PavlovsCat

I'd love to hear the opinions of experienced mixers who've used this plugin.

Now I have to try it on synths. I only put it on audio for a drum kit and really liked it, but haven't tried it on anything else. From my experience with this and their other freebie, Warmy, I'm quite impressed with this developer.

I tried XTMax out the other day and really like it on drums. I agree with you, Tianzii, this is a very worthwhile freebie I can recommend. That said, I already own so many compressors, I don't think I'll get the paid version. This is enough for me. It does the trick.

I've contemplated buying the Pathfinder Cello. Anyone own one or both of these? I own several of Ben's libraries and really like them, although I find the pattern ones less to my liking. It's good quality, but doesn't really fit the way I work.

The developer has been very nice in my experience. The libraries are okay, not great. They aren't detailed (deep) sampled libraries, ftr. Just a heads up, they're based in Lenningrad, Russia, so a good deal of credit cards and credit services won't work there. Amongst them are Visa, Mastercard. American Express, and PayPal https://www.americanbanker.com/payments/list/these-payment-companies-are-cutting-off-russia

So, the update is updating KONTAKT to run ads for users to visit NI's site for new sample libraries, paid and free. Is there an option to turn that off? I might accept that in a free sampler-- although I wouldn't like it; it's intrusive and annoying in a very spammy way -- but in a paid sampler? That's really unwelcome and I'm sure 90+ percent of users will agree. NI obviously only put in the promos for freebies to attempt to get users to get on board with this. Disappointing.

Happy new year to all. I hope 2024 is your best year yet.

Hahaha! Well, that's purely up to you.

Cool! Nice job, Nick. I like it! I really like your tastes. Creative and interesting.

Bell and Bone is a free jazz trumpet and trombone library from Librewave. This seems to be another quality sample library that works in the free Rhapsody player from a talented sample developer that I've been a customer of for a few years. He has a background of making sample libraries for a number of well known KONTAKT developers and, while I haven't downloaded, installed and used it yet, based on the below video, my past experience with the developer and Guy Michelmore's praise, this is quite a nice library that the developer's giving away free in an effort to bring his business and his sample player greater awareness. This is a YouTuber's walkthrough/review of the free library: https://librewave.com/product/bell-and-bone/

If you watch the video, you can hear what it sounds like. It's 3 samples stretched over a keyboard, so, there's an incredible gap between this little freebie and the dev's highly detailed viola sample library.

Sonuscore makes nice libraries, I'd give them a try.

@JoeGBradford I quickly came up with some of my favorite freebies for KONTAKT full version: 8Dio 1928 Steinway Grand and a number of other high quality libraries for KONTAKT for free https://8dio.com/collections/free-instruments Lofi Wurli There's a bit of noise if you hold the samples, but otherwise, this is really nice for a free Wurl library. https://drive.google.com/file/d/15U99DL5BJdPAwj3SDOYvI2EPJ1_eaL8K/edit Red Pack Drums - acoustic drum kit https://www.redpackdrums.com/product-page/the-official-ds-drum-library Prepatato Piano Free An awesome free version of a prepared piano library. It's good enough to have charged for. Grab all of this dev's freebies. https://www.xperimentaproject.com/preparato-piano-free/ Death Piano LE Another free version of a prepared piano library that I like a lot. https://www.productionvoices.com/free/ Analogue Drums Big Mono Kit https://www.analoguedrums.com/drumkits/big-mono/ Pocket Blakus - Free Cello Look around the VST Buzz site for freebies for KONTAKT, there are some nice ones there. There's a glockenspiel, I believe named Jonathan's Glockenspiel that's quite nice. Check out the Ivy Audio piano and other libraries. https://vstbuzz.com/freebies/pocketblakus-cello/ Performance Samples Cello, Violin -- grab all of their freebies https://www.performancesamples.com/pacific-solocellolegato/ Westwood Alt Piano -- an upright felt piano https://www.westwoodinstruments.com/alt-piano-lite-edition/ Musical Sampling Legato Trumpet This is a really nice free legato trumpet library. https://musicalsampling.com/trumpet-freebie/ Sonuscore Free Pipe Organ This is a free KONTAKT Player library, but just in case you don't have it, get it! https://www.sonuscore.com/shop/free-pipe-organ/ Keypleezer Upright Piano A character piano, slightly out of tune, but cool. https://keypleezer.com/free-upright-piano-for-kontakt/ Sinewave Lab Free Mellotron Library I'm in love with pianos, Wurlis, glockenspiels, celestes, drums, guitars, basses, cellos, Wurlis -- and Trons. https://sinewavelab.com/products/free-mellotron-library-for-kontakt/ SoundIron has some freebies that are fun, especially, believe it or not, the free Desk Bell library. Pianobook See my list for recommendations, because a lot of stuff is poor quality. You can use my list to find the best libraries there, and you can also look for high-rated instruments at the site, of course. The Quarantine and Isolation pianos are two that immediately come to mind as some of the best there. Pick up everything from Dan Keen (he does mainly string and piano libraries, and they're very, very good). https://discuss.cakewalk.com/index.php?/topic/65790-best-free-sample-libraries-for-kontakt-a-curated-list-of-recommended-libraries/

