Best small time sample library developers I should check out?

[kitekrazy1]

My serious addiction is here. https://www.myloops.net/

I love Trance so I buy soundsets, midi, and tutorials.   Plus you get a discount for reviews.  We forget these are also developers.  One shots seem to be top sellers.

[PavlovsCat]

Okay, my update on the SoundPaint Wurli I bought for $20 US. I like it. It's absolutely a good buy and a no-brainer bargain for $20. It has a couple of presets that are in the ballpark for the R&B sound I'm after, particularly a patch that's labelled aggressive is really nice. If anyone hasn't use SoundPaint before, you can pick the library up for $5 US. Check with cclarry for an affiliate link and you'll save $15 US on your first purchase. 

Edited May 25 by PavlovsCat

[lawajava]

So far no one has mentioned two very interesting (older) Kontakt library developers:

Hollow Sun - Stephen Howell was super interesting, creating unique synth libraries.  Unfortunately he passed away and his company Hollow Sun stopped at that point.  But the libraries are still there, and still work and sound great:  http://hollowsun.com/    Pulstar from the many libraries is a first good one to look at if unfamiliar with Hollow Sun: http://hollowsun.com/HS2/alien_devices/pulstar/index.htm

Hideaway Studio - Dan, who worked with Stephen on some Hollow Sun projects, started Hideaway Studio which has a number of low-cost, fantastic sounding libraries. I have used a fair number of patches from these libraries in my songs because they sound quite nice and hit the spot.  It appears Dan is now selling his products officially through Loot Audio:  https://hideawaystudio.net/     From Hideaway Studio a good first one to check out is the Blue Zone collection: https://hideawaystudio.net/category/the-blue-zone/     

Here's one sound example from the Blue Zone: 

 

[PavlovsCat]

9 minutes ago, lawajava said:

So far no one has mentioned two very interesting (older) Kontakt library developers:

Hollow Sun - Stephen Howell was super interesting, creating unique synth libraries.  Unfortunately he passed away and his company Hollow Sun stopped at that point.  But the libraries are still there, and still work and sound great:  http://hollowsun.com/    Pulstar from the many libraries is a first good one to look at if unfamiliar with Hollow Sun: http://hollowsun.com/HS2/alien_devices/pulstar/index.htm

Hideaway Studio - Dan, who worked with Stephen on some Hollow Sun projects, started Hideaway Studio which has a number of low-cost, fantastic sounding libraries. I have used a fair number of patches from these libraries in my songs because they sound quite nice and hit the spot.  It appears Dan is now selling his products officially through Loot Audio:  https://hideawaystudio.net/     From Hideaway Studio a good first one to check out is the Blue Zone collection: https://hideawaystudio.net/category/the-blue-zone/     

+1 for both of those developers. 

I am an old customer of both of them and used to have these really nice little chats with Stephen (Hollow Sun) many years ago. I did a cover of  Gary Numan's "Cars" several months ago where I used the Stephen's/Hollow Sun's samples he gave away for free from the same model synths that Gary Numan used. You could still find those multisamples  formatted for KONTAKT free at his site as of last year: 

 

[lawajava]

Peter - your version is a fun listen

[Simeon Amburgey]

6 hours ago, chris.r said:

Look out for audio plugin deals/vstbuzz deals on Gospel Musicians, I got a great deal on a bunch of good stuff and then there are quite fair upgrade offers and deals on GM own website. It helps a lot to login to see the offers.

For Wurli there's one more library worth checking out: Session Keys Electric W from e-instruments.com

Also there's Broken Wurli from Soniccouture but that one, I think, was already mentioned in the other thread.

I will have to check that out,

[Simeon Amburgey]

I almost forgot about this one, VIBRANT which was developed for HALion Sonic by e-Instruments.
This was done about two years ago (wow, how time zooms past us).

 

I will have to pull this up again as it is currently featured as the instrument of the month for 40% off.

Also, going to brush up on some Ray Charles, and Billy Preston ?

 

[chris.r]

10 minutes ago, Simeon Amburgey said:

I will have to check that out,

Wondering how it stacks up against the soundpaint wurli...

[chris.r]

4 hours ago, Peter Woods said:

Okay, my update on the SoundPaint Wurli I bought for $20 USD. I like it. It's absolutely a good buy and a no-brainer bargain for $20. It has a couple of presets that are in the ballpark for the R&B sound I'm after, particularly a patch that's labelled aggressive is really nice. If anyone hasn't use SoundPaint before, you can pick the library up for $5 USD with the referral link that popped up after my purchase (a friend gets $15 USD off their purchase and I receive a credit of $15 USD after their purchase; a referral link is a lot like an affiliate link).

