OTS Violin Bass

[Yan Filiatrault]

I paid around 140$ for 8 new librairies for the upgrade, so it should be a lot less for one during the group buy

[PavlovsCat]

23 years after I stopped playing music professionally due to a repetitive stress injury, last year, inspired by the pandemic, I  attempted to play and record music again just as a hobbyist in my home studio. Due to tendonitis, I can only play for very short periods at a time -- basically, I record on track for several minutes, break and wait an hour or the next day to record another track. Playing complex arpeggios or even fast cymbal patterns cause pain really quickly, so I've learned how to creatively avoid anything complex or not allow pain to destroy my timing (although, if there are any physical therapists or doctors reading this who are cringing, I do stop playing after I finish a part if I am experiencing pain).  So, in the past year and a half since I started trying to play again, I started by using covers of Beatles, Zeppelin and other old songs I love to practice playing again. Greg Schlaepfer, Orange Tree Samples' CEO, who started as a consulting client of mine and has since become a dear friend, asked me to do a demo for this library.  I thought, wait, your demos are done by very talented musicians -- including Greg himself -- and I'm clearly not in their league. I'm just a guy who used to play a long time ago trying to play again, but due to limitations, I'm never going to be a good player again. But I suppose, I can pull off simple songs. And Greg just encouraged me and told me that he'd really like me to do a demo. 

I made probably a dozen starts on demo songs and ended up with four demo songs. I sent over the best one to Greg to see if he thought it was good enough. He gave it the green light and i started to finish it. But I was getting bored with the song. So I started playing around with a 4 chord progression from a cover I recently did of Paul McCartney's "Dear Boy" and put my own melody over it. I thought, wait, the Hofner 500/1 is so incredibly connected with McCartney, I love McCartney's music and the tone and playing he's done and this bass library nails that and is great to play, and before you know it, while I'm playing the lead guitar part, I recall a song I wrote when I was around 13 years old that sounded very McCartney-ish and I go straight into it with the idea that I'll create a medley of the chords from "Dear Boy" with the very McCartney-esque song I wrote as a boy as a tribute to McCartney.  So the first 16 bars are me vamping over the "Dear Boy" progression with my melody on top on guitar and then I go into the song I wrote as a kid that I thought sounded so McCartney-ish, I shelved it, until now. I consider it my tribute to McCartney and the beautiful tone of the Hofner 500/1 bass. Greg added in some  additional guitar harmonies and arpeggios to my parts and did the mixing and mastering. 

 I used the Timeless Tone preset on the bass and every guitar you hear is an Evolution guitar. If anyone wants any additional info on the recording, just ask and I'll look at the original file. I recorded this in Cakewalk. I think I'm one of the few deals forum users still using Cakewalk.  
https://www.orangetreesamples.com/audio/PeterDeLegge-DearPaul.mp3

Edited September 23, 2022 by Peter Woods

[Fleer]

Yep, this Violin Bass is an absolute scorcher. 

[PavlovsCat]

27 minutes ago, Fleer said:

Yep, this Violin Bass is an absolute scorcher. 

Years ago, I worked with Greg to get people at KVR to share the music they make with OTS libraries. As this community is much smaller and we've all gotten to know each other,  I'd love to hear what others are doing. As I shared my demo-- and frankly, until last year, I never shared any music I made beyond a handful of musicians I played with and knew and an instrumental fusion band I had at 18 that onoly played maybe 3 or 4 minor gigs.  I was a drummer when I was playing professionally. I tried to put together my own band, but it never got off the ground, so this is the first time any music I've written has ever been shared publicly,  so it's exciting.

But I'd love to hear your music @Fleer and others.  If anyone is open to posting it, please do. If not I'd be happy to hear music via PM. 

Edited September 22, 2022 by Peter Woods

[PhonoBrainer]

I've been waiting for some sort of "all the presets" video to emerge, but none so far. Any owners care to give a thumbnail review of the flexibilitty of the presets?

? thanks!

[PavlovsCat]

20 hours ago, PhonoBrainer said:

I've been waiting for some sort of "all the presets" video to emerge, but none so far. Any owners care to give a thumbnail review of the flexibilitty of the presets?

? thanks!

I will check with @Greg Schlaepfer tomorrow to see if he can do a preset video. Like you, I find preset videos super important when researching sample libraries. 

But today is the birthday of Orange Tree Samples founder/CEO, Greg Schlaepfer. so if anyone wants to wish Greg a happy birthday, please do. Besides, being an innovator for guitar and bass sample libraries, Greg's one of the kindest and most decent people I've ever met.  

