Black Friday Post Mortem - How'd You Do?

[NoamL]

$0 this time. My 64gb VEPro machine is already full of good stuff. I was tempted by some plugin deals though.

All my pennies are going into the piggy bank for Cinematic Studio Woodwinds (which sounds top notch) and Abbey Road Modular Orchestra (having already got the starter library on the intro sale). I think people will be blown away by how much Abbey Road Modular exceeds the sampling depth of the libraries that were released in the 2012-2019 era. This project is everything Spitfire has been working towards since '17ish. People have started to think all their projects are lateral developments - "another vibey orchestra, in another room, again with 6 mic positions." Which in fairness, is a reputation they earned after SSO... but this will be a true step forward... dare I say "next gen" even.

[Erik]

Piet : we’re looking forward to your opinion on both

Laura : I’m fine thx I think I just grabbed Turbine.
But I’ m a jobless hobbyist these days - and trying to learn electric guitar. Keeping my ever vanishing money for the day I’ll receive the notification that Osmose keyboard is ready to ship (it’s been a year now since I preordered it) and therefore have to pay the remaining amount.

[mcalis]

$0 this time. My 64gb VEPro machine is already full of good stuff. I was tempted by some plugin deals though.

All my pennies are going into the piggy bank for Cinematic Studio Woodwinds (which sounds top notch) and Abbey Road Modular Orchestra (having already got the starter library on the intro sale). I think people will be blown away by how much Abbey Road Modular exceeds the sampling depth of the libraries that were released in the 2012-2019 era. This project is everything Spitfire has been working towards since '17ish. People have started to think all their projects are lateral developments - "another vibey orchestra, in another room, again with 6 mic positions." Which in fairness, is a reputation they earned after SSO... but this will be a true step forward... dare I say "next gen" even.

Well done! I only succumbed to Soundtoys Little Microshift and Cinebrass Sonore, so a little over $100 is all I spent. Berlin Brass was tempting, but out of my budget even at 50% discounted. With CSW, HOOPUS, Vista, and Modern Scoring Strings coming up there are plenty things to blow money on this year and early 2021.

As far Spitfire Abbey Road is concerned - I am very much looking forward to that too, but I wonder: do you have any information about the depth of sampling that I may have missed? Or are you just going by what Paul and Christian said?

I did great!

Didn't buy any libraries, but my 6 year old PC gave up the ghost, so I just dropped 2 grand on a brand new custom rig. It's being built at a Micro Center about 5 miles from here, and I pick it up tomorrow. <drool>:

Specs are insane.

Amd Ryzen 5900x Processor (12 core, 4.8gHz core speed)
64 GB Ram
2 NVMe SSD drives for samples, each one 1 tb
1 legacy SSD drive (500 gb) for more samples
Passive 2 GB Nvidia graphics card (no fan, silent running).

Can't wait to play around with Adventure Strings and Brass with it!

Mike

That's actually pretty close to what I've been spending money on (spread out over several months, getting components piecemeal). The Ryzen CPU's are phenomenal. Your specs are eerily similar to mine actually. Same CPU, same amount of ram, 2x NVME 1TB as well, but for the graphics card I'm simply keeping the one I already have. After 7 years of sticking with my intel system I'll allow myself this indulgence.

[Blake Ewing]

Picked up a samsung evo ssd for $100, the lo-ki piano, sa the ton deal, and updated century strings v2.

will probably upgrade oeksound soothe 2 for $45 also.

[Mikeybabes]

I bought a 4tB WD Blue SSD for £ 289.99, but they were out of stock, I thought that a great price at the time.

They have come into stock and it shipped yesteray, but I was only billed £ 241.66 by Amazon, which makes it officially a bargain....

[Jaap]

Picked up the Cubase update and Phaseplant (which I enjoy very much!) - otherwise I am awaiting Neural DSP Quad Cortex as I recently found the big pleasure again of guitar playing.

