Michael A.D.

A few months ago, I too was a bit annoyed when I found out that LooopCloud was no longer scanning my library. So, I decided to try out their cheapest plan ($7.99)... and I'm loving it! I have to admit that their sample manager is truly the best I have ever found. I can say MARIMBA, BPM between 92 and 119, sample length greater than 5 seconds, (and many other search criteria) and LoopCloud will present me with all the choices in my library, or I can see their offerings, or I can see a mix of both. I can also specify FREE and I'm presented with the choices that match my search criteria. Every day I can choose 10 freebies that are downloaded to my drive (for my use forever even if I quit LoopCloud) and those freebies are also entered into my personal database. They also give you points each month that let you purchase results - most samples cost 2 points and I think they give you 100 points per month, but I have never used them up and they accumulate. What's really fun is to set up some nice rhythms and then audition the samples in time with your rhythms... when you find one you like, you press a button (to either get a freebie or to purchase) and it's yours. I suggest trying out their free plan - I think they give you a month for free. I do not normally create music in this manner, so maybe that's why it's become so much fun for me - it's like getting a new instrument that you've never played and learning how to use it.

Ummm... we are on the internet, so what about cute cats that meow and we're not sure if it's a political statement, a really good tune, or if they're just putting us on?

I already have the Outside-in edition with the 3 expansions. I just want to purchase the original on sale for $99.99. And the only sale price for it is in the bundle - they never have the original on sale by itself.

Nice utility - good for creating new stuff from old stuff! This latest version corrects a major problem from the original - you can now locate MIDI files across all your drives. (V1 would only let you see the C drive.)

They need to have a sale on the original Riff Generation.

Hilarious video! I doubt Avid will play it in their booth at NAMM.

I haven't played a bass in more than 40+ years, but that Jack Casady bass has tempted me many times.

Check out Scaler 2. It costs $59 and will give you a lifetime of useful information. And you can try a demo too: https://www.pluginboutique.com/products/6439

I grabbed four of the strings packs - great deal! I'd never heard of Alex Pfeffer so thanks to Matt for his post!

Volume 1 was great fun - looking forward to this new one!

I looked at the demo and I don't get it. Yes, it's a nice arpeggiator, but I see nothing special about it. Most DAWs will let you record the MIDI out of a VST, so nothing special there. You can always record automation into the MIDI after you've recorded it into your DAW. Perhaps for $19 this might be a consideration, but $99 for the intro price? That's way too expensive for an arpeggiator. Cthulhu is $39 and will give you a great arpeggiator as well as one-finger chord playback. Scaler 2 is $59 and will do live playback of arpeggios (Reid's request) and I am pretty sure you can change them over the course of a song via keyswitches. And of course Scaler 2 provides so many more features for far less than the cost of Sample Logic's expensive arpeggiator.

Gotta love that bottled water market! Whoever said "Let's charge people to buy something that they already have" was a marketing genius. Note that Evian spelled backwards is Naive.

I found this freebie on KVR. I have not tried it... https://www.kvraudio.com/news/ultimate-midi-plugin-updates-free-simple-chord-detection-vst-plug-in-for-windows-to-v1-1-52001

Is there some advantage to the new version compared to the original Kontakt version?

How about the free version of Jamstix? https://www.rayzoon.com/rayzoon_downloads.html

I like these: http://www.smashupthestudio.com/funky_electric_bass.html

The MT32 predates the GM spec.

If you do anything with strings, then just get this. Even at full price this is a great tool to have in your kit. At this sale price you have no excuse - just get it and marvel at how good it sounds!

NI's yearly 50% off Komplete sale is probably coming next week. I don't know the regular price of Komplete 13 with the full version of Kontakt, but if it's $599, then $300 is a good deal for those without Kontakt to get the full version of Kontakt plus a lot of other stuff. I've had the full version of Kontakt for a long time (think I got it in Komplete 9) and I think it's one of the most important pieces of software a person can have. It will open you up to a world of other software, much of which can be very inexpensive and very high quality.

I too have both Scaler2 and ChordJam. I gave my opinion about ChordJam above, but would like to add a couple more things. ChordJam is not CPU friendly. It will bog your system down pretty quickly, but as a quick idea generator, it's fine. You'll never be able to use it in a live situation, though I doubt that was it's intended use. One other thing I forgot to mention is that ChordJam does not allow you set a different MIDI channel for each note in the chords it creates. Perhaps they can add that in a future upgrade. I like Brian's description of ChordJam as a "happy accident" creative toy. You can get something fun out it in seconds - as I mentioned I like to feed it into ChordPotion, but I'm sure there are other VSTs that will also be "happy accident" compatible. Scaler2 is light years ahead of ChordJam and does so much more, in so many ways, that I can only say buy Scaler2 if you can only buy one or the other. You will be amply rewarded for the time you spend exploring Scaler2 and there is LOTS to explore.

Too bad they don't discount their $29 stuff. I guess Spitfire must think they are so cheap already? But even a 10% discount ($3 off) would be nice.

I bought Audio Modern’s ChordJam from Plugin Boutique... got it for about $36 as I had a few dollars in my account that I used. I tried the demo first and I liked how it allowed me, using only 1 finger, to generate complex chords with random velocities and timing info. I experimented feeding the output into ChordPotion and was having fun with it, so I made the purchase. Here’s a few more thoughts: 1) They don’t provide the manual with the full program (at least not the Windows version), so you might want to download the demo if you need the manual. 2) The sequencer seems to be a complete waste... I spent some time trying to get something decent out of it, but ultimately decided it was easier just to create a chord and then use the DRAG CHORD option into the DAW. 3) However, I think they need to do some work on the DRAG CHORD function as it would never line up properly where I wanted it. I was using the random time feature but I would have expected the first note to line up at the bar line or the spot I specified and the other notes would show the random timing. But no matter what I tried it would always have a large gap between the point I wanted and the first note. If I set the time function to 0 for all notes, then it would left-justify all notes at the point I wanted, but that defeats the idea of the random timing. Seems like they need to fix this. 4) There are no modulation options as far as I can tell, so if you want to have chords from 2 different keys, then the DRAG CHORD option is the only choice. You would have to change key, drag the chord, change key and drag another chord, etc. 4) The interface is a bit murky. It seems odd to me that the pull-down option you select is faded out and the options are all highlighted. I would want my selection to be highlighted and show my options as faded text. I think with an upgrade this could be quite a bit better, but overall I'm happy as I got what I had enjoyed in the demo.

Free Rock MIDI Drum Grooves: 28 MIDI rock grooves All in 4/4 9 tempos, ranging from 68 to 145 BPM Arranged for Toontrack EZdrummer & Superior Drummer, XLN Audio Addictive Drums, Steven Slate Drums, NI Studio Drummer, I-Map and of course General MIDI All recorded live by Magnus Brandell, of course not quantized Totally free of charge https://oddgrooves.com/product/straight-ahead-groovin-rock-lite/ They also have LOTS of other free MIDI drum tracks!

The original OP said he was using the "Free" version. I suggest that he goes back and uses the "Trial" version, which will have all features, but is limited to 7 days. This should confirm whether the "Free" version is causing his problems or not. http://amplesound.net/en/download.asp

Last week Loot Audio had almost the same Image Sounds guitar pack for about $18. Only difference was Loot had Acoustic Guitar 2 and Big Fish has 60's Guitar 1 - otherwise identical.