PavlovsCat

I have been looking for a solo cello. I own 8Dio's Intimate Studio Strings, but the cello is too quirky to be useful as an all around cello for my needs which range from folk rock to prog rock. I was planning on buying 8Dio's Deep Solo Cello, but Fluffy Audio's Trio Broz Solo Cello has since gotten my attention and I'm trying to choose between the two. I would love to hear from anyone who owns 8Dio's Deep Solo Cello who could share their thoughts. Reid had given me insights on a few other cellos, but didn't apparently didn't have this one (okay, in this forum, he easily could also own this one but didn't mention it!). After my disappointment with Intimate Solo Strings and finding 8Dio's scripting to be disappointing, I am especially considering Fluffy Audio. But I did love the demos of Deep Solo Cello, but a lot of that tends to be that I really enjoy Troel's musical imagination. https://8dio.com/instrument/solo-studio-strings-cello/

Larry, did you make this one? It is totally funny -- but only to us music geeks.

We can agree to disagree, Larry, you clearly have had some less than affectionate words for a lot of developers like your epic battle with IK. I look at developers from two perspectives. As a customer and as a marketing and branding strategist (I've consulted to around two dozen of them in this industry). There are a number of strategies Toontrack has taken over the past decade I would classify as customer unfriendly, but specifically, in this instance, I'm thinking of their practice of as you (Larry) put it, shutting the door on upgrade pricing for past customers. That is antithetical to being customer loyal. Software developers in this industry commonly have an upgrade path for customers of their major product lines when introducing a new version of their product and don't put tight time restrictions on it. They can easily state that the are no longer supporting a previous iteration of the product and still continue upgrade pricing. And yes, when there is an extended amount of time -- say a decade -- sure, you can see upgrade pricing is no longer offered. So why do companies time limit upgrades? There's only one reason. To drive revenue more quickly, to force the hand of past customers to make a purchase that meets the brand's timeline. There's no mystery behind. They're forcing customers to pay on their timeline, not the customer's timeline or financial consideration. And again, if that timeline can span a decade, of course, a software developer needs to put limits, but not the kind of limits Toontrack engages in. That's hyper-aggressive and very customer unfriendly. I bought SD2 and don't qualify for upgrade pricing to SD3, so I'd have to shell out the same as a brand new customer, $400 USD or more. Far more than their competitors' offerings. Larry, while you hold XLN in utter contempt for not having a new version of AD2 -- and I empathize with the desire for them to introduce a new version of the product; XLN is an extremely customer-focused brand -- they have been excellent at maintaining/updating AD2 at no cost to customers. I bought AD2 several years ago as an upgrade when it was first tolled out. I've used AD2 on three different PCs with three different versions of Windows and it performed flawlessly on each. That, IMO, is not abandonware, as you regularly label it. Abandonware isn't software that is well maintained, regularly updated and supported by a developer. It's just a product that hasn't seen innovation in a very long time. And looking at what XLN can do with XO, I think they have the ability to make some real improvements to AD2. I'm not sure why they don't. I would imagine that it has been their biggest selling product line, so you would expect that they would keep actively developing it, not just maintain it, which doesn't bring in revenue. So, I really don't know what's up with XLN and their AD2 line. I would expect that AD3 would have to be rolled out within the next year. But it's been a lot of years. If they didn't maintain the product so well, I think you could call it abandonware, but again, it's a well maintained and supported product. The thing is, it's just been a long time since they've introduced a new version -- which many software companies do just for revenue's sake. So, I would at least give them credit for that.

I have AD2 and use it a lot, but I am a former semi-pro drummer who is super picky about sampled drums and I greatly prefer Superior Drummer over AD2 or BFD3 (which I don't own, I'm just going off demos and the UI). However, I'm still using SD2 and a bunch of expansions , which I love and still runs great on my Windows 10 PC. But Toontrack pulled upgrade pricing for SD3 long ago and a full version is $400 USD -- even $300 for ezDrummer 2 owners -- which is not me -- is pretty steep. I've consulted to a couple of dozen plugin and sample developers over the years, and I find Toontrack is one of the least customer loyal plugin developers in this business today. Yes, AD2 definitely doesn't sound as good to my ears and it's not as feature packed as SD3, but XLN is a much more customer-focused company. I really dislike some of the customer unfriendly practices I've seen Toontrack engage in over the years.

I've avoided buying in forums out of concerns of being ripped off. Do you have a strategy, like only buying from regulars who people can vouch for? I sold a couple of things on VI Control and the buyer made me prove I was legit -- he was as diligent as me! We ended up staying in touch. But I still would be concerned about KVR where a lot of people come and go. Vi less so, I suppose.

I'll check that out. Back in the 00s I was a regular at KVR, but I really enjoy this forum a lot more because there's such a friendly vibe. Granted, I haven't spent much time at KVR in more than a decade, there was just too many trolls there. That said, I made a few real life friends there, all around the globe. I made one friend in Scotland who I hung out with when I was in Edinburgh on business and another I visited in New Zealand. So there's plenty of nice people there, it's just that it would go through periods where trolls took control. The Cakewalk forum, on the other hand, has always been a super friendly place, but I think I'm in the minority in that I actually still use Cakewalk software! I did buy Studio One back when Cakewalk looked like it was dead, but I never actually used Studio One.

That's how I feel. I have a friend who is an expert with sound engineering who raves about Fab Filter plugins and tells me I need to get them, but they're way beyond my modest budget.

There have been times I've considered posting a deal but figured, if Larry didn't already put it up, he will soon. And every time I check back to see if the deal I was going to post, Larry posts it (in rare cases someone else does). Us mere mortals don't stand a chance. Cakewalk Forum -- ha! It's the cclarry forum.

