Greg Schlaepfer

We just reached the highest discount tier at 60% OFF all our virtual instruments and bundles, which also means that you can complete your group buy order now! The signup period is open until July 12th at 23:59 UTC, so you can still join the group buy and get the discount right now. After July 12th, the sale will be closed to new signups, but as long as you join the group buy before then you'll have until the end of July to actually complete your order (or make multiple orders at the same 60% discount).

For a while, instead of going through every single factory preset, I would just highlight a few of my favorite ones, like one or two clean tones, one or two crunchy ones, etc. I guess I could go back and make additional videos that show every single preset. Apart from Evolution Vintage Gent, it's the same deal with Evolution Rubber Bridge, Evolution Django Jazz, Evolution Dry Relic, and Evolution Bluegrass Banjo. Those probably could use full length preset demo videos as well.

Just re-uploaded the playable mark tree freebie to make its controls accessible as Native Map parameters. If you use NKS hardware and that's useful to you, you can redownload it from the group buy page in your account. Also... we're just about 100 participants away from reaching the highest discount tier at 60% OFF, at which point you'll be able to check out early!

If you want to watch the numbers live, you can also leave this page up: https://www.orangetreesamples.com/group-buy/live

And now that we reached the 1,000 tier, it also unlocked a freebie instrument. The download link (labeled "Download Playable Mark Tree") for it is in the group buy page in your account on the right side of the current tier. Enjoy!

Interesting! I wouldn't have expected that, but the easier installation makes sense, since you can just drag the instrument into Kontakt without having to deal with activating and locating the library first. One downside is that the library won't be listed with a graphic in the libraries tab. However, if you have Kontakt 7, you can add non-Player libraries to the browser now, too, which is a nice convenience. If the library uses Kontakt's snapshot system for presets, it also adds the step of having to copy the snapshot presets into your user snapshot preset folder. In any case, I can see how being able to filter by only Player or non-Player would be helpful so that you don't have to check in the individual product pages.

As of today, there are only two weeks left to join the group buy sale! We're getting closer and closer to the 1,000 participant tier, which will unlock a really cool free instrument we put together specifically for this sale. And then once we reach the highest discount tier at 1,250 people, you'll be able to check out early and get 60% OFF all our virtual instruments, which includes bundles and bundle upgrades.

Totally! Those would go for pages and pages. Actually, I was just thinking about how one of my favorite parts of these group buy sales is all the conversations that happen in the process. Not just questions and comparisons between different libraries, but ideas and plans for upcoming libraries, updates to existing libraries, etc. In the spirit of that, I wanted to give you all a quick update on the big Rosewood Grand piano update we've been working on. The update is nearly complete, though we couldn't resist adding even more content to it, recording a felted version of the piano earlier this year for an additional option you can select. Here's a test of the library that I shared on our Discord channel not long ago, featuring the new felted mode: www.orangetreesamples.com/audio/Rosewood_Felt_Piano_Test.mp3 I'm adjusting the blend between mic signals while playing, just in case you're wondering about the tone changing in places. We also decided to include the original Rosewood Grand samples in the update. That way you can get the original sound of the library with the benefit of the new interface/scripting. Plus it has improvements to the damper resonance, and new duration-dependent release samples edited from the original recording sessions, since playing staccato has a different sound to the note releases compared to holding the note for a few seconds before lifting the key. While it doesn't have the additional room mic position like the new samples have (which have two modes: tuned and "bloom", which has ever-so-slightly detuned unisons), we felt that the original samples still have their own unique character, despite being recorded using the same exact piano.

Good eye! Yup, we recorded it using a Fender Jaguar. In fact, surprisingly it's the first offset guitar we've sampled.

Just a quick heads up: there are fewer than 100 copies of [url=https://www.orangetreesamples.com/products/indie-melodica]Indie Melodica[/url] left. If you're interested in an expressive melodica library that's NKS Ready and licenses the Kontakt Player, this one is completely free!

Here's a comparison of our five Evolution bass libraries, including the brand new Evolution Classic Rick Bass, demonstrating them playing different styles, pickup blends, picked vs fingered (when applicable), etc.

Just a quick reminder that as of today there's only one week left to complete your group buy order!

And that's a wrap--a big thank you to each and every of the nearly 2,000 people that participated in our Summer group buy sale! Hope you're enjoying all your new instruments!

As long as you've signed up for the group buy sale, you have until the very end of July to actually complete your purchase or make additional purchases using the group buy discount.

The only option to pay with monthly payments would be through PayPal Credit.

That's correct, and yes, that's usually the way to get the best price if you're looking at a lot of libraries/bundles. That way you're leveraging as many rewards points as possible on the second, larger order.

It's one Orange Slice per dollar spent (rounded). So if you buy a $99 library in the group buy at 60% off, the price comes to $39.60, earning you 40 Orange Slices, which can be redeemed for 4% off a future order. If it's your very first order, you get a bonus 100 Orange Slices. And there's also the Surveys for Slices system, where you can answer a few survey questions to get points (currently you can get a total of 170 points from that).

I remember talking with you before about Evolution Mandolin a while back, and I really appreciate your comments and feedback about it. It does have a more raspy, bright tone to it, which could be good if you need something to cut through the mix, but would probably sound too heavy handed for other situations. I may have mentioned it already, but since then we sampled another mandolin (1920 Gibson A style) that sounds a lot mellower. The goal was to get that whispery soft pick attack when you play quietly, and focus on a gentler, warmer tone in general. I'll have to make a comparison video between both mandolins, because I was really surprised by how different they ended up sounding.

The ones that require the full version of Kontakt have the text "Full version of Kontakt Required" instead of "Kontakt Player Included", and that information is also in the product requirements at the bottom of each product page. Lastly, when you add a library that requires the full version of Kontakt to your group buy order, it will be listed with the notice "FULL edition of Kontakt required".

The group buy discount isn't reflected on the product pages, so the bundle pricing there is the inherent discount on the bundle, compared to the full price of buying all those instruments individually. The group buy discount will apply on top of the discounted bundle price. For example, the "Evolution Complete Bundle" would be $839.60 USD at the 60% off discount tier--even less if you have Orange Slices to redeem on top of that discount. If you add products to the group buy page in your account, it shows you their price at the current group buy discount on that page.

We made it past 1,000! The download link for the bonus is on the group buy page in your account next to the 50% discount tier on the list.

Yes, here's a general overview of the chord modes and strumming: And here's a video tutorial on using the strumming pattern editor: You can access a playlist of all the tutorials for the Evolution guitars here:

Just not enough factory presets, due to limitations with the strumming editor itself, or just the realism of the strumming itself? I'm always looking for feedback so that we can improve things like that in future updates.

At 1,000 participants, a cool little freebie will get unlocked, too! When we reach that tier, the download link will be on the group buy page in your account where it currently shows "1000 - 1249 buyers: 50% OFF [Reach this tier to unlock reward]".

We have lots of stuff in the works! Over 30 Evolution-based instruments in various stages of development, several of which are close to being released. Two have already been encoded by Native Instruments for the free Kontakt Player, and it's just a matter of finishing their demos and videos. We have a couple non-Evolution libraries in development, as well as updates in the works for existing products.