Michael A.D.

I grabbed this as soon as I saw it. Excellent string library for $25 - it's certainly a great deal. It's easy to use and sounds nice. First tests blended well with Sonokinetic's Ostinato Strings and NI's Action Strings 2.

Anyone know how this compares to Scaler?

I have used most of the singing VSTs and have found SYNTH-V to be light-years ahead of all the others. I have never tried just using it as just speech, but as Mark suggested (for Alter-Ego), it can probably be done. https://dreamtonics.com/en/synthesizerv/ (And yes, there is a free version so you can can check it out.)

I like all of Ben's stuff, but if you are just starting with his instruments, I highly recommend Sospiro Strings which is slow, textured stuff that's really gorgeous.

Before Spitfire came up with their Labs engine, many of their current Labs instruments had been previously released as Kontakt instruments. And I kinda wished they would still be Kontakt instruments because, as many have mentioned, the Labs engine seems to have problems with keeping the instruments installed.

So after playing with the 30-day "no strings attached" demo of Vogue, I have the following observations: 1) WAAAAAAY overpriced! (As Brian Lawler pointed out, where is the discount for those of us who own many Ujam products?) I think this should have a regular price of $79 with a loyalty/intro pricing of about $59.) 2) It sounds interesting/pretty, but frequently the fills don't seem to match the preset style. Maybe it's a matter of personal taste, but the fills seem to be pretty useless. 3) I am struggling to figure out the chord voicing AI. You can play with just one finger, but when you start using real chords I find the results can be haphazard. Sometimes it sounds real nice, and other times not so good. The manual has a guide to the chord voicings, so I guess I need to examine it more closely. 4) When you record, you only are recording your keypresses, so you don't get a MIDI editable performance. Yes, you can play back those keypresses and Vogue will play back the performance you heard when you made it, but a MIDI recording of the performance would be much more useful. It also means you are stuck using the UJAM piano sound as opposed to using your own piano VST. I suggest everyone try the demo and see if it fits their needs. I haven't decided yet - if it was around $59 I would have bought it. A very good alternative (if you can play basic chords on a keyboard) is Chord Potion. It comes with hundreds of musical styles (all of which can be edited), creates MIDI performances which you can edit, but it does not include a piano, so you'll need to supply a VST instrument. Of course, that means you can use piano, organ, strings, whatever instrument you want. And it costs about $50. You can check out Chord Potion here: https://feelyoursound.com/chordpotion/

The Ample Sound upright is one of my favorite instruments - I use it a lot and recommend it highly.

I like the sound of the AD2 kits - I would guess that I have about 75% of them. But I use Jamstix to power them and it's a great combination. (Jamstix does not get the interest that it deserves - I think it's the best drum program in the market.) I did try a demo of EZDrummer2 last year, but found that it did not compare to Jamstix (at least for my workflow). I suppose I'll give EZDrummer3 a spin when they offer a demo.

Yep, that's what I did - got Synth-V, Kevin and Solaria. And I have to say it's been great fun with shockingly good results. Hopefully they come out with some good ENGLISH tutorials (either written or video) that will make Synth-V easier to use. (And yes, the VI-Control thread has been very useful!)

Loom II is excellent and it makes this deal very worthwhile.

Have you ever tried Reaper? Whole download is only about 20MB and it loads up EXTREMELY fast. Works with VST2 and VST3, unlimited tracks, VERY stable. And you can use it free for 60 days while you evaluate it.

Maybe this chart helps? https://fablesounds.com/broadway-comparison-charts/

Just getting the 4 Cherry Audio items made this a great deal for me!

I downloaded and tried the Fyler demo. I was not impressed as it was just way too basic. For a little more money, you could buy Reaper and just use it's Media Explorer which is far superior. (Free to try, so check it out.) And of course it's a great DAW as well. Or if you want what I consider the king of media databases, then get a subscription to LoopCloud. Their database will allow you to search on key, BPM, frequency range, length of clip in seconds, instrument type, musical genre, and much more.

I remember when I first discovered text games (Commodore 64 early 80s), I went nuts! I thought it was the coolest thing and I remember showing friends and they were amazed too. Zork, Planetfall, Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, and so many more - and I loved 'em all.

Check this out for some interesting male background vocals: https://soundiron.com/products/questionably-barbershop Yeah, it says barbershop, but it has lots of be-bop type scat stuff that will work well in the background. As to Synthesizer V, I purchased the pro version a few weeks ago along with the Solaria and Kenneth voices. It REALLY could use a good manual as you have to figure out things by watching YouTube videos. However, despite the lack of documentation I am getting pretty good results and would recommend it.

If I see something by Ben Osterhouse is on sale that I don't own, then I buy it.

I didn't watch the video... but isn't this a timeless expression (why is today's music so bad?) that has been used by generation after generation? There were probably complaints about Bach and Mozart...

Thanks guys! I didn't realize that these are their free plugins. So yeah, I'll just wait for their half-off price for their entire free bundle.

I see this bundle deal on WAProductions website. It has 16 Melda effects for $24.95. They say they include "extended" licenses, which is a phrase I cannot even locate on the Melda website. If they mean full licenses (which is how they are describing them), then this would seem to be a good deal. Any thoughts? https://www.waproduction.com/bundles/view/mstarterfxbundle

I see Jack Benny in Reid's profile picture.

I bought this years ago (in a multi-guitar sale package as Paulo mentioned) and have never used it. It sounds good, but it's just too awkward and difficult to use. I have lots of Ample Sound guitars... save your money for one of those would be my suggestion.

Smash Up The Studio's Winter Sale is now on! 25% discount across all MIDI files and samples, even including their already discounted bundles. So there are some great deals to take advantage of. If you want QUALITY MIDI files, you should check these out. There is a freebie that they offer so you can check out the quality. https://smashupthestudio.com/

It's TOTALLY different than Melodyne. Pitchmap is a CRAZY piece of software that can transform an entire mix or individual tracks. Whereas Melodyne is a surgical tool that allows you to edit individual notes/phrases, Pitchmap is more of a radical pitchshifter that invites experimentation on a broader scale and it can yield some wild results. Watch the video on their website to get a better idea of what it does. If you like to experiment, if you like to create "happy accidents", then I highly recommend it.

I don't think Spitfire has ever lowered their pricing for products that are at the $29 price point.