PavlovsCat

Cinimatique Instruments is a very creative and interesting dev, IMO. I like their KLANG line of sample libraries. It's pretty experimental and the prices are cheap, so if you hear something you like, it's a no-brainer to pick it up. Although I think they should get more into package pricing, because I suspect I'm not the only one who wants to buy multiple libraries, but as I already own a lot of these libraries, their all inclusive packs contain a lot of libraries I've already purchased. I suppose I may shoot them an email with a suggestion before making my next purchase. But in any event, I'm a happy customer. KLANG is cool in my book.

I love the idea of making virtual instruments more accessible (freely available), encouraging more people to make music and using proceeds from the music people make to help others (although getting people to pay is the most challenging part of the equation). I'd love to see efforts like this succeed. Even though it's designed to increase brand awareness and adoption of thr Spitfire brand, it does do good things for society, so I'm good with marketing efforts that are also beneficial to society, especially if they benefit people who otherwise may have access issues, such as those who are low income or disabled. But what is Spitfire doing to promote this is the big question. It looks like an empty space made when they're just brainstorming ideas. But I do hope they make it a success. They/Christian did a fantastic job with Pianobook, IMO. It would be great to see that kind of success encouraging people to make and share music.

Good information to know. You'd think that they could at least have done scripted legato, like was done with the free Pocket Blakus cello library for KONTAKT. While it's not as good as more sophisticated approaches, it at least gives the sample library user a legato option. Of course, I realize someone will say, "But it's 29 bucks!" which I totally get too. However, a legato script isn't rocket science (I'm told).

I totally agree. Most better sample developers are really good technicians but this developer, Pendle, is truly an artist.

I have been thinking about picking this up. I have their 1900 Dulcitone library (I think that's it's name) and love it. I've been a customer and fan of this developer going back probably a dozen years or more after first learning about them at KVR. Really cool, different and often, weird in a good way ,sample libraries.

Sonixinema has released Bowed Metals Freebie, a free taster library for Kontakt Player. https://sonixinema.com/products/bowed-metals-freebie

The sale ended, so I suppose it's not to be.

I'm still trying to persuade my wife that this is scientific. Although, I actually really haven't been a musician in 22 years, so I suppose my time has passed... https://www.musicradar.com/news/music-more-attractive-study

I do play with my left and right hand on piano tracks. I'm mainly only concerned with quickly figuring out what chords I was playing. I can decipher single notes by ear (of course, I can with chords too, but sometimes, I might be playing say a 9th or 11th and it would be great if the software shows me that; ezKeys is pretty decent at that, but I need to dupe the track and through it on there and it'd be great if I could just add a plugin to the original track and figure out the chord progressions).

Wow, what is it with my bad luck posting links this week?! I'll UPDATE the listing on page one. I made the above post adding this to the list after I googled "augmented strings intro." Arturia actually bought that keyword phrase at Google, created an ad and still have an Augmented Strings Intro landing page active (my guess is that they should have removed this campaign but didn't; technically, it reflects that either they're being sloppy in managing their Google ad campaign and landing pages or they're only extending this offer to consumers who go through the Google ad campaign; my guess is that it's the former situation). However, as I already have the plugin, I didn't login to follow the process through to the end. You can start at Google and see if it works as shown below and if it doesn't let you get intro, I suggest contacting Arturia support and asking them why. Having a background leading digital marketing at large brands before starting my own dot com, if I were them, considering that they kept this ad campaign and landing page running, I would simply give anyone who went through this experience Augmented Strings Intro for their effort. But I can't say what they'll do -- but it's definitely worth a try since they still have this campaign and landing page active (I took these screenshots minutes before making this post).

Hopefully they'll be doing a deal on their cello libraries in the near future. Both of their cello libraries sound superb to me -- and @Simeon Amburgey's videos for those libraries only made me want both of them more. For me, I want string libraries that are detailed and dry and Soniexema's cello libraries fit the bill. I love the tone of their cello libraries more than any other cello libraries I've heard. I've written this before, but my dream string library would pretty much be George Martin strings (think Eleanor Rigby).

