PavlovsCat

No doubt I'm using great sample libraries, Evolution libraries, that are superbly recorded. The reason I like this is the same reason I own several electric guitar amp sims that I use on the sampled guitars. Yes, 90% of the time I use the Evolution presets, but these plugins give me additional presets to choose from. I didn't find anything in QuickAG was designed to improve a poorly recorded guitar. It's effects chains that I can put on dry recorded guitar samples. But I want to say that I sincerely respect your effort to be helpful. I think that's a genuinely decent and kind thing to do. So thanks.

I've been trying the same and I also found something really special about Morphverb. I did like QuickAG, but I didn't find any presets that really wowed me for what I tried it on. But I'll try more later today. I tried Firecobra, but it didn't really do anything I found really special, but maybe I'm missing something and will spend more time with it. To find even 5 presets I really like for 5 bucks seems like a pretty incredible deal to me, Especially when it's something like QuickAG that puts together an effects chain that I really couldn't do myself. It's one thing for me to adjust a reverb, filter, or compressor, but to understand how to put together an effects chain that sounds really good is candidly, far above my skill set (and my hearing abilities). Were you using it on guitar you recorded yourself or sample libraries? I was doing the later, using the samples without effects on them. I haven't even been recording physical instruments since I've been attempting to play these last few years.

I'm in the ER still commenting (hopefully not my last comment)! But old buddy Dave went to Steve Dahl's Disco Demolition and he's still a disco hater. Good for you, Paul, for finding the fun in the music.

@Starship Krupa My first rock album purchase was a Zeppelin album when I was a little kid and later bought Foghat albums (the inspiration for Spinal Tap). I grew up the son of a classically trained pianist/organist/musician/music teacher who also played rock and R&B. As a musician, I did paid rock, jazz, R&B and other style gigs. So I've always appreciated a wide range of music. Disco could be pure fun. The Bee Gees, Donna Summer, Chic and others had some killer disco songs, IMO. It didn't resonate with a lot of white males who grew up on rock only, but that never stopped me from enjoying it.

The track I shared, from Peter's first album, was recorded at Peter Brown's home studio, unlike a lot of disco productons, which used a ton of studio players. But in Peter's case, his first album was low budget and he sang and played various instruments -- including drums and percussion, but did use some of the guys who were part of his later touring band (not including my first childhood drum teacher; who I got to know from him being the drummer in my late brother's HS band). As you're a former Chicagoan, Peter and most of his early band members were out of Chicago. Peter, I beleive, actually was from Blue Island.

Disco related (true) story. I'm connected to one of my former drum teachers on Facebook. I did a post about a Billboard single from their old band (70s and early 80s) and I had the band's bassist, guitarist and ome of my old drum teachers (I had 4 in total) all discussing the hit song and their parts (I noted the guitar parts were really cool, although the band leader played drums on that album, not my drum teacher); it was a band reunion. One of my childhood best friends, Dave, posts in the thread -- not paying attention that these guys are the actual musicians from the band -- and writes "Disco sucks! Always has and always will!" He rarely posts on Facebook, but felt compelled to post on this topic. I was both embarrassed, I felt bad for the guys, and cracked up by the sheer obnoxious nature of the post, but true to Dave's disco hating ways since our childhood, at once. I don't agree with my friend Dave on this matter. I think some disco was pretty fun. Dave killed the good vibes on the thread. FTR, my drum teacher is an excellent drummer who played in a really good jazz rock fusion band back then too, but the disco band paid the bills. It got him a gold record that he still keeps on his wall, but he ended up being an IT manager until he retired. Peter Brown, the band leader, had to stop performing due to hearing issues but ended up writing songs for other artists (his biggest hit was Maddona's Material Girl"; I wasn't a Maddona fan, but thought that was a well written tune).

Agreed. Ben's a very talented and creative musician and indie developer. I love seeing indie developers like him thrive. I own this library and a bunch of his other libraries and wholeheartedly recommend them. You can find yourself spending a good deal of time just enjoying the sounds in this one. I especially like pairing it with piano. I'd love it if Ben made a very thorough solo cello library with a wide range of articulations. He really gets beautiful sounds out of the instruments he samples. String libraries are so much more nuanced than most sampled instruments. I think the category is overdue to evolve from multisamples and clever scripting to incorporating not only physical modeling, but AI (the same goes for guitar libraries). The player's technique and touch and the instrument itself and its age -- as well as the strings used and their age -- all have a significant impact upon the resulting samples (then, like any other instrument, the room, the mics, preamps, etc.). Strings are easily one of the sampled instruments one can most easily make the case for buying multiple libraries of the same sampled instrument type from multiple developers and I find that Ben's approach to these libraries and his sound make them worthy additions to my string library collection.

