We all have our failures. Getting that library that you think will fill gap in your sound collection only to find out three months later you haven't used the damn thing and going into panic mode.

Probably not because the library sucked (although it could be) but because it was too exotic, or it covered same area as your go-to library that you use every day, or it was a cool concept that you could never incorporate into your music.

I would like to hear your stories.

I would say anything that I got for EXS24 that is also available for Kontakt. Not the developers fault; EXS just can't compare with Kontakt. No scripts or anything like that, just sample playback. Fine when I roll my own, but very anticlimactic for things like Sonic Coutures libraries. I end up with crap on my computer that is basically worthless to me since you can't sell sample libraries. When I get a new computer I will bite the bullet and throw the stuff away (or maybe I'll file it away on an external in hopes of getting Kontakt someday).

I bought a few sample libraries that were meant for EXS that were terrible, but they were one off purchases because they were cheap and I figured if they sucked I could just toss them. I did.

and last would be Sampletank. I know a lot of people like it, but I honestly think it's a load of filler for the most part. Don't like the synths (I have a lot of soft synths that I can get much more lively sounds from), the guitar and bass add ons I got for free during an esoundz promotion are horrible. I play guitar and I can't even listen to these. Occasionally I will pull them out to get 1 or 2 notes that I will manipulate into something else; but I will never use them as guitars. I actually think the demo's are really deceptive. I would be interested to see the actual MIDI files from the demo's. Maybe I'm just not getting it. I don't think the piano's I bought are very good either. I use them for special FX sometimes, but they're too thin and cheap sounding to use as a real piano.

I have ended up with a few Alchemy sets that are a little boring. They are always the more ambient oriented offerings, which always sound like a sustained chord (or time stretched bells) run through a granular plug. They all seem to have a certain predictability and I have actually come to the conclusion that it is preferable to create my own ambient sounds.

So as not to be completely negative: I think the Sampletron stuff (and the esoundz Squidtron set) are really nice. I use them all the time (haven't opened up another Mellotron in awhile). I will always pick up sample sets as I like working with
them. Something satisfying about twisting a sound into something cool. So I guess I should expect to run across a few dogs every once in awhile.

Anything, Robotic voice ish, sample shot's of low fi speak and spell equipment, I've never used, and wish I'd never bought.

Wish Sonic Charge's Bitspeak had come out sooner, as It's fab and cheap.

(Producer Loops) PLP binary beats & Minus Clockwork is fairly useless, I've stuck some samples on a few tracks, but theirs no continuity between the samples, so your left with a one hit wonder.

Surprisingly Ian Boddy's 'Beatlogue' is fairly useless, but their is some continuity in it. I bought it becasue 'Drumalogue' was one of the best purchases I've made over the years.

Thankfully no more, as my sample buying day's are now down to Large ROM's for Kontakt Player.

there's a bunch of 8DIO/Soundiron libraries i've bought, but some of those are too exotic to reach for when i'm making something. for example the Bowed Piano. i'm listening to the sound demos and go "man, that sounds AWESOME" and once i buy it i realize that i really don't have anything to apply it to.

another problem that comes with libraries is that when you have enough of them, reaching for them for inspiration becomes difficult as you get lost into the sheer amount of them. my folder of 3rd party Kontakt instruments is over 76gb. on top of that we have the tedious browser of Kontakt and... yeah i rarely go through all that for inspiration.

also bought some dubstep presets for Massive. for presets the pack was moderately expensive and contained some one-shot wavs that sounded like they were made in Massive as well. it was one of the best-sellers of its kind, but there was absolutely nothing i could have used or really learned from either, absolute waste of money. a bunch of fart presets and some re-re-resampled distorted fart sounds to boot.

i will never buy any presets again except from our friend Xenos, those are always worth the money!

Retro Machines MK2 both places in fact. I think it is a wonderful library, with great tweakability.

I like it so much that I ended up buying another copy of it during the NI sale now, because I wanted to use it on another PC, before discovering that it isn't a problem with NI to install the same license on more than one computer

+1 deleted a pile of them today. Clutter ...



+1 All of that Tonehammer, Gnomehammer, 'Cinematic' type stuff never gets used. The demos sound amazing and all but I never get any use out of them.

There's a pile of stuff from smaller developers which are basically crap. I won't name names. I just don't buy from them anymore. They give you like 2 million totally disorganized instruments or samples for a wonderful sale price and later on you just feel cheated and dirty for ever entering into their bargain basement world.

+1

Is it so hard to make a proper interface for 500 different instruments?
I hate samples that are barely, I mean barely compatible with Kontakt. By that, I mean you could load it

I hate to say it, but I'm starting to regret Sampletank. I've got all the addon libraries and I really liked it for a long time. But with my last OS change to x64, I didn't even install it because, for some reason, IK doesn't think their former flagship library deserves a x64 upgrade.

I think this type of neglect for a high profile product is shameful. So it (and all the related products I own) just sits on the shelf while IK proceeds to take over the world of phone apps $1.99 at a time.

-B

Also, on Win 7 64, it requires admin privileges to work at all, so you have to always launch your host as an admin. I know it's not that big of a deal, but seriously: why? No other VSTi requires admin privileges just to operate, and there is absolutely no reason why Sampletank should. It's insane and pointless.

With all of the talk from IK reps around here about Sampletank 3, I assume they are done updating ST2, and thus no x64 and no running without admin privileges unless you upgrade to ST3. I picked up the Total Workstation thing last month or whenever it was, mainly for Miroslav, but I feel you--it's not worth using, and even for the low price, buyer's remorse is there for sure.

First: really terrific topic!

I've been very lucky in that most of the stuff I've bought (especially dirt cheap like Strum Electric $20 or Hollow Sun's PPG Wave $1) have served me well.

I, too went through an IK Multimedia separation: thin, uninspired, hard on the eyes, but I've loaded them again and found some things I really like (strange, one never gets burned out on an acoustic piano). So I think if you didn't pay too much and can get some use out of a plug, heck, it's worth it.

Then I remember there was one company's product (and the company itself) that I loathed: BitHeadz (yes, I go back that far). The Retro AS-1 and Unity barely worked -- on a Mac!!! And when the company went belly-up, what, 3 years after starting, people who spent money on the products were stranded.

Yup. Hated BitHeadz.

I got some content for Direct Wave just to burn my change since I have to use gift certificates from the wife for IL stuff anyway...not really impressed...I only recently got my Komplete8 as well and have barely had time to explore...I imagine by the time I get a grip we'll already be at upgrade stage and I just won't have change for libraries...time will tell...
I really prefer to keep it simple and only buy tried and true so hopefully I won't regret any future library purchase...
...still waiting for the big crowdsource library to hatch that many of us contributed to a while back...any1 remember that puppy? good dark stuff from 8DIO...

Bdwy lites

Cheesy sounds,for me unusable.

Awwwww! How cute!

Wait, is 76gb large? If that's large, I must be an insane sample hoarder. I've always admired people who just has exactly what they need.

Time to share my weakness.

I always had a thing for vocal libraries. Since I'm so socially awkward to ask for vocal help, I thought 'how could it be if I had phrases I can just work with?'

Yeah, music doesn't work that way. At least for exotic libraries I can design sounds with -- with vocal libraries, I might as well be using nectar on my damaged vocal cord.

Of course, that's not to say vocal libraries are useless. I'm sure there's someone out there who can really use them.

Another one would be getting patches/samples for my old Kurzweil rack, but that's such an old story.