I've added soft synths to the list and would urge others to post their own favorites. Just as the rest of the list, I created this list primarily to be of value to those who are short on funds. Of course, it can also be very useful to those who are not short on cash, but my heart has always been with those who have more passion than money. It's easy to find whatever you like if you have lots of money to spend, but it's more of a challenge if you don't have money. And today, there is an amazing amount of high quality free samplers, sample libraries, soft synths and effects and I simply hope to make finding all of that easier for people, that's my only mission with that list. I have zero other agenda. I'm not looking to be an influencer or to get NFRs from devs. I'm not concerned with developers being offended at my reviews or favoring developer friends, it's how I operate, for better or worse!

I didn't realize that Arturia's Augmented Strings is still available free or I would have put it on the list from day one. I added Heavyocity's new Emotive Choir to the list, two freebies that are worth getting whether or not you're on a tight budget, because they both simply sound very good. If people are still using this list, please let me know by posting or giving this post I like, and I'll continue to update the thread. If not, I'll let it die a natural death. I just thought this would be a great resource for those on a tight budget. That's the reason I decided to organize it by instrument category, so that people can find the instrument they're looking for at the moment if they have a specific gap to fill, say a piano, guitar, drums, percussion, electric piano, strings, choir, etc. [EDIT: Arturia has ended this promotion. ]

I think that's a very plausible theory (that IK only extends this survey and offer to accounts that meet certain conditions). It would explain everything we're seeing, and with a marketing background myself, marketing departments often -- and should -- do surveys/polls that apply only to specific groups of people.

I hate that link! Hahaha. Seriously, I'm glad it's working for you, but I have no idea what's going on or if it will work for anyone else, so until I see a bunch of posts stating that it's consistently working, I'm going to leave the thread title as is so we don't potentially frustrate other people it doesn't work for.

I don't know what group this survey was targeted at, and that indeed may be why IK stopped it or limits it only to accounts that meet certain conditions, if they were only looking to survey a certain group (e.g., users of Tonex CS) and found that the survey link was being distributed to a general audience. They also could be reading a cookie on your machine to see if you meet certain conditions. That's why it worked for some people and not for others. Whatever the case, I'm sorry for those who are frustrated it didn't work for them. It can be frustrating when you see a freebie and you just missed it, you don't qualify or simply doesn't work anymore for some unknown reason. As I shared, I found this yesterday in a Facebook group I'm in (Larry's in it as well) that is usually very reliable and is the source for a lot of posts in this forum. It worked for me, as I used it before posting it here. But the original poster, who is the most prolific poster in the Facebook group, didn't give details on where he got the info and link. Yesterday afternoon when people started reporting that the link no longer work, he tried the link t again and it no longer worked for him either (although that could be due a cookie or his account recognizing that he already received the offer). As I stated in the original post, I had used the link and completed the survey yesterday morning before sharing it, so it worked for me (done on my Android mobile phone). According to posts on page one and two of this thread, it has worked for several people in this thread (I think 4 people on page one and one person on page two shared that it worked for them; and the person on page two posted long after others reported that it didn't work for them). One possibility is that it only works for certain IK customers, say, people who only have TONEX CS as User 905133 was speculating above. It wouldn't be difficult for IK to make that a condition for the freebie (that it only applies to certain accounts). Anyhow, to avoid more people being frustrated by this not working, I modified the thread title to state [expired]. If something changes and people start reporting that the link is again working, I'll change it back. But until then, I'll keep it as expired.

So you just tried now and it worked again? If so, were you on a computer or mobile phone?

I love Vital and Surge (in that order). In fact I like them better than most of my paid synths, especially Vital. That is one great synth, IMO.