Happy birthday, Greg!

Edited September 23, 2022 by Peter Woods

[PavlovsCat]

19 hours ago, PhonoBrainer said:

I've been waiting for some sort of "all the presets" video to emerge, but none so far. Any owners care to give a thumbnail review of the flexibilitty of the presets?

? thanks!

@PhonoBrainer I can't believe I forgot about this preset video that came out at the beginning of the month. When I remembered it to grab a link it even had my like on it. Sad. But then, I couldn't even tell you what I had for lunch yesterday.  You especially want to check out the tips for customizing the library.  It saves me so much time to learn this stuff in the videos and makes your playing so much more realistic. I was using MODO for the Hofner bass before this, but there's really no comparison to the depth of the tone of this library to MODO. This library feels authentic when you play it and when it's exposed in the mix. If you listen to my demo, I actually dropped the drums out specifically to let the bass stand out (during a string part near the end of the song). There's no way the bass, exposed to that degree, would have sounded so real, with that level of depth to the tone using MODO. Don't get me wrong, I totally love the modelling of instruments, and it's fun to play around with, but in the final production, it's not even close.  That's also true with the palm mutes I play at the beginning of my demo. The modeled notes just miss the depth, the richness of the samples. 

The run through of the presets begins at 6 minutes into the video. 

 

Edited September 23, 2022 by Peter Woods

[PhonoBrainer]

@Peter Woods thanks for the video link, that's the one that announced the product, it has like five or six presets on offer. Was hoping for the whole preset enchilada video . . . All of the other OTS libraries have like 25 different presets at least. Will stay tuned!

Anyone have this, and would like to comment on the depth/variety of presets? We all know some libraries have a hundred presets with 98 fluff and two useable.

 

thanks!

[PavlovsCat]

35 minutes ago, PhonoBrainer said:

@Peter Woods thanks for the video link, that's the one that announced the product, it has like five or six presets on offer. Was hoping for the whole preset enchilada video . . . All of the other OTS libraries have like 25 different presets at least. Will stay tuned!

Anyone have this, and would like to comment on the depth/variety of presets? We all know some libraries have a hundred presets with 98 fluff and two useable.

 

thanks!

Greg did say that there's a YouTube review that should be out soon. It's his birthday weekend,  so he's probably with his family right now, otherwise,  I know he'd get something out. 

Hopefully, one of the folks who posted in this thread who have bought it can help out. I'm going to be away from my PC most of this weekend, otherwise,  I'd make an audio demonstration for you, as I love the library and have been using it a lot since I got it. If no one has a preset run through by Monday,  I'll try to do one. 

Edited September 24, 2022 by Peter Woods

[PavlovsCat]

I jumped on my computer for a bit. Here's a screenshot of the list of presets. 

 

[PhonoBrainer]

3 hours ago, Peter Woods said:

I jumped on my computer for a bit. Here's a screenshot of the list of presets. 

 

Thanks, Peter, appreciate it! That makes me feel Warm, and Toasty! 

[Greg Schlaepfer]

23 hours ago, PhonoBrainer said:

@Peter Woods thanks for the video link, that's the one that announced the product, it has like five or six presets on offer. Was hoping for the whole preset enchilada video . . . All of the other OTS libraries have like 25 different presets at least. Will stay tuned!

Anyone have this, and would like to comment on the depth/variety of presets? We all know some libraries have a hundred presets with 98 fluff and two useable.

Lately I've been including a section in the main walkthrough video that demonstrates some of my favorite presets, starting with a few clean tones, some crunchy ones, and then the more specialized ones that use more effects, just to show the range of tones included with the library. For some libraries in the past, I put together a long video showing every single preset, though. It's a lot of work, but I guess if people really like those preset run-through videos, I could make one for Evolution Vintage Violin Bass as well.

23 hours ago, PhonoBrainer said:

Anyone have this, and would like to comment on the depth/variety of presets? We all know some libraries have a hundred presets with 98 fluff and two useable.

Yes, I feel strongly about the usability of presets, too. A majority of the presets should be solid, usable ones that fit into your track rather than your song needing to be built around the preset. That being said, there's room for some presets to have some amount of their own character that inspires musical ideas, but it's a delicate balance.

Sample Library Review has the library in their review queue. I'm not sure when the review will be out, but they're usually pretty thorough about going through the different sounds and features.