Ultimate Studio Drums II: The Sequel - GB Discussion Thread

[Mattiiiii]

Do I need registered Infinite player if I have full version of Kontakt 4 or is it only needed with the player version?

You'll definitely need the Infinite Player to play these drums.

Damn. Probably can't afford this then.

Completely understandable. I guess there will be many people in pretty much the same situation.

Just a suggestion: Instead of buying the Infinite Player alone for $50, I would consider paying $50 more and getting (1) 13 Ocean Way Drums DL mix kits, (2) 15 Drum Masters 2 Signature Drum Kits, (3) Ambient Impulse Responses, (4) 150 Bonus Midi Grooves and (5) 50 additional hybrid kits in addition to the Infinite Player - by buying the The Ultimate Studio Drums Bundle I.

And yeah, the SSD sale is quite tempting, I guess many here (including me) couldn't resist...

Matt

epointz ID: MattH

EDIT: Sorry, I was wrong assuming that the Infinite Player is still included in the first group buy bundle (please see posts below from todd_r and DarkStar).

[standalone]

I love the smell of fresh Group Buy in the morning.....

[todd_r]

Do I need registered Infinite player if I have full version of Kontakt 4 or is it only needed with the player version?

You'll definitely need the Infinite Player to play these drums.

Damn. Probably can't afford this then.

Completely understandable. I guess there will be many people in pretty much the same situation.

Just a suggestion: Instead of buying the Infinite Player alone for $50, I would consider paying $50 more and getting (1) 13 Ocean Way Drums DL mix kits, (2) 15 Drum Masters 2 Signature Drum Kits, (3) Ambient Impulse Responses, (4) 150 Bonus Midi Grooves and (5) 50 additional hybrid kits in addition to the Infinite Player - by buying the The Ultimate Studio Drums Bundle I.

And yeah, the SSD sale is quite tempting, I guess many here (including me) couldn't resist...

Matt

epointz ID: MattH

hmm, that link says

What You Get!
...

- Sonic Reality's Infinite Player plug-in powered by Kontakt*
...

then

* Please Note: This bundle does not include the Infinite Player

[DarkStar]

Please note that The Ultimate Studio Drums Bundle I does not include Infinite Player, so that would still need to be purchased. From:
http://www.esoundz.com/details.php?ProductID=2459 (and you get a free Deluxe Piano)

IP was included (as an option) in the USD Group Buy, but after the Group Buy was over, the Bundle was offered without IP and the bonus extras.

[todd_r]

I definitely like the demos more than the ssd ones. I assume there is some kind of randomisation/anti machine-gun type malarky too?

[MountainKing]

Ok, then ... as usual - this seems to be a very cool GB for those who love drums.

When you're on the edge of purchasing this bundle consider this please:



Feel free to visit this referral thread and choose one of the members that you can refer at esoundz check out:

http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=217796

Note that referrals will work for ANY (download) purchase at esoundz (not only for Group Buys).






esoundz: MountainKing



Cheers Jens

[KindredSpirit]

since this is a foregone conclusion I'm going to buy this anyway

So true I must resist, I must resist, I must resist......otherwise I'll never get the Ken Scott collection

The JB Yam STm demo reminds me of Rush's "Tom Saywer" Probably nothing like it, just have

"A modern day warrior
Mean mean stride
Today's Tom Sawyer
Mean mean pride"

going round and round my head.....

[bronxsound]

0-20========= $149.00 <--- We are here
21-50========== $139.00
51-100========= $129.00
101-150======== $119.00
151-200======== $109.00
201 +========== $99.00
Number Currently Enrolled: 19
>>>>>>>JOIN HERE<<<<<<<
refer me @esoundz: lukianowicz

[Mattiiiii]

Please note that The Ultimate Studio Drums Bundle I does not include Infinite Player, so that would still need to be purchased.

Thanks for clarification! Sorry for the confusion and false hope! I didn't notice this change before. As todd_r pointed out, the product description on the homepage appears (well, at least to me) a little misleading in that respect. Yeah, I definitely should pay more attention.