Ignored the rest of the Black Friday deals as everything feels very complete and rather await the coming of Cinematic Studio Winds and very happy with the news of Modern Scoring Strings, which should give me as long time LASS user and fanboy some discount.

[wst3]

Well the sales are mostly over, and I surprised myself!

I picked up ProjectSam Pandora Core. So far I am thoroughly pleased, and somewhat annoyed that I did not get it sooner. It is very cool. I can use this one!

I picked up ImpactSoundWorks/CinemaSound Foley. I don't have an immediate use, but like Traveler and Turbine and SoundWeaver this seems to me a tool that will change the way I do sound design, and in a good way.

I am still waffling on the Spitfire Ton Bundle - for $72 I'll feel like a bit of an idiot if I don't grab it just for the harp. I have no clue if I will find any use for Swarm, but I will probably leap anyway, since I can't get their Harp for less.

I had the cash stashed away to cover these, which might be part of the problem? Perhaps next year I will not plan to spend anything and I might actually do it? On the other hand, I've been far worse in years past<G>.

[tack]

I think people will be blown away by how much Abbey Road Modular exceeds the sampling depth of the libraries that were released in the 2012-2019 era.

I wish I could share your optimism and enthusiasm, but I just find it really difficult to get excited by Spitfire's output nowadays, especially after BBCSO was so underwhelming (to me at least) . I wish I could conjure up those feelings of excitement I felt when I dropped a small fortune on the full BML suite, where there was so much wonderful sound and -- dare I say it -- innovation.

But, I must say, I'm encouraged by your optimism. I hope you're proven to be prescient.

[Markus K]

(...) still waiting for my ultimate nylon library.

You may disagree with anything else I say on any other subject, Guy, but please, trust me on this one: get the Efimov Nylon — there's still 12 days left to get it at half the regular price. Absolutely the best virtual nylon guitar in town and I seriously doubt any other developer — not any of the virtual guitar developers I'm familiar with anyway — will come close to this achievement any time soon. Here's a little something with the Efimov Nylon.
_

Piet, I consider you as one of the most accomplished mock up geniuses, judging from what I hear from your posts. But this has absolutely nothing to do with a real played/sounding guitar. And it's not your fault. I always thought that acoustic guitars are pretty much unsampleable. This piece proofs it to my ears more than anything. So I fear the waiting of Guy for the ultimate nylon library will go on for a long time if not ever.

My purchases btw. fluffy clarinet, sonuscore origins 7, and the trinity drums (thanks to laura), mastering the mix mixroom and bassroom and gulfoss. I avoided completing my spitfire symphonic orchestra with the symphonic strings because of the upcoming vista and modern scoring strings.

[soundbylaura]

Ample Sound has a nice nylon guitar. And it's on sale. http://amplesound.net/en/pro-pd.asp?id=8

I won a copy of it a couple Xmases ago

[Guy Rowland]

Huh - I've never seen nor heard of Amplesound before and it does look and sound really impressive. Thanks Laura.

Markus - I've always shared the same reservations about translating guitars to keyboards. The Variax is pretty much the ideal solution for me, just wish they could do a Nylon. Honestly I don't understand how it works, and I almost don't want to know... I like just a little magic in my life.

[Piet De Ridder]

(...) acoustic guitars are pretty much unsampleable. This piece proofs it to my ears more than anything. (...)

I to-tal-ly agree, Markus. You have no idea how much I agree. Acoustic guitars *are* unsampleable. But once we've accepted that and we move that insight a little out of the way for a brief pragmatic moment, we've got to start giving attention to the problem of what to do when a job calls for acoustic guitar or when we want some such flavour in our music. And then, I believe, the Efimov is a good choice. For nylon stringed guitar anyway. (And I quite like both Efimov electrics as well. Not their steel stringed guitar though)
Now, if I were ever to collect my music on an album, I would *NEVER* include that Efimov piece (or anything else that features virtual acoustic guitar) on it, but as a demo, to give people an idea of what that library sounds like and is capable of, I do think that piece has merit.

