Any experience with UVI PlugSound Pro (on sale for $75 USD)?

Sampler and Sampling discussion (techniques, tips and tricks, etc.)
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I'm a big UVI fan, and PlugSound Pro at $75 seems like it would be an amazing deal, but I'm curious about the quality and flexibility of the patches. UVI usually has manuals available for download, but for this one they only offer the (enormous) list of presets (PDF).

From what I've been able to gather, "PlugSound Pro" used to be a Kontakt-like product years ago, but what UVI is currently selling is just the sample library that was included with it, that only works in UVI Workstation or MOTU MachFive.

I haven't found any reviews of the sample library; only very old reviews of the original plugin product.

I already own Komplete Ultimate and MOTU MachFive, so I have a number of pianos and symphonic instruments. I'm always happy to have more synth patches in my arsenal (and PlugSound Pro apparently comes with a bunch) and I like scripted guitars and percussion samples.

Anyone know if the guitars in PlugSound Pro are scripted like RealGuitar or the ones in Komplete? (Like do they do rhythms and chord detection?)

Whats the general sample quality like? Any worthwhile stuff in the collection of synth patches?

BONUS QUESTIONS: I've been writing/recording for a very long time, but have only been familiar with DAWs and plugins, etc since around 2010. Can anyone fill me in on the history of UVI? Are they the same company as Ultimate Sound Bank (the brand that published the original PlugSound Pro) or did they just acquire that company's content?

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If you decide to purchase, I'd recommend AudioDeluxe.

With their DELUXEDEAL the price drops even further.

UVI PlugSound Pro
$75.00
Coupon: DELUXEDEAL -$15.01
Subtotal: $59.99

http://audiodeluxe.com/
Anyone who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.

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Sorry I can't answer. I'm looking at this and have the same questions.

UVI website is very vague and looks like it's the old library only with a few tweaks. I'm sure it's good quality as all my other UVI stuff is excellent. But doesn't look as if it will be much different to Sample Tank 2 to me.

On that basis I think I will put the money towards upgrading to ST3 (yes I know I might still have a long wait......).

But at 30 Gb and 64 bit ST3 sounds worth waiting for. I'm hoping my upgrade will be $99.99 as a longer term user (I think I would qualify).

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I have this one. I do use it from time to time, but mostly because I already know it pretty well, so it's quick. When I need a quick pop piano, or Proteus style orchestral instruments, then I still reach for this one, even though I have other stuff that usually sounds better. If you want clarinet, for instance, I think there's only one choice. 2 or 3 at most. Still, it can be useful if you don't like the tone of your other clarinet(s). And I don't always want to load 800 MB just for a simple clarinet.

It's not a bad library, but it's very, very old. Very much like East West Colossus. Lots and lots of sounds, but none are the best.

I think it's worth it for $75 (I'd buy it again,) but I wouldn't pay more than that.

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Thanks Mike that's a helpful reply.

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All right, I picked it up. My immediate observations/thoughts:
  • None of the instruments are scripted, so it's basically one-key-one-note. This is fine; I was just curious whether there would be any scripted guitars or other instruments like you'd find in Kontakt.
  • This also means that none of the instruments have their own UI. There's just a bitmap showing the box art, with no macro controls.
  • The sample quality is generally good, but the overall library quality is inconsistent. For example, some of the harp and mallet instruments are just gorgeous, while a small number of instruments in those same categories sound really thin and distant.
  • Velocity response is all over the place. Most of the patches are reasonable, but a few of the instruments you really have to slam in order to get a good volume out of them; very hard to play live and get a consistent sound.
  • The GM sounds are pretty solid. Loads better than an MT-32 or most of the SoundCanvases. Probably not as goot as you'd get out of an Integra-7. Around the same quality as the Halion GM set (although Halion might have a slight edge). The GM drum kits are light years beyond what the MT-32 or D-110 delivered in terms of sample quality and drum tone.
  • This library does contain everything that the original PlugSound Pro product included, but according to the (very limited) product info, there are a number of new orchestral instruments here, and the piano selection has been updated.
  • All instruments are velocity sensitive, but most of them are not velocity multi-sampled. The ones that are multi-sampled are pretty well done.
  • Haven't heard anything in the synth collection that wowed me, but I've only just skimmed. There's no tag-style browser, so you have to do a lot of folder diving within UVI Workstation or MachFive to browse through patch categories.
If you don't already have Kontakt or Halion, this is probably a must-buy at the current price. Otherwise, I think it's more of a nice-to-have, but at the current price (especially with some of the discounts resellers are offering) it's still a pretty satisfying impulse buy.