*And that is my full real name in the link,  Peter Woods was my pseudonym I played under back in the day.
http://soundpaint.refr.cc/peterdelegge 

Thanks, got the wurli! How many times one can use the same referral? Guess it's once per person...

Edit: yeah it's for the newcomers only (first purchase)

Edited September 3, 2022 by chris.r

[Simeon Amburgey]

This thread is becoming something like a Wurlitzer-palooza ?

I am sitting on a plane in Dallas for the past hour because of lightning heading home and catching up.
Lot’s of things to consider here.

[abacab]

5 minutes ago, chris.r said:

Thanks, got the wurli! How many times one can use the same referral? Guess it's once per person.

I couldn't use the referral code at Soundpaint as an existing Soundpaint customer. Apparently for new victims only!

[PavlovsCat]

1 hour ago, abacab said:

I couldn't use the referral code at Soundpaint as an existing Soundpaint customer. Apparently for new victims only!

Yeah, but it's 20 bucks for a really nice Wurly. I regret putting off  getting it for so long.

I did a demo for a developer that starts out with me playing a Wurli and if I would have had this one from SoundPaint I absolutely would have used it instead of the NI/Scarbee one I used. If you're really good with effects you could get close to what the SoundPaint presets with the Scarbee library (which I got with KOMPLETE), but the SoundPaint one just has a bit more character/bite and I like the SoundPaint player.  There's a bit of blandness to the NI Wurli IMO and playing a Wurli as a kid, I found the instrument to be really responsive-- the farthest thing from bland dynamically.  I like Rhodes electric pianos, but I completely love the Wurli. 

[abacab]

45 minutes ago, Peter Woods said:

There's a bit of blandness to the NI Wurli

Don't beat yourself up over this. The Scarbee sits well in your mix. Nice cover! Might be different if it was a Wurli solo. ?

And that drumming on "I am the Walrus" sounds totally realistic, especially in the last minute or so. I don't believe I have any MIDI loops in EZdrummer 3 that can do that!

Thanks for the tip on the Soundpaint version!

Edited September 4, 2022 by abacab

[PavlovsCat]

44 minutes ago, abacab said:

Don't beat yourself up over this. The Scarbee sits well in your mix. Nice cover! Might be different if it was a Wurli solo. ?

And that drumming on "I am the Walrus" sounds totally realistic, especially in the last minute or so. I don't believe I have any MIDI loops in EZdrummer 3 that can do that!

Thanks for the tip on the Soundpaint version!

I actually used the KONTAKT factory library for Walrus with a ton of effects including a rotator speaker to simulate a Leslie.  It actually sounded pretty cool and I will eventually redo some of the sloppy playing and improve the mix.  

[Craig Fowler]

On 9/3/2022 at 2:52 PM, Peter Woods said:

I just checked out their demo of the Wurli and it sounds great. If it was price individually and a detailed sample library (I don't know whether or not it is) and under $100 USD, I'd definitely be giving it serious consideration. But it's $250 USD for the package where the Wurli is one of many. keyboards and it's another plugin, I'm not biting I think those guys are good at getting the vibe I'm after. Consider that while my mother was a classically trained pianist and organist who taught music and played as a soloist, she also played in a rock and R&B band when I was a boy and she had a 10-12 year old version of me working out keyboard parts for Al Green, Bill Withers, Marvin Gaye and other R&B greats back then (because I could pick parts out by ear really quickly and play them), so I totally fell in love with R&B music, sounds, even though I spent two decades working as a rock drummer.  For me, the absolute end all Rhodes I have is Orange Tree Samples' Famous E (disclosure, I've consulting to OTS and became friends with Greg, Mr Orange Tree himself, over the years, but I am hyper critical and would never praise any library insincerely -- I'm too ***** retentive for that; if I'm not crazy about the work of the products I've worked on that I've consulted to, I don't comment on those products). I've begged Greg to do a Wurli.  But even if he does, that will take a long time before it's released and I really would love to have a great "deep sampled" Wurli that's not too expensive right now! 

Have you tried the Pianoteq pack? It's my favourite for Rhodes (though I don't have Orange Tree), and it has a Wurly in it as well.

[Christian Jones]

After checking reviews on YouTube anyway I think the SC Broken Wurli is best for me. I have the advantage of not having a particular sound in mind that I'm trying to achieve, but rather I'm just looking for what my ear likes the best and I like that fat grimy sound of broken wurli. 

I've seen some other folks heavily recommending the VReeds wurli by Acoustic Samples I think it is. I checked it out on Tube and it sounds good, but broken wurli is where it's in my case. 

