Arpology Worth $99?

[Musical Gym]

Audioplugin.deals has special on it. Bit dated now and not a lot of raving about it, especially at regular price of almost 400 bucks. I looked at Riff Generation by InSessionAudio, which is similar, but RG can't do polyphony/chords.
Any recommendations from user as to current relevance/use for arpology?
Demo videos haven't sold me.

[stixman]

Not impressed with it wish I was as I would of snapped it up but it's a pass

[Musical Gym]

I might be persuaded if I could get any current user recommendations for it.
I wonder why the price is so high when it's not on sale. Apparently there's a lot of content in it from other Sample Logic libraries.

[tenshin111]

Good question, I am interested myself.

Generally, I've been moderately impressed after watching some of the demos. I wonder if there's a way to route arpeggiated midi notes out of it and drive another VSTi? I know that that you can now drag & drop "arp" midi clips from the Arpoolgy into your DAW but it's not the best workflow. I would prefer to simply use it as midi effect and directly drive other synths.

[nordickvr]

Good question, I am interested myself.

Generally, I've been moderately impressed after watching some of the demos. I wonder if there's a way to route arpeggiated midi notes out of it and drive another VSTi? I know that that you can now drag & drop "arp" midi clips from the Arpoolgy into your DAW but it's not the best workflow. I would prefer to simply use it as midi effect and directly drive other synths.

It's daw dependant.
E.g. with Logic, you'll need to load it within a plugin that use the Kontakt vst's version like Blue Cat Audio's Patchwork.
AU version won't let Kontakt pass the midi data (generated via ksp) to another plugin instrument.
Freestyle from New Sonic Arts will do it too.

[tenshin111]

Good question, I am interested myself.

Generally, I've been moderately impressed after watching some of the demos. I wonder if there's a way to route arpeggiated midi notes out of it and drive another VSTi? I know that that you can now drag & drop "arp" midi clips from the Arpoolgy into your DAW but it's not the best workflow. I would prefer to simply use it as midi effect and directly drive other synths.

It's daw depending.
E.g. with Logic, you'll need to load it within a plugin that use the Kontakt vst's version like Blue Cat Audio's Patchwork.
AU version won't let Kontakt pass the midi data (generated via ksp) to another plugin instrument.
Freestyle from New Sonic Arts will do it too.

Nice, I use Reaper (on Windows) as my main DAW so I guess that would be doable. Thanks for the info!

[journey33]

I'd recommend picking up Omnisphere 2

[topaz]

I guess one way to look at is.

Is the arp worth 49.50 ?

is there 49.50 worth of sounds, instruments & multis ?

if so you have your answer.

[Musical Gym]

good point
Using other samples with it looks like a plus.
See around 1:10 of this video showing replacing samples for some of the instruments:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bRa7fBdJco

[mgw38]

To me it feels a bit dated. There are just too many options of similar, cheaper libraries these days. I don’t think it is worth 400 but at 99 it is worth considering imho.

[epiphaneia]

Can't recommend it as I've never found a use for it as it just always sounds dated and pretty over the top. I'd recommend just getting a decent arp plugin or Omnisphere 2 as you'd get way more mileage age out of them.

<- this. I got it as part of a bundle that Native Instruments offered a while ago. And I uninstalled it roughly 10 minutes after trying to find a useful sound in there. Maybe there is one, but for me it´s just not worth digging through gazillions of "look, mom, my computer can do this" arps that sound thick and impressive in a weird way, but are impossible to squeeze into an existing song.

Sample Logic have amazing libraries (their new library may just be the last library I need for the next 3 years of trailers), but I´d say this is not one of them. Not for $99, and not even for $49.

I´ll also recommend having a look at Omnisphere 2.

[Kinh]

What does that mean "a bit dated"?
Surely you can find use for it somewhere. Music is about trying new things, experimenting. If we all do whats 'current' then music gets pretty eff'n boring.

[epiphaneia]

What does that mean "a bit dated"?
Surely you can find use for it somewhere. Music is about trying new things, experimenting. If we all do whats 'current' then music gets pretty eff'n boring.

So what´s the point, when someone asks about users´ subjective opinion on a library, in challenging the -surely and inevitably- subjective replies?

I for one couldn´t be farther away from "current" pop/radio/dance-music.

Among my most-used libraries are Sample Logic´s CinemorphX and Sonic Couture´s Conservatoire Collection, and I like libraries that either are sonically pristine and/or give quick, useful results or inspiration.

Arpology does neither - for me.

Keep in mind that quite a fraction of Sample Logic´s target market is the busy media composer who sometimes needs to pump out three complete 30 second-trailers a day, and who is probably grateful for a lot of "pre-baked" sounds and sequences he just needs to fire off. In this field of work, "quick and gets the job done" is sometimes worth more than "100% original", especially when it pays the rent.

How "dated"? Example 1:

The Korg M1! The ultimate in sonic perfection! A whole realistic symphonic orchestra in stunning 8MB! And the sounds can -and will!- also be stacked to death! And the M1 can -and will!- also play whole scales up and down without any dynamics or convincing multisampling!

However: While I find a lot of these pre-baked sounds unexciting and inflexible as a musician, maybe they´re exactly what some TV trailer-composers need and what their clients demand or are willing to pay for.

I do, however, not like "pre-baked", and I am convinced I can get better, easier and more flexible results with other tools, so there is no point for me to dig through thousands of pre-baked sounds and dissecting them for musical elements that I like. But there´s probably many gifted musicians that make brilliant music with it. So:

To each his own.

[mgw38]

“Dated” not with respect to the sounds it creates (because, as was correctly pointed out, that is irrelevant when it comes to music production). I meant dated in terms of user experience with the software instrument. If you are interested in a tool like that you are interested in something that can assist you in creating rhythmic elements. I just think that there are more flexible tools for that out there now. But this is subjective, of course.

[David]

I bought it and am really enjoying it, mostly because I just spent a very happy day loading in my own samples, which is surprisingly easy and flexible. In case you don't know how, here's a good demo using another library:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_cont ... DI1oh-vI-c).

I'd say that if you like musical devices like arpeggiators, this is an especially capable and deep one, with very few restrictions and many surprising options and a ton of presets, many sequence-able FX, etc. I particularly like layering multiple sample sets from other libraries into different velocity ranges in a single instance, and using the velocity step sequencer/randomizer to target them. So, it's already well enhanced my existing sample collection. Of course I doubt that there aren't many included samples that are quite interesting and useable, but it's the engine that's timeless, IMO…except maybe for that stutter thing, which is the part I immediately felt could sound "dated". But there's plenty of ways to make that not so, such as reducing the bpm so that the stutters become more rhythmic and melodic and less fx-y.

So, yeah, it was never worth $400 to me, but it's already been as much fun and as widely useful as any other library or plugin I've spent $100 or more on, which is most of them!