Vernon Barnes

Well this update is a real PITA. After jumping through several hoops, despite migrating settings it needs content locations to be added manually and everything to be rescanned which took an age. It seems to be working OK once installed but I have not given it an extensive test. 90% of my drum work is in Toontrack these days and I don't see much to tempt me back to using BFD more.

I will probably upgrade, but having to upgrade the voice will push the cost up a bit. I will have to investigate further. While don't envisage using it for a final vocal part I find it a valuable tool when writing and creating a guide vocal to send to a singer. Hopefully the new version will remove some of the clunkyness.

I may have been a little harsh in my initial assessment. The architecture is pretty much a basic two VCO analogue emulation and while its a good sounding one with a bit of character its hardly ground breaking but GForce's Xmod additions to open it up a bit. I particularly like the additional resonant high pass filter which can be controlled by the XLfo or XADSR and has variable key tracking to get the kind of sounds I reach into Voltage Modular to achieve. Given what other options I have available I doubt I will buy it though at this price point.

I really like GForce, they make some of my favourite VSTis so I am trying out the demo version and it's not really doing it for me. It's probably a very good emulation which maybe my problem with it.

This is a really nice freebee. I was playing around with it last night and was immediatly inspired to start writing a new track in 7/8.

Looks like a free update if you own the original.

There synth emulations are top notch so I assume this will be as well. I would say it's unlikely to be heavily discounted any time soon. Drum machines are not really my thing though.

Enabling "silent install" in ASC's preferences makes the update process less painful. A wise man on this forum told me this a while ago.

My new Red Over Red single with Gina Ellen on vocals. https://redoverred.bandcamp.com/track/the-end-of-the-affair

I have been waiting for modern Mandola and Mandocello (or Irish Bouzouki) libraries to emerge. Bolder sounds have just released a Mandola for full Kontakt and it looks pretty good. https://www.boldersounds.com/index.php?main_page=product_music_info&cPath=3_18&products_id=143

The BFD player is a new product and quite a bit different ( and inferior??) to the very much older BFD3. I will not play the old BFD3 libraries.

Great sound and some powerful features and some good expansions but I could never really get along with the work flow. There were some awful authorisation bugs after the InMusic takeover but they seem to have been resolved.

Somebody already posted this - please delete.

Indiginus makes some very nice libraries for Kontakt FULL. This new dulcimer library sounds pretty good. I have and play a dulcimer, this one uses a different tuning and other playing styles than the ultra traditional drone harmonies I tend to use. They have also added chromatic sampling so its going to be pretty versatile. https://www.indiginus.com/appalachia

Roland's new physically modelled Earth Piano may appeal. On intro sale for $50 - I made a separate thread. 2.5GB for 7 pianos.

Goes up to $249.99 in two weeks. Physically modelled so it has low disc space requirements. There are seven pianos with a range of editing options. https://www.roland.com/us/products/rc_earth_piano/

I must have missed something. They all activated in one go but had to install and agree to the t&c for each one individually. Ah well, it's done now.

I got the FX Collection 5 for 49 Euro inc. VAT I only had a few items already. Its a PIA having to install each effect separately though!

I am confused at the moment. Resellers are listing an upgrade for users with "any version of of Neutron" but this does not appear as an option in my iZotope account? iZotope price is £167.30, Plugin Boutique £95 for the upgrade (still a bit steep) on top of this there the Native Instruments migration happening which seems to have transferred some of my licences to the Native ID but not all of them.

Just an update on this issue. Arturia support have been working and sending troubleshooting steps, all of which did not solve the issue. Today they escalated the issue to the next level of support. I started working through the next steps they suggested. I re-installed 5.10.6.5147 for the umpteenth time and miraculously the problem disappeared.

No intro deal as far as I can see but I have it installed through the Creative Cloud subscription. Its not one I would have bought as I have the ground well covered elsewhere. There are lots of samples synths that will particularly appeal to preset lovers, there are some very nice sounds in there a a reasonable degree of editing is possible. https://www.soundsonline.com/synth-and-effects/iconic

I surprised this new release has not been posted yet. but I don't think $49 is an intro offer and it will be cheaper at some point in the future. (I may wait) https://cherryaudio.com/products/atomika-synthesizer On the face of it its reasonably standard architecture one would not expect to be that different to a zillion other 2 VCO analog synth emulations but some of the review videos lead me to think it has a unique character due to the drive and starve distortion functions. It certainly does the dirty sounds well in demos.

Arturia got back to me with a couple of things to try including a more thorough uninstall / reinstall than I had tried previously. This was unsucessful. So I am back to using the older version as a temporary workaround.

I am waiting for a response from Arturia support. In the meantime I found an old installer for version 5.10.2.4741 on my system so I uninstalled 5.10.5.5098 and manually installed the older version. Everything seems to be working OK now so it seems the issue with the new version. As Promidi does not have the issue it could be system specific.

Got the crossgrade for £21.77 (including VAT) from Plugin Boutique using some virtual cash and cashing in tokens. First impressions are good. Full price was £35 inc VAT.