zero-g altered states...opinions?

[ugo]

(ripped the audio tracks then seperated the loops in the wav files using waveknife)

Thanks ... didn't know about this, and I needed it.

yeah, waveknife is awesome. i've been using it for years and its a massive time saver when dealing with any audio-only sample cd.

-ugo

[ugo]

i listened to the demos of spacehawk and it sounds quite nice...but im really looking primarially for rhythmic oddities, unusual percussion loops, and general weirdness, rather than just ambient pads.

between absynth, dopplemangler, cameleon, vertigo, rhino, wusikstation, a whole bunch of HG fortune's stuff, and some other goodies...im pretty well set on the pad end of things.

-ugo

[rsmus7]

if you´re looking for rythmic stuff (if you think about drums),

did you try Stylus or Guru?

I know they arent really libraries, but I think they are much more than "just"
a library.
I sometimes use GURU with melodic lines and cut them up in it and mangle them,
and if you add a bit of metallurgy (you know this great FX, dont you? ), you have
more than any library will give you (except spacehawk for the nice paddy stuff

[ugo]

if you´re looking for rythmic stuff (if you think about drums),

did you try Stylus or Guru?

i havent tried either yet, but im not sure they are quite what im looking for right now. judging from the info on their sites, stylus would appear to be geared more towards really high quality standard production drum loops...not especially weird/unusual stuff. i didnt get a feel for what guru's library is like. i had not been thinking about something more sequencer based, but it may be something to consider.

basically, im not looking for drums so much as i am odd rhythmic elements (be they percussive or not.) i know altered states doesnt only consist of unusual rhythmic elements either, but it seems like it might have a decent amount...especially for $130 on sale. (one of the included libraries was even of junk percussion.)

and if you add a bit of metallurgy (you know this great FX, dont you? )

another possibility i suppose (and perhaps in addition to getting a sample library), would be for me to upgrade reaktor to v5. not that i've used R4 much at all, but it is cool and i believe R5 is supposed to come with some good new ensembles, and reaktor is known for having some pretty interesting rhythmic stuff. (yes, i know i could be making my own ensembles but i put my construction time into SE instead, so i can release vsts.) audiomidi has lowered their price on the R5 upgrade and they are having a sale on top of that until later today, which would bring the price down to $89.

so between the sales at soundsonline and audiomidi, i could get altered states and R5 for around $220. thats a lot of potentially out of the ordinary material for that price. hmmmm....

-ugo

[rsmus7]

yes get R5 first and it should cover a lot of what you want,

besides the ens that come with it, there are some nice ones in the user lib

and you should spend a little time with it to see what it can do for you.
maybe then you´ll find you dont need the altered states
R5 will set you in an altered state

just combine a rythmical ens or one where you load some of your own samples ( I´m planning to do some more samples and also rythmical stuff next year, more from the weird experimental side) with a few FX and you can do much more than with just one library.

But surely the AS for 130$ is a good deal.

[tee boy]

Ugo,

There is an interesting library, again on ZeroG, that includes loops and single hits performed on household metalic items. Sounds pretty useful, if a little limited.

I'll try to remember what it was called, totally forgot!

[blakflag]

Also the synth Rhino has some great rhythmic libraries called Electro Loops I and II... not sure if thats a rhytmic odditiy but it sounds awesome!

[geoffrey]

Waveknife sounds interesting and much needed by me! What is a Mac OSX alternative for Waveknife?

[ugo]

well, i decided to go for altered states. i ordered it last night so i guess i'll recieve it sometime this week. i almost convinced myself to resist the sale and to just focus on trying to be more productive with what i've already got...but thats a hell of a lot of oddball loops for $130. i'll report back on my thoughts on AS once i've had a chance to check it out.

i opted not to get reaktor 5 because (for some reason) i dont find myself using R4 and i couldnt justify spending an extra $100 for an upgrade to something im not using.

Also the synth Rhino has some great rhythmic libraries called Electro Loops I and II... not sure if thats a rhytmic odditiy but it sounds awesome!

those do sound good, but for some weird reason rhino (like reaktor) is another absolutely excellent product i've got that i just dont seem to be drawn to use, and im not sure why. i've got the electroloop banks, i've got a whole bunch of daniel's banks, it all sounds great, and yet im not writing with it.

Waveknife sounds interesting and much needed by me! What is a Mac OSX alternative for Waveknife?

im a pc guy so im really not sure what similar products are available for mac. i'd assume there must be something like it for mac though.

-ugo

[lsd]

What about Zero-G's "Outer Limits"? Anyone heard this library yet? It is Ian's follow up to Morphology.

Also I can't find the email for this sale, can someone PM the code? Thanks

[ugo]

Also I can't find the email for this sale, can someone PM the code? Thanks

http://www.soundsonline.com
the sale supposedly ended december 31st at midnight PST. however the sale info is still on their site. the code was JINGLE but i dont know if the offer is actually still available or not.

-ugo

[ugo]

well, i finally recieved altered states the other day. soundsonline apparently misplaced my order, found it after i called to ask wft, and fedex'd it last friday.

anyway...i havent had too much chance yet to go through it, and there's a hell of a lot to check out, but so far im pretty pleased.

the overall vibe of this collection i'd say is lofi, dark and processed. the samples come across as a bit 'soft' and that could be due to their age, but they are certainly still good though and i view this as just part if their character. (a generally more background vibe, rather than foreground.) also, adding a bit of psp's vintage warmer or discodsp's thrillme can add a little extra bit of presence when needed. the samples all seem to be well edited and logically organized too.

even though i was originally only really interested in its rhythmic material, i must admit its ambiences and fx are rather cool, creative and useful...if you are into odd, dark, creepy ambient and soundtrack type stuff. (which i am.) for the more generally musical sounding stuff, you could just get some of HG fortunes synths and the material will be more playable (and often more vibrant) than altered states. however a considerable amount of the rest of this material is pretty different...more of an odd sound effect feel rather than an instrument feel, even when its playable like an instrument. tons of this really would be perfectly at home in the background of a horror or sci-fi movie. in fact, when loading up one of the 'all sounds' patches from a section (which have each of the loops in that section assigned to a key) it really can be very much like a soundtrack background ambience construction kit.

since its a loop library, nothing is multisampled. however many of the loops are quite playable as is, and those that are not, thanks intakt/kontakt's various play modes, can be made to be playable. sure, in time machine mode things will get extremely granulated the further away from the original sample's pitch you go, but since i got the library for odd sounds, and since i get a kick out of the very digital granulated sound, its still fun for me.

the rhythmic and percussive stuff is what i was primarially attracted to this collection for, and it has not disappointed. in a way, a lot of this material kind of makes me think of an electronically processed tom waits / tribal / industrial hybrid...and thats exactly what i was hopeing for.

the size of the collection is pretty noteworthy too. there's tons of material in here (over 4 gigs worth) and so far it all seems to be quality stuff.

alter states was originally priced at $349 and considering the obvious tonal age of the samples, i'd say that was probably a bit high. i guess other people did too because the price is now $200. thats is a pretty reasonable price for so much material. however, to buy it during one of soundsonline's 30-35% off sales (as i did, for $130) really makes this a tremendous bargan.

but in any case, the bottom line is im quite happy with my purchase so far and i definitely plan to be writing with it.

-ugo