Black Friday / Christmas / etc tips

[lofi]

Ok, tips.
Can only go on what I got.
Fracture Sounds original pianos bundle.
The Cargocult Spanner (not necessarily a must if you don’t mix in atmos)
Anything and everything orchestral tools.
But most important Bunker Samples and Realitones libraries.

[Guy Rowland]

If anyone still doesn't have it, HOOPUS is now $299 with Forbidden Planet thrown in.

I honestly think HOOPUS might be the best complete Symphonic orchestral package out there.

[Guy Rowland]

Had 20 minutes to try out Silk Vocal. Honestly... kids these days. It's now so easy to make something sound good, they don't know they're born etc.

This is another machine-learning tweakathon. In practice it's a bit like soothe, only you have three controls - low, mid, high, and it's clearly designed for vocals-only - you also set male / female.

The Mid control is by far the biggest, giving you a visual clue perhaps as to this thing's main job - taming harshness in the mids. I only had one voice to try it on that's not too strident anyway - I found around the mid-point it did warm things up quite nicely. Beyond that it all started to sound weirdly hollow, so use with care. Low seemed like a classic cut EQ, nothing obviously special. Hi did a brilliant job on sibilance though, better than their own sibilance plugin I think. Made me wonder why I bought the recent sonibile de-ess.

As a freebie (alas no longer) it's extraordinary.

[Stakk]

If anyone still doesn't have it, HOOPUS is now $299 with Forbidden Planet thrown in.

I honestly think HOOPUS might be the best complete Symphonic orchestral package out there.

Forbidden Planet seems a bit underrated (maybe because it was the longest running vaporware in this industry) but I was pleasantly surprised with its up-to-date sound when I tried. I honestly expected a dated one given how long it took.

[wst3]

I'm not sure unspectacular is the right word, but certainly underwhelming for folks of a certain vintage.

My only "big" purchase was upgrading Spitfire Studio winds and brass to their pro versions. I had upgraded the strings some time ago, and found the upgrade worthwhile, just waited for a sale.

The other extravagant purchases were Quantec Room Simulator, Art Conductor, and EZ-Keys 2. I was going to buy QRS regardless, and I wasn't going to pay full price for EZKeys 2, but even a small discount was enough to persuade me. Art Conductor is the one I am kicking myself for not buying sooner.

While it is true one can set up the "Sound Variations" in Studio One quickly, and somewhat painlessly, but it is real time consuming, and if I am going to be in front of the DAW I'd prefer to make some music. Art Conductor lived up to the hype.

The rest was little things, typically under $30, that will (I hope) make my studio life easier.

The simple fact is I have all the libraries I need, some of which I still have not mastered. I have winds and brass and strings from Spitfire, Alex W, and Cinesamples, I also have some winds and strings from 8Dio, but I find I don't use them as often. So really, what's a fella to do? Berlin Series from OT? Sure, it would be nice, but I'd have to be playing in a much larger sandbox to justify them. And I have more than enough compressors and equalizers, someone would have to do something pretty magical to get my attention.

Effects? Yeah, I am a sucker for reverb and delay, but I do believe I have all the rest under control. Heck, I have too many phase shifters, choruses, and flangers - but too many turns out to be just enough.

All that to say that were I in a different place on my path I'd probably have been much more excited. I think.

[Lawrence]

That Quantec was under consideration.

[soundbylaura]

I bought the Ronroco, the last of the Red Room Audio fiddles that I didn't already have, and a UPS for my NAS. Also grabbed some Mac utilities like DefaultFolderX.

Picked up the Slate Digital and Waves freebies.

And that's it. Slim pickings this year.

[wst3]

That Quantec was under consideration.

Absolutely worth consideration!

I'm pretty much blown away by bother their plugins, but the QRS is unlike any reverb I've ever used. I can't really put it into words except to say it just kind of disappears, while at the same time adding that sense of space. It is remarkable! It is also a real CPU pig, which is unfortunate, but I can slay that dragon when I upgrade the computer again (in 3-5 years).

Download the demo and take if for a spin.

[wst3]

I bought the Ronroco, the last of the Red Room Audio fiddles that I didn't already have

May I ask which one that is?

I picked up their Gypsy fiddle. Already had the Celtic and Bluegrass versions.

They get major props for capturing the sounds and styles of the Celtic and Bluegrass fiddlers. I'm not sure I feel the same way about the gypsy fiddle by my expectations may have been off by a bit - I was thinking "Hot Club of France" and Stephan Grappelli. Then again I can't imitate Jango, and not for lack of trying, so I shouldn't expect to sound like Stephan!

