AIR Instrument Expansion Pack, thoughts?

[sbangs_air]

I'm waiting on links for about two weeks now same situation

Feel free to send me a PM if you need help.

[sbangs_air]

Just to let folks know we are offering AIEP owners a special $99.99 price on our new FX suite.

http://www.airmusictech.com/product/cre ... ction-plus

Please contact softwaresales@airmusictech.com if interested

[sbangs_air]

I have never met anyone to deal with any easier then Simon, i deal with this for about 18 years
maybe and still have not come across anyone like him, he usually goes way out of his road to help.
Another thing is, Simon is NOT the developer of the Plugins so we can not bang on his Door for anything.

Thank you that's very kind to say. My mantra is to try to develop life time customer relationships and the way we do this is by trying to go the extra mile Thanks for your support.

[TheKid]

I'd love to be part of that life time customer relationship, so please drop iLok.

[sbangs_air]

I'd love to be part of that life time customer relationship, so please drop iLok.

We now have over a million users of our iLok protected software products with very few complaints
Give the new system a go it was redesigned from the ground up to use next to Zero CPU and be very flexible.

[Numanoid]

Why does it cost $30 to upgrade from v2.0.0 to v2.0.5 ?

What are the benefits of upgrading?

[MillerSam]

Vacuum Pro - Industrial Charm

[DJ Warmonger]

AIR instruments are great ideas, but in reality they are half-developed and difficult to manage. There is no real modulation matrix in either. Controls are tiny and hard to grab precisely, (Loom, Hybrid). Loom and Vacuum Pro both have polyphony limited to 6! It doesn't stop them from consuming lots of CPU power. One thing that bothers me is that you can't change default preset location.
There's a lot of room for improvement.

[shonky]

Really been umming and ahing about whether to buy this for c£60 as an upgrade at plugin boutique from the recent xpand £1 sale

Pros:Quite like the sounds from the demos of Loom, Vacuum Pro, Strike and Velvet, a lot of content for relatively small outlay.

Cons: Have already experienced issues with iLok using xpand2, am concerned about CPU usage, have limited use for Transfuser (never really understood or desired the "sequencer within a sequencer" concept), feel that much of what Loom does I could probably perform with Harmor (likewise with the other instruments and alternatives I already have from Ableton suite and elsewhere).

Doesn't matter too much as it seems to be on sale on each alternate month anyway

[fmr]

AIR instruments are great ideas, but in reality they are half-developed and difficult to manage. There is no real modulation matrix in either. Controls are tiny and hard to grab precisely, (Loom, Hybrid). Loom and Vacuum Pro both have polyphony limited to 6! It doesn't stop them from consuming lots of CPU power. One thing that bothers me is that you can't change default preset location.
There's a lot of room for improvement.

I have to say that I find Loom a FANTASTIC synth. There aren't that many additive synths around, and Loom has a sound of it's own. Vacuum Pro also has a sound of its own, although, being a subtractive synth, there are much more options available (but not with the valve emulatiion based oscillators).

And you have more. Structure is a very competent sampler, and Hybrid is a very good "hybrid" synth. The synths alone justify the money asked, IMO. And you still have the other instruments (although those are a little out of my field of interest).

[ghettosynth]

I'd love to be part of that life time customer relationship, so please drop iLok.

We now have over a million users of our iLok protected software products with very few complaints
Give the new system a go it was redesigned from the ground up to use next to Zero CPU and be very flexible.

I know that this is a contentious issue here at KVR and I don't want to trigger yet another long debate. That said, not everyone dislikes iLok. It's actually a selling point for me. I know that my product license is relatively well protected against hard drive failure, which is a common enough occurrence that it gives me peace of mind. I also know that I can move my dongle to one of several machines which I actually do quite a bit. I prefer to have my license activation activity in as few places as possible. So unless you're very well established and already in use such that I'm willing to deal with things separately, e.g., NI or Waves, or, you have a very lenient system, e.g., Uhe, I'm MORE likely to purchase if you are using one of the dongle systems like iLok or eLicenser.

I was happy enough with Xpand2 to upgrade. I don't have any opinions on the rest of the bundle as of yet, but, I can assure you that iLok was a key part of the decision to purchase.

[MillerSam]

Had no problem in years with iLok on Mac.

[c_voltage]

I like Air collection, at least (primarily) this is excellent optimization, cpu usage quite satisfied for me in all instruments (even in Loom, I would not call it as too cpu hungry, especially via compare with some other popular powerful synths), and in some it has almost no cpu usage. And this together with a very good sound (Loom ofcourse, Hybrid, Vacuum), and sometimes really interesting features (Strike, Transfuser, something from FX suite).
Although, there is one-two suggestions, relate to Transfuser and Reverb from fx colection, but this is separate topic.
In general, i would say this collection is one of the most worthwhile money spent for plugins bundle today.

