PavlovsCat

Now go and use that Mister Rogers' Celeste to write an angsty celeste-based song about your experience! Hahaha. If you could do that, it would actually be hilarious. Seriously though, this one of my favorite freebies in a while. I love celestes and absolutely would have been satisfied if this was a paid library.

I just downloaded, installed it, played it and I love it! Excellent freebie. I hope you get it worked out quickly, Larry.

I love celestes and I can't help but wonder if watching Mister Rogers as a kid is the root of it. So, I have to grab this one. Thanks, Larry.

Abbey Road Saturator is the one Waves plugin I'm contemplating buying. I'd love to get the opinions of experienced mixers on if they like it or not and others they think are worth looking at.

Humble Bundle has some great deals. I don't think you can go wrong. But charity? They're a for profit business that only [edit: only gives a small percentage of the sale to charity, BUT YOU CAN ADJUST THE AMOUNT TO GIVE MORE as abacab notes below]. Give directly to charities to make a difference.

I really enjoy David Hollowitz's videos. He's really good with this media (YouTube video). He's a really talented storyteller, musician, samplist, programmer and is very generous with his sample libraries and sampler. The above video is really wonderful, IMO.

I empathize with developers for wanting a more consistent revenue stream (hence, the subscription model), so my issue isn't completely due to the existence of WUP, but the lack of transparency in how Waves' prospects/customers often learn about WUP, which, in my experience, was after the sale. I think Waves would do well to simply state that updating to a new version comes with a cost rather than the concept of the Update Plan, which I think puts a bad taste in the mouths of some customers because it isn't commonplace / anticipated. For instance, NI can do a new version of KONTAKT and most of us are willing to pay to update if there are decent benefits, but we're generally not paying extra to ensure the program keeps working. But I think a big part of the problem with the Waves Update Plan is that the company hasn't historically communicated this system clearly prior to the sale (more recently they've done a better job by having a little item that states "Free Waves Update Plan" when you go to your cart, although I still think this plan is likely to be misunderstood by new customers and could be better explained, but Waves is, no doubt, concerned being more transparent will lower their conversion rates). At least, that's my take. But this whole serial registration thing, not accepting serials after March 26, that's easily just as problematic as the lack of transparency of the Update Plan, IMO. (Hold your fire, boys! It's just an opinion.)

Yep. They've sold some libraries through resellers -- one of the deep discount audio deal sites (maybe APD?) -- that were heavily discounted, but those were older libraries. I've just been trying to cut down on my spending on music stuff and own several solo cello libraries already (including two from 8Dio) so it's one of those nice to haves, but not something that I'm missing from my collection.

I've been waiting for a sale on one or both of their cello libraries! I wish it was more than 30% (we've seen so many killer deep discounts lately, we've all been kind of conditioned to expect 40% or more every so often!). Why has this developer's cello libraries captured my attention? Listen to the feeling in the playing , the tone and dryness of it. I love it. I primarily want dry strings to use rock and acoustic rock type songs. Our own Simeon did a couple of videos with Sonixinema's two cello libraries -- and it didn't make choosing between the two of them easy, as I think they both sound beautiful (and I think Simeon agrees). https://sonixinema.com/collections/strings/products/contemporary-soloists-cello

Kudos to you for including retailers you don't have an affiliate relationship with, @Audio Plugin Guy! I've posted about your Facebook group before (https://www.facebook.com/groups/plugindeals/), as I find it super useful and have even recommended it to fellow musician friends and developer friends. FTR, I'm totally cool clicking on one of your affiliate links, like our own @cclarry, I think you perform a very useful service. I just try to be helpful and explain to people that what happens when someone builds one of these search engines is that they most often either completely or mostly include shops that provide them with an affiliate kickback (or greatly prioritize listings for the shops that provide affiliate kickbacks and over those shops that don't). Now, that's understandable, such sites aren't an altruistic endeavor, the folks building them are looking to make money. And, I'm certainly not opposed to that, I'm a business owner myself. I just want to make sure my fellow forum members are aware that these tools aren't showing them a full picture of the best deals and that choice is often guided by how much profit the comparison site owner can make from the reseller (or developer) from affiliate kickbacks. So, in an ideal scenario, a comparison site would include every seller of the included products, regardless of affiliate relationships. But it's unlikely that anyone would be compelled to build that. Kudos to you for not just including the sites you have affiliate relationships with. In the end, I think that makes your site a more valuable tool than the others. It actually makes me more likely to choose your site over alternatives that primarily include sites they have affiliate marketing relationships with. I also appreciate your candor and how informative you are. I think you do an excellent job with running the Facebook group, keeping it focused and civil, and I really like the price check tool site -- which admittedly, I haven't spent much time with --but it seems very promising! Keep up the good work.

Kudos, @cclarry for the thread title! The great thing about Waves sales is now other plugin developers that create excellent plugins and don't have their own version of WUP are now doing similar sales. Right now there are fantastic deals from Plugin Alliance, SSL, Softube, Izotope, Eventide... I'm not even moderately tempted by Waves always on sale for $29/39 USD. Over time, I'll probably pay up for WUP for my Abbey Roads plugins (only when they stop working), but other than that, I don't see Waves in my future. And my fellow forum members have made me aware of a lot of great alternatives to Waves, so once again, thanks to everyone here who shares deals and their experiences with plugins and libraries (or maybe, more accurately, it should be plugin addicts enabling other plugin addicts?). This community truly is musicians helping musicians. Another forum may claim that as a slogan, but this forum actually lives it.

You nailed it. Good call.

When I read Larry's post I was going to write the same thing! You nailed it! Anyhow, I'm good with it. Plugin Alliance beats Waves in my book, as there's no PAUP. Hopefully, Plugin Alliance won't copy that Waves strategy.