I just added several more recommended sample libraries, including piano, drums, strings... If you have some free libraries for the free Kontakt Player or full version of Kontakt, please make a post and let us know why you like it. But the list now has far more than 100 free high quality sample libraries -- all recommended. I didn't put anything on the list I'm iffy about. There are especially some paid quality level pianos. There are some excellent synth, string, electric pianos, and tuned percussion libraries and everything is organized by instrument category to make it easy for everyone to find what they want.

That's a great pick! I've contemplated that one, because like "Cold Turkey" and "I'm Losing You," it's heavily based around a really cool guitar riff. I hope you do it!

The problem seems very related to cookies. I copied the URL into my Chrome incognito browser and it went through. I also sent an email to the developer to let him know about the problem (they had this same issue with a past freebie and fixed it). I tried out the library and, as expected, it's very nice. I added it to my thread / list of freebies along with some other recommendable free libraries.

What are you going to cover? I must know!

BTW, in case anyone is unfamiliar with John Lennon's demo for "I'm Losing You" featuring Cheap Trick's original guitar and drummer and Tony Levin on bass, that is what I based my version on. I think that version has an edge to it that reflects the lyrics much better than the released version. According to what was reported, Yoko didn't like the original version, she thought it was too heavy, but I completely disagree. It was superb. I actually forgot that Cheap Trck did a phenomenal cover of the song too -- and I think I might make some tweaks to my version after listening to this, it is, IMO, freaking awesome:

Funny coincidence, I was just commenting on your track and then I saw you commented on mine! (For some reason I'm not getting alerts on my threads). Thanks so much for checking my cover out and your kind words. Besides loving Lennon's music and it being easy to play, it also fits my voice well. So except for one section (not even the most challenging section where I did my own thing on piano and vocal, it was the final verse where I sing an ocatve higher), the vocals were the first take. I'm a terrible singer (obviously) and don't enjoy doing it, so I especially appreciate the positive feedback.

Cool track and I love the guitar riff and sound. I found that opening instrumental was really good. Kudos.

All very well done. I think Because fits your voice best. Penny Lane at certain points reminded me of what it would sound like if Brian Wilson (Beach Boys, but I'm very certain you knew that) sang the song.

This developer makes some awesome freebies, but last time they had a freebie and this time, they configured their e-commerce system incorrectly with the page. I'm sure they'll fix it and I'm also sure this will end up in my list of recommended freebies.

Not sure how, but you've clearly confused the offers. Look at the posts near the top of the thread. Both link to the 6 month offer -- both URLs have the term "6 months" in them. As people have posted above the price at Sweetwater is $99 US and Thomann is $80 US. That is what I referred to. The 6 month offer. I strongly suspect that Sweetwater merely has some content that is intended for the 12 month offer and that is causing confusion.

I bet this is the Sweetwater offer is identical to the Thomann one, but Sweetwater has the copy for the one year subscription deal. I would strongly recommend people contact the seller or Presonus before making a purchase. I've been wauting for Bandlab to make their pricing announcement for Sonar. I wish they'd do that soon so I can make a decision to go with Sonar or Studio One Pro. I have a ton of unfinished projects in Cakewalk, so I'd love it if that offered a reasonably priced perpetual Verdon. But if they go subscription only, I'm switching to Studio One Pro. I have seen a lot of very positive posts about it. It seems like an excellent DAW. But I wouldn't look forward to the learning curve. I've been using Sonar since the first version.

I'm totally with you. I'm an old drummer and IMO, Toontrack did everything right with SD3. I just wish they brought the price down.

Cool track Lynn, I especially liked the bridge where you rocked out! I didn't see that coming (I enjoy when a song throws a curve at you like that). Nice job!

Cool track, but that koala hat is questionable!

I -- not even kidding -- edited down my post about it because I was way too enthusiastic about that cover. I've literally played it to my entire family! I'm a huge Beatles fan and you guys did an incredible job. I recall you having a bunch of great 70s covers on your blog. Kudos. I love that stuff!

For some reason I'm not getting notifications on my song subforum threads, so I'm just seeing your post today. Thanks much for the advice, I'll definitely be putting it to use. You know that I really enjoy your music (I played your latest track for my wife, who, as expected, also enjoyed it) and, in addition to the top notch songwriting, playing and singing, it's also very well mixed and mastered, so I'm well aware that you know this area well and appreciate you taking the time to offer it.

@steve@baselines.com I was going through your blog and came across the cover of "Martha My Dear" -- it's fantastic! 10 out of 10! Did you already do a thread on that cover? Kudos to you and all involved in that cover. https://baselines.com/?p=6989

Thanks so much for the kind remarks and tip. Do you have any advice about panning? I largely keep the bass and drums center and pan the other stuff to what I think fits the placement of band members on a stage and also to keep the instruments / frequencies distinct. I did think this mix seemed less clear than it could be, but wasn't sure what to do. I use Izotope Ozone's AI to master. - Peter