PavlovsCat

BTW, others have said it as well and I've said this to you privately, but I'll say it again publicly, if there's anyone who has earned the right to get affiliate commissions it's you, Larry. I'll absolutely click on your affiliate links before making purchases. I also love the fact that you disclose that you're using an affiliate link. So two thumbs up from me, Larry! Where I'm not a fan of affiliate marketing (and Ive led the area at major brands) is when people post in forums who don't do the work you do, people who use affiliate links and don't disclose it and people who pretend they're doing unbiased reviews who are actually just salespeople looking to hawk products for commissions. That, IMO, isn't honest/ethical, but it is the norm.

@Fleer , your praise of this got my attention. How do you use it (I don't mean what does it do, but the ways in which you use it) and what genres do you use it for? Of course, I'm just wondering if I might enjoy it. Thanks in advance for the insights.

Dead serious, but does anyone else feel like you can breathe easier at the forum with Larry back? (Okay, Fleer's a given! If there was anyone who was having major issues dealing with Larry's absence, it was Fleer! So, Larry, please take that as a sign of how appreciated you are. Believe me, I saw Fleer's posts and thought, "OMG, he's obsessed!" And then I'm making the next post in his thread and I realized I was pretty much in the same camp.) It just felt like an essential part of the vibe and soul of the forum was missing. I mean, if someone mentioned Cakewalk Forum and said name the first three things that come to mind, one of them -- after "lost time and money" -- would be Larry. I really couldn't imagine Black Friday without Larry -- and I don't even mean seeing him posting a bunch of deals -- just his presence. There are certain people here, and Fleer is one of them, Bapu is another, that give this place a friendly vibe. I'm not even in the group, I'm just a guy who's been coming here since the earliest days (under the screen name eDrummist before the new forum) who doesn't even get half of their inside jokes. But even though I'm not part of those inside jokes, they've always been a friendly group and with all of everyone's quirks, it feels like a virtual "Cheers" for musician geeks. I suppose then, Larry is Sam. I'm a minor character in the background. But I still enjoy the place and the banter, nonetheless. Also, I realize anyone who's under age 30 will wonder about my analogy. But considering most of us are old enough to remember Cheers, I figure I can get away with the analogy. Serve me up another one, Larry.

I keep getting tempted by 8Dio's deals. @cclarry do you have plans of using it for rock or more for cinematic music?

I prefer to call him "The Boss," but we can all agree that we love Larry. To keep the good vibes flowing...

I proclaim this INTERNATIONAL CCLARRY APPRECIATION DAY. No, change that to: INTERNATIONAL CCLARRY APPRECIATION WEEK. If Larry never posted another deal here, but just stayed around for the camaraderie, I think we'd all agree, he's done more than anyone else to make this forum worthwhile and be grateful for his presence here. A lot of us -- including me -- would never have stuck around here all this time (look at how many long timers don't even use Cakewalk anymore, but still come back to this section of the forum) without Larry. If there was a Forum Hall of Fame, Larry would be in on the first ballot, unanimously. That goes far beyond your great sharing of deals, we've gotten to like and care about you, Larry. I find it moving to see how many people have expressed how much they miss you in around a dozen threads since you last posted. I'm a huge believer in kindness and letting people know that you appreciate them, and Larry, you know well that I appreciate you. I just hope you take all of this in. You and I have had a number of really nice, encouraging PMs over the years, and you've told me that you see this group as family. I have spent more time at this forum than others because most of the people here are really kind. But, of course, there will always be exceptions. We just need to put them into perspective. Overall, I still think this is a great place and I have been really impressed by the outpouring of people sharing how much they like, miss and appreciate you. Of course, you know that includes me (just check your PMs here and on Facebook for confirmation!).

BTW, anyone who is having a laugh that two posts after I commented that we're not going to be successful in bringing Larry back with this thread, Larry posts, know that I'm laughing at my post with you. I'm happy to have been wrong! Kudos to @Tim Smith.

Hey, Larry! You should read all of the threads with people posting about how much they miss you.

