Love At Second Sight

[dubdisciple]

Does anyone else ever go back through instruments you were totally unimpressed with initially and then discovered it was a hidden gem? For me the following vsts were about to hit the trash after sitting for years.

 

Loom by AIR-

I didn't even remember installing it.  I am sure it came with my VX49 controller. It looked confusing and seemed only good for making weird sound design noise.  As I was cleaning my computer and looking for vsts that actually worked with Akai's VIP software, I discovered this synth is a beast and an amazing implementation of additive synthesis. I have since upgraded to Loom II 

 

Digital Synsations by UVI

Sure I got this free about 7 years ago. My initial impressions were that it was clunky and inferior to other retro emulations like Arturia collections.  I decided to open it again before deleting and decided it had its own charm.  Although I wouldn't recommend to anyone who already had a glut of vintage synths, to the newcomer, this often free collection is a good gateway to classic sounds like the 90s house organ or whitney Houston ballad pianos.

 

Sampletank by IK Multimedia

Although I have always thought it somewhat unfair to compare to products like Kontakt, the lane it is in creates inevitable comparisons. Overall, very few ST libraries are on par with Kontakt libraries...and that's ok.  Sometimes I forget about ST because of all the other stuff I have, and then I need a simple instrument to sit in the mix rather than be the star and there it is. ST instruments DO sound thin compared to the heavy hitter libraries, but some of those libraries have me doing so much to make them play well with other sounds or are such CPU hogs it is not worth it.  

 

Instachord by WA productions

In a world that is being absolutely owned by Scaler, Instachord is a forgotten stepchild. In part I blame WA for not truly showcasing true potential. The interface is not very intuitive.  Recently I ran across a Youtuber using it for guitar while explaining why in some situations instachord actually works better for guitar.  I decided to use exact same chord progression in both and there were definite cases where Instachord worked for me. Overall Scaler is better and latest update closes guitar gap some, Instachord has value and was saved from garbage bin

[abacab]

I find that I struggle to keep my favorites up front as the list grows with time and accumulation, LOL. But there are some that I haven't opened in a good while. Not really ready to trash most of them yet, except in cases where they are obvious duplicates of function, because I like options!

In  consideration for the garbage bin, synths don't require as much space as sampled instruments. So I'm likely to keep them around unless they are buggy, have missing or incomplete documentation, or end-of-life for support. Or I have something else that is equivalent, but better!

So in regards to those just mentioned, I made a few comments...

Loom by AIR

I have upgraded to Loom II also. I recently rediscovered this because there is now a "unified" preset library for Loom II available for Unify users. This synth is one of a kind, and is a good option to have around. Loom II added some great new presets, including many by sound designer Richard Devine.

Digital Synsations by UVI

I got this for free as well. Needed some hard drive space, so have temporarily removed it until I upgrade my drive. But it is a good digital synth emulation if you don't mind putting up with synth samples for oscillators, instead of circuit modeling. In the same sampled synth category as IK Syntronik, and Tracktion RetroMod.

I think that sampled synths can offer very good sound, but at the expense of total tweakability of a virtual synth emulation. I think that their best use is as virtual ROMplers.

SampleTank by IK Multimedia

I started with ST3 (free with an iRig Keys 25), but I think that the instrument sound quality and variety improved in SampleTank 4 MAX and now is superior to the Kontakt Factory Library. But the open ecosystem of Kontakt has made it an industry standard that's wide open to NI and 3rd party instruments that blow ST away. The custom scripted UI's in Kontakt are far superior to the way the SampleTank interface works. And ST4 can be a system hog if you load it up. But for simple instruments, it can be an easy go-to.

Instachord by WA productions

Don't have that one, because I already have Scaler 2 and my plans are to learn that first, before moving on to something else, if needed.

[bitflipper]

2 hours ago, dubdisciple said:

Does anyone else ever go back through instruments you were totally unimpressed with initially and then discovered it was a hidden gem?

Nope. Can't think of even one.

There are a few that I've come to like better over time as my familiarity with them has grown.

But far more of them fall into the "I thought this would be better" category. Or worse, the "I can't believe I paid X$ for this!" category. Every time that has happened, I'd repeatedly revisit them, hoping I'd missed something, hoping that my investment hadn't been for nothing. And every time re-concluded "nope".

Interesting that you include SampleTank, which still tops my list of crushing disappointments despite having given it many chances to prove itself. Everyone's expectations are different.

 

[dubdisciple]

Scaler is becoming Thanos when it comes to these programs. Each update seems to tread on area of competitors.

[dubdisciple]

3 minutes ago, bitflipper said:

Nope. Can't think of even one.

There are a few that I've come to like better over time as my familiarity with them has grown.

But far more of them fall into the "I thought this would be better" category. Or worse, the "I can't believe I paid X$ for this!" category. Every time that has happened, I'd repeatedly revisit them, hoping I'd missed something, hoping that my investment hadn't been for nothing. And every time re-concluded "nope".

Interesting that you include SampleTank, which still tops my list of crushing disappointments despite having given it many chances to prove itself. Everyone's expectations are different.

 

I think the marketing hype after such a long wait painted them into an impossible corner, but when I weigh it for what it is vs expectations, I find it a good value. It's shortcomings as a solo instrument are exactly what makes it usable for me as a background instrument. Thanks for your perspective.

[bitflipper]

To be fair to IKM, I had rather low expectations for their Hammond emu and it turned out to be my absolute favorite faux-B3. But that one doesn't fit the premise of this thread, because I loved it from Day 1.

[dubdisciple]

Loom is Definitely the one that is my archtype for this thread. I didn't so much hate it as misunderstood and thus ignored it.

