PavlovsCat

No, I'll have to check it out sometime. Of course, I really enjoy Simeon's videos/personality and playing and as I've shared, I really have a great deal of fondness for Tracy (I actually don't know him, I bought a library or two of his years ago, but I mainly like him so much because when someone was being bullied, Tracy stepped in and tried to stop the bullying, so yeah, I'm a huge fan of his values).

I'll always remember when a member of VI Control was being bullied, Tracy stepped up. I know he's a talented developer too, but I really came to respect him as a human being. A total class act.

@abacab , absolutely. Orange Tree Samples are the most realistic and thorough virtual guitars on the market. I own three of the Ujam Vurtual Guitarist plugins (I still have a Steinberg Virtual Guitarist plugin software and the box it came in!). But I think even for a loop based virtual guitar, Ujam's Virtual Guitarist line misses the mark. NI Session's line is a far better option if you're looking purely at loop based guitar libraries, because the performance is a lot less robotic and it's far more versatile. Bit yes, Orange Tree Evolution guitar libraries are at another level, but they also cost more than the Ujam Virtual Guitarist plugins. As you mentioned, in addition to the preset patterns, you can create your own patterns or play in real time using the autochord translator from keyboard to guitar chords (I pushed hard for that feature) and strumming keyswitch (I tend to use thar option the most). I'm no killer player in my old age due to physical limitations, but the realism you get from variations, IMO, is incredibly significant (as compared to sticking with preset patterns).

It's completely subjective, and I realize that not everyone is looking at this at the same level-- and this plugin is now dirt cheap -- but as a long time user of guitar sample libraries and someone who's consulted to several guitar sample library developers, I find the Ujam Virtual Guitarist plugins extremely limited and also the fact that the loops are played in such a precise, no feel, manner, makes them sound really inauthentic for anything except a production where you're looking for robotic sounding rhythm guitar. I think NI's loop based strumming libraries do a better job. Just my thoughts. I'd be very interested in other's takes.

It'd be great to hear other people's music with Orange Tree Samples libraries. At least for me, I think it's nice to hear music from the members of this group, especially as we've interacted for many years and I think it's interesting to hear our various tastes and styles. Plus, IMO, it's nice to hear what us regulars can do with these libraries as compared to the folks who regularly make demos.

Wow. You just made my day and my entire weekend. Thank you very much, @Steve K.

@Max Arwood DISCLOSURE: I've consulted to Orange Tree Samples and I'm friends with Greg, but I'm a super user of guitar sample libraries and have been since the 1980s -- probably before Greg was born! I am an Orange Tree Samples superfan. I also own a TON of other sample libraries from other developers and I've consulted to a few other guitar sample library developers, but stopped years ago. In my honest opinion, Orange Tree Samples innovated in this space and continue to produce the most realistic sounding and playable (basically the most meticulously sampled and ingeniously scripted) guitar sample libraries on the market. Privately, more than one other developer who makes guitar sample libraries has acknowledged this to me and a couple have told me that they reverse engineered Evolution libraries to make their competitive libraries. My own background, I was a semi-pro rock musician in the 80s-90s. Piano is my first instrument, but I played drums semi-professionally for two decades before having a repetitive stress injury that stopped me from playing professionally. I only recently started recording music again as a hobbyist -- largely covers and songs I wrote decades ago (like the one below) -- spanning rock, acoustic/folk rock, indie rock and instrumentals. Here's what I tend to use as my go to instruments that I would recommend to you: Bass Guitar: Evolution Flatround or Roundwound Bass Electric Guitar: Evolution Rock Standard -- but also check out Evolution Stratosphere if you prefer the tone of a Strat. I use that a lot too. Acoustic Guitar: Evolution Songwriter, Evolution Steel String Electric Piano: Famous E In the below recording, I used one of the Evolution acoustic guitars for rhythm guitar -- I think it was Evolution Relic, Songwriter or Steel Strings. I used Evolution Rock Standard and Evolution Stratosphere for the electric guitars. I believe that the bass is Evolution Roundwound Bass. The slide guitar is Orange Tree Samples' Acoustic Slide Guitar for the main guitar riff in the verse leading up to the chorus. I only used the presets that come with the libraries and didn't add additional guitar or bass amp or other effects. I recorded this after 20+ years of not playing and with serious tendonitis, so I am by no means an impressive musician anymore, I'm sloppy as heck and I was never a lead singer, as you can easily tell, but I think the OTS instruments sound really good, even in my hands -- and I didn't do editing to my playing, it's all as I played it in real-time (again, I realize my playing is very pedestrian and reflects my 20+ years of not practicing and tendonitis, but I think the quality of the guitar sample libraries allowed me to achieve just what I wanted with no fooling around editing midi, which, with my tendonitis, isn't something I want to spend time doing).