So I'm chatting with the developer (PMs on Facebook) and click on his personal page and realize that he's also the developer behind Xtant Audio, which makes KONTAKT libraries (some of which he's porting over to his Rhapsody player) and I'm a customer of Xtant Audio and actually gave the only testimonial I've ever done for a sample library. I didn't know him when I did that, I just thought his glockenspiel library for around $5 USD was really well done and a bargain and wanted to let others know. Here's his other business. https://xtant-audio.com/product-category/virtual-instruments/

Sadly, though, I know the reality is that will never happen. The scripting capabilities for KONTAKT are a strong differentiator for their sampler and demand for KONTAKT is primarily a result of the fact that so many high end sample developers create libraries that are specifically formatted for KONTAKT. You can say the same thing for UVI, even though its market share is incredibly smaller. Wait, I'm certain to get ripped on for talking business / marketing strategy. I did send the dev feedback and he seems like a really nice, down to earth guy.

I completely agree.

Yeah, I completely understand. I would prefer if this were a KONTAKT library too. When an indie dev creates their own sample player it means one more plugin to learn, update and maintain that might have issues at some point, especially if the dev later gets out of the biz or abandons their old library. But I empathize with devs who do this, which is often done out of empathy for customers who can't afford or don't want to buy KONTAKT. I don't agree with making their own plugins -- I already have a ridiculous amount of various developer's proprietary sample players. On the flipside, one can easily make the argument that it creates a near monopoly for NI. But as a user, I'm a huge fan of not having to use and maintain a ton of different plugins to play sample libraries and not having to worry that my investment will be worthless if a small developer stops supporting their plugin because they've moved on, died, whatever. That said, this dev made a really fine sample library and I'm very grateful for his generosity and hope he gets lots of business.

For those who don't know, Scott Garrigus is a Cakewalk/Sonar legend who wrote many superb books on Cakewalk/Sonar that I would buy with every new version. Nice to see you here, Scott!

No need for apologies. Plus, I prefer light hearted humor!

Come on guys, it's literally explained in my original post and it's only two sentences and it's also explained on the landing page for the sample library. From my OP above: "It uses the developer's plugin called Rhapsody, (available for Mac, Win & Linux) so for those without KONTAKT, this doesn't require that. So install that first and then download the two files for the library (there's 4 videos on the page to download Rhapsody; you only need to watch the first and it's very simple). " Here's a direct link to the Rhapsody player landing page: https://librewave.com/rhapsody/

Wait, is my word no good with you? You probably didn't mean it that way, but it gave me a laugh.

I should just PM you before I buy anything from a developer that's new to me! You own just about everything! But thanks for the recommendations. Judging from this library, I felt certain this is a high quality developer. Now I feel very confident. It's a very nice library to pick up free.

I just downloaded, installed and tried out the Emerald Flute library, an Irish flute sample library Libre Wave usually charges $23.99 USD for but is giving away free right now (end date unknown) and it's very nice. This is my first experience with this developer and I'm impressed. I didn't have more than a few minutes to play around with it, but I used the keyswitches to try the various articulations and I thought the library seems well done and sounds very nice. It uses the developer's plugin called Rhapsody, (available for Mac, Win & Linux) so for those without KONTAKT, this doesn't require that. So install that first and then download the two files for the library (there's 4 videos on the page to download Rhapsody; you only need to watch the first and it's very simple). https://librewave.com/product/emerald-flute/

I use AD2 a lot. But I don't love most of the toms in AD2 kits -- it reminds me of sound pros I've worked with that want the toms to have zero ring and basically have you tape them up. I greatly prefer the sound of Toontrack kits -- they sound more like the way I've historically tuned my drums, with a lot fuller sound. That said, AD2 often sits really well in a mix and I've had a bunch of compliments on drums sounded good using AD2. Although I never see anyone mention it as a favorite, I think the kits in NI's Studio Drums sound really good. If anyone here owns KOMPLETE and hasn't tried these out, they're worth a second listen.

I love KOMPLETE. My favorite instruments and effects are Noire, Abbey Road 60s Drums, the 3 NI pianos (2 grands and an upright), the Cuban, Western Africa. Middle East and Indian Spotlight multiple instrument libraries, The Giant, Una Corda, Studio Drummer, Massive and Massive X, Guitar Rig and some of the effects included, especially the transient designer. Lofi Glow is kind of cool too. Session Strings and Session Horns aren't killer libraries, but I still find myself using the former a lot and used it on a number of songs. The organ and electric piano libraries are bland and dated. I wish they would replace those with better libraries of the same instruments. This is the first song I tried doing around 21 years after I stopped playing music after a repetitive stress injury resulting in lifelong tendonitis made it impossible to play a full song without pain and I used the KONTAKT factory library Wurli, Abbey Road Drums, Session Strings (and another KONTAKT string library I picked up for $29 USD),the guitars and bass are from Orange Tree Samples. Although this was before they came out with the Vintage Violin Hofner bass, so I probably should update it (plus I'm certain I can do a better job on the drums by now, this was my first time attempting to play and I was in pain by the end of the song). Everything was a first take, so while my timing was once superb many years ago, pre-injury, it was especially shaky on this, but all things considered, I am pretty happy with how it came out. This cover features the same two string libraries, the Noire piano and the B3 included with KOMPLETE. I used the Skybox Hammers and Waves 145B (Wurli) library. The guitar and bass are all Orange Tree Samples Evolution libraries. I believe the Vibes were either Orange Tree Samples or Xperimenta Project. I used Superior Drummer 2.0 for the drums but easily could have used one of the libraries included with KOMPLETE.