2014 wrap up your favourites and why - hardware, software, sample/soundpacks anything else...?

[MFXxx]

As 2014 draws it's curtains and the new light of 2015 hits thought it would be nice to share and care

What's been your favourite release of 2014 for hardware, software, plugins, soundpacks, samples or anything else music/sound related?
How has it influenced or helped you?
What has been your most memorable moment with music and sound?
Have you had success in your life with what you do and why you are here in KVR?

Peace to all KVR'rs, lurkers, dev's and creators.

Looking forward to 2015...

MrFx

[hibidy]

1) I guess bitwig? It's a very unique host and though it needs to be baked a bit longer it's very inspirational and has a groovy workflow.

2) That's hard to say, but because of some of the unique things you can do with it (like mangling audio) and the cool workflow, I try to have it be my go-to (but it's not QUITE there yet )

3) I'm just a hobby guy who loves gear.

[risome]

Hardware -Mutable(Braids, Yarns and Ripples) and Make Noise Modules(Maths, Erbeverb) in my eurorack TR 8 drum machine
Software- Zebra 2 and Valhalla UberMod and Vintage Verb
Moments- lots of great gigs and getting on some awesome new labels, tici taci ISM Records and having one of our releases reach top ten
in Nu Disco Charts on Juno.Working with Rob Papen with sound design

[fedexnman]

EZdrummer 2 , Tracktion 5 , Indie Folk EZX . Valhalla dsp VVV , and Renoise3 .

[hibidy]

Oh yeah, EZD2........good call!

[robotmonkey]

Well, can't say I was particularly excited by anything. One of my new years resolution's was not to buy more stuff in 2014 and put the stuff I have to full use. It turned out to be quite easy to keep that promise. So I did not get almost anything new. Only four plugins of which two were freebies (Waves Pumper and the NI Replika) and two were dirt cheap (Xils 3.2 LE and Korg MDE-X). Out of those four Replika was the most exciting thing. Korg MDE-X I had used before and as I remembered it having some nice and eminently usable high quality effects with non-existent cpu usage I got them again just day before yesterday. And actually I am kind of positively surprised by them as they are even better than I remembered. For 10$ it was a good deal.

Otherwise 2014 was nothing special for me as far as gear is concerned.

Sound wise the highlight was Peter Hammill's latest album released just couple of weeks back. Definitely the most creative album of 2014. The 3CD version is nothing short of amazing and unlike anything released in 2014.

[ariston]

I've been out of the loop for a while (daughter born, house bought, sleepless nights and too much work). No music during this time... at all. But now I'm slowly getting back into it... not a smooth transition, but starting with some sound design (or, if you prefer: "goofing off with synths") seems like a good idea.

Two things I got recently: Molekular (finally an original multi-fx that brings something new to the table) and Bazille! I've been ignoring Bazille all this time, mainly because I thought... oh, he'll NEVER get it done anyway (ye of little faith). Fun, fun, fun. Especially creating a complex patch, then looking at all those cables and... "what was I thinking when I did THAT?"

In all, I guess my life is pretty "successful" right now. I've got two wonderful kids and a great job and am now a proud "home owner", but there are certainly times when I miss those carefree days with endless hours of free time and sleeping in til noon, not to mention making music whenever I felt like it.

As for musical experiences, my highlight was a jazz concert, Marius Neset and the Trondheim Jazz Orchestra - the album is pretty good, but the live performance really knocked me out. That guy is a man possessed on the sax, and the other players were tighter than tight.

[mellotronaut]

Bazille and Egoist had some impact in 2014 and they will have in 2015