Do you have any idea how you've made four statements that strongly appear to be libelous? Do you have proof of these allegations? You've accused 8Dio of "ripping off composers," "clearly stealing copyright," "avoiding taxes" and "being suspended from trading in the US" for avoiding taxes and then took a cheap shot "that software to be one trying to tag along." That last statement makes it clear that you have some kind of personal vendetta against the company. I would strongly suggest that you should be careful in lashing out, as if 8Dio so desired, and could find your identity, they easily would have a strong libel/defamation case against you. I'm somewhat familiar with this area of law -- to the point of Interpol quotes me in their documents-- as its incredibly important to all companies that publish and operate online. If you have solid evidence for the allegations you've made that proves them true, it's not libel/defamation. Otherwise, it's clearly libelous, and you should tread carefully.

Thanks for making me feel better! Funny, but the Pianobook library was lofi but didn't actually sound much like the new Spitfire library and when I listened to the Spitfire library it was extremely polished, like we've come to expect from them. Oh well, I need to work on my quality control process!

I was referring to the source recordings having a great deal of noise in them -- the noise was baked in -- which a more experienced developer would use something like RX9 to remove. That's quite different than an added effect, and it's pretty easy to discern the difference. The problem was I had two libraries in Cakewalk and I inadvertently was listening to a library I just downloaded from Pianobook. @Simeon Amburgey I just realized when I went back to my machine that I had two piano libraries open and without realizing it, I had the lofi Pianobook library selected that I recently downloaded from Pianobook that had a ton of noise in it. But thanks for chiming in. I'll change my earlier post.

EDIT: I had two libraries open and confused a Pianobook lofi piano library with a great deal of noise baked into the samples with this one. This one is well done, as one would expect from Spitfire. My bad. Carry on.

I should be ashamed to admit this, but in this group, experience tells me that most of us plugin addicts have done the same thing. I realized that I actually have a license for Waldorf 2 LE that I never bothered to download or install! Okay, I suppose I'll give that a try first before making the purchase. But thanks @Fleer. Also, I don't think I've shared this before, but I am a HUGE fan of Vox amps (I'm also a HUGE Beatles fan -- which is pretty significantly related, just like my love of Les Pauls was based on my brother owning one when I was a kid, but even more from Jimmy Page owning one!).

@Reid Rosefelt Is that a pretty sure thing (when they'll likely release the next KOMPLETE version)? I haven't really kept track and, it is pretty fun, like a kid getting presents.

Thanks, Larry! I get the Klang emails -- but I get it along with one hundred plus other non-personal emails a day, so I easily would have missed this without your post! I hope all is well with you.

This received a lot of rave reviews more than a decade ago. Is the plugin run well and up to date? I'm seriously thinking of buying it.

I just installed it. It's a nice little lofi piano library. I like it.

It's pretty much the same concept.

To be fair, 90+% of consumer companies extend offers they make little or no money on -- in fact, they often lose money on the initial sale -- to acquire new customers. These kinds of promotions are not offered to past customers. It's definitely not exclusive to Spitfire.

Thanks @MusicMan, without you, I may never have noticed that email!

If I was honest about my vocal performances I would never sing again!

Just a little fun. I put this together in around 5 minutes. Nothing special and totally cliché, trying to show my son how fun it would be to create the kind of Synthwave cues you hear in the Netflix series "Stranger Things."

I can't wait to use my CLAP plugin to record my new Placenta guitar.

Product naming is actually a pretty big deal even if you don't realize it and project your thinking unto the entire population (technically, this is called "fallacy of composition"). Look up a case study on the Ford Pinto marketing in Brazil for an epic lesson on why fallacy of composition thinking by those responsible for brand/product names is so dangerous in the world of brand/product names. (Spoiler: Pinto is slang in Brazil for a tiny part of the male anatomy. Consequently, the Pinto was extremely unsuccessful in Brazil ) EDIT: I modified the above text after Kevin H. pointed out that it was Portuguese, not Spanish (it was actually in Brazil, I didnt remember that). He was right. I looked it up-- I read the Ford Pinto case study many years ago when I was in college.

If this sounds any better, I have @Philip G Hunt to thank for it. I only re-did two choruses, not the end part. Philip, do you think that's better? I think it is. I should give you co-producer credit for pushing me when I thought I couldn't do any better. Thanks.

"The Clap" is another name for gonorrhea. It is a fantastically poor name choice. Pro tip, try naming a standard after something that isn't an STD.