EDIT: also no any problems with ilok here.

[ghettosynth]

A (not really that) quick review based on owning this for a few days and just playing with it.

First, for me, this might be the most value ever from a plugin bundle. It's really hard to top NI's Komplete, but, given that I've purchased/upgraded three and a half versions (Reaktor 6), its value declines a little bit with each upgrade as the difference between each successive version seldom approaches the value of the initial version.

I'm not saying that they are my favorite tools, I'm strictly speaking in terms of value relative to the current upgrade price. While I'm glad to have saved the $25, had I saw this much value initially, I would have purchased immediately at the $100 price point for the upgrade from Xpand2!

Second, I'm often very critical of synthesizers as synthesizers. I have high standards, I've owned and still own some of the best analogues ever made and I'm not easily convinced by a snazzy gui. I think that Uhe and newer Reaktor synths are at the top of the heap and that opinion hasn't changed. That said, I do often use synths that I don't value quite so much as synthesizers, e.g., most Arturia softsynths, but that can still sound good, even excellent if one doesn't push them in the wrong direction. Typically I'll have a range of synths in a project with the best synths taking the most prominent parts and other synths filling in where they have strengths. Even though I do a lot of synth programming, I do value having good presets as a starting point.

Finally, my music is varied, but mostly electronic. I tend towards the experimental and minimal side, but my style varies quite a lot, even to the point of recording more than a few acoustic/vocal tracks from time to time. I do use loops when I feel like it, in fact, I don't disallow myself any tool that gets me from inspiration to finished track, that is, I'm not a purist about anything.

To help you get a grasp of my valuation, I'm cheap, I think most plugins are worth $20. Don't get offended, there's a lot involved in that. I don't make my living with music, in fact, I make very little money from music, not zero, but very little. I think about tools as whether they will save me time or inspire me in some way and, for most plugins, I compare them to what else I could do with that money, e.g., is it better than ordering a pizza and watching a movie? I pay more for plugins that break new ground, e.g., Uhe synths, Reaktor, and less for things that don't add much to what I already have, regardless of its intrinsic value, e.g., virtually all EQ plugins.

So there's your context, I hope that helps you consider my review.

Xpand was worth $1. I'd even say that it's worth more than that, but, I paid $1 so it doesn't get a new valuation just to justify the value of other plugins. If you want a 90s-ish rompler with a cool arp and that is quick and easy to use, it is all of that.

I paid $75 to upgrade xpand to the complete bundle. For the most part I'm going to ignore the expansions that came with it and just focus on the plugins. I'll mention the expansions in the plugin reviews if I think that they really add some value.

Initially I thought that I would get somewhat equal value from Loom and Vacuum with somewhat lesser value from Hybrid 3 and Riser. I thought that I'd probably like Velvet and DB33 but that they could go either way depending on how well that they were done. I figured Mini-Grand would be alright, although probably not more interesting than the NI pianos. I thought that I'd get quite some use out of Transfuser and a bit less out of Structure and even less out of Strike. I didn't have any expectations of the effects other than I really didn't expect any standouts given that I already have quite a few decent effects. My decision was made based on the fact that I felt $75 was reasonable for the entire bundle with most of the value divided between Transfuser and Loom, whereas I did not purchase a month ago at $100.

I was not surprised with Loom. I've been doing a lot of experiments with additive synths in Reaktor and Loom is a nice tool to explore some of those ideas more quickly. The sound doesn't blow me away, and, for some kinds of sounds I definitely prefer either my own tools or some other additive tools in Reaktor. Still, there are a lot of nice presets that are great starting points and the morphing works well. There are a few aspects to it that I really like and I'm sure that I will discover more in time. I'm glad to have it and I would have paid my standard valuation of $20 for it without question.

I was pleasantly surprised with Vacuum. First, I'm not a fan of really aggressive sounds. I do a lot of ambient and downtempo stuff and I'm a fan of classic house and techno, but not really EDM. A lot of what I saw regarding Vacuum was showing off how it does loud nasty sounds. Still, it is a subtractive synth with a somewhat unique approach in that it claims to model vacuum tubes within its architecture. I'm not really going to try to judge how well it achieves that goal, I'm not convinced that by itself it's all that important, rather, I'll focus on the features that I think are really excellent. The first big standout, for me, is the variable slope filters. This is a really nice feature as a modulation target that nicely and dramatically morphs sound. Given a base level of quality, this feature alone would have been enough for me to want this synth in my collection. A second feature that's done really well and speaks to the Vacuum tube emulation is the saturation and shape in the filters and amplifier, respectively. There are some beautiful ambient pads that, while not aggressive per se, have some nice dirt and grit and shaping these sounds by modulating the saturation is very musical. To that end, the dust and drift features also work fairly well for adding nice movement. Finally, a feature that I really like is the easy edit. Now, I don't like this because I think of it as a replacement for synthesis, rather, I like this because it makes a nice set of targets for modulation from the DAW. These map nicely to Live's instrument rack controls allowing you to really shift a sound over time without having to setup complex mappings. I tend to value subtractive synths as worth less than other plugins as I have so many and they are all similar in some sense. I really wish that this thing had 12 voice polyphony. If you had asked me before I purchased this I might have valued it at $10 or $15. However, the continuously variable slope makes it worth at least my standard valuation of $20, and really ,the other features make it worth more to me, let's say $30.

