PavlovsCat

I have it and like it and apparently I'm alone in liking, at least in this group. To be clear, when the dev writes that it's a two voice ROMpler, there's a good possibility for people to confuse that with two voice polyphony. It's referring to it letting the user blend two different multisample libraries together. I find Double Scoop is a gem for appealing synthwave style patches. So I picked it up for a buck and would recommend for anyone those style of patches appeal to.

One more John Lennon cover and then I'm on to finishing and recording some of my original songs. Thanks for the encouragement to everyone in this group. I also welcome constructive criticism, especially regarding mixing (which I realize I am incompetent at).

I think it's with age and a career managing corporate websites and working with software developers that entails thinking about and working with user experience experts that has made me far more aware than I once was of the significance of workflow and ease of use to the point where I'd rather pay for something I find intuitive with a workflow that suits me than struggle with something I find unintuituve. That is one of the huge downsides of small software/sample/plugin developers is that it's very rare that one person can be excellent at creating an algorithm behind an effects plugin and also be excellent at designing GUIs, user experience, and usability. That, of course, makes it especially tough on solopreneurs like this guy, because they also have to play the role of fundraiser. I tip my hat to those who can do all of that at a high level, because it's quite rare.

I was going to post that there seems to be a bunch of free presets added to Arturia's sound collection. That's always nice to see.

Did you watch a video for Evolution that shows you how to use the strumming engine? If you commit a solid 20 minutes to watching the video where Greg shows how the strumming engine works, you'll understand it. It's definitely not as easy to figure out as Session Guitarist, but once you understand it, you'll retain it. Basically, go to the screen, put your left hand on the appropriate keyswitch and your right hand on a chord and it plays a pattern. I've definitely given Greg (the owner of Orange Tree Samples) my feedback that if Evolution contained more patterns I wouldn't bother with Session Guitarist. But even when I do use Session Guitarist, I use Evolution for single notes, riffs and leads. If you click on my SoundCloud link, all of the songs I share use Evolution for single notes, leads, riffs, and strumming, but some do have a section where I left a Session Guitarist pattern strumming in. Cover songs like "Can't Get It Out of My Head," "I Am the Walrus," and "Video Killed the Radio Star." I'm pretty sure that my cover of Lennon's "Cold Turkey" is just Evolution played live and the strumming was done in real time by using strumming keys. If the strumming pattern is pretty simple, I like using the strumming keys so that I can change up chords, throw in single notes or whatever I like in real time.

How do these plugins compare to paid plugins in terms of quality? And how is there ease of use? Because I really don't have the expertise to assess mixing and mastering plugins, I largely turn to friends of mine who have expertise in audio engineering, or at least some depth. But they always seem to recommend the same paid stuff -- like Fab Filter, Valhalla, United Audio, etc. What do the more knowledgeable mixers think of Airwindows? Are they as good as pro effects and are they well designed / simple enough to use?

The link is in an email Sonnox to customers. If you're a Sonnox customer, check your emails from them. It's a personalized email, so no one is going to include their personalized link. The deal runs until the end of the month.

I compeletely agree and I bet every regular user of the library can relate. I largely use keyswitches, automation and editing my midi notes until I get results I want. I suppose it's the result of using a loops-based approach, but I think NI could do a bit better than the present system. I only use Session Guitarist for strums and really wish they wouldn't put licks and riffs in. I use Evolution for any single notes, riffs, and licks, and most of the rhythm guitar parts. I don't to use stock licks or riffs, I have my own ideas. How about you? How does it fit into your workflow? FTR, I'm so hardcore at using this stuff, I have given input to several different guitar developers of libraries I use. But Orange Tree Samples' Evolution even has a good deal of my input in it. 15 years ago, I went to this young Kontakt developer, who just came out and released a few libraries -- I think two bass libraries (one electric, one acoustic) and one electric guitar library. He had been working doing Cinesmaples libraries before that. I sent him an email with my bio, telling him that I was a former musician, but my work is marketing and business strategy and includes product development work, and that I have some very strong ideas on how to make the ultimate guitar vst. The result was the Evolution line. So that's pretty much, my ideal guitar library/vst and I'm incredibly picky about guitar libraries (drums, piano and electric too, as I was trained on piano, organ, guitar and drums, and have experience playing glockenspiel back in Jr high!). If I had more patience I would create 100 strum presets in Evolution -- I've been begging for more strumming presets! But until I spend the time to make those, I'll be using Session Guitarist. It has the instant gratification factor, but I loathe that I'm using loops that I didn't create and can't edit to change it to exactly what I need. But it does fill a role. When I'm eager to put an idea down, a use one of the basic strum patterns and work on the rest of the song.

I only used like because love isn't an option. Because I do love this. Absolutely beautiful work. Great job for all involved. Kudos to you and the other musicians (kudos if you mixed but didnt play anything on the track; I like the mix; everything is very clear and defined). I'd be interested in learning about all of the musicians involved in this. You wrote that this was in an internet collaboration. It sounds like musicians playing together. Lovely playing.

