Why are Spectrasonics Legacy Sample CD's So Damn Expensive?

[egbert101]

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[bosone]

The sample market is scary for newbies like me.

you should keep a look at dealers such as audioplugin.deals and vstbuzz.com

i have made some purchases at good price from them...

[bosone]

The sample market is scary for newbies like me.

you should keep a look at dealers such as audioplugin.deals and vstbuzz.com

i have made some purchases at good price from them...

[egbert101]

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[ghettosynth]

The sample market is scary for newbies like me.

I think that it's very easy to get sucked into sample libraries that you won't use. I was a bit serious about that distorted horizons sample library, those aren't sounds that have ever been difficult to make. For me, and YMMV and all that, I tend to look for things that I can't easily do myself, and or, libraries that will provide a suitable inspiration and learning experience. For the former I'm willing to spend a bit more, e.g., vocal samples, especially female vocal samples.

For the latter, even if I could easily create something myself, I might buy a (modern) style based sampling library and use it to piece together some tracks. For this though, I'm not willing to spend very much, $5 to $25 tops. I never found this to be a useful strategy in the olden days because sample libraries were so much smaller than they are today and were absurdly expensive.

I think that a good path to figuring out where they are useful to you is to start building your library from freebies and cheapies and then force yourself to use them in a track every now and again.

[egbert101]

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[ghettosynth]

Indeed, and you gave a lot of good advice. I am just a curious cat, about the Spectrasonics (and East West) legacy collections, can't help it. I just hope I can hold off that curiousity for more reasonable alternatives and prices.

So, here's a video demo of some of the sounds in distorted reality.




There's nothing there that I find impressive by today's standards for those kinds of sounds. I concede that they were more work to make in the 90s because you had to use hardware samplers or crude software. Today though, you can make some field recordings of knives and forks in your kitchen and spend the afternoon with Reaper and Paulstretch and you'll have some similar sounds.

If that library were free I might download it today just to stick it in my gigantic folder of similar libraries.

However, I doubt that it would compete really? Here's a library that I got with the amazing Cassetto groupbuy about a year ago that is still a decent bargain at the regular price.

http://hgsounds.com/product/homegrown-c ... ollection/

Take anything from that, put in padshop or iris 2, sample the output, then take those samples and process them further, and you can create an endless collection of those kinds of samples.

I find it interesting that someone asks in that youtube thread how you create those sounds. Don't fall into that trap with this stuff. This kind of thing is relatively easy to create if you aren't going for something specific.

I think that the allure of these is that they were used when it was more work and so, like many famous presets, become recognized and people want them, but, they don't strike me as sounds with a lot of intent or uniqueness really. Once you start playing with tools like padshop, iris, and a lot of different ensembles in Reaktor, e.g., metaphysical function, pro tip, turn off the animation to create more static drone sources that are more suitable for sample mangling, then you become less enthralled by these kinds of libraries in any specific sense. Same goes for a lot of the Kontakt cinematic and atmospheric stuff.

When I'm working on ambient and atmospheric stuff today the struggle that I have is NOT creating these kinds of sounds but still creating something that evokes a similar sense.

I bought a few libraries back in the day. I have the datafile series, but, I bought them when they were being blown out. I never found them that impressive either, they're rather sloppy. I mostly used the sci-fi sounds from them.

[Romantique Tp]

Nearly everything from Spectrasonics' old sample CDs is included with their current VST instruments... The CDs are expensive both because the content is still "current" and because occasionally some rich fool is going to buy them thanks to word of mouth.

[Ghost Snake]

I'll never give any of my money to companies like Spectrasonics They just want to be Elitist and Esclusive and THAT SUCKS.

I'll buy small and independent synths .

[elxsound]

Yeah, just look at those elitists looking so elite in their judgey elitist way. Pfff.

They are a relatively small company still.

[egbert101]

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[dark water]

A few years back, I did the slightly odd thing of picking up the Bass Legends sample CD from Spectrasonics (as it was much cheaper than buying Trilogy / Trilian, and I figured I could take the samples and manipulate them in other software).
In fairness, there is some wonderful playing by three very renowned bass artists, but in hindsight it wasn't worth the outlay given my relative lack of use (so far) of the samples. Maybe it's time to revisit the CD now

[ATS]

Yeah, just look at those elitists looking so elite in their judgey elitist way. Pfff.

They are a relatively small company still.

they are all white

[jancivil]

It's definitely an old business philosophy battling against the newer internet age business philosophies. Depends how long they can cling on to their old business model. Not much longer I suspect.

It's a proven model and barring external factors, as long as they keep producing quality and desirable products, it shouldn't change. Rolex, for over a century, has maintained it, even while Miyota and Seagull movements dominate the low end.

If you need a digital tech example, Apple's been doing it for almost a half-century now and people are buying the Mac Pro and the stock is rising. While countless other competitors are running on thin margins. There are entirely different markets; premium brands don't bother courting people trying to get a deal (at least in the same way non-premium manufacturers do).

Of course, society could suddenly gain class and anti-materialism consciousness and foment a socialist revolution, tearing down this concept and ushering in a new world of equality. But as long as capitalism exists, it will maintain these market divisions.

You appear to really know what you're talking about, which makes the concluding paragraph come across very strangely. Should that 'new world of equality' come to pass, such products will ultimately cease to happen.

[GeckoYamori]

Libraries like these are a relic from a now long gone era, before the hobbyist market boom when the products were made and sold to a smaller pool of professional/corporate clients with the means to shell out a lot more money for what they needed. I think it's part of a more overarching problem I've noticed where a lot of these audio software companies that had their formative years in the 90's seem to have leadership still operating under the same old business mindset on what type of customer they're aiming for.

But at least the Spectrasonic stuff is still available for purchase. A while ago I was looking to get my hands on some vintage Best Service libraries to help me get that authentic 90's sound. But they told me they stopped selling those libraries well over 10 years ago. Is it really that inconceivable for them to convert and offer their legacy samples as digital downloads?