Carl Ewing

*All iZotope products are now available in Native Access. This is a really welcome addition. iZotope Product Portal is horrendous, especially when needing to keep multiple systems updated. Updated 12 products in about 20 seconds. That would take 20 minutes with the iZotope app.

I do forgive NI a bit, because Komplete is an enormous collection of very useful stuff and updates to flagship products- and they add significant content every update for a couple hundred $ on sale. And funny enough, now include Ozone. That Collector's Edition 15 update this round included Kontakt 8, Action Woodwinds, Fables, Vocal Colors, Guitar Rig 7, Kithara, Valves Pro, a new acoustic guitar, Ukele, Alicias e-keys, upright bass, another bass, another e-keys, Irish instruments, Ozone 11, a couple hybrid instruments and a gazillion expansions (Leap, Massive presets, Scenes, etc.). I can't complain about this. ha.

"Version 12" for a plugin shouldn't even be a thing. The milkening of customers continues. I appreciate that something like Pro Q has had 4 paid updates in 16 years. If it were released by iZotope it would be on Version 46, with 8 different versions from free (1-band) to Basic (3 bands), to Advanced (11 bands) to Pro (14 bands) to Pro-Master-Premium-Bundle (26 bands with M/S multi-channel and Breaktweaker for free). What a **** company lol.

Feel the opposite. Have so many of these for free - they all sound generic or terrible. The guitar ones are especially awful sounding - production and realism. The drum ones have some need-something-quick utility, which might be cool for $10, but MUCH better drum libraries around for each genre. Have tried demos of a few of their FX - they don't sound very good either imo. Their business model seems to be: build a massive catalog of products as fast as possible. Get users into our ecosystem as cheaply as possible with lots of freebies and "mega bundles!" with lots of marketing hype ("Ziiiimmmmer!!"). Then entice them further into "collect them all!" bundle deals. Once consumers are into the system, push "complete catalog" super deals, and properly milk those customers for incremental updates to all products. All seems about as sleezy as most of the music software industry. Something like those drum libraries should be one Flagship product, with all titles / genres in a single VST instrument. Instead they've got 20 separate different plugins, that all all get incremental updates, meaning users will have to keep paying those micro-updates to ensure all those libraries are up to date. I avoid these kind of developers because when you have a business model like this, it is also reflected in the quality of the products. But for gear addicts, these guys have gamed this very well to milk these kind of customers for life.

You are clearly unaware how much ungodly levels of shitty pop music were made in the 1950s (and every decade since). You have benefited from the Great Filter called 'Time'. Trust me on this - my family ran a vintage / memorabilia shop that played an endless rotation of records for this era - not the hits - just random crap. 99% of it is nightmarishly awful and all sounds the same. Like being stuck in a David Lynch movie set in an apocalyptic 60s white-suburban wasteland that might rival Pleasantville. Adding to this - AI created pop music would have been extremely easy in the 1950s and most of the 1960s, since record labels essentially just took whatever song was popular and would sign 10,000 other bands to try and recreate that same sound...over and over and over and over again. Literally 1000s of **albums** of nonsense replicas in what were maybe (maybe) 3 genres. At least today you get EDM, trap, Afrobeat, Dancehall, Reggaeton, hip-hop, folk-pop, K-pop, RnB, alt-RnB, alt rock, pop-punk, indie pop, Latin Pop, Synthwave, Electro-pop, and on and on. There are times lately when the billboard 100 is almost half filled with world music. Having said that - the linked KSHMR song is terrible, even by KHSMR standards. Dude's made some decent club tracks, and is quite a good producer, but ya, this track is *****.

Massive projects with deadlines will clear out anything unused very quickly. I think gear addiction is a real problem in this industry. Likely as bad as gambling for some people - and probably as pervasive in the amateur space as pro (it's really bad in the pro space). There is no point owning **** you do not use or have never tried. Zero. If you have never used Alpha Compressor - I mean, demo'd it on a project extensively and thought "ya, I definitely need this and will use this a lot" then don't buy it. Simple as that.

I gotta see the back end of their website. I can't imagine a scenario - other than a ransomware attack where they had essentially zero security or fallback protocols - that would take a business website down for a full week. "I'm sorry, we made no sales this week because our website is down." You'd never get a bank loan ever again lol.

Actually - on the website it's regular price is $299.99. I guess the company is doing a good job of undermining it's own value. Or they just make **** up as they go along. (actual answer) It also sounds like robotic ***** with circa 2007 percussion sounds, so nothing is lost. That walkthrough sounds awful.

