in? I own a bunch of nice reverbs, is this one worth adding to my collection? Would you recommend it? I've looked for music magazine reviews on MReverb but couldn't find any. Of course, that doesn't mean it isn't a good -- or even great --reverb, it just means I can't find trustworthy, fairly objective, reviews.

For those looking to know more about Little Radiator, Sound on Sound gave its big brother fantastic review and gave Little Radiator high marks. See the below link. https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/sound-toys-radiator

Just based on the short glimpse from the video, I really like that GUI when it comes to the selection of drums. It's the slickest looking drum GUI I've seen for a KONTAKT drum library. Although, while the library sounds great for metal, it's not a genre I work in. But this still looks very cool and sounds very good ( in the video) for a metal drum library.

I should add, if I were scaling down and money were no option, I would exclusively stick with Superior Drummer and Toontrack libraries, because I don't think any developer does a better job sampling drums in terms of sound quality/layers/round robins/drum and cymbal selection/drum tuning. But they're also A LOT MORE EXPENSIVE than the alternatives. Consequently, AD2 would be my second choice if I were trying to limit my acquisitions of drum libraries.

I haven't installed 8Dio's drum library yet, but AD2 is a vastly superior choice (no pun intended) to 8Dio drum libraries in terms of the ability to swap drums and cymbals, to edit drums and cymbals and to put effects on drums and cymbals. AD2 is also well configured if you use electronic drums as your MIDI controller. I own AD2, Superior Drummer and I still bought this library and I still buy KONTAKT drum libraries. Why? Well, I was a drummer, so I am love with drums. It's because this developer's approach, their sound is different than my other kits. You play guitar, right? It's the same reason a guitarist that does a lot of session work keeps a variety of guitars, because it allows the guitarist to select the right guitar for the song. A Les Paul might be perfect for one song and a Strat is perfect for another. Also, like everyone else here, I'm a sample library hoarder.

I'm hoping they put their other drum libraries on sale this week too.

The URL is definitely legitimate. My guess is that due to all of the problems that CM has had with the hosting being so incredibly slow that they've temporarily opened things up and taken down the login requirement. Of course, publishers are really struggling right now, so I hope they're doing okay. I have been reading CM a long time and think it's an enjoyable read.

I received the serial number via email from Computer Music and registered the plugin with the IK Product Manager yesterday after I made the original post. I remember that the email was a bit delayed.

Advanced Drum Series Blackbird Kit - $20 (PM me if you've never bought from 8Dio before and want a code for a $15USD discount to make this $5 USD; new 8Dio customers only) - REG $248 USD Deep-Sampled Drum Kit w/ Flow Note Technology 10 Microphone Positions 37,500 Samples / 6GB (compressed from 20GB) 10 Microphone Positions and superb mixing controls Custom Flow-Note Tech for realistic drumming 6 Velocity Layers / 10 Round Robin Intuitive and Flexible UI Built-in FX (Spread, EQ, Comp, LOFI & Compression) 35,000+ lines of code and highly intuitive mixing tools Delivered by Download Kontakt 5.8.1 Full Retail (or later) Required https://8dio.com/products/advanced-drum-series-blackbird-vst-au-aax-kontakt-instrument

Agreed. It's been this way for at least several weeks.

IK Multimedia T-Racks EQP-1A is free with Computer Magazine #315 which is now free unlocked at Filesilo. This plugin is currently selling for $79.99 USD at retailers like Sweetwater. https://www.filesilo.co.uk/computer-music-314-2/

I downloaded the free version of this library (which they refer to as a demo) -- or rather series of libraries -- this morning and I love it.This developer did a great job. I would strongly recommend that every who owns KONTAKT who is considering this library download the demo and give it a try (the paid version works with the FREE KONTAKT Player; the free version requires the FULL VERSION of KONTAKT). While Hearth & Hollow isn't comparable to the ultra-detailed guitar sample libraries from Orange Tree Samples or Ample Sounds, I think it would be a great tool in the ideation phase, perhaps later replaced with more detailed libraries or supplemented with more detailed libraries -- or not, depending on your preferences and vision for the production. Either way, I think this is package is well done and even found the freebie version inspiring to use. Kudos to the developer. Here's a direct link to the download page: https://www.pianobook.co.uk/packs/hearth-hollow-plucked-folk-ensemble/?__s=xxxxxxx

Reported for violating forum policy. I would recommend others report him and his prior AIDS joke. This individual has a long history of making trolling and harassing posts against others. I recently calmed him down (exchanged a series of PMs to persuade him to stop being so offensive after he made a joke about AIDS and started harassing Simon on the forum). But I didn't report what Last Call was doing, because I thought I could persuade him to behave himself and it worked, although his behavior was still in the realm of offensive and beyond acceptable behavior. This time he's targeting me and I've reported him and recommend that others do the same. It's perfectly fine to disagree, but personal/character attacks and insults are never justified and when a person asks someone to stop following them and making posts directed at them to stop and they don't, it is universally considered harassment. Let's keep this forum civil and report this individual.