Unsurprisingly, another excellent track from @Bajan Blue-- from every perspective, songwriting, vocals, instrumentals. This one hits it out the park (hmm, a very American expression using a baseball metaphor; in other words, it's superb). I really like this song a lot. Even more, the title is definitely clever and had me intrigued. I agree with Terry, it's very 80s., It reminds me a lot of an excellent band from Australia, Icehouse that my wife and I both love. I'm definitely going to have to play this for her. I'm sure she'll love it too. Great job to everyone involved with this song.

Thanks so much! I enjoy doing covers, but candidly, I largely have been doing them for practice -- as I only started playing again after a 20+ year after I had an injury and lifelong tendinitis that stopped me from playing (I can only play for a very short time without pain). So these covers are largely my rehab assignment to practice playing again. But also, when I share originals, they get a lot less interest (although I do have two on SoundCloud that are some of my most popular tracks). But I will be doing more originals this year, after I finish a cover of "I'm Losting You" that I'm almost done with (I've done a bunch of Lennon songs because they fit my voice well, so they're easy to sing, and easy to play, and I love the music of The Beatles together and solo). Not sure what you mean with "Down with AI." I'm guessing you're referring to its use in music and preferring humans over AI? FTR, I do use AI for audio repair (Izotope and plugin called Clear), vocal effects and reverb (Izotope and Focusrite/Sonible), and mastering (Ozone), but not for any playing and performance. Performance, everything I recorded was me playing in real time. I'm sure that AI could have done a lot better than a middle-age dude with tendinitis and a crap voice!

I just listened to the audio demo at Best Service and, wow, that sounds absolutely gorgeous. I visited China years ago and found it to be a beautiful place and the sound of this instrument does remind me of my time there. @Jason Morin, you guys did a great job. I even love the image of the instrument itself on the GUI; it's really striking. Kudos.

An oldie, but a goodie.

I take it you mean libraries specifcally made by NI, as I think, like me, you have a lot of Kontakt libraries, right? So what's the issue? I love Noir to the point where it's my favorite piano library (it's made by Galaxy Instruments). I think some of their other piano libraries are pretty nice. I rarely see anyone praise NI Studio Drummer or the Abbey Road Drummer series, but I think both are good to excellent if you work with them to create your own presets. My go to for acoustic drum kits is Superior Drummer, but I prefer those NI libraries to AD2 and I own all but 4 or 5 kits for AD2. As I mentioned above, I like Session Guitarist line, which is made by e-instruments, for looped strums.

I just added a bunch more guitar, strings, synth, percussion, tuned percussion, vocal and brass sample libraries to the list. I had written several more libraries up, but my Internet went out and after I pressed submit I lost everything. So I'll probably be doing another update this weekend. I know that the list passed 90 Kontakt libraries when I counted this last night, so after today's additions, it should be over 100 libraries at this point. If someone wants to count it and post what they find, I'll be happy to update the original post with the latest number of libraries. In any event, when I was googling for free kontakt libraries last night, I think we've come up with -- as this has been a collaborative effort -- the most extensive list of high quality Kontakt instruments that I've seen and I've done a good amount of searching (even lists with 10, 20, and 25 libraries I've seen often include some pretty old libraries that are significantly inferior to the quality of libraries on this list). I can use everyone's help in keeping it going strong. If you find the list useful or you've tried a library on the list and you feel strongly positive or negative about it, please do a post and/or give the original post a like to keep the thread alive (they don't pin threads like this in the Deals subforum).

I think you're absolutely right, audioschmaudio. I also suspect that AI is going to impact other types of sample libraries too, especially ones where it's complex to get a realistic performance using samples and a keyboard MIDI controller like brass, woodwinds and stringed instruments. And for the record, while I'm personally all about captured a real human performance for the most part, I think there's a greater market for those less concerned about that. But I'd love to have a good AI tool to make my voice sound better, add other singers, etc. The success of Autotune and Melodyne is a strong indicator that an AI tool with more advanced capabilities to improve performances would be successful, IMO.

Just a brief observation that I suspect will resonate with you, Larry, but don't you just love how we've come to accept sales promotions exploiting sacred religious holidays and very heavy days to honor those who paid the ultimate sacrifice to their country? I don't mean that as anything against Cinesamples, and yes, it's likely a combination of my experience coming from a military family and having family and a friend currently serving in the military that makes me take this day more seriously than many Americans, but the idea of leveraging a day intended to honor those who paid the ultimate sacrifice for their country -- and it's usually young people -- is completely normalized in our country, but it's really distasteful, if you spend even a brief period of time thinking about it. Using a day to honor our dead to exploit for profit. That's purely what it is. Okay, before my post is labeled the Debbie Downer post of the day, how about this slogan for their sale, "In memory of high prices, our 2024 Memorial Day Sale!" At least then it would show a little depth and awareness that they realize how distasteful exploiting this somber day is. I'll do my best to do a silly post later to show that I haven't lost my sense of humor.