Larry, as always, I'm amazed at how many developers and patch makers (I forgot what you call these folks) you know of. I know of a lot, but I'd guess, a third of what you know. I've never heard of Vicious Antelope before. But also, Vicious Antelope??? Well, I at least hand it to the person behind this business for creativity.

Thanks for the insights @Reid Rosefelt, that was a very useful. Thanks also to @Fleer, @Dave Maffris, and @Lizzie Foster.

Cool @Simeon Amburgey! Just what I was hoping for. Do you happen to know the price?

It sounds really nice and that's a great price, but listen to the violin that costs a little more, it sounds incredibly better and is a much more sophisticated library.

I did check the one out a while ago. While it's out of my price range ($199 reg price(, I found some of the demos the cello sounded synthy -- which I was frankly surprised at. I loved the sound of 8Dio's Deep Solo Cello out of everything I've looked at, but this Fluffy Audio cello also sounded really nice to my ears and it's on sale cheap ($50). I just don't know anyone who has bought anything from the developer and would love feedback on the quality of the libraries, the scripting, etc. I'm careful before diving in to buy from a sample developer I don't know much about. I mean, I've seen his site for a couple of years, but don't know anyone who's bought his libraries.

Negative points to Reid for doing a clickbait title. I'll forgive you for the awesome Black Friday list over at VI. Also, GAS has been the most overused phrase in music maker forums for at least two dozen years. I sincerely think it's a lame title. Hmmm... I swear I'm not grumpy today! I still have my sense of humor. Reid, I do appreciate you and your videos, but this one is undeniably clickbait territory.

I have, and I was just a little hesitant to leave samples. I own IK's bass modeling soft synth, MODO -- which I bought only because Orange Tree Samples doesn't have a Hofner (if anyone wants to do a thread lobbying them to make one, I'm on board!!!) -- and it's good, but it's still missing something. Consequently, I use the Evolution Roundwound preset based on Jamie Jamerson -- which is what McCartney based his sound upon. So, maybe SWAM is better than MODO, but an electric bass should be a lot less difficult to simulate than a cello, and it makes me hesitant. Besides, I was hoping to spend $75 or less on a Black Friday deal. I have the Intimate solo strings package from 8Dio (can developers stop naming everything intimate or emotional -- or Evolution -- a name I came up with for OTS more than a decade ago when no one else was using it and then every hack developer came around and started using it -- to hell be intellectual property rights), but it just sounds too quirky, which is not at all what I'm looking for. I want character, but not the character that library has. I have Sospiro Strings, but the solo cello and other instruments last like two seconds before abruptly being awkwardly spliced like a bad soundfont.

I am looking for a good deep sampled, well scripted KONTAKT cello library for mostly acoustic rock accompanying piano and this dev's Trio Broz: Solo Cello demos sound really nice. Does anyone here own this? I'm comparing it to libraries from 8Dio and Tina Guo. I'd love to hear anyone's input if they have one of those or another deep sampled cello library they love and would recommend. UPDATE: I purchased sample libraries from Fluffy Audio and spent 11 months putting in the same customer support request but never received a response. When I went on Fluffy Audio's Facebook page to share that I like the libraries but the lack of customer support is unacceptable hoping they might finally respond to my multiple customer support requests, Fluffy Audio did respond by deleting my post and then blocking me on Facebook and later made extremely hostile and defamatory remarks to a customer. All because I was voicing that they didn't provide support. I've since found from someone who works with them and a reviewer that my experience wasn't a surprise to them. My recommendation is to avoid Fluffy Audio, not because their libraries are bad, but because of the developer's poor support and poor treatment of customers and colleagues. In decades of buying sample libraries, I've never experienced a developer so hostile to a customer. I get that the guy was upset that I shared my bad experience with his business publicly, but you don't go to war with a customer that had a poor experience with your business. I expected that Fluffy Audio would have responded to my support requests at that point, they didn't. There's a lot of other developers that make similar libraries that are excellent that treat their customers well.

Okay, here's my game plan. I'm going to get the Synthmaster crossgrade from Synthmaster One for $19 USD from Plugin Boutique and get Audio Thing's The Orb free. That's a pretty great deal for less than $20.

On the Genesis tangent, I'm a big fan of their music from the Gabriel days up to and including Abacab. They were brilliant and Collins' drumming was killer in that era and Banks was amazing. I'm also a big fan of Gabriel's solo music.

@abacabYeah, I'll just buy it. As a marketing / branding pro, I find it beyond ridiculous that the developer has one product called Synthmaster and another called Synthmaster One. What an needlessly confusing naming convention. Even discussing them I anticipate people being confused over which one we're discussing. All of that said, the Player and Synthmaster One are both really nice synths, IMO and bargains.

Thanks, as I mentioned I own Synthmaster Player and a bunch of expansions for it plus I own Synthmaster One, so I'm just wondering if Synthmaster (the full synth) is worthwhile enough beyond the electronic genres as almost all of the demos are electronic genres.

I own Synthmaster One, Synthmaster Player and a bunch of Synthmaster Player expansions. I play -- mostly -- rock music. Is Synthmaster sufficiently worthwhile when I already one Syntmaster One and a bunch of Synthmaster Player expansions? Granted, with Larry' s discount code it's less than $17 for the crossgrade, but I'm just wondering if others who own both find a sufficient difference between the two -- especially for those who play rock and not eletronic sytles a lot of the patches are for.

I'm with the Sound Dust fans. He's one of the small developers who makes libraries I just love. There's a quirky vibe with his libraries. Highly recommended.

My experience is similar to that of mibby. I bought the CB-1 after a thread in this forum about a year ago and they've been excellent.

If you spend enough time in this forum it always leads to the same result, the need for new hard drives.

Thanks, Larry, I appreciate it.