PavlovsCat

I've historically held back a bit in my posts on libraries and plugins. Granted, you witnessed what happened when I shared a series of very negative experiences with a certain developer. I realize I may tick off developers for being so candid and sharing the positives and negatives -- and I know some of these folks. But I'm a paying customer, and in the end, I look at the best contribution I -- or any of us -- can make to the community is by being very candid about our opinions and experiences; it's something people can rarely find from influencers. This forum isn't about benefiting developers-- that's what VI-CONTROL is all about-- this forum is focused on musicians sharing their honest experiences and only sharing the positive experiences and withholding honest criticism isn't really as helpful as it could be to the community-- and I also believe it benefits the best developers (because they listen to customers).

@Brian Lawler One exception I've found is Bazanatar. I love it! I love it solo and layered with a piano. I wish they had more libraries like that one. If there is one SoundPaint library I could recommend without hesitation, that's it. And it's cheap too.

@Peter - IK Multimedia Just a thought with my strategist hat on, but if management's concern is about excessive re-downloads, how about they restrict re-downloads to x many times per period, such as a maximum of 2 re-downloads per 190 days or pay a fee? It might be a way to find some middle ground with management that thinks the current approach is a good idea. It would also give them a win with customers, as IK could announce the policy change as a result of listening to their customers and being customer-centric. BTW, I think you know, but just in case, this is your friend Peter, AKA edrummist!

I also own Anthology and got the crossgrade offer. I don't think it's just me, I own maybe a dozen SoundPaint libraries, including, 3 piano libraries and a few stringed instruments and I find that SoundPaint isn't as good as KONTAKT in terms of realistic sounds for strings, pianos or guitars. The strings in this walkthrough video sound a bit synthy to me. Right now -- and I'm hoping for continued improvement of the Soundpaint platform--where I see Soundpaint strengths are that it is really good for ease of programming and for easy sound design-- it beats out KONTAKT or UVI in that area, IMO. But it's not on the same level when it comes to sound quality for acoustic based instruments (as compared to say, synths or drum machines). Consequently, I don't think I'm going to continue buying acoustic based sample libraries for Soundpaint. I found the Soul Guitar so disappointing that I returned it (kudos to Soundpaint for doing returns and being super easy to deal with during that process). @Brian Lawler, I'd be interested in your take on Soundpaint.

We appreciate your efforts, @Peter - IK Multimedia. I've had good experiences with IK. I just think that particular policy of charging to re-download samples is not a good policy and should be changed. Thanks!

Yeah, IK's policy of charging customers $10 USD to re-download libraries after 180 days is definitely not a good,, customer friendly, policy, IMO. I always hoped they'd eventually drop that, but that hasn't happened.

This is why I often skip subtle humor in social media -- it's too prone to misinterpretation. My sense of humor is pretty much in the same group as yours -- often dry and dead pan and based on irony. If I post something that reflects that in a forum post a great deal of people won't get it. I did think there was a chance you were kidding, but I opted to not assume that, just in case! In a real life conversation, I would have gone on with your remark and made it completely ridiculous. So next time you catch one of my typos-- and I'm sure that time isn't too far away -- we can both share our senses of humor and confuse the rest of the forum.

A typo. I meant to type may instead of make" "they may love something that I don't even like and visa versa." If you noticed before that I linked to mandolin libraries instead of ukulele librares! I think I need an editor to review my posts before I press "Submit Reply"!

@kitekrazy I'm guessing you were probably around over at KVR in the early 00s back when IK was a young company and Dave Kerzner was doing group buys for them? I think a number of folks here were at KVR back then. It was a great place back in the days, but every so often trolls and people with really bad behavior would come in and totally kill the friendly atmosphere. While those kind of folks are everywhere, they're a lot less of them in this forum. Cakewalk forum rules when it comes to friendly, helpful people.

I realize that we get excited over freebies, but the samples that are the basis of the Miroslav orchestral library were sampled in 1993. Of course, multisample libraries have advanced by leaps and bounds since then. This was sampled in 20-bit for the Akai sampler. I picked up the first version for Sampletank back in the 00s (same samples as today). I'm really surprised that nearly two decades later -- literally 30 years since the original samples were recorded -- that IK has never done a new orchestra library and still markets this one.