Speaking of which, why aren't the hybrid kits mentioned at the Ultimate Studio Drums Bundle II homepage? According to Squid and the group buy logo in this forum, some should be included? Are they kept as bonuses?

[DarkStar]

Speaking of which, why aren't the hybrid kits mentioned at the Ultimate Studio Drums Bundle II homepage? According to Squids and the group buy logo in this forum, some should be included? Are they kept as bonuses?

Good point!

Also ...

Everything in the "Ultimate Studio Drums Bundle II: The Sequel Group Buy" is downloadable (an alternate DVD version will be available in March). This is a limited-time bundle that includes the following kits that are playable from Sonic Reality's latest Infinite Player plug-in powered by Kontakt Player 4:

-- will the Kits work in Kontakt Player 3.5, or are they reliant on KP4? (Not everyone has installed KP4)
-- is the Infinite Player plugin (not part of this GB) now using Kontakt Player 4 code? (or is it still using Kontakt Player 2?)

[Squids]

Do I need registered Infinite player if I have full version of Kontakt 4 or is it only needed with the player version?

You'll definitely need the Infinite Player to play these drums.

Damn. Probably can't afford this then.

Completely understandable. I guess there will be many people in pretty much the same situation.

Just a suggestion: Instead of buying the Infinite Player alone for $50, I would consider paying $50 more and getting (1) 13 Ocean Way Drums DL mix kits, (2) 15 Drum Masters 2 Signature Drum Kits, (3) Ambient Impulse Responses, (4) 150 Bonus Midi Grooves and (5) 50 additional hybrid kits in addition to the Infinite Player - by buying the The Ultimate Studio Drums Bundle I.

And yeah, the SSD sale is quite tempting, I guess many here (including me) couldn't resist...

Matt

epointz ID: MattH

EDIT: Sorry, I was wrong assuming that the Infinite Player is still included in the first group buy bundle (please see posts below from todd_r and DarkStar).

We'll make a special KVR-only offer which is for anyone who purchases Ultimate Studio Drums Bundle 1 AND joins this Group Buy they can have Infinite Player for FREE (so a $50 gift just for seeing this post! Not bad). There is no concession for anyone who already owns it though - that was the part about the last group buy (or one of the things) that made it confusing. So, this time you have the option of getting BOTH bundles from say February 15th through March 30th (yes, we'll keep the Bundle 1 going at least until then but cannot promise it will still even be available at ALL after that) - and in that case we'll sport you a free Infinite Player (with FREE Deluxe Piano which itself is worth $50! A nice 300 meg C7 Grand).

How to get it? Simple. Just purchase Ultimate Studio Drums Bundle 1 and then join this Ultimate Studio Drums Bundle 2 Sequel Group Buy and then email allen (at) esoundz (dot) com and tell him you want the "FREE INFINITE PLAYER" Squids mentioned on KVR! That's it. (You guys can feel free to quote that offer in upcoming pages in this thread if you want or elsewhere... but it won't be something mentioned on the main product page... so it is kind of a fun secret offer).

By the way, if you want SSD then that $20 is good but we've got something even better for those that REALLY collect. Today we're going to be offering SSD EX plus an expansion of your choice for only $49.95 (That's basically $20 PLUS half off on the expansion). On top of that we're going to have ALL of the SSD expansions exclusively for half-price ($30 each) at www.esoundz.com However, that price is ONLY for people that either join this group buy OR have purchased the Ultimate Studio Bundle 1... which you can still do! Otherwise we will still have a general good deal on SSD (also Platinum) but it will be a little higher than that is all. Not bad! We've got connections... Anyway, if you are a collector of great drum "favors" and you want to expand it all in Kontakt then we've got you covered!

[gmontano]

wow the SSD deal is a great incentive to join this. So if you joined GB 1 or GB2 you can basically get SSD platinum for $140? (All of the EX kits). I bought SSD during the KVR sale last year for $240, so this is definitely an awesome deal.