I was also, surprisingly, pleasantly surprised with Hybrid 3. I have a few modern-ish synths, e.g, Massive, Dune-CM, and given how little I use them, I probably have enough. That said, I like the sequencer features in Hybrid for building bubbly moving pads. Also, there are a LOT of presets and it comes with four expansion packs from Toolroom. While I don't think that the sound rises to Uhe level, the filters are quite usable and I like the wavetable aspect of the synth. In some ways it reminds me a bit of the Korg DW-8000. I will use this more than I expected that I would, but I'm going to give it my standard valuation of $20.

I was also pleasantly surprised with Riser. If you would have asked me up front, I would have thought that I wouldn't use it that much and would have valued it at about $5. While many of the presets are meant for cheesy EDM style effects. I've found that it doesn't take much manipulation to tone them down into interesting more ambient tones. The U/I is really practical for getting transitional special effects and because of that it is worth more to me than I expected that it would be. Knowing what I know now, I would also have paid $20 for this synth.

DB-33 is a straightforward organ and cabinet emulation. I really miss having NI's B4, but, I've switched completely to 64 bit and so what's done is done. I like organs, a lot, and I really can't have too many, but, most disappoint me so I value them at about $5 or so, or less. What I like about DB-33 is that the presets load fast because AFAIK, it's not sample based, at least not full loops. I also like the sound of the leslie and the small and straightforward U/I. While I will use this, I'm not at all a fan of the overdrive and found that most sounds that have it turned up sound better with it turned down. I'd have paid $5 for this, but probably not more.

I'm also a huge fan of electric pianos. They are pretty much in the same category as organs though. I'm not willing to pay much for them, but I do keep trying new ones to see if I prefer to to what I already have. Velvet is ok. What I like is that once a sample set is loaded, different presets switch quickly. So, as long as you're staying on one particular model, you can audition different sounds relatively fast. What I don't like, of course, is that it's sample based so that when you switch to different models, it takes time for the samples to load. Not a deal breaker, per se, but I'd really like a great modeled electric piano. The feature that I really like on this is the front panel control of the velocity map and its impact on timbre and volume. A lot of the variation comes from how the velocity of my different controllers map to a sound so this feature alone makes this really useful for me. I would have said $5 or less, but because of the quick velocity map editing, I'll elevate my valuation to $10.

Mini Grand is exactly what I expected, I could live without it, I'd pass on a medium coke to have it, $1.

The effects were pretty much what I expected also. One standout, for me, is the pumper. I like it's interface enough that I would have paid say $5 for it, so, $5.

I didn't expect that much from Structure, I have Kontakt. The thing that I don't like about Kontakt is how cumbersome that it is and how many clicks it takes to load something. I don't use sample based instruments for synths very much. When I do, they are like the very excellent and recently release "Cassetto", from Home Grown Sounds, which is on group buy right now, go get it. So a lot of the sounds in Structure are ho-hum. Given the size of the download I was, perhaps naively, hoping for a few really nice sample based instruments. In truth it feels like a bigger and less interesting version of Xpand. There are a few sounds that I would use and it is faster than Kontakt for loading those sounds. There are a few sounds that were really a bit odd. I really dislike the random fret noise on the guitars, for example, and preferred the sounds with it turned off, but, some of the specialized brass/woodwind samples will get some use. I hate most of the electronic loops. One feature that I do like is the speed with which you can add a custom scale to an existing preset. I would have liked to have seen more ready to go scales available from the menu. In particular, more microtonal scales would have been great. As it is, the ability to set those up quickly and save them as user parts is nice, and I will probably make use of that feature. As value for size goes, this one is pretty low, I'd have paid $10, maybe, I might have passed, but in the context of the bundle it is worth at least that. I would be worth more to me if the samples were not compressed/encrypted.