I'm a power user of guitar vst instruments / libraries and effects, so I thought I'd share my experience / review on using the Session Guitarist line. I own guitars, but due to very bad tendinitis, I don't even attempt to play anymore and guitar is very important to my productions. For loop based rhythm guitar instruments, I find NI's Session Guitarist line is the cream of the crop. They have a fairly well designed user interface, and a dead simple workflow. The sound of the included loops are very good. I don't always love the preset amps and effects and will instead use other plugins, like Guitar Rig and Ampliitube, for that. I find, when I'm feeling inspired to record a song and need a basic rhythm guitar strumming pattern, I'll go through my Session Guitarist and Evolution strumming presets and use the one that fits best. I have no patience to create my own strumming patterns when I'm feeling inspired or have a musical idea in my head I want to lay down. The downside is that after you record a track with Session Guitarist -- or any loop based VST instrument -- you can't customize it, because it's a loop pattern. You can't make the strum on the and of 4 be muted or whatever you like. Either you accept the loop as is or you use another loop with a different pattern. Session Guitarist's single guitar notes (solo player) are nowhere near the level of realism of the Evolution guitar line (due to the result of detailed sampling and sophisticated scripting combined with physical modeling), so Session Guitarist is relegated purely to the role of rhythm guitar strumming when I'm in a hurry and need something fast and it has a pattern that does the job. Often, I'll replace it with something I can make my own, so I'm largely using it as a sketching tool or placeholder. But it has a place among my tools.

I agree. Growing up, my great grandfather was a farmer and, my brother law is a farmer (and a former fire jumper for the US Forestry Dept). Visiting him for a week last year, I was all too aware that I, raised in a big city, could never adjust to all that work in my middle age every single day without rest. Not that I could of handled it when I was young either. You don't learn those skills in the city and my brother in law, like most farmers, has an immense knowledge of how to fix things that reflects decades of knowledge gained. I'm with Doug, even handling all of that stuff virtually is a ton of work.

That has a very interesting sound to it. The stuff Christian plays early on in the video sounds somewhere between a Mellotron and the kind of sounds you hear on modern pop (e.g., Billie Ellish, etc.), as do the demos (one even seems to reference the Mellotron. I definitely like it a lot and am intrigued by the sound.

Okay, we're done here. Hopefully, you can remain civil in the future and refrain from attacks on other forum members because you don't agree with them.

Okay, let's move on.

You're entitled to your opinion, but it's about ethics and I wouldn't call it a feud, it's that I find his practices using his employees to attack and libel a competitor (8Dio) and his employees not disclosing that they are employed by Impact Soundworks when attacking an Impact Soundworks competitor with numerous fabrications to be unethical. Anyhow, let's move on.

I think the premise of Shreddage is a good one -- and Andrew and I used to chat back when he first launched Shreddage. He told me that he was basically doing a very cut down version of Orange Tree Samples' Evolution guitars with Shreddage that focused on specific genres. I think that was a pretty good idea and it may suit your needs very well. Unqestionably that specialized approach has inherent advantages and I think Mario / Evil Dragon (the Kontakt scripter who worked on at least some of the Shreddage libraries, to my knowledge) does good work. But the only virtual guitar VSTs currently on the market that I'm aware of that incorporate detailed samples and physical modeling are (1) Music Lab's RealGuitar, (2) Orange Tree Samples Evolution line, and (3) Ample Sound's guitar and stringed instrument line. I had RealGuitar many years ago, and found its shortcoming was largely the quality of the samples (which isn't great). They were an innovator in this space. I would put Evolution and Ample Sound in a very different league than Shreddage. Beyond the quality control issues with the library I mentioned, Shreddage is purely a guitar sample library line. It doesn't have the same level of detail as Evolution and it doesn't have the same level of realism as Evolution or Ample Sound, which is largely due to their use of physical modeling. That's a huge diffentiator. Now, I don't think Orange Tree Samples or Ample Sound convey that fact well enough to their audiences, but it's a very big deal in terms of achieving realism. FTR, my use of guitar libraries goes back to the 80s and over the years, I've given a bunch of guitar sample library developers advice as a user who happens to have expertise in marketing -- although I rarely have done that in the last several years but count Orange Tree Samples, Pettinhouse, and 8Dio's owners as friends and own libraries from all of them. I use Evolution libraries in virtually every project I do -- check my SoundCloud account, and the guitars you hear are Evollution guitars -- and had a good deal of input as a super user and largely leveraging my experience as a strategist in the tech world to go into the original Evolition library.

I just added several more KONTAKT sample libraries to the list (see the original post). Most of them are libraries I've used for a long time that I just didn't recall when creating the list. As always, I put the newly added libraries at the beginning of their respective instrument categories. My list now has more than 75 recommended sample libraries, all sorted by instrument type to make it more convenient (as the list has become pretty long and I'm adding to it at least a couple of times of a month). If you have your own Kontakt sample instrument recommendations, please post them! If you mention something I also like, I'll include it in my list too. The goal here is to be a great resource for others who may be short on cash but want to enjoy music making, and there are plenty of really good libraries out there, it's just a lot of work to find the best ones. That's where we can come in and help others. - Peter