@kitekrazy Four people on page one reported it working and it worked for me this morning, so it was working earlier today. It looks like IK unfortunately might have happened to end the promotion this afternoon. I went back to the group where I originally found the information and found that it stopped working for everyone there too. The original poster tried it after people started reporting that it wasn't working and no longer works for him anymore either. Consequently, I updated the thread to indicate that it appears that this offer no longer works (or has expired). Sorry. Here's the group where I found it: https://www.facebook.com/groups/plugindeals

When I shared this, I got the link from a Facebook group I'm in and completed the forum on my (Android) mobile phone. So, perhaps the link is optimized for mobile (although the script on their site should be smart enough to get that right in 2023, I'll leave that to someone who codes to answer, it's just a guess what a problem could be)?

8Dio/SoundPaint are pretty good at delivering the largest GBs per sample library for just about every category. But a 72.81GB 8bit sampled Gameboy library sounds like an April Fools joke to me. The demos sound pretty good, especially the "Wow, Trills and Arps." So 20 bucks for the SDS, sure. But what could ever be the need for utlra deep sampling and 127 velocity layers of an 8 bit lofi Gameboy library??? You're a developer. Can you explain that to me? I'm really happy with the ISW Super Audio Funboy free/donationware library I mentioned above and it's a mere 100MB -- it's a blast to play with and I highly recommend everyone who owns the full version of KONTAKT and enjoys these kinds of sounds should go download it.

This group has been super helpful in recommendations, so I can use some advice on this one. And it starts with an embarrassing confession. I will often feel inspired and record myself playing piano (that is, a piano sample library), say late at night, and quickly record myself playing a song I wrote decades ago from memory or coming up with something completely new. and I won't write down the chords or notes I played, because if I spend the time to do that, I might lose my inspiration or forget a part. So, what happens is that when I go back and listen the next day or whenever, I often don't recall the chord progression and sometimes, I don't even remember what key I played in. I actually played the piano track on the demo I did for Orange Tree Samples that way. I remembered this song I wrote when I was around 13 or so and played it all the way through and the next day when I went back to it, I completely forgot the chord progressions and didn't have them written down anywhere, because somehow, when I started playing, it all came to me, but not the next day! Going through the piano roll to figure out what I played in order to add additional tracks is far too tedious for me. What I'll commonly do is duplicate the track and put ezKeys on it, because it tells you what chords are being played. But I would much prefer if I could just slap a midi plugin on the piano track to quickly see what's being played and was wondering whether Hornet Songkey is a good tool for this or is there something else that is even better. Thanks in advance.

Gameboi? Did they run that past a trademark attorney (rhetorical question; it's a clear infringement on Nintendo's trademark, changing a letter doesn't stop it from being a trademark violation). Also, yesterday I joked after seeing the teaser you posted that this would be ultra deep sampled and there is indeed an ultra deep sampled version. I'm only surprised it's not called "Intimate Gameboi" or "Emotional Gamboi," but there's probably patches with those names! I do dig the Gameboy sounds and for anyone else who does (and owns the full version of KONTAKT) you should download Impact Soundworks Super Audio Boy KONTAKT library. I love it and it is free/donationware. https://impactsoundworks.com/product/super-audio-boy/ I used Super Audio Boy in my cover of Cars I did last year (it comes in at 1:44) as kind of an Easter egg to amuse my wife, who loved her Gameboy as a kid. https://on.soundcloud.com/os2se

Simplicity scaring us? I don't think that's the problem. I have a bunch of synths and samples of analog synths that are simple. Simple can be beautiful. I found that kHs One didn't bring anything very different and sonically appealing to me from other virtual analogue synths I already own. However, there's a huge caveat for others when I share my opinion on this and any synth, I'm really only judging it by presets, so someone who creates their own patches from scratch may have a completely different opinion. Of course, everything is subject to personal tastes. Funny, back in the day, with hardware synths, I actually did create my own patches. But not these days. I leave it to people with a lot more talent at it than me.

I bought it a while back and wasn't very impressed with it and never used it in anything. I've seen a lot of people here have great things to say about Phase Plant, but I have so many synths at this point that I haven't picked it up.