Jump to content

Up to 90% off Air Music Tech

Larry Shelby

By Larry Shelby
in Deals

 Share

Recommended Posts

abacab

abacab

Posted
Posted (edited)

Drum Synth 500 is $9.00 at AIR Music, $10.00 at JRR, no coupons available.

https://www.airmusictech.com/virtual-instruments/drum-synth-500.html

This one is a lot of fun for electronic drumming, and a little bit newer than the legacy AIR products, but not the latest. Definitely worth the $9.00!!! :)

"Drum Synth 500 gives you over 500 drum sounds, 500 drum samples, 50 drum kits and 500 MIDI drum loops which can be loaded into any DAW and used to kick-start your song or production."

FEATURES

  • 8-channel electronic drum synthesizer with fully programmable drum sounds in the style of 500 Series rack modules.
  • Individual instrument channels for Kick, Snare, Hats, Clap, Toms, Percussion and two Sampler channels for any mono or stereo .wav audio file.
  • Load your own sounds into two separate Sampler channels, including loop, forward and reverse playback!
  • Easy to use interface with no hidden panels.
  • Randomize feature for quickly generating new electronic drum sounds with just one button press.
  • Works with any MIDI keyboard, pad controller or drum kit controller.
  • MPC Full Level and Note Repeat for each instrument channel
  • Three distortion effects (including new Bitcrusher and Decimate), 5 filters and 2 compressors per instrument channel!
  • Two reverb sends and two delay sends per instrument channel.
  • Huge Master channel includes three saturation effects, a convolution reverb, an algorithmic reverb, a stereo delay, a mono delay, a compressor and a unique Kill EQ circuit.
Edited by abacab
Link to comment
Share on other sites
user 905133

user 905133

Posted
Posted (edited)

Anyone have experiences (good or bad) with the Riser, Structure, or Strike? I have downloaded the pdfs and based on those I might try the demos.  I'd be especially interested to know if Structure and Strike can use our own samples.  Thanks.

Quote

From Structure: You can import sampler programs, patches and libraries from other software samplers and manufacturers into Structure. The supported formats are SampleCell, SampleCell II, Kontakt, Kontakt2, Kontakt3, Gigasampler, and EXS 24. You can load these just like genuine Structure patches from the Browser or by using the Load dialog from the Patch menu. You can also load Gigasampler Patch format files.

None of the formats I use, but with all the red flags,

Quote
  • Important:
    • Please see the Structure Read Me document for possible known issues with the import of foreign sample formats.
    • Encrypted content from third-party vendors cannot be loaded in Structure. iLok-protected Structure Factory Libraries and other protected or encrypted sample libraries can only be saved as patches. They cannot be saved with samples or as monolithic files in Structure. For more information, see Loading and Saving Patches.
    • When importing Gigasampler Patch files, the sample files are copied to your local computer and a Structure Patch is created. You can specify the directory where Structure will copy the new files on the Setup page using Copy Samples to Local Drive Settings (Content > Copy Samples To Local Drive Options).
    • Please note that importing third-party sample libraries can be quite complex because of the many available versions of these formats and the different methods each vendor uses to make instruments play naturally (such as key switches, alternations, modulations, MIDI playback variations, and also different filters and effects). Consequently, a perfect reproduction of the original patch in Structure is not always possible. As a general rule, the simpler your original patch, the more precise the imported result in Structure. The larger and more complex your original file is, the more likely it is that you might need to invest some time tweaking the patch to get an exact sonic reproduction.

maybe its a bless in disguise.

Quote

From Strike: Sample Import – Strike lets you import your own WAV or AIFF sample sounds to create new Instruments in a Kit. You can do this by clicking the folder icon and locating your desired sound file in the prompt that appears. Once a custom sample is loaded, the Instrument channel strip updates to show an audio file icon and the name of the file at the bottom of the channel strip. In this mode, the Instrument Load Size and Timbre Shift controls are greyed out.

I didn't see a section with red flags. But these almost seem like more trouble than they are worth.

Quote
  • Re: Strike: From Online Info:
    • Please be aware this product features a very large, high-quality sample library, so a high-speed broadband internet connection is required to download and authorise this product.
    • 18.7GB free hard drive space required (Download and Installation)
  • Re: Structure: From Online Info:
    • 110GB free hard drive space [required] (Download and Installation)

 

Edited by User 905133
(2) to add info about sample space required; (1) to answer my own question re the use of samples in strike and structure
Link to comment
Share on other sites
abacab

abacab

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, User 905133 said:

Anyone have experiences (good or bad) with the Riser, Structure, or Strike?

I got all of those with the AIR Instrument Expansion Pack 3 (AIEP 3) about 6 years ago.

No longer have Structure or Strike installed, for various reasons. They are no longer maintained, so all you get is what you get (with any old bugs), and the GUIs are dated and small. I see that you have mostly ruled them out.