I personally don't know anyone using Kirchhoff-EQ, but a couple of my audio expert friends did tell me they're impressed by it and tell me they've heard good things from people who use it. But an EQ that interests me -- and I don't really have the expertise to assess EQs decently, I still am just learning this stuff -- is Toneboosters Equalizer 4. Especially because of its AI functionality to assess audio and videos I've watched of how it works. I just downloaded the demo to check it out this weekend, but I'd love to hear from anyone in the forum who knows this stuff well and either has this EQ or has demoed it and has an informed opinion on it. Below is a video from an influencer on EQ4 that I found interesting. I'm guessing the guy didn't get a kickback for it and, also, that the developer isn't paying influencers. Consequently, he's not getting much attention from influencers. But it's €29 - and it's gone on sale, for I think, €19 in the past -- and has a demo available. https://www.toneboosters.com/tb_equalizer_v4.html

Absolutely. I'm definitely not saying that I am some great authority -- not at all. I'm saying that it is my opinion that this plugin/library (as it is a really low end sample library inferior to Soundfonts that I picked up free in the 90s) -- is not good. Personally, I weigh the opinions of forum members before I pick something up. I don't see anyone as the ultimate authority -- they may love something that I don't even like and visa versa. But on an objective basis, assessing this sample library (which, despite the developer using other techniques, it is largely just a small pool of samples that creates the ukulele sound), it's just not anywhere at the level of high quality, multi-layered, multi-sample library or modeled plugins that have been on the market for the past couple of decades. I realize that 20 or so years ago this developer made a free piano plugin that was somewhat popular, but they never reached a level of sonic quality equivalency with other developers, IMO. But it's a freebie, so really, if anyone is interested, download it, install and report back. You can reach your own decisions. I'm rarely this bold when I find a plugin or sample library that I think is poor, but I am puzzled that this developer produces plugins that, from my experience, aren't even close to what I would consider acceptable. As the developer asks a pretty serious price for some of their plugins, I am more apt to share my candid opinions. But I really was hoping to get some insights from someone who buys this developer's paid plugins, because, dead serious, I have listened to their demos, installed some of their freebies over the years, and I am very surprised that anyone would buy their plugins.

Sometimes it actually is the tool, when the tool is trash. (I definitely am not referring to Harrison's ukulele or playing. I loved all the members of The Beatles).

SampleTekk is a well respected and well established developer of sample libraries. They've at least been around for decades. I've owned the original Rain Piano library for more than a decade and they recently released an updated version that I picked up after it was released. I think it's a very good character piano library. It's an upright. If you like the demos, you'll like the library. What does look very sketchy is the plughub.sale website. @cclarry do you know if this sight is legitimate? Several red flags go up when assessing their site. First, the party behind the website is completely anonymous with no name, address or phone and they even hide their domain registration, they avoid using the Sampletekk name anywhere on the page -- subsequently, I would avoid using them, as they look a lot like a scam. Sampletekk currently has a 75% off sale directly on their site, which Larry did another post about. But their site is simply Sampletekk.com

This kind of interests me, even though it's mainly targeted at EDM and I mostly do rock. I'd love to hear from people who are using it and learn of how they're using it. It seems like it would be a lot of fun to experiment with.

Haha! Okay, my bad! But it is pretty poor.

Installed. Then quickly uninstalled. I definitely didn't find this virtual ukulele makes the cut -- or even comes close. [EDIT: For some reason I put in mandolin sample libraries instead of ukulele samples. Oh well...] If someone is looking for a vastly superior free mandolin sample library, Spifire has one for their free Labs Player that is vastly superior, there's another library for Decent Sampler called Stella Mandolin and, for those who own the full version of KONTAKT, Edu Prado has a free mandolin library. https://labs.spitfireaudio.com/mandolin https://www.decentsamples.com/product/stella-mandolin/ https://sounds.eduprado.com/products/extended-mandolin-bits-free

I suppose I might give it a shot, but, very candidly, I installed one of their plugins years ago and thought it sounded very poor. In fact, I've just never heard anything from this developer that sounds good to my ears. Is there something someone feels that they excel at?

I tried the cello over lunch and it is very, very nice. I'm very glad I picked this up. The cello has a nice character to it. I find it on the nasally side -- but pleasant. I was considering picking up their Tableau Solo Cello during the next big sale (Black Friday?). I'd love to get the insights of anyone who owns that -- as if that goes on sale, I don't see any reason not to pick it up if it sounds different enough from this. Tableau's cello seems to be a lot more of "clean" recording that's more dry than Salu. Salu doesn't have many articulations -- which is no surprise for its price -- but it has a nice legato sustain patch, a nice spicato, some arpeggios, circular bowing and long and short portato. For less than 20 (US) bucks (or less than 20 Euros if you're in Europe), I would consider it a no-brainer purchase for cello lovers like me. I can definitely recommend this library.