[t-willy]

i bought ex plus two expansion packs for $160 last year, so this is a fantastic deal. probably pick up a couple more expansion packs at esoundz now. nice.

lates

t-willy

[Squids]

In response to e-Drummers concerns about "using these titles perfectly" - that is something that is hard to determine because each person's E-Kit set up IS different so unfortunately since it isn't as standardized as a keyboard controller there are some things that one might have to do to make it work as perfectly as possible... and there may very well have to be some compromises. That said, we DO have a free update coming to enhance the hi hats with advanced features responding to CC4... below I explain about that and also about being "done" - which is something that, with the understanding of how we're developing for the Infinite Player range of virtual instruments is not something that is necessarily ever happening... in other words, we'll always be revisiting and enhancing this range if we have new features or capabilities with the Kontakt engine. This is OPTIONAL but a benefit to those that want those features... much in the same way a software instrument or effect may have updates that fix bugs and/or add enhanced features. No reason not to also do that for sound libraries connected with a software engine. It's a good thing! Especially if those updates are FREE... read below my response because I took some time to try to give this perspective from us as sound developers trying to make features that please everyone as best we can...

-------

Well, you gotta understand, from our standpoint we make drum sample libraries (in fact we've been doing it longer than most of the popular drum software companies have... we released "Interactive Drum Kits" for the Akai in 1996 which even had "iMap"). So we RECORD those drums and make them playable from midi. Recently we've been noticing an increasing trend of people wanting to control them from V-Drums and E-Drum kits more and more. We added this a few years ago to Ocean Way Drums as a sort of "bonus" but weren't thinking it was going to be THIS popular of a request. So, after many people asked me to hang out here and get a feel for what V-Drummers and E-Drummers really want we went to TOWN on V-Drum map modes for Drum Masters 2, Custom Map in the scripts, advanced round robin with sequential and randomization plus control of each alt, trim for each articulation (another request from V-Drummers who wanted to be able to adjust say the hi hat foot level relative to the inside closed) and a bunch of other things... including also CC4 control of the hi hat. This is an enormous amount of work to customize drum kits that already play REALLY well from midi (such as from pads or a keyboard).

The group buy bundle was custom made so it was enhanced further interactively by people's requests. Those sounds are done! But we've been refining the patches and enhancing it further... we could also not do that. However we WANT to for people's benefit. This includes adding still a script that will do CC4. That doesn't mean it wasn't "done" before. It means it is adding enhanced feature by popular request... like a new revision in software. We do all of that free of charge despite it costing us a fortune each time to create it. Down the line we may do other things to enhance the sounds of Infinite Player - they are not static. That is a GOOD thing though. Added value after the fact. This is how we hope people see it... and not "shouldn't they be 'done' first before they do the next thing?". There is no 'done' when you are building a virtual instrument line as powerful as this. But at any point one can take it and make music with it - make use of the sounds we recorded which are unique to only our products (just like the sounds of other products are unique to theirs).

If you like the sounds of these kits then that is the main thing. This "Sequel" group buy has completely DIFFERENT kits from the first bundle. If you're a Peter Gabriel fan then Jerry Marotta's kits are going to make you happy. He was the drummer for PG for five albums or so and has a very unique sounding rig. If you liked the NDV Mapex Blasticks kit from the first bundle (Nick D'Virgilio) then the STICK played version in this bundle will give you MORE of that drum kit and studio's sound but with a more common performance "stick" as opposed to Blasticks... if you like Ringo there's a cool Ringo-style kit... many things! Different samples, different sounding kits!

All that said, by all means if the advanced hi hat feature is the thing you want the most then when you get that free update perhaps it'll be just what you wanted/needed to be able to also enjoy these other samples. I don't know! All I know is we've worked really hard to please e-Drummers. In a short time we've done a LOT focusing on that. So I hope that does the trick! We certainly try our best to please everyone we can.

[Reverend Rhythm]