[abacab]

9 minutes ago, dubdisciple said:

Loom is Definitely the one that is my archtype for this thread. I didn't so much hate it as misunderstood and thus ignored it.

I think that iZotope Iris 2 falls into a similar misunderstood category. It is unique, and does some very interesting things with spectral filtering.

I think it was ignored by many who were looking for a do-it-all type of synth. I think that Loom and Iris are specialists. Just great for what they are!

Biotek 1 & 2 by Tracktion is another example of a very good synth, capable of some very unique soundscapes, blending samples with analog VA. The presets are awesome, but for rolling your own, the modulations are just a bit complex for everyday use. The mind behind that design is Wolfram Franke, formerly of Waldorf. He most recently worked on the new mega FM synth from Tracktion, "F.'em". Another quite complex synth, with 11 operators, 2 of which are multi-sample, with modulations galore.

I think that those are types of synths that you might not need every day, but you never know when you are looking for new inspiration, that one of those might be exactly what you need!

[dubdisciple]

I think I would be more forgiving of Iris if it played well with others. I have had DAWs blacklist it

[abacab]

5 minutes ago, dubdisciple said:

I think I would be more forgiving of Iris if it played well with others. I have had DAWs blacklist it

Sorry to hear that you had issues with Iris 2.

The plugin hosts that I have loaded Iris 2 successfully in: Ableton Live, Cakewalk, Komplete Kontrol, NanoHost, Reaper, Studio One, Unify, & Waveform, and none of them had any issues with it that I can recall.

I cannot speak for Cubase, FL Studio, Logic (Mac only), Pro Tools, Reason, or Bitwig, as I do not have those, or any others that I didn't mention. I'm strictly Windows 10 here as well.

[abacab]

2 hours ago, abacab said:

The plugin hosts that I have loaded Iris 2 successfully in: Ableton Live, Cakewalk, Komplete Kontrol, NanoHost, Reaper, Studio One, Unify, & Waveform, and none of them had any issues with it that I can recall.

I cannot speak for Cubase, FL Studio, Logic (Mac only), Pro Tools, Reason, or Bitwig, as I do not have those, or any others that I didn't mention. I'm strictly Windows 10 here as well.

I found the official Iris 2 Supported Hosts list at iZotope:

Supported Hosts:

• Ableton Live 9–11, Cubase 10–11, Digital Performer 10, FL Studio 12–20, Logic Pro X, Nuendo 10–11, Pro Tools 10–2021, Reaper 4–6, Reason 10, Studio One 4–5.

[scook]

From what I have read Iris 2 was quite a disappointment for original Iris owners.

I subscribed to Simon Stockhousen's Iris library when first available and never regretted the purchase.

Then came Iris 2.

[abacab]

17 minutes ago, scook said:

From what I have read Iris 2 was quite a disappointment for original Iris owners.

I subscribed to Simon Stockhousen's Iris library when first available and never regretted the purchase.

Then came Iris 2.

It appears that the original Iris 1 owners, including Simon, did a major beat down on the v2 update due to disappointment. Long thread at KVR outlines the issues.

So obviously it can be a touchy subject for them.

But to anyone else who came along after Iris 2 was out (i.e., no history with v1), such as myself, it is a great synth and definitely a good value when bought on sale!

[scook]

9 minutes ago, abacab said:

It appears that the original Iris 1 owners, including Simon, did a major beat down on the v2 update due to disappointment. Long thread at KVR outlines the issues.

So obviously it can be a touchy subject for them.

But to anyone else who came along after Iris 2 was out (i.e., no history with v1), such as myself, it is a great synth and definitely a good value when bought on sale!

Yes, I know.

I believe Simon was pissed among other reasons Iris 2 could not play Iris patches. This messed with his subscription service. He ported a lot of the Iris patches to Iris 2. But the synths were different enough that some would not port and the new features fell short. Iris 2 was not a welcome upgrade for Iris users.

Still, Iris and Iris 2 are fairly unique and have something to offer.

[Zay Bangxz]

Can anyone help me I bought a HP laptop PC A whole studio mic mic stand headphones focusrite I plugged the focusrite to my laptop and downloaded cakewalk and when I imported the beat on cakewalk .. the beat it’s coming out my computer speaker and not my headphones and when I rap it’s going into my Computer not my mic it’s like I’m rapping to my computer not my mic I wanna use my studio equipment I’m new to recording and cakewalk 

[Byron Dickens]

Please don't double post and please don't hijack a totally unrelated thread.

[dubdisciple]

1 hour ago, Zay Bangxz said:

Can anyone help me I bought a HP laptop PC A whole studio mic mic stand headphones focusrite I plugged the focusrite to my laptop and downloaded cakewalk and when I imported the beat on cakewalk .. the beat it’s coming out my computer speaker and not my headphones and when I rap it’s going into my Computer not my mic it’s like I’m rapping to my computer not my mic I wanna use my studio equipment I’m new to recording and cakewalk 

This is one of the most helpful forums round, but this tactic ain't it.

[Zay Bangxz]

Wym by that bro 

[paulo]

9 hours ago, abacab said:

I think that iZotope Iris 2 falls into a similar misunderstood category. It is unique, and does some very interesting things with spectral filtering.

Yep. you just have to remember not open it mid writing flow because once open much time may pass.

[bitflipper]

12 hours ago, Zay Bangxz said:

Wym by that bro 

What he means is that your post is not relevant to this thread's topic.  

("Relevant", as per dictionary.com: bearing upon or connected with the matter in hand; pertinent.)

Relevance and topic focus is important to maintaining a forum's usefulness as an ongoing resource for information. Consequently, other users who rely on this forum for information are likely to get a little miffed by off-topic posts.  Hope this helps.