I get their emails, but I definitely wouldn't have noticed this without your post. I am in love with the sound of the cello, so I clicked your link, listened to the demo and immediately hit purchase. It sounds beautiful. I'll install it later and, if I can get to it before the sale is over, report my thoughts back here. Thanks, Larry!

I welcome @TheSteven to the club. We weren't the first to have duplicate posts,but we did make it more fun.

I always enjoy your videos, @Simeon Amburgey! I'm sure this is no exception. I'm anticipating finally picking up Sonixinema's Contemporary Soloist Cello library this Black Friday and it was your videos that made me fall in love with both of their solo cello libraries. So there is a danger in watching your videos!

Yay! A happy ending to the story! Also, I'm still envious!

There are some killer deals going on at Loot Audio right now and I wanted to highlight two small developers that I am a customer of, whose libraries I can recommend. As I'm not an influencer getting kickbacks or making money off of this like influencers do, I am going to give my unedited opinions about what I love and don't love about these libraries. All of these libraries require the full version of KONTAKT. MAJETONE This is a really under-appreciated developer, IMO. I love the tone he gets out of his drum libraries. They don't feature amazing scripting and they aren't flawless, but they have a certain magic to them and they're amazing deals at the present sale prices, IMO. The vibe of his libraries is really special. What I don't love? The way he maps the ride cymbal so that if you hit the key/note with medium or high velocity, it crashes. I've contacted him and recommended he maps the crash to a different key. Also some of the samples -- like the hi hat samples, have a bit of noise in them near the end. Again, I've let the developer know. But even so, these aren't dealbreakers, IMO. Not for the price and they don't make the libraries unusable. Truck Drums 2 WAS $18.73 NOW $3.75 A small drum kit that captures that Bonham "Levy" sound better than any drum sample library I know of. My only issue with this developer's drum kits is that he maps a ride cymbal on the same key as the crash, so you need to use very low velocity to get a ride cymbal sound. I have asked him about fixing that, I strongly doubt that many users like it the way it's mapped. I believe that I bought this library at full price and it was well worth it -- a bargain for all the fun it's been. https://www.lootaudio.com/category/kontakt-instruments/majetone-industries/truck-drums-2 This is the best video I know of to illustrate the sound of the Truck Drums 2: Kensal Drums WAS $18.73 NOW $3.75 A small drum kit that sounds beefy for a no-brainer price. The ride cymbal mapping and some noise in the hihat samples (particularly for the closing hi hat on G# are in need of a fix, IMO, but I can live with it). https://www.lootaudio.com/category/kontakt-instruments/majetone-industries/kensal-drums-majetone Kensal Club Date Drums WAS $43.70 USD NOW $8.74 A really good sounding small drum kit. I haven't bought this one yet, but based on the demos and other Majetone drum libraries that I own, I'm confident that it's good. https://www.lootaudio.com/category/kontakt-instruments/majetone-industries/kensal-clubdate-majetone Coy P does a review of the library: Extended Glockenspiel WAS $43.70 USD NOW $8.74 A lovely sounding glockenspiel that has had its range extended and features sound design presets. I haven't bought this yet, but based on the demos, the walkthrough video and other libraries I own from this developer, I'm confident that it's good and I'll eventually pick it up. https://www.lootaudio.com/category/kontakt-instruments/majetone-industries/extended-glockenspiel The walkthrough video: BEN OSTERHOUSE It's been a long time since Ben Osterhouse was a bit of a well kept indie developer secret find. The world seems to have discovered this very talented and creative developer's genius. But I'm sure there's still some folks who have yet to try his libraries. They're really different, really good and when they're on sale, they're a phenomenal bargain. I bought this library at full price -- it was the first library of his I purchased, and it quickly made me a fan. Sospiro Strings WAS $49.32 NOW $24.66 Slow, emotive strings. It features 4 different length swells and 3 sustained articulations recorded on bass, cello, viola and violin. The bang for the buck for a library of this kind, at this quality level, is simply amazing. https://www.lootaudio.com/category/kontakt-instruments/ben-osterhouse/sospiro-strings-ben-osterhouse-kontakt A review of Sospiro Strings and another of Ben's libraries:

Yeah, yeah, deal, but who is this Larry Shelby dude and why is his using cclarry's photo?