(I have the Ample Nylon as well, by the way. In case anyone wants to hear what it sounds like when played in real time, I can make a example)

__

[Guy Rowland]

(I have the Ample Nylon as well, by the way. In case anyone wants to hear what it sounds like when played in real time, I can make a example)

Only when you have the time, Piet - maybe a spin-off Nylon guitar thread beckons?

[Piet De Ridder]

(...) I wish I could share your optimism and enthusiasm, but I just find it really difficult to get excited by Spitfire's output nowadays, especially after BBCSO was so underwhelming (to me at least) .(...)

Jason, have a listen to this:



I've gotta say, I find this deeply impressive. Deeply. Not talking about the composition, which, as usual with A. Blaney, is hors catégorie, but about the orchestra simulation and, not in the least, the sonic and spatial coherence and natural-sounding dimensionality. (I'm trying to think of a competing product that delivers equally convincingly in these respects, and I can't think of any.)

Yes, there are several moments where you can hear the limitations of the library — and getting to know the library myself little by little, those limitations and other annoyances await you in just about every patch of BBCSO —, but surely, no one with an interest in virtual orchestras and who has the ears to distinguish between good, average and bad, can fail to hear that this firmly belongs in the first named group?

_

[scherzo]

Regarding Spitfire,

I think they managed to capture something truly magical in ye olde BML range. I own much of it and it all still sees regular use here, even though it does have some quirks and quality control issues. I often have to wrestle with it a bit to get it to perform in a musical ways, but when it works it's really something. I haven't been too keen on anything they've done after that though, as much of it did indeed feel like more of the same (but not as interesting) but in a different hall. I've passed on pretty much all of it, BBC included.

But I will allow myself to get somewhat excited at the prospect of this new Abbey Road range. Haven't jumped on board yet as I don't particularly want a broad-strokes ensemble type of library, but the sound is fantastic. I also appreciate that it's a much clearer and less soupy sound than the cavernous reverberance of Air - much as I like it, that amount of ambience creates its own problems in sampling. If they manage to deliver a new modular range that is appropriately deeply-sampled and with decent quality control, this has the potential to be huge. And from what I've gleaned from their statements, it sounds like the aspiration is there, at least. Hopefully not just hype. I sense great potential.

Anyways, this year's Black Friday, the only libs I picked up were the Spitfire harp-and-mallets bundle (which also came with some Swarm thing that I don't even know what it is), and the Fluffy Woodwinds that I've had my eyes on since forever. Haven't had the chance to play with them much yet because of computer trouble, so no specific commentary yet.

I was on the verge of splurging on Modern Scoring Brass, but backed down at the last minute in a sudden fit of restraint and fiscal responsibility. It's a sad thing but it happens to the best of us.

[Piet De Ridder]

(I have the Ample Nylon as well, by the way. In case anyone wants to hear what it sounds like when played in real time, I can make a example)

Only when you have the time, Piet - maybe a spin-off Nylon guitar thread beckons?

Here's a very quick 'n rough one with the Amplesound Nylon, Guy. Just to give you some idea. One-pass live playing. (No processing, reverb is Ample's too: this is how the instrument sounds when you load the plug-in.)

And yes, perhaps we ought to spin a nylon thread ...

_

[Guy Rowland]

Thanks for that Piet, I think you could probably keep that exposed a little more than the Efimov, great though the basic tone is of the latter.

[soundbylaura]

Huh - I've never seen nor heard of Amplesound before and it does look and sound really impressive. Thanks Laura.

Markus - I've always shared the same reservations about translating guitars to keyboards. The Variax is pretty much the ideal solution for me, just wish they could do a Nylon. Honestly I don't understand how it works, and I almost don't want to know... I like just a little magic in my life.

Definitely grab their free acoustic guitar (steel string) and free bass. They also have a free "cloud drum" which is quite nice.

[wst3]

Here's a very quick 'n rough one with the Amplesound Nylon, Guy. Just to give you some idea. One-pass live playing. (No processing, reverb is Ample's too: this is how the instrument sounds when you load the plug-in.)

