Carl Ewing

This is a very subjective question. I find Pro-R extremely cold. It has it's uses, but I rarely use it because I find it lifeless / sterile. no matter what the source is. I love Cinematic Rooms Pro & Seventh Heaven. I think CRP is the best reverb on the market - for pretty much any instrument, and by a wide margin. But some people feel the same about Pro-R. This is really something that needs to be demo'd in order to make a decision. But honestly, Valhalla DSP reverbs are $50 and I'd be entirely happy if these were my only options. But if I had a few hundred to spend on reverbs, my choice would the CRP. Again, totally subjective.

My experience back in early 2022 - i did get support from "Natan" for a Windows problem. Not a solution, but he responded pretty quick and let me know future updates would correct the problem (which they did), although the only thing I occasionally use of the bundle is Vybz & Tape Piano 2 (this v2 version corrected a problem I had).

To clarify - it's 2023 and prior - so the entire Cinesamples catalog (Musio versions) including anything released in 2023. It's about 75 libraries in my app (all CineBrass, CineStrings, CineWinds, CinePerc, all pianos, keys, solo instruments, synths, choirs, etc.) Not so far. I own CineBrass Pro & Core and a few other libraries already, which I use heavily, but I haven't switched to the Musio versions of CineBrass yet. From what I understand it's less mic options, no keyswitching for some libraries & not as much customization, I just haven't compared yet. I don't generally use a lot of keyswitching (and don't really like how CineBrass is set up in Kontakt), and prefer microphone blend mixes, so liking the app so far. Also - they've added keyswitching patches to a few of the libraries. There seems to be keyswitching patches for all the CineOrchestra stuff that I've opened. There is a Youtube review where the guy actually prefers the simplified versions of the instruments and explains why. Wish I could find that review again, it the one that convinced me to get it as we had a similar work flow (preferring single articulation patches, a lot of library blending, etc.)

I haven't grabbed any of the pianos (I have way too many, and was set on never installing another one unless it was Keyscape or Ravenscroft), but I don't like any of my upright libraries. Anyone recommend any of the Musio pianos? I have not heard much about any of them. EDIT: I guess I could spend a half hour downloading them all. So lazy.

I think it's the size. Especially with the addition of Fantasy Orchestra - which is basically an entirely new 120GB orchestra library (including choir) outside of HOOPUS. I have both Musio & CC, but the East West catalog is just absolutely enormous by comparison. $150 already seems insane, considering how much content there is compared to Musio. For data / articulation / mic position comparison, Hollywood Orchestra (OPUS edition) alone is 4 times larger than the entire Musio catalog.

You can get 1 year of Musio for $90 right now (3 months free). Or buy the entire Musio catalog for life for $300. Both the Cinesamples & East West subs are insane. EDIT: Musio is a bit of a beta test though. Finding quite a few bugs, but it's early days.

Oh - I don't actually own these so can't comment. Noticed in later comment that you bought them - definitely let us know what you think once you get a chance to play around.

Ya - they've allowed me to registered 3rd party purchases in the past - for example, from Time + Space way back when. Just had to send them the invoice / purchase info.

That's a great hint. Going to pick it up now too.

My upgrade price from Majestica 2.0 is $40.

Ya - Tina Guo is definitely quite processed, in that that dark / warm Zimmer tone. I've actually paired it with LASS 1st chair to give it some sharpness, but only in larger pieces where you can't tell it's paired - not really possible in quartet or strictly solo work. I'd definitely keep close eye on Performance Samples the next 6 months - looks like 2 different solo libraries coming out, and I think Vista may have a much dryer tone than Pacific. which I assume will be mix-matched with the ensembles which are quite warm.

Intro offer ends November 23rd. I have a feeling they'll then create a Fabrik bundle for BF. They did a few bundle deals last year (ARK series 50% off, Creative series, etc.) last year. I'm going to gamble and wait for that bundle before buying individual instruments.

It seems these recent demos are just for Vista II, but no indication they will be sold separately. Pacific Strings (also Performance Samples) has a solo expansion coming as well, but I don't believe there are demos yet, or indications if it will be sold separately. But I love Pacific Strings ensemble, and hoping the solo strings have a similar tone. I'm also not a fan of Blakus. I am a fan of Cinesamples Tina Guo Acoustic Cello Legato - it's one of the only virtual solo cellos I've ever liked. But it is very limited in what you can do with it - just two articulations (legato & sustain). Definitely more for live performance - especially slow melodies - than programming. I think you can test it out with the free Musio trial. This would also allow you to try CineStrings Solo Cello, which is also supposed to be excellent (have not tried). Virhamonic's Bohemian Cello is considered one of the best - tone wise and playability. May want to check that out. I have not tried it yet though.

Speaking of Performance Samples - noticed someone on VI-Control posted this Legato demo for the upcoming Vista II. Was posted yesterday: I f******* love this developer. I love how they take customers through the entire development process. And have never regretted a single purchase. Just gorgeous libraries. And that's got to be the best damn legato (and possibly solo cello tone) I've ever heard in a sample library to date. By a mile.