Clearly, the overwhelming majority of us really like and miss Larry. I do know that he's doing fine and is a very prolific poster on Facebook. Maybe he'll rejoin the group here, maybe he won't, There’s no question that Larry has been incredibly important part of this community, I think we all would love to see him back. To me, it doesn't matter if he goes back to doing non stop deal threads, but just to have him around would be nice. But we've done maybe a dozen threads like this, I don’t think they're suddenly going to make a difference.

I agree with your point, Abacab. I upgraded and now have Synthmaster 1 and 2, but I probably would have been fine with the player version and purchasing the patch banks they sell (I own several of them), as I have never even attempted to make my own patches.

Synthmaster Player was my gateway into the Synthmaster world. If anyone reading this doesn't have it, don't sleep on this freebie. Grab it while you can. It's a great synth worth far more than its regular price.

That was very smart of them, IMO. They would be wise to give those who paid for plugins they made free credits. I bought a few, but I'm not going to complain. But giving credits automatically to everyone who paid for plugins they later made free would not only make past customers happy about the change, it would provide them with an incentive to make new purchases.

While I picked up the piano freebie a while ago, it's so drenched in baked in reverb and not very responsive, that I have little use for it. However, their other libraries sound excellent. That Dulcitone Pro and the Celesta Duet sound beautiful. Granted, I already have some great Dulcitone and celeste libraries, but these sound so gorgeous, it's very tempting.

I didn't rerun my installer yet, but when I looked in my account, Dual Delay was automatically added by Kilohearts. God bless them! Hahaha. Seriously, who can complain? Sure, I definitely understand how some folks who paid for stuff now free -- which includes me -- might be annoyed, but in the long run, they've added a bunch of stuff that was formerly paid that I got free, and I love the fact now someone who is short of cash can access these tools. That's great. And, of course, if more people have it, Kilohearts has more opportunity to sell them additional plugins, so it can work for users and the developer. So, count me as a Kilohearts fan.

BTW, while I have passionate opinions on Wurlis, I should state that I do respect that a library that doesn't hit the mark for me can be inspiring to someone else. So, I hope it didn't come across as asserting that my opinion is the "right opinion." It's just my opinion, that's all. Personally, I love the very distorted patch with the SoundPaint Wurli (the patch with the word "Attitude" in it), but beyond that, I find the library disappointing (although, for 20 bucks, it's still a good deal; but judged as a Wurli library, with the price aside, after spending time with it; it's below my expectations). I'd put the Scarbee 200A above it. And when I listen to the AcousticSamples Wurlie demos, the dynamics really capture what I love about the Wurli's dynamics so well. It's just such a dynamic instrument. It's like a piano. You can play it soft and gentle or you can really go all out and it is a very different beast. I don't get that with the SoundPaint library. And I'm a little annoyed that I have all these Wurli libraries and they really don’t do a great job of capturing those dynamics. And then, when I recently heard the AcousticSamples library and demos, it's the first Wurli library that does what I've been looking for. The e-Instruments Wurli sounds really good too, but the dynamics and key sounds in the AcousticSamples demos -- I have yet to hear anything like that. How obsessed am I with Wurlis? The AcousticSamples developer contacted me and offered me the Black Friday price if I promise to do a Wurli shootout. I told him I'd be hesitant to take a condition because I don't want to feel obligated not to be completely candid about his library. I told him that I know Troels, but if he gave me an NFR and I gave a brutal review of his library, he wouldn't be happy-- and I won't shill for anyone. I would not be a good influencer, because I prefer being honest. If a dev wants marketing and branding advice, that's a different story,, but when I'm sharing my opinions on libraries, I want to be as open and unfiltered as possible.

I've tried it and done a lot of customization and made my own programs, but I find the samples are dull and lack the responsive dynamics that are essential to making a Wurli have that special magic. I don't know if its due to how they put together the layers, but the library is just dull dynamically and all of the effects in the world can't fix that.

Interesting, Peter. I figured the SoundPaint Wurli was the same samples. I'll check out the 8Dio. Thanks for the tip!

I was listening to the VReed videos on my phone, and it's not really the place to evaluate, but I preferred their Wurlie library due to the lively dynamics and key noises. That's really what causes me to like it so much. But while I love its sound so much, I still may end up getting e-Instruments Wurli because it's in KONTAKT. I'm really put off by the UVI format.

