PavlovsCat

Thanks, Abacab. I appreciate it. I'll give it a try later today or tomorrow.

WURLI COMPARISON I PLAYED THE TWO WURLI LIBRARIES I BOUGHT THIS BLACK FRIDAY TO SEE HOW THEY COMPARED AND WANTED TO SHARE IT (BOTH ARE PRESENTLY ON BF SALES FOR $35USD OR LESS) I threw this together really quickly and I played the the library winning the current poll, e-instruments Session Keys W ,and Skybox's Hammers + Waves EP145B. both libraries I recently picked up on sale recently and I love them both and find they both have qualities different enough from the other to make purchasing both worthwhile. Granted, this isn't some scientific shootout. My playing is pedestrian at best, and as far as mixing, I wasn't focused on making the Wurli's the exact same volume, I just tried to make them higher up in the mix than I would actually want them, so that you can hear them well. So if you're looking for a scientifically done shootout by a talented musician who knows how to mix and set everything up properly, that's definitely not me. This was purely for fun to compare the two libraries I just bought. I didn't use a pre made midi file, I just played one library for the first time through the first verse/chorus and then switched to playing the other library for the next verse/chorus. So it's not a cut and paste of the same parts but me performing the same progressions with slight variations in my playing each time. I won't say which is which but the first time through I play with one then switch to the second on the second time through the full verse/chorus part. I'd love to hear which one you like best and why. Both libraries are still on sale for $35 USD or less and I love them both. IMO, it's a killer bargain.

It's been such a long time since I heard that organ I grew up with so I don't remember its tone vividly, But my mother was a classically trained pianist and organist, a music performance major who went to a conservatory, so she bought the organ with stuff like Bach in mind. Her students were largely studying classical music. But she loved popular music of the day, but I think she focused the instruments she bought with more of an emphasis on classical. She adored Chopin's music and she thought of a piano tone she liked best with Chopin in mind, not R&B, blues, rock or jazz in mind. Which reminds me that we haven't really given a lot of attention to jazz in the thread. We need to do that next! While I loved and still love classical music, I was a drummer and rock, R&B, funk and gospel would have been the priorities for my organ choice. Unquestionably a Hammond. I really didn't know about Hammonds and Rhodes first hand until I 17 and befriended this very talented old (nearly 40, which at 17 seemed pretty old, nearly my mom's age) musician blues and R&B singer/multi-instrumentalist and we would spend hours jamming on Sundays at his house with various musicians invited over for blues and R&B jam session and at my mother's house (with my mother joining in on piano or organ). He owned a Rhodes and a Leslie and was really good at soloing on both and he had a great, soulful voice. And yeah, with a son the same age I was then, I do think it would be odd if he was suddenly hanging out a nearly 40 yr old dude a lot (I also wonder what his wife was thinking about this 17 year old kid hanging around their house, but it was all about music). However, it was actually a really beautiful friendship based around our obsessive love of music. But here's an observation I've made. I have tendonitis and can't play very well anymore. Dead serious, it can be tough to try to play instruments you've played in front of thousands of people at one point and know that you can barely play at a very simplistic level and you're not going to get better. It can be difficult to get used to. Bu t swear that when I play Wurli libraries I feel inspired and when I play my favorite Rhodes library, which I absolutely love, I seem to be too self aware of how bad my playing is. And I love Rhodes electric pianos and they sound great when they're in the hands of killer players. However, my personal opinion is that if you're a terrible player like I am, the Wurli is the choice for you. Something about its tone just can make the simplest parts still sound cool. With a Rhodes, I always feel like the blandness of my crappy playing is really obvious. To me, I can play the same riff on a Wurli and a Rhodes, and it sound like I'm a better player than I am on the Wurli, while the Rhodes that lick doesn't sound like enough. Yes, that's so very abstract and I don't expect anyone to know what the heck I'm saying and would be shocked it anyone agrees. I believe this gentleman had something to do with my taste in organs (Booker T), I greatly prefer the organ he paired with a Leslie to my late mother's Gulbransen (you tell me if this doesn't sound freaking awesome) :

I've never once see a positive post about the developer and have a friend who bought their string library and basically described it as an unmitigated disaster in terms of sample quality, consistency, layering and scripting. On Facebook, where I'm normally careful about not posting anything that could be controversial (seriously, because I own a business and I'm a writer and public speaker I don't need to lose customers because someone doesn't like my opinions, and of course, I have lots of them) , when I saw an Aria library ad by APD, I responded to a person asking if anyone could share their opinion about the library, I shared what I knew. A bunch of people who bought ended up posting they bought it and everything I wrote was true. it turned into a really friendly group, although I'm sure that APD and the developer didn't feel the same. But I am an APD customer. So I guess there were two times I posted something critical about a sample developer on Facebook. Let's just say the other developer didn't take criticism so well.

