Vernon Barnes

I love the Crimson flute, it's already found its way on to a track I am working on.

Have you got the Hollow Sun Newtron Bombs for Kontakt. I like the simpler one from their Prog pack. Just samples with the minimum of added features, raw and powerful. Their later one has a lot more features and fx but I still like the guts of the original.

Kontakt library rather than VSTi. Full Kontakt required. €44.50 until 24th June.

I am getting tight on disk space, so 10GB, while not huge is significant and this is not compelling enough given my extensive other options. By the time I get a new DAW, this my reach a tempting price point.

It looks like it checks free space on drive C and won't run if if it below a threshold even if you are installing on a different drive. I cleared out some temp files and moved a few things and it worked.

I don't have the full collection and the PS-20 is the one that's missing, so that won't get me off the hook. The Korg collection MonoPoly is the one that gets used here, I love it.

I wonder if it is based on the Voltage Modular MS20 modules. Very likely I would think. The filter and oscillators are nice.

Outside of the pianos Tonewheel is a magnificent very dirty Hammond with bags of character for rock.

Nice, I have their "tele" in the same scheme but I still haven't worked out what end you blow in

What bad news, RIP Bill.

They already have MS20 modules for Voltage Modular, so maybe a VSTi version.

It's a very powerful and versatile synth. Well worth $49 or even $99. Of course it depends on what else you have but it will add to most people's sound pallet.

There is a lot to like about Softube Modular but Cherry is my favourite now. Third party modules, some of them cheap as chips and very quirky is a plus point, and the big one for me is polyphony. The MRB stuff is really good. I think I will try the CV-1 demo a spin but it will need to be good.

There is something liberating about a totally blank canvas and building the sound you want ( and in happy accidents along the way. ) Sometimes the endless lists of presets on modern VSTIs can be overwhelming, particularly if the browser is wanting. Sometimes it's like looking for a needle in a haystack.

Works for me.

One welcome new feature of Opus is audio previews. If you click on a patch in the browser you hear a short example as you would in NI's Komplete Kontrol. This seems to work with all my EW libraries, even the very old stuff.

Looking at it I think Opus will eventually replace Play. As far as I can see so far everything I had in Play works in Opus in much the same way as it did in Play, it seems to be just a new player with a new GIU. Play exists along side but I think I will be using Opus as a player from now on unless some nasty jumps out on me. Orchestrator loads as an instrument in Opus. This looks like a simplified way of loading libraries. Its nice for laying out instruments, say a full string section across a keyboard and could be handy if you are using it live. I am very happy to have it as part of my CC subscription but the perpetual upgrade price seems wide of the mark.

Of course EW got a lot of flack in some channels for the hundreds of patches and some may welcome streamlining. My first impression was the woodwind in particular sounded better to my ears. I think I need time to explore Opus and Orchestrator. I think many of the old type features are in Opus if you don't use Orchestrator but I am not certain yet.

I was a Kitcore user, Drumcore replaced the old 32 bit plugin. I have never got multi outs to work in either Cakewalk or Studio One for different reasons. Those kits are pretty long in the tooth now. The MIDI is very good but in a proprietary format and not as extensive as one has come to expect from the leading players. The main interest for most would be the audio loops, not something I use but they sound pretty good.

First impression, I am probably going to have to redo an orchestrated section of a song I thought I had finished mixing. ?

Downloading now. Needs an update to EW installation centre before you see it.

Too much for me. I have been pulled into the Cherry Audio modular universe and their Juno is pretty good for a fraction of the price even if you buy both stand alone VSTi and voltage modular versions.

Mmmm, looks like holding fire on the update until I am sure all my expansion packs that predate BFD3 can be used. I mostly use SD3 these days but call on BFD3 from time to time, usually for stuff in the expansions.

Yes, you are correct, my bad. Not sure how I confused myself. The VM version of the CA2600 is vintage voice.

I have downloaded the demo versions of both the Voltage Modular and the VSTi versions, On initial exploration they both look and sound very good. I like the way the modules are available separately in Voltage Modular rather than as an Instrument with " voice" modules for when a more immediate solution is required. I wish they had taken the approch with the Oberheim expander. The VSTi version is certainly more immediate and may be a better choice for those who do not want to create more radical patches. The GUI is also bigger and clearer. Having both could be justified.