Worked for me randomly putting an Indonesia address - doesn't seem to be region restricted, at least not yet. (Edit: To clarify, you still have to put a US state / Zip code, but I just put 90210 and Cali and random Indonesian street address, and it worked.) There are 3 options to choose from. Here's a summarized product list for each: Electronic Edition: • Massive X • TRK-01 • Schema: Light • Feel It • Nacht • Utopia • Progressive Trance Leap Expansion • Replika XT • Choral • Flair • Phasis • Driver • iZotope Ozone Elements. -------------------------------------- Band Edition: • Studio Drummer • The Gentleman • Electric Keys – Phoenix • Scarbee Rickenbacker Bass • Session Guitarist – Strummed Acoustic • Soul Sessions • Disco & Funk Leap Expansion • Guitar Rig 7 LE • Solid Bus Compressor • Solid Dynamics • Solid EQ • iZotope Nectar Elements • iZotope Ozone Elements ------------------------------------- Beats Edition: Battery 4 • Massive X • Empire Breaks • Duets • Stacks • Cloud Supply • Latin Trap Leap Expansion • Dirt • Bite • Freak • Supercharger GT • Transient Master • iZotope Ozone Elements

This is easy to test. Download something like Omnia (75GB). It starts downloading a ~70GB ISO first - at least it does for me. That file goes into the downloads folder defined in Settings / File Management. When I tried this last time it had many many problems. Ended up having to get the direct link from NI, which then required a download manager to not have to restart the download every time it failed.

Some people like punk rock, some people like avant-garde electro-acoustic symphonies that take 10 years to produce. You want simplicity, good for you. If you want really simple, just slap some guitar loops together - that'll get to "ears" really fast, and it seems like the audience you're seeking won't give af anyway lol.

Have all the ones mentioned in this thread (and a couple others), and I think Hydra is the best. Specifically because the scripting is excellent, so it's basically timeless since the dry guitar tone / sound is great so it's just a matter of choosing what to run it through. Heavier7Guitars would be second. There's also Axe Machina (Soundiron). Ample Metal Hellrazer. Actually, I think Ample Metal Hellrazer is very underrated. A lot of initial reviews / demonstrations were running through bad sounding VST effects. I have an Axe FX III hardware unit which really shows how good some of these libraries are. And I like Hydra the best running it through the AXE FX unit. But all of these would be great for metal work, it's more a matter of what specific features you want (i.e. if strumming is important vs leads vs. articulation switching, etc.). Really as long as the dry tone is well done & versatile than it's as good as you can make it with effects and programming.

Have both. Shredded series are exclusively instrument libraries - no phrases, etc. And it's much much more sophisticated in terms of playability, with many articulations and enormous control over almost every aspect of the guitar, and realllly big fx section with tons and tons of presets. For articulations, Hydra has Sustain, Power Chord, Tapping, Tremolo, Mute, Power Chord Mute, Harmonics, Choke, Staccato, Power Chord Staccato, Pinch Harmonics, Rake and FX. And the scripting is pretty good for key switching between articulations in terms of how a real guitar plays. And you can customize that key switching a lot (velocity, key, etc.) Also has strumming section, and some great features like single guitar, double, triple and quadruple layering. This last one is pretty awesome, for getting really thick tones. Electric Storm is pretty limited, with only 4 articulations (as far as can tell) ==> Open, Muted, Flageolet and Tremolo. And has limited control over the guitar. But it does have tons and tons of phrases, which could be useful. I would say if you want a really dedicated metal guitar library, that has a steep learning curve, but results that are much more realistic and customizable get Hydra. If you want something more minimal, just play and go, get Electric Storm. Would also say these two guitars sound completely different, so you might want to compare some Youtube videos showcasing tone / effects section.

"FORUM" works - brings it to 222.05. ... $2!

This is great because I think it was the cheapest last time I upgraded, so still have some coins from the 14CE upgrade. $215! And then you get $8 afterward, so $207! Anyone know any Best Service code tricks like JRRShop? I looked but saw nothing so far. Also get UJAM Vice for free.

I hear the Amish are always looking for new members. You can join the army of fossils complaining about evolutions in music technology since the 1800s. May I hear your grand contributions to "the craft"? I'll be sure to give it more credit because you made it with locally sourced animals skins and spider silk. Didn't realize I've been using AI since the 80s. Gonna need to improve that definition. Why do i come here? For the deals I guess.

This isn't AI. It's not intelligent. You will still need skill and talented people to make great music. The only people scared of "AI" (it's not AI) are people with no talent, no "sound", no identifiable artistic vision and nothing to say. In other words, people who would be better suited to building strip malls and office furniture than making music. It's clearly more than a simple de-esser. lol. Plenty of basic de-essers around it that's what you need. Some people might find these extra features super neato and do radical things with it. People getting angry at plugins never ceases to amaze me.

So nobody wastes their time - this thread is pointing to version 5.4.3, which is from June, 2024. These are not new updates. Perhaps best to lock this thread?