I used to be a regular at KVR (under the user name of eDrummist, which I still use when I'm occasionally there) and befriended a bunch of folks in real life from KVR that I've visited on three continents (okay, I live on one of those continents). But it's probably been a decade since I spent much time there. KVR, of course, is a pretty big community and can get toxic from time to time (not VI-Control level toxic, but bad enough that I prefer somewhere friendlier) and I simply find that not to my liking. While no forum is perfect, I think this one, overall, is excellent and I attribute that to a combination of a great community and the standards and moderation of the forum. Also, we have cclarry, which is nice. Please, stick around! - Peter

The only way I would pay for WUP would be if one of the Wave plugins I use (mainly the Abbey Road ones) stopped working. Otherwise, I see no reason. Even then, I would explore buying a replacement plugin before spending money on WUP.

The demo sounds nice! It sounds perfect for synthwave.

This is a great deal on a good magazine. Support one of the most enjoyable reads about one of your favorite topics for only $15.99 USD for a 1 year subscription and get free plugins and samples each month. PocketMags Mega Sale - annual digital subscription to Computer Music Magazine (13 issues) billed annually is 75% off - $15.99 (reg. $27.99). End date unknown. https://pocketmags.com/us/computer-music-magazine

@jngnz I've only had their Wurli library (it was part of their collection and they gave the Wurli away free fir a time; I hated the recordings; they simply didn’t sound professionally done, IMO; they sounded boxy and amateurish) and I avoided the developer after that. What libraries of theirs would you recommend? I've contemplated the solo cello, but candidly, the demos are very amateurish and reminded me of the Wurli library.

B-3X is $33.59 USD at JRR Shop with the code GROUP. I feel like I'm plagiarizing cclarry with this post! https://www.jrrshop.com/ik-multimedia-hammond-b-3x-organ-plugin

I'm a business owner talking to a lawyer. What are these morals you speak of? We're all capitali$t$ here.

It's because they do. But hey, they're not in the altruism business, right? So no surprises there.

They're not very sophisticated sample libraries. It's pretty much at the level that was the norm 20 years ago. Yes, it's nice for free, but you can find a number of vastly superior free drum sample libraries. I created two threads that contain lists of free libraries that include drum kits, one is for owners of the full version of KONTAKT and the other are libraries that come with or work on free players. All of those libraries are far more sophisticated than the JRR kits. Personally, I downloaded the JRR kits the last time they gave them away free, but ended up deleting them except for an 80s drum machine-ish kit where I wasn't concerned with it trying to sound like an authentic drum kit. Off hand, Analogue Drums has a very nice free kit called Big Mono, there's the free BFD Player, Steven Slate Drums Free version, Sterzov The Creative Toolbox Drums and Percussion, Spitfire Labs free drum kit and IK's MODO Drums free version -- all of those are superior to the JRR kits. There's more on my lists, but I don't want you to be bummed out over missing these kits. There are much better ones out there.

Okay, I'm not knowledgeable enough to have a valid opinion on this, so I'm going to trust that you guys (mainly jngnz and Bapu) know this stuff and buy it. Seriously. It's $19 USD for me. I Iooked up a review from Mix Magazine and watched a video where Matt Lange showered praise on it and said he uses it on practically everything he does.

Merry Christmas and happy holidays to all.

I own several Rigid Audio libraries and find them to be mediocre. I've owned them for several years and have never used one in a production. Consequently, I've stopped buying them, now when you can easily buy one of their libraries for prices like $1.99 USD. The consensus at this forum tends to be pretty close to my experience, that their libraries are mediocre and there's often posts about file sizes for some of their libraries. I consider Triple Spiral Audio and Karanyi much better at doing synth patches. Of course, that's completely subjective. On a more objective level, I find Rigid Audio KONTAKT files run fine. Historically, Rigid Audio would wildly inflate their list prices in order to promote outrageous (massive discounts) of 90% or more. They seem to have stopped doing that, or they're doing it a lot less lately.