I haven't picked up any of their libraries at this point.

Okay, after watching Simeon's video, I do kind of regret picking up the SoundPaint Wurli. The Hammers + Waves 145B has a great sounding Wurli and great sound design patches too. This one is clearly a winner.

I didn't even remember this model! Of course, you're there to check it out! @Simeon Amburgey, what are your feelings on Wurlis? You seem pretty inspired playing this! In fact, it's obvious that you absolutely love this library. You can't hide it when a library or instrument inspires you. This one clearly does. I hear you playing Queen, Ray Charles and Doobie Brothers progressions! I wish I could play them like you! But even with my poor playing, I still get great joy playing Wurlis. 16 velocity layers -- maybe that's how this dev captures the great dynamics of this Wurli so well.

Now listen to the demos on AcousticSamples Wurli page. Yeah, I'm not sure I can avoid buying this one. It sounds perfect to my ears and it's not even an 200A (the demo labelled jazz impro/acoustic only really adds some great key noises -- beautiful, imo): https://www.acousticsamples.net/keys/wurlie

This library is in a totally different league than SoundPaint's Wurli. That is, this library is vastly superior to the SoundPaint library. That's particularly noticeable when you hear the different dynamics of the library. I don't regret getting the SoundPaint Wurli for $20 USD -- but only because I can use it for layering and with SoundPaint effects. That's what I really like. Creating programs with it, layering it, with the other SoundPaint instruments and the built-in effects in it make it much better than it is as a standalone instrument. But the when I started spending more time with the SoundPaint Wurli and comparing it to my other Wurli sample libraries, I found that the SoundPaint Wurli samples are kind of dull and lifeless and it completely misses the dynamics that make a Wurli great. AcousticSamples and this Hammer + Waves library are the complete opposite -- really lively and exciting to my ears. Now, I realize that is completely subjective. But what it is is a combination of how the recordings capture the high end, the almost glockenspiel-like bell sound of the Wurli, mix in the key noises and the dynamics of the instrument -- it is a different beast when played softly compared to when you really hammer the keys. AcousticSamples gets that perfect, IMO (caveat: that's based purely on listening to demos). To date, the best sounding Wurli libraries I've heard (based purely on demos -- I don't own any of them at this point) are: #1 AcousticSamples Wurlie, #2 Hammers + Waves #3 e-Instruments Wurli As I presently have around 10 Wurli libraries and none even come close to being in the same league as those three, this Black Friday, I plan on scoping up my next Wurli library, which over at VI Control, the developer behind AcousticSamples said that he plans on putting his Wurlie on sale for Black Friday. The only thing I don't like about the AcousticSamples is that it's in the UVI format, which I'm not crazy about (KONTAKT is my favorite sample library format). I did put together a comparison of me playing the main blues riff in Beck's "Where It's At." I figured out from that that there is a problem with SoundPaint cutting off notes, that I reported to them, but will send over audio soon. But once I pick up my next Wurli library, I'll probably post my comparison here. I included both paid and free Wurli libraries I have. This is the e-Instruments one: https://e-instruments.com/instruments/pianos/session-keys-electric-w/

Anyone who's seen my posts might have noticed that I am a huge fan of Wurlitzer electric pianos (we had a Wurli when I was a kid and I thought it was pure magic -- in fact, I still do think their sound is magic). This Wurli sample library from Sky Box Audio sounds gorgeous. THIS LIBRARY IS COMPATIBLE WITH THE FREE KONTAKT PLAYER. While most Wurli libraries sample a Wurlitzer 200A, Sky Box Audio sampled a rare Wurlitzer model 145B with an internal tube amp. "This particular model was the last console model to include a tube amp and was only manufactured for a single year! We've been totally in love with this thing the last month or so. It's just so insanely warm and deep sounding. It runs in the Hammers + Waves engine on Kontakt and comes with 50 inspiring presets. The intro price is $49 and the EP 145B will be regularly priced at $79 which makes this our most affordable Hammers + Waves release to date. You do not need to own any other Collections to run this one." https://www.skyboxaudio.com/EP145B