[Fleer]

Yeah, Soniccouture Broken Wurli is pretty special. Have a look at the EP73 Deconstructed too. 

[Scott H]

11 hours ago, Christian Jones said:

After checking reviews on YouTube anyway I think the SC Broken Wurli is best for me. I have the advantage of not having a particular sound in mind that I'm trying to achieve, but rather I'm just looking for what my ear likes the best and I like that fat grimy sound of broken wurli. 

I've seen some other folks heavily recommending the VReeds wurli by Acoustic Samples I think it is. I checked it out on Tube and it sounds good, but broken wurli is where it's in my case. 

Agreed. Soniccouture's Broken Wurli is still my favorite and the most used of my Wurli collection. The tone is fantastic and the broken speaker knob (which is adjustable from none to a lot) adds a bit of a grungy vibe that can enhance the sense of realism. To my ears, this Wurli sounds very convincing as the real thing.

Acoustic Samples' Wurli also has as a wonderful tone and is a very close second. The only downside of their Wurli is that there are no presets so that you have to dial in your sounds from scratch and then save them in a separate folder. I don't own Acoustic Samples' new VReeds, but I'm very intrigued.

Lounge Lizard Wurli - While not quite as realistic sounding as some of the others, it does sound great in its own right. Because it is not sample based, it has a full 256 midi layers, so the dynamics are superior to any of the sampled Wurlis.  The excellent dynamics make this a very fun instrument to play. It also has a very quick load time and small footprint.

Neo Soul keys Wurli - I've never really connected with this one. It might be that the presets are more tailored for Neo Soul rather that Funk, Blues, and Rock. The samples are however spread out over a full 88 keys so you never run out of keys like on other sampled 64 key 200A Whurlitzers.  Now that I have better options, I rarely use it.

Scarbee 200A - At one time the undisputed king of the Wurli libraries, its tone still sounds great today. However when compared to newer Wurli libraries it's deficiencies become apparent. If you already own Komplete, this is still a decent option. When placed in the mix, you might be just fine with the results.

Toontrack EZKeys Wurli - While it does in fact sound like a Wurli, when compared to any other library, it sounds pretty weak.

Edited September 4, 2022 by Scott H

[PavlovsCat]

9 minutes ago, Scott H said:

Agreed. Soniccouture's Broken Wurli is still my favorite and the most used of my Wurli collection. The tone is fantastic and the broken speaker knob (which is adjustable from none to a lot) adds a bit of a grungy vibe that can enhance the sense of realism. To my ears, this Wurli sounds very convincing as the real thing.

Acoustic Samples' Wurli also has as a wonderful tone and is a very close second. The only downside of their Wurli is that there are no presets so that you have to dial in your sounds from scratch and then save them in a separate folder. I don't own Acoustic Samples' new VReeds, but I'm very intrigued.

Lounge Lizard Wurli - While not quite as realistic sounding as some of the others, it does sound great in its own right. Because it is not sample based, it has a full 256 midi layers, so the dynamics are superior to any of the sampled Wurlis.  The excellent dynamics make this a very fun instrument to play. It is also has a very quick load time and small footprint.

Neo Soul keys Wurli - I've never really connected with this one. It might be that the presets are more tailored for Neo Soul rather that Funk, Blues and Rock. The samples are however spread out over a full 88 keys so you never run out of keys like on other sampled 64 key 200A Whurlitzers.  Now that I have better options, I rarely use it.

Scarbee 200A - At one time the undisputed king of the Wurli libraries, its tone still sounds great today. However when compared to newer Wurli libraries it's deficiencies become apparent. If you already own Komplete, this is still a decent option. When placed in the mix, you might be just fine with the results.

Toontrack EZKeys Whuli - While it does in fact sound like a Wurli, when compared to any other library, it sounds pretty weak.

Acoustic Samples' Wurlie wasn't even on my radar until your post. I just checked it out and love the sound. While I am familiar with the dev, I've never bought anything from them. The demos sounded really, really good. I'm definitely going to put that on my watch for a sale. Thanks for sharing your list, everything on it is consistent with my own opinions.  

Edited September 4, 2022 by Peter Woods

[Christian Jones]

7 minutes ago, Scott H said:

Acoustic Samples' Wurli also has as a wonderful tone and is a very close second. The only downside of their Wurli is that there are no presets so that you have to dial in your sounds from scratch and then save them in a separate folder. I don't own Acoustic Samples' new VReeds, but I'm very intrigued.

Yeah I believe that new VReeds wurli is mostly modeled too. I think the library's whole footprint is just 70+ MB.