Curious to hear your thoughts...

[soundbylaura]

I bought the Ronroco, the last of the Red Room Audio fiddles that I didn't already have

May I ask which one that is?

I picked up their Gypsy fiddle. Already had the Celtic and Bluegrass versions.

They get major props for capturing the sounds and styles of the Celtic and Bluegrass fiddlers. I'm not sure I feel the same way about the gypsy fiddle by my expectations may have been off by a bit - I was thinking "Hot Club of France" and Stephan Grappelli. Then again I can't imitate Jango, and not for lack of trying, so I shouldn't expect to sound like Stephan!

Curious to hear your thoughts...

I got the Bluegrass. I do like them all, though I wish I could turn off the vibrato on the Gypsy, and I wish they had put all the articulation keyswitch information on one page instead of two.

[Scoredog]

I bought the Ronroco, the last of the Red Room Audio fiddles that I didn't already have

May I ask which one that is?

I picked up their Gypsy fiddle. Already had the Celtic and Bluegrass versions.

They get major props for capturing the sounds and styles of the Celtic and Bluegrass fiddlers. I'm not sure I feel the same way about the gypsy fiddle by my expectations may have been off by a bit - I was thinking "Hot Club of France" and Stephan Grappelli. Then again I can't imitate Jango, and not for lack of trying, so I shouldn't expect to sound like Stephan!

Curious to hear your thoughts...

I did a demo for them in HCF style. It can work (some of what I did works, other phrases are kind of forced) but it takes a fair amount of finessing. Its original focus is not gypsy swing but more standard roots gypsy music.

[Lawrence]

I bought the Ronroco, the last of the Red Room Audio fiddles that I didn't already have

May I ask which one that is?

I picked up their Gypsy fiddle. Already had the Celtic and Bluegrass versions.

They get major props for capturing the sounds and styles of the Celtic and Bluegrass fiddlers. I'm not sure I feel the same way about the gypsy fiddle by my expectations may have been off by a bit - I was thinking "Hot Club of France" and Stephan Grappelli. Then again I can't imitate Jango, and not for lack of trying, so I shouldn't expect to sound like Stephan!

Curious to hear your thoughts...

I did a demo for them in HCF style. It can work (some of what I did works, other phrases are kind of forced) but it takes a fair amount of finessing. Its original focus is not gypsy swing but more standard roots gypsy music.

You should know, Craig!

[wst3]

I got the Bluegrass. I do like them all, though I wish I could turn off the vibrato on the Gypsy, and I wish they had put all the articulation keyswitch information on one page instead of two.

Seems there are always quibbles, I have used the Gypsy enough yet to judge the vibrato, guess I will learn to play to its strengths.

The articulation switching does seem clumsy. I just broke down and picked up Art Conductor, which has a preset for one of them, and it works brilliantly. I'll use that as a template for the others.

Take care,

Bill

[wst3]

I did a demo for them in HCF style. It can work (some of what I did works, other phrases are kind of forced) but it takes a fair amount of finessing. Its original focus is not gypsy swing but more standard roots gypsy music.

Well thanks, not sure I'd have ever figured that out for myself, kinda had HCA blinders on.

And I have to say, I think you did quite well, there are just some styles that are going to be tricky no matter how well the library is configured. I thought the slides nailed it, there a couple of hammer-ons & pull-offs that sounded a bit pushed, but I didn't really pick up on them until just now.

Of the three I think the Bluegrass is probably the easiest, for me. But I've played a fair bit of fiddle tunes on the guitar, so I have a little bit of a feel for it.

In any case, no regrets here! Now if I could just play gypsy swing guitar as well as you...

[wst3]

You should know, Craig!

Indeed!

[srkrishnan]

Limited black friday purchases this time - Auddict's United Strings of Europe for $70, TC electronic 8210, 8dio Hybrid Tools Equinox & Splash Sound Ukelele. Got the free Dawsome Love plugin on Pluginboutique by purchasing Kiive audio Distinct

Edit: Added UAD guitar FX bundle today. Could not miss it at this price

https://www.pluginboutique.com/product/ ... ge-nosto-3

[Markus K]

My real weakness is drum machine samples, and imo the best out there (mmmaybe even better than Samples From Mars) is Goldbaby. They have a 40% off BF sale. I see they have a new huge Tape Drum Machine Collection which includes some of the stuff I already own, and they do extra discounts in these situations.