They make some exceptional libraries (eg. percussion, choirs, solo vox, orchestra, hybrid, world), that are used in very high end productions. Perhaps stop buying the $5 phrase libraries thinking they'll auto-write you a masterpiece? lol. If you can't make incredible music with their products than it ain't the product's fault. It's like blaming the joystick.

Unfortunately no. However, I think Pro-Q 3 has so many features that are beneficial across the board that it would be worth having regardless. With something like Sooth 2 being an addition to cover specific use cases. I think the question is, how often would you need the specialized features of S2? Versus the almost-every-single-situation features of Pro-Q 3. Interesting though - if Pro-Q 4 introduces some of these AI tracking features of these other plugins they are going to obliterate the market. I'm sure they are looking at them for subsequent updates - and Pro-Q 3 has already been out for about 5 years.

^^ This is what you want to do. You don't need a specialized plugin like Soothe to do it. Just any EQ that has a "match" function and sidechain - and there are plenty on the market. The great thing about the above video's technique is that, once you have the EQ signature, you can apply it to reverb, eq, delay, distortion, compression...anything. Much more useful.

It is a faster process, but an EQ with dynamics (eg. Pro Q 3) works just fine. Harshness & resonant frequencies are not difficult to tame. Been done for a 100 years without automated wizardry. But ya, if you have $200 lying around, it does save time. But relying on it, without understanding how to do it without the plugin is a definite handicap in the "learn how to mix" long run.

The list is extensive when it comes to Hollywood scoring: Hans Zimmer, Ludwig Goransson, Benjamin Wallfisch, Junkie XL, Alan Silverstri, etc. So everything from Avengers to Bladerunner to Mad Max to Top Gun to Tenet were composed in Cubase. There's a good reason for that - particularly composers with strong hybrid styles that use enormous templates. Check JXL's Youtube videos for how his templates and macros / touchscreens are setup for stuff like Wonder Woman, Mad Max, Alita Battle Angel (similar process to Zimmer). IMO Cubase is the most sophisticated / versatile DAW on the market. But it has an enormous learning curve to make use of it's deeper features (eg. logical editor, midi features, visibility macros, etc.). Lots of great tutorials around though.

Only interested in bundled deals from Spitfire & Orchestral Tools. Everything else is covered by PA & Composer Cloud sub, Musio and Komplete CE 14. From OT and Spitfire hoping for a good deal on completing my Albion collection, and hoping for a similar type bundle as last year from Orchestral Tools (BF 2022 they did the entire 0-5 Metropolis Ark bundle for $799). Hoping for an OT bundle that covers their more specialized orchestra libraries like Modus and Salu. And although it's doubtful, have my eye on a significant Keepforest Evolution deal that completes the collection I already have. Musio really surprised me though. Eliminated a huge spectrum of sounds I was budgeting for. Only effect I'm looking at is LiquidSonics reverbs, specifically a heavily discounted bundle that includes Cinematic Rooms Pro, 7th Heaven and TaiChi. Picked up an Axe FX III Mark II this year, so I'll busy with that for a while anyway. That machine is god like.

Another great thing about Composer Cloud. I likely would not have tried this otherwise, but Fantasy Series has become one of my favorite orchestra libraries. What a beast of a library.

As long as this pushes us further to having Tik Tok streams in the DAW I'm all for it. I'm glad Steinberg added a feature that plays the Taylor Swift movie inside Halion.

As an 80s punk & industrial fan I am triggered by this comment.

Oops - mistake duplicate post.

It's not so much about laziness - it's that 100% of their resources are dedicated to the next shiny thing. They are not interested in putting resources into older products that only need support from legacy users. This is clearly viewed as 'waste of money'. They want you buying something new, not maintaining something that has limited or no revenue streams, or requires resources to make "compatible" with other product lines. And they won't really bother trying to improve sales (or improve generally) older products that have flatlined - much easier to put out a new product that is easy to sell, than trying to upgrade and re-market Absynth 6 which has dwindling users and is difficult to market. I don't think that's a bad thing necessarily, it's just a corporate strategy where most profit is made selling an endless stream of new hyped products that follow music trends with high precision - and only supporting legacy products that are generating significant revenue and new customers. Actually, I think it is a bad strategy long term, because it forces their product line to get more and more generic and less innovative, which may negatively affect their brand name over time. But their marketing is almost second to none, so if they can keep that up they'll be fine even they're selling Komplete Garbage. But it means customers should assume any product they're using will be quickly abandoned if it's not in that "must be generating consistent or growing revenue" high-bar threshold... or if continuing to support that product impacts their ability to evolve other newer products. For example, having legacy support for MKII synths may impact their plans for MKIII or MKIV hardware, especially if those older hardware interfaces compromise evolutions of NKS / Komplete software suite. Remember, as those synths evolve, the backend and UX change significantly, with evolving hardware specs, screen resolutions / visual complexity, which means devoting a lot of resources to make older models compatible. That's an expense budget that gets smaller every year I'm sure. If they eventually move to larger displays with touchscreen and much more demanding on-board processing you'll probably see that support window of older hardware getting smaller and smaller.