Black Friday Post Mortem - How'd You Do?

[wst3]

and back to the topic at hand... in the last waning hours I caved not once, but twice. These are not big purchases by any stretch, but they are significant library additions.

I picked up Pandora Core - much like the rest of the Symphobia line it just brings a smile to my face. There is something about the sound of the recordings that just works. The whole adaptive sync thing is icing on the cake, but what tasty icing it is. If I come up against a project where the core library is not quite enough I can see myself splurging on the big package. This also takes the place of their runs library for me, for now. Bottom line? I am so glad I caved!

And then I caved on the TON bundle - for me it added both Orchestral Swarm and their harp.

The harp is gorgeous, and an entirely different harp than the Chocolate Audio harp, which was my harp for a couple years now. Really, I am quite pleased, and even a little surprised, I did not realize I needed a harp (and maybe I didn't really, but it is a very nice counter to the Chocolate Audio). Harp does not make its way into many of my projects, in fact it wasn't until a couple years ago that I even had one. So this my not get daily use, but it will bet used.

Orchestral Swarm is a different story. Much like the British Drama Toolkit is represents a very different way of thinking about composition and production. And it is a method I have yet to wrap my head around! (in contrast, I tried creating a track with nothing but Pandora Core and it worked - a bit bombastic, but it worked).

I think, or I think I think, that both Swarm and BD Toolkit will take more time to learn, not unlike my initial encounters with Albion and Symphobia. At least I hope that is the case. On the other hand, other than taking up disc space it was, for all intents and purposes, free, since I'd have spent $70 on the harp anyway, except of course I probably wouldn't have made the purchase, and thus I'd remain ignorant of how lovely their harp sounds.

Together these purchases probably exceed everything I spent elsewhere over the last couple weeks. And that's OK. I picked up some funny little odds and ends that will in fact help me make music, or at least noise!

I upgraded Studio One Reverberate, and Finale, Upgrades are an unfortunate reality.

I picked up two new sound design tools, Tonsturm Traveler (which I can not recommend strongly enough), and Impact Soundworks Cinema Sound Foley. I'm actually on the fence with this, I think with a little practice I can break some old habits and make good use of it.

I also picked up Cinesamples Harpsichord (which I actually need, how cool is that?) and Indiginus Generation (which wasn't a BF sale), which is amazingly cool. I still probably won't use it a lot, but I am fascinated with the advances in the guitar library space.

Throw in a couple bundles of MIDI drum patterns from Oddgrooves and Groove Monkey and I had a pretty reasonable time. Still more than I originally planned, and far less than I budgeted for (which will be a big help when Cinematic Studio Winds is released).

If you had told me, even this past spring, that the Black Friday sales would not tempt me I'd have laughed. I'd have hoped you were right, but I would not have believed it. And from the sounds of things, I am not alone.

[Erik]

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.



_

Thanx a lot Piet - I forgot, shame on me !