Strike would be interesting if they ever updated it, but they won't. Structure is quite dated, and easily surpassed by Kontakt or SampleTank. Plus the sample library size is why I uninstalled them.

I still have Riser installed, and it is interesting specialty synth for creating rises, falls, swells, fades, etc., and other special effects. It has 3 generators (oscillators): Sweep, Noise, and Chord that you can filter, modulate. etc. Not an instrument that you would play, but useful for creating transitions.

  • Like 1
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Jesse Screed

Jesse Screed

Posted
Posted
1 minute ago, abacab said:

Anyone have experiences (good or bad) with the Riser, Structure, or Strike?

Nothing works for everyone, but I liked Strike very much.  I still have it on my desktop, but not my laptop.  I don't use it often because i opt for another drum system that I have grown with.  Now that you have mentioned it, I will fire it up soon on my desktop.

The other AIR product that I like much is Hybrid.  I still have it on my desktop, but not my laptop.  I use VC3 on my laptop because it seems closest to Hybrid.

To be totally transparent, every vsti I have offers a new angle to express.  I don't really like blue cheese straight up, but I do like blue cheese dressing.

  • Like 1
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Jesse Screed

Jesse Screed

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, User 905133 said:

Anyone have experiences (good or bad) with the Riser, Structure, or Strike? I have downloaded the pdfs and based on those I might try the demos. 

see below

9 minutes ago, Jesse Screed said:

Nothing works for everyone, but I liked Strike very much.  I still have it on my desktop, but not my laptop.  I don't use it often because i opt for another drum system that I have grown with.  Now that you have mentioned it, I will fire it up soon on my desktop.

The other AIR product that I like much is Hybrid.  I still have it on my desktop, but not my laptop.  I use VC3 on my laptop because it seems closest to Hybrid.

To be totally transparent, every vsti I have offers a new angle to express.  I don't really like blue cheese straight up, but I do like blue cheese dressing.

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Brian Lawler

Brian Lawler

Posted
Posted

Basically "What @abacab said".  Strike was probably my first drumming VST and I used it a lot.  Really liked the MIDI pattern selection and complexity/intensity controls for easy variety, but there are a lot of other VI's with similar capabilities these days and UI's that are more DPI friendly.  Riser is still a go-to for a quick riser/downer effect.

  • Like 1
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
abacab

abacab

Posted
Posted (edited)

Just for FYI, this is my personal opinion only regarding the "legacy" classic AIR instruments. Disclaimer: no hi-res support and un-scalable interfaces, and they are apparently no longer being maintained so they are what they are. But for $5 or $10 a pop, what's there to complain about? I have had the AIR AIEP collection for about 6 years.

Still on-board here, and can make excellent, usable sounds:

  • DB33 - decent B-3 organ simulation with speaker cabinet emulation. Useful unless you have something better like the IK Hammond B-3X, or the Arturia B-3 V.
  • Hybrid 3 - decent hybrid synth with two layers, 3 oscillators and a step sequencer per layer, allowing for some interesting moving patches.
  • Loom 2 - a unique additive synth (using up to 512 sine wave partials) and features over 30 different modules, which can be freely combined into any of the 10 cells, making for an interesting semi-modular experience. There are over 350 patches included in Loom 2, including some designed by Richard Devine, new for Loom 2.
  • MiniGrand - decent sampled grand piano, useful if you still need a piano.
  • theRiser - Synth-based Transition Designer - sweep, noise, and chord oscillators for generating rises, falls, crescendos , decrecendos, etc.
  • Transfuser 2- groove box that lets you create and tweak grooves, chop up beats and phrases, time-stretch sounds, re-pitch notes, randomize sequences, and more – all on the fly.
  • Vacuum Pro - decent virtual analog with 2 layers.
  • Velvet - decent e-piano with Rhodes and Wurli emulations. Useful if you need an e-piano.
  • Xpand!2 - lightweight ROMpler that is 4-part MIDI multitimbral (four sound slots, so each can be assigned MIDI ch 1-4) with 2500+ presets. Lots of bread and butter sounds in this lightweight instrument. Great sketching tool!

Had issues and uninstalled/no longer use (these each have rather large disk footprints, and I have replaced them with more modern instruments):

  • Strike - drummer
  • Structure - sampler

Not really one of the legacy AIR instruments, and not one of the latest, but AIR Drum Synth 500 (electronic drums) is a great deal for $9.00 at AIR: https://www.airmusictech.com/virtual-instruments/drum-synth-500.html

"To get you started, Drum Synth 500 gives you over 500 drum sounds, 500 drum samples, 50 drum kits and 500 MIDI drum loops which can be loaded into any DAW and used to kick-start your song or production."

  • Individual instrument channels for Kick, Snare, Hats, Clap, Toms, Percussion and two Sampler channels for any mono or stereo .wav audio file.
  • Load your own sounds into two separate Sampler channels, including loop, forward and reverse playback!

 

Edited by abacab
  • Like 1
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
 Share
Go to topic listing
×
×
  • Create New...