https://www.goldbaby.co.nz/products.html

Tape Drum Machine Collection (even full price for this at $49 is a steal)
CR-78
4 In The Floor
Acetone Rhythm Producer
Mam ADX-1
Dr Bohm
Combo Sideman
Conn Rhapsody
DDM-110
DDM-220
DDR30
DPM-48
DR-55
DR-110
DRM-15
DRM-16
DRM-32
Drumulator
DSM-1
ED-10
Super Spacedrum
Crash Pad
ER1
KPR-77
KR-55B
Linn LM1
Linn LM2
MBase01
MFB-522
MicroRhythmer
MPC-The Kit
MR-10
MRX-185
Olsen X-100
PB-300
PO-12
R-50e
R-50III
R-70
R-100
Rhythm-80
Ritmo-12
RPM-40
RX-5
RX-21L
RZ-1
Synsonic Pro
Tom
TR-55
TR-330
TR-505
TR-626
TR-707
TR-727
Volca Kick,
XD-5,
Rom808
Rom909

(Includes Battery and Kontakt kits)

Thank you Guy for this hint. This was a last second second purchase for me after reading your post. Very impressive I find.
Since I have next to zero experience with most of the machines here but like to use some for commercial work:
Is there any kind of tutorial or comparison of the different characters, use cases and such where you can get a quick overview? I made a quick walk through but it would be helpful to get some inside knowledge from an experienced user.

[Guy Rowland]

Since I have next to zero experience with most of the machines here but like to use some for commercial work:
Is there any kind of tutorial or comparison of the different characters, use cases and such where you can get a quick overview? I made a quick walk through but it would be helpful to get some inside knowledge from an experienced user.

What a good thought - I don't know of any. You can fairly easily explore any one machine via the wonderous gift of YouTube, but a broad overview escapes me.

I do a broad separation of analog / digital, and I have these as separate libraries in XO. I'm much more interested in analog, I find it endlessly fascinating that they all sounded terrible at the time for many people because they didn't sound "real". Only by the time drum machines did start to sound a bit more real did start to appreciate they were good in their own right.

[Markus K]

What a good thought - I don't know of any. You can fairly easily explore any one machine via the wonderous gift of YouTube, but a broad overview escapes me.

I do a broad separation of analog / digital, and I have these as separate libraries in XO. I'm much more interested in analog, I find it endlessly fascinating that they all sounded terrible at the time for many people because they didn't sound "real". Only by the time drum machines did start to sound a bit more real did start to appreciate they were good in their own right.

Yes it's funny that the real interesting ones are the electronic/analog sounding these days. That was the the first category I found out while going through the kits. There are the ones that try to emulate the the real thing and those who don't. For the real thing we have, well, the real thing and things like Addictive Drums or Superior Drummer nowadays. The sounds of interest are more those dropping sine kicks and toms, clicky hihats and whatnot. If I really get into this I might get XO once too.
An overview tutorial would be great. Going through YT with every kit is too time consuming in the moment for me.

[Guy Rowland]

Markus, I've added a video of how I often work with XO in this thread if it's of any interest / use - viewtopic.php?p=80280#p80280

[Markus K]

Markus, I've added a video of how I often work with XO in this thread if it's of any interest / use - viewtopic.php?p=80280#p80280

This is pretty impressive. I wonder if maybe a new version of Stylus Rmx might go in this direction if it ever will see the day of light.

[Lawrence]

Markus, I've added a video of how I often work with XO in this thread if it's of any interest / use - viewtopic.php?p=80280#p80280

This is pretty impressive. I wonder if maybe a new version of Stylus Rmx might go in this direction if it ever will see the day of light.

Based on disappointing history, pigs will fly first.

[Markus K]

[Based on disappointing history, pigs will fly first.

Seems so

[Guy Rowland]

NI's sale has some pretty good upgrade and bundle deals. I have K14 Collector's Edition including the sublime Lores, and they have an upgrade price to Fables for £45 - you have to click on the price to get the extra half price upgrade deal.

Damn, just when I thought I was out...

[wst3]

Damn, just when I thought I was out...

I know the feeling, I caved this morning and updated Tai Chi from Liquidsonics.

Not sure if I posted about it before, ignore if I did...

This has to be the most fun one can have with a reverb plugin. It seems impossible to choose or create a bad preset. And it works amazingly well, again with little effort, on a mix, pop or orchestral. The tails can be as long or short as you like, although I did eventually drag the tail out so long it got muddy.

I'm not trading on any of my "go to" reverb plugins, this is not a "do everything" reverb, or rather I guess it is, but there are a number of tricks that other reverb plugins do better, just with a little (lot?) more effort.