:tu:

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Thanks for an excellent review UltimateOutsider :tu:

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I was using MachFive 3 when I was reviewing PlugSound Pro yesterday, and I've just discovered that this library appears to be a lot more usable in UVI Workstation than in MachFive 3.

Here's what a simple MachFive 3 factory patch looks like inside MachFive. No real scripting that I could find, but the patch has four macro controls, which appear just above the virtual keyboard.

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Here's the same patch loaded into the free UVI Workstation. Same macro controls in the same place, no surprises:

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And here's what a sample PlugSound Pro patch looks like inside MachFive 3. No scripted elements or macro controls defined. All you see is the box art and the virtual keyboard. I mentioned this in my review yesterday:

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But here's how that same patch appears in UVI Workstation. A bunch of standard controls exposed for easy tweaking. No instrument-specific macros (all PlugSound instruments appear to expose the same controls in UVI workstation), but a lot more direct control than you see in MachFive.

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My guess is that when UVI Workstation loads a patch with no custom UI or macros defined it just defaults to showing those standard controls. (I searched and searched inside MachFive and couldn't find a way to display a similar control set.) It's pretty basic stuff, but it makes the PlugSound Pro library more instantly usable than what I was dealing with in MachFive 3- so I figured it was worth mentioning.

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UltimateOutsider wrote:I was using MachFive 3 when I was reviewing PlugSound Pro yesterday, and I've just discovered that this library appears to be a lot more usable in UVI Workstation than in MachFive 3.
Thanks for all the useful info UltimateOutsider, but so as not to leave a wrong impression of MachFive 3, I want to add that you will see lots of controls for tweaking if you click on that "Edit" button next to "Info", up at top of the MachFive main display area. Judging by the good sounds on your SoundCloud page I suspect you've spent time on that screen doing some tweaking but overlooked it today.

For the PlugSound Pro instrument you'll see:
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And for the MachFive Bell Vibraphone_MK you get this:
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nfrhtp wrote:Thanks for all the useful info UltimateOutsider, but so as not to leave a wrong impression of MachFive 3, I want to add that you will see lots of controls for tweaking if you click on that "Edit" button next to "Info", up at top of the MachFive main display area. Judging by the good sounds on your SoundCloud page I suspect you've spent time on that screen doing some tweaking but overlooked it today.
I was specifically talking about what you see when you first select an instrument from this library, and how instantly usable the library is in the two UIs.

I am familiar with MachFive's edit views, and apologize for any perceived implication that MachFive wasn't capable of letting users tweak things. UVI Workstation's default controls just put a bunch of simple patch-wide things on the same page (versus the much more detailed and involved things you can do with keygroups and layers and whatnot in MachFive's edit view), and in my mind that improved the usability of the PlugSound Pro library- it did not diminish the utility of MachFive 3 as a product, which I think is a fine and very powerful sampler. :tu:

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Aha, I get it now. It is true that a few well-chosen controls in plain view can make an instrument more quickly usable. Thanks for the explanation.

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Hi

Ive just purchased Plugsound Pro and I have the latest version of UVI Workstation installed.
Anybody have any idea why my interface doesn't look like this...

http://www.dv247.com/assets/products/35290_l.jpg (http://www.dv247.com/assets/products/35290_l.jpg)

The only interface I can get up looks like this...

http://www.uvi.net/273-thickbox_default ... nd-pro.jpg (http://www.uvi.net/273-thickbox_default/plugsound-pro.jpg)

Is there a button to press somewhere? I thought this was one of their scripted interfaces???

Cheers

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Get MachFive

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jason_serrano wrote:Hi

Ive just purchased Plugsound Pro and I have the latest version of UVI Workstation installed.
Anybody have any idea why my interface doesn't look like this...
It's the old Plugsound Pro interface. It's not available in Player or Mach5 afaik.
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jason_serrano wrote:Ive just purchased Plugsound Pro and I have the latest version of UVI Workstation installed.
Anybody have any idea why my interface doesn't look like this...

http://www.dv247.com/assets/products/35290_l.jpg
To build on Valerian's response, there used to be a standalone Plugsound Pro product and that's what your first screenshot is. It was something like Native Instruments Kontakt Player or Steinberg Halion Sonic, as far as I can tell. That product doesn't exist anymore, and the UVI Plugsound Pro library is all of the content from that original product plus (I believe) some additional sounds new to the UVI release.

Numanoid mentioned MachFive, which does have a different interface from UVI Workstation, but it is nothing at all like the original PlugSound Pro UI. I feel that UVI Workstation is the best way to use Plugsound Pro, because the macro controls it provides are more immediately useful than having to dig through all the individual parameters in MachFive. MachFive is a fantastic sampler, though.

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