Tried it for 5 minutes. Really don't like the sound of it. And I know it's free, but this is not a good plugin. From what I can tell there is only peak metering, no LUFS. Maybe I'm wrong and there's a setting I'm missing, but that's deal breaker for something called "mastering studio" that is a stand alone plugin that can't be put in a chain with a LUFS meter, phase meter, etc. The dynamics / tone pages are on different tabs...for a standalone plugin that can be full-screened. When I fullscreen it there's like 8 buttons on one page, with 90% wasted space, and same on the other tab. Just put them on the same page ffs. If you're trying to coordinate between some macro tone and the compressor / limiter, you're going to have a bad time. The limiter does NOT sound good. Neither does the saturation. Can't delta auditon on the de-esser. No loudness match on bypass. (!!) No dynamics reflected on meters. No mono switch, just 300hz mono maker. No autogain. Can't tell what they're target audience is here since Ozone 11 Elements pops up for free once in a while - and would be a significant improvement over this in every way imaginable. This feels like one of those freebie apps that would come with Windows along with Minesweeper. Even for free, this feels like it would actually do more damage than good. Very disappointed in Brainworx / PA here.

Owned these for 2 years now. Used them once. I really don't like the sound of them. There are just far better effects from other companies, especially filters, delays, chorus. And lot of synths these days offer "FX" versions (Serum, Zebra, etc.) with better effects. I will say it straight up - that delay absolutely sucks ***. The ring modulator might be useful if you don't have an alternative.

This is what I'd like to know. I've purchased a yearly Composer Cloud subscription from JRR before, and it was just a code with (from what I can tell) no requirements about when it had to be used. Anyone bought during this sale and seen what they give you? Perhaps with this sale it has expiration on registration, or will backdate the subscription to the purchase date. Hmm. I'm guessing they just don't want existing subscribers getting this deal.

Just heard back from sales - apparently if you buy this the subscription will start on date of sale, and if you already have a subscription it will just create a duplicate subscription, not add to the existing one. Which means you can't register it at a later date, or add an extra year to your existing subscription. Too bad. Hopefully they'll have this sale next time my subscription expires. That's an amazing deal.

Most of the East West stuff I bought in the past ($1000s of dollars worth.) is mostly obsolete. Kontakt versions discontinued, old & dated sounding libraries, libraries I bought but never used or didn't like once I spent time with them, etc. I don't even considered buying this stuff anymore. It's a waste of money. **** evolves too fast and is too subjective to go by reviews / testimonials. Even if you're considering buying an actual EW library, there's no point, since you've probably never used it, won't even know if you'll actually like it, and can now demo it for a year (along with 100 other products) for 100 bucks. People are opposed to subs because they enjoy buying expensive products they have never tried themselves, that they often can't refund or resell, that will eventually be discontinued or become obsolete (I have terrabytes of libraries I can't even authorize anymore...from back in the aughts), based on marketing nonsense made by sociopaths, all to say they "own" a product that they don't actually own if they ever read the EULA, and depreciates faster than a Windows laptop. (Technically, most software depreciates 100% upon purchase since most can't be resold or refunded.) I used to spend $1000 on a single string library, that I'd get bored of, or would become obsolete after a few years. Now composers can have access to using 10TB of very high quality instruments, covering almost every genre imaginable for a year, for dirt cheap. And can then buy products they like after actually trying them for an extended period of time, and wait for the best sales within that year. This is a no brainer. What I am curious about is...if you're already subscribed, if you can purchase this subscription now and activate it later once current subscription expires. I'll send a message to East West to see what they say and report back.

Sound design has been a primary staple of rock, funk, jazz, electronic, pop, hip-hop, etc. going back 4+ decades. By your saying your "old", did you think The Who, Pink Floyd, Genesis, Michael Jackson, U2, David Bowie, Eurythmics, Prince, etc. were just using presets? Or was there sound the result 100s or 1000s of hours of building these incredible iconic guitar tones, synth tones, drum tones, etc. Now - it's great that they did all this work, made it super famous and nostalgic, and you can just copy it thinking "no biggie!", here's my dime-a-dozen Moog patch that was innovative in 1978, that's great. Just don't complain when others aren't satisfied with what's already been done, and trying to build a fan base of people under the age of 65, and are looking for new tools & ideas....which require actual work. And programs like the ones we're discussing are a big part of that work & innovation.

This applies to Omnisphere as well - which also gets called a rompler. Both Falcon and Omnisphere are extremely powerful sound design engines. I would argue both are far more powerful than most on the market. Most of Cliff Martinez's electronic scores (Drive, Neon Demon, The Knick, etc.) are Omnisphere. The 'Hardware' preset bank that comes with it blows anything Arturia out of the water, and I'd argue it rivals some U-He synths, although Zebra & Bazille are on another planet in some respects. For example, those drums at the beginning of Dune Part 1 are Zebra, as are almost all the synth sounds in The Dark Knight. But agreed, I think many people are missing out on some of the best synth software around by thinking these things are romplers.