Hey. It turned into the Wurli appreciation society by maybe page 4. Nobody has even brought up the shootout in a few pages-- me included. Consequently, you're like three topics behind. I've since been persuaded into buying another Wurli library. Then we talked about R&B and Hammond organs and Leslies. Then we got into blues. Then about a cool Australian band. Then you made your off topic post about a shootout and everyone is wondering what in the world is TheSteven talking about? Keep up, man. Jazz is up next. If there were criminal penalties for off topic posts, I'd clearly be getting capital punishment. But a lot of you guys would be on death row right there with me.

So, it's been a while since I tried this plugin. It had lots of problems and I gave up and thought I'd try again when I saw a decent amount of posts that indicated things are working smoothly. Do you guys think now is the time to try Mandala 2 on Windows 10 again or is still wise to wait? FTR, I'd rather not install it if there are still a bunch of problems.

I am in love with the sound of strings and the cello especially. This library sounds beautiful, but I want something drier and Sonixenima's two solo cello libraries are worth checking out, if you haven't done so already. The libraries you mentioned are both superb, IMO. But the Guo, while it sounds amazing also isn't as dry as what I'm looking for. Granted, the uses I'm looking for are largely more in the realm of folk rock and not cinematic or orchestral. Our own @Simeon Amburgey did a couple of videos going through each of the libraries that are worth watching if you're interested. Sonixenima has one library that's just focused on the legato like Tina Guo and it sounds perfect to my ears and the other has a lot more articulations, but I'm eventually going to buy both.

I've also spun and won at the Hornet site. See, there are occasions when terrible things don't happen when I deal with Italian developers. This will be my running joke. And FTR, I love Italians and am half Italian, which I feel puts them on the list of people I can make jokes about and call it self depreciating humor. In all seriousness, Andrea from Pettinhouse is a friend, I'm a huge fan of XPerimentaProject, but the fact that the dev is 24 makes me feel ancient. Seriously. Bonus round: PavlovsCat is so old that his favorite sample developer named one of their libraries in honor of him: https://www.orangetreesamples.com/products/evolution-dry-relic

Fleer just took the express out of Electric Larryland straight to Vaughnville. (I don't know if that works, it's just an adlib and it sounded ridiculous enough to possibly be funny. FTR, my teenage son used to love to say, "Dad, you're funny, but not as funny as you think. " So for two days, around dinner time when my son would be drinking water or soda, I would say something stupidly funny that would make him spit out his drink. Did I go too far? Possibly. But it sure was fun.)

He has a son who played in his band for a time. His name is Ronnie Baker Brooks and he is a killer guitarist. His style reminds me of Stevie Ray Vaughn with more of a hardcore blues bent, clearly influenced by his dad. But his son is a legit, talented artist worth checking out. This tune is obviously very Hendrixish but it's also very Lonnie Brooks influenced.

They're not from Australia, well part of the band is, but I love Crowded House. I've never been to Australia, but my favorite place in the world is nearby, New Zealand. I have a couple of friends in Australia and every Australian I've ever known has been awesome and had a great sense of humor (and you're now on that list too!). Thanks for sharing! I love reading about our shared love of music and the different ways it has meaning in our lives. That is why we're all hear at a subforum for sample and plugin hoarders. Hey that's what they should rename this instead of Deals Forum. Samples and Plugin Hoarders Forum. Okay, I'm kidding. But it's not far from reality. How many Wurli libraries are on your hard drives right now? And I'm not saying I'm any different. We're united by our love of music...and sample hoarding!

It does sound nice and I agree with the group, SoundIron makes good, high quality libraries and it's relatively cheap.

I love it! It definitely does have a fatter, warmer tone to it. But I'm still glad I have the e-instruments W because it has that key clang that I also love. So I do feel I am good for a long time when it comes to Wurlies. Between these two libraries, I feel a lot of ground is covered. So thanks @Craig N and @Bad Penguin. You guys had excellent advice. And I'm seriously thinking we all need this next:

Now I'm missing Lonnie. RIP, Lonnie Brooks. A very talented man and there was truly wisdom in that silly thing he said to me that night. Just to get to chat with a legend like that, He was part of era of blues artists that meant so much to music. Buddy Guy is one of the last legends left and occasionally plays. I mean, look at who Buddy Guy influenced rock greats like Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, and Stevie Ray Vaughan and he's still playing at 86. the blues legend who lived only 15 minutes away from my home that I would have loved to have seen play -- my favorite blues artist of all time -- was Muddy Waters.