Transfuser is really useful for me. I get that this kind of tool isn't useful for everyone. But I would have paid my standard price just for the chord sequencer. While I understand the "sequencer in a sequencer" criticism given above, as a programmer, I like being able to have useful nested structures. The key here is useful. In general, I consider this as largely a replacement for using loops. It's like using loops, but is more flexible. The drum sequencer is similar to Cubase's tool, and, in fact, this product is something of a replacement for some of the tools that I like in Cubase and also for some of the ways that I sometimes use my arranger keyboard. One of my favorite features of the drum sequencer is the simplify control which is a wonderful target for modulation. As far as I could tell, you couldn't send drum pads to individual outs, maybe it's in there and I couldn't find it. In any case, that's only a mild concern as the workaround gives some nice additional benefits. I tend to work in terms of several drum busses so one can duplicate a drum lane and then mute all of the drums that you don't want on a particular buss. The advantage to this approach is that you now have a simplify control for each bus, This is fantastic for having a dynamic drum pattern. You can pull the chord and poly phrase sequencers from my cold dead hands. They are fantastic for setting up auto-playing kinds of sounds that correct to fit to a key. These are great for jamming and creating a bed to work over. The built in electric piano and subtractive synths are competent and the fact that you can use your own samples in the phrase synth adds to the diversity. Additionally, if you are familiar with Reason's Dr Rex, the slice sequencer is like Dr. Rex lite and will help you get more mileage out of your collection of rex loops. This tool will get a lot of use from me, I would have paid full price for it if I had a project that could use it, or probably $100 otherwise. Really, this was the primary reason that I purchased the bundle but I didn't think that I would like it as much as I do. Let's say $100.

The biggest surprise for me was Strike. I thought that I would get more use out of Structure. I have a few drum tools that I use regularly and some that I use less often. I don't have many tools that have built in sequencers though and I often tend to rely on my DAW to sequence. That said, I completely suck at creating acoustic drum patterns and tend towards loops more often than not. This might be my favorite new tool for avoiding acoustic loops. The reason is that the controls for modulating the sound are extremely powerful and the flexibility of mixing and matching different parts, mixes, and kits allowed me to quickly create dynamic new grooves out of old source material. Maybe ez-drummer has something similar, I've demoed it, but I don't recall, I don't recall being this impressed with the control. For each drum patch you have independent control over the pattern, the kit, and the mix. Each of those elements has a number of factors that can control and shape the sound. I like the ability to change the complexity and impact with modulation/automation. I also really like the ability to continuously shift between natural and strict timing and the mount of groove and feel. On the downside, a lot of the content does feel a little dated, but I've become adept at using parts of old sequences in new context so this doesn't really bother me that much. I think that it might lead to this product being overlooked, however. Still for acoustic drums, particularly in an electronic context, I will get almost as much use out of this as I will out of Transfuser. Between being able to just trigger the patterns in my DAW with a single note and then modulating the complexity and feel of those patterns over time with nothing more than a few automation lanes will save me a LOT of time. I would have given up four pizzas for this, so, $80.

There you go, this cheapsake thinks this thing is worth $302, to me. If I didn't already have other synth bundles, it's fair to say that I wouldn't have objected to list price and would have valued the synths and sampler more highly. A lot of my value comes from tools that are used in an automation context and that might not have as much value to others. At the current price of about $100 if you don't already own anything by AIR, I think that it's a no brainer. It's certainly more of a no brainer than a few sub $20 synths have been. At the $76 I paid, I'm totally happy with this purchase.

[DJ Warmonger]

AIR instruments are great ideas, but in reality they are half-developed and difficult to manage. There is no real modulation matrix in either. Controls are tiny and hard to grab precisely, (Loom, Hybrid). Loom and Vacuum Pro both have polyphony limited to 6! It doesn't stop them from consuming lots of CPU power. One thing that bothers me is that you can't change default preset location.
There's a lot of room for improvement.

I have to say that I find Loom a FANTASTIC synth. There aren't that many additive synths around, and Loom has a sound of it's own. Vacuum Pro also has a sound of its own, although, being a subtractive synth, there are much more options available (but not with the valve emulatiion based oscillators).

And you have more. Structure is a very competent sampler, and Hybrid is a very good "hybrid" synth. The synths alone justify the money asked, IMO. And you still have the other instruments (although those are a little out of my field of interest).

I don't deny they have nice sound, but they also have numerous flaws and lack features. Synth is not only made of sound, but also operation and convenience. AIR plugins simply don't stand up to other top plugins I own, such as Serum, Sylenth1, Lush-101, Harmor and even Dune 2. Much more work needs to be done before they can do more than just playing presets.

I don't own Structure though.

even in Loom, I would not call it as too cpu hungry, especially via compare with some other popular powerful synths

I tried to showcase Loom live on my laptop and failed, CPU hit caused multiple audio dropouts. AIR missed opportunity for free advertisement for audience of several dozen people, sorry