And yes, perhaps we ought to spin a nylon thread ...

That is pretty darned good, perhaps the most convincing acoustic guitar (steel or nylon strings) but there are still so many spots where it screams "played from a keyboard". Which is not meant as a slight at all, you've gotten about as close as anyone I've heard with the possible exception of Greg at Orange Tree and Tracy at Indiginus, and they wrote the libraries they are demonstrating, and their electric guitar demos are much better than their acoustic guitar demos, but I digress.

I have the Ample Sound free acoustic guitar, I've had it for ages. I also have acoustic guitars from Indiginus and Orange Tree Samples, and Realitone FIngerpic. I don't know why!

I was blown away by the tone of the original Efimov Nylon string guitar. But the more I listened the more I decided it wasn't going to do the trick for me. I still think the tone is brilliant, and some of the demos are jaw dropping, but even at half price it is not a huge temptation.

Part of the problem with any emulation of a nylon string guitar is the way the strings react to the player's fingers (both hands). I think that's the reason Line6 has yet to come up with a great nylon model. They did have one on the original Line6 guitars, I think. And they used to sell a nylon string Variax guitar, not sure what happened to that one.

I am listening once again to the Efimov demo tracks, and it really is brilliant, but - for me - not quite there yet.

Disclaimer, I am a guitarist, and line a trumpet player or violinist or any other instrumentalist I am convinced that sample libraries are not yet there for my instrument, at least partly in self defense<G>. I do use a handful of guitar libraries, but only for background tracks or "guitar like" sound design.

[Piet De Ridder]

Bill, that demo was done in the time it lasts. Load the plugin, play, stop recording, bounce to audio, and have something ready for Guy to listen to. Yes, it screams "played from the keyboard", I know, but it would require a lot more time than I'm willing to invest in this to minimise that short-coming.

I'm going to stop doing these quickies. Always regret them.

_

[lofi]

I'm going to stop doing these quickies. Always regret them.

_

Attans as we say, I didn't find time to listen to your guitar demo.
Well, there you go.. next time

The six strings are something of a burdan to us guitarists.
Myself I've got a few extended guitars and actually invested in "Muriel Trebles"



(they blend better on steel string guitars, don't know why they used an nylon for the introduction...)

So if any guitarists here feel empty inside after the black week.
Here's something for Christmas
http://brunner-guitars.com/en/the-muriel-trebles-2/

Best,
Anders

And oh, Piet re: the Abbey Road track you linked.
I found the strings and woods to be too dominant in the mix.
Turn up the Brass!

[Piet De Ridder]

That Blaney piece -- BBCSO, by the way, not Abbey Road -- is mostly strings and woodwinds, Anders. With a bit of support from the horn(s) in a few places, but otherwise nowhere the sort of brass that wants turning up.

_

[Erik]

This Mr Blaney's composition is stratospheric.
For the most scholars among you : who could be the inspiration behind this track ?
I'm always thinking Ravel, with Blaney but it's just that my knowledge is thin.

[Piet De Ridder]

There's a trace of Richard Strauss in this one, I thought. Probably not consciously or intended, but the chromaticism in the lines and the harmonies have a bit of "Till Eulenspiegel" in them.



_

[wst3]

Bill, that demo was done in the time it lasts. Load the plugin, play, stop recording, bounce to audio, and have something ready for Guy to listen to. Yes, it screams "played from the keyboard", I know, but it would require a lot more time than I'm willing to invest in this to minimise that short-coming.

I'm going to stop doing these quickies. Always regret them.

_

After re-reading the entire thread I realize I missed that part, and it is a fairly critical bit of information isn't it?

For played on the fly it is really quite good - your voicings are believable (the thing that usually trips people up), and even your picking patterns are credible. Do you, by chance, play in guitar parts frequently?

And yeah, the only thing worse that a "quick demo" is a "temporary fix".

Take care