And I wish I could still play (I don't mean play stuff for 3 minutes by myself and making terrible recordings I mean really play again with musicians, like you do; I lived to play). But now you've also set me up for the TANGET OF THE DAY and OVERSHARE OF THE DAY. I love that set up. Man, I would love it if you shared some audio -- either in the thread or just PM me. We had a Leslie speaker -- but the sad part, it wasn't hooked up to a Hammond but a Gulbransen organ (we didn't have a lot of money). But I loved that Leslie and it has a similar emotional connection when I hear it to the Wurli 200A. Okay, it's blues, but I self-financed college by playing drums (okay, that didn't pay dirt), and working selling printing -- and a lot of my customers were indie record labels out of Chicago. One of them was really special to me, Alligator Records, a legendary blues label. And I would get invited to their Christmas parties and I'd hang out with my contact, who was the bassist for Lonnie Brooks Band (a late great blues artist) and got to chat with these legends I adored like Lonnie Brooks and Koko Taylor. True story and not very complementary to me. I was at a club to see Lonnie play and Lonnie walks up to the bar and we're chatting and he said. "Hey, Peter, how about buying your favorite bluesman a drink?" And I was in college and money was tight and I said, "I would love to, but I know that you get your drinks here for free." Lonnie replied, "You're right, but you'll never get to say that you bought your favorite bluesman a drink." And guess what, I didn't buy him a drink. Stupid young me! That story would be soooo much better. But I was practical! Oh well, Lonnie knew I loved him. But on the day Lonnie died (around 5 years ago), I thought of what Lonnie said to me and it struck me how true his point was and instead for the rest of my days I have to tell the story how I was to cheap to buy a legendary bluesman a drink.

Because of @Craig N and @Bad Penguin, instead of hanging out with my family, I'm spending time trying to clear 4GB of space on one of my 3 filled hard drives to install Skybox's EP145B. I have sooooo many KONTAKT sample libraries. Okay, now that I'm saying that, it sounds terrible. I'll stop and come back later. I am really glad I got that this library -- which sounds great in the demos, but you guys were what really persuaded me (peer pressure???) and honestly, everything I was checking out from this dev just sounds so cool. I just like the vibe of the site and their libraries. It was great to be able to pick this up for only $35USD and I rationalized what I think is probably my 13th or so commercial library by thinking to myself this is a different model than the rest I have (which are all 200As).

I'm with these guys, Ben's a talented man who makes really creative libraries. I seriously don't think it's possible to get one of his libraries and get disappointed. And, of course, it's even better when he prices his libraries this affordably. I really love seeing talented people like him succeed.* * I held back from writing "young man," as my teenage kids tell me, every time I say that, it ages me by 30 years. But I can't deny that in my head, I'm thinking, "That Ben, he's such a talented young man!" Also I love that I believe he has PhD in music and just said, "These are less slide-y"!

To be fair, they can use names that sound friendly, you know like, let's just say Fuzzy and you think to yourself, ""Awww, how could anything called Fuzzy attack you and be mean and venomous?" And yet it does. And now this one is named after a hornet... I hope you can understand my trepidation.

Is this Italian developer safe? I kid, I kid.

I did like it, but there's someone else who's caught my and her name is Sonixinema. Or is it Sonicenema? No wait, that would be a killer punk band name.

Wow, thank you my fellow enabler! That was compelling. I guess I'll soon be joining you as a Skybox customer! Right now I'm on my phone hanging with the fam. But tonight or tomorrow, I'll pull the trigger. I really appreciate that thorough and to me, highly compelling description. Man, you've got my number or more likely, we're both so in love with this instrument the passion shows in your writing.

@Craig NThanks for sharing that. I suppose if I had a bigger budget, I'd be picking up everything you did. So I own the e-instruments W and was considering also getting the Skybox EP145B, because it's only $35USD and sounds lovely (although from the walk-through video, only one patch, the natural one, appeals to me). I also wasn't sure there was a significant difference between what I was able to get by creating my own patches on the W from the EP145B, it seems pretty close. But I can't say for sure. Since you own both, comparing the e-instruments W and Skybox EP145B, do you find the tones -- without effects-- are significantly different from one another?

I downloaded, installed and tried this out this morning and it's a really nice freebie! As the OP mentioned, it works in the FREE KONTAKT Player.

Excellent developer! Thanks for sharing, Larry.

Great and meaningful point. Thanks for the reminder to not only step back and appreciate all that we have but to consider others . Perhaps some of that money allocated for additional sample libraries and plugins can be spent helping someone else.