Bargain Center: discussion, gossip, etc.

[telecode]

On the Puremagnetik Electronic Impressions sale---no audio demos for Infinite Spaces? There's also a Soundcloud page for it, but with nothing uploaded.

Ya, that is the only one I clicked on, looking for examples to hear. Oh well.

i picked it up. it seemed like a decent deal. i have some of their other stuff and kind of like the guis. i think there are demos of juniper 1. i am also confused by why they don't have demos for all of the stuff in the bundle..

my favs are juniper 2, berlin, and the 2 basses.

inf spaces sounds like a big reverb emulation.

i didn't get to play with them much. i just briefly loaded them just to make sure they all work in kontakt.

[WatchTheGuitar]

I've just tried downloading from that Puremagnetik site - it's less than 1MB/s - going to take a while.

[WatchTheGuitar]

Just noticed on the IK site that they've dropped 15% off the price of Uno Synth and Uno Drum until 30th June.
https://www.ikmultimedia.com/news/index ... cedrop2020

That means €/$169 for the Synth and €/$209 for the Drum. If you can also muster up the 30% of total cost worth of JamPoints then you'd be looking at €/$118 for the Synth and €/$146 for the Drum which is pretty good.
I was in the market for a small cheap drum machine anyway (the Behringer 808 is too big) so this looks like a decent deal to me, unless someone with a terrible experience with the Uno Drum tells me otherwise. Oh and can anyone remind me do they then add 20% VAT on top if you're in the UK or is this inclusive pricing?

[Ploki]

so, how is the Entropy EQ from Sonible (now free on PB) compared to i.e. oeksound spiff?

They are completely different. Entopy EQ separates the enharmonci transients and harmonic sustain in a static way. Spiff dtnamically enhances or de-enhances transients with frequency band specific depth control.

sounds like melda's "spectral" multiband operation, or iZotope's RX deconstruct. Does it artefact a lot or is it decent?

[Kypresso]

Just noticed on the IK site that they've dropped 15% off the price of Uno Synth and Uno Drum until 30th June.
https://www.ikmultimedia.com/news/index ... cedrop2020

That means €/$169 for the Synth and €/$209 for the Drum. If you can also muster up the 30% of total cost worth of JamPoints then you'd be looking at €/$118 for the Synth and €/$146 for the Drum which is pretty good.
I was in the market for a small cheap drum machine anyway (the Behringer 808 is too big) so this looks like a decent deal to me, unless someone with a terrible experience with the Uno Drum tells me otherwise. Oh and can anyone remind me do they then add 20% VAT on top if you're in the UK or is this inclusive pricing?

its plus vat so its €207.39 incl. VAT, or about £185 in proper money.

Also €25 + vat for delivery, which is taking the piss to send a small item like that from italy to the UK.

Amazon have had the synths for as little as £129 in the past, £139 at the moment and excellent returns service if you find out its crap.

I was tracking the price for ages before i changed my mind and got a Waldorf Blofeld instead.

[WatchTheGuitar]

The delivery cost is a ripoff, but the Drum may still be worth it. I'll see what shakes out when payday comes around.

[dzilizzi]

Yeah, it's not the fastest, but on the bright side the libraries aren't super huge, mostly around 1GB in size.

I bought
Worra's Prophet / INIL Choir / Tubed Keys Mki 73 / Little Bastard / Rain Piano MKii / WG2 MkII - Studio Grand Piano

Have just run quick tests on all apart from the WG2 which I'm still downloading - the Tubed Keys stands out, really characterful well sampled dusty old Rhodes sound. It's got that "found it covered in cobwebs at the back of the studio" vibe.

How's the INIL Choir's playability? I'd guess it doesn't have anything like legato?

I'm thinking of Rain Piano MK2 or Vertikal. Currently the only good uprights I have are Tom Thumb Piano and Addictive Keys. I love the description of Rain Piano, but I doubt it will actually make people think of Tom Waits. Are its 11 velocity layers enough to take the place of round robins? Listening to the demo with that in mind, it seemed more like a looped sample than the same motif being played repeatedly (then again, with most contemporary genres there's nothing wrong with looping a sample). Vertikal has I think 16 velocity layers. Is Rain harder to fit in a mix?

Okay, I like the Rain Piano MK2 a little better mostly because it is easier to use for me. It is a full Kontakt piano and sounds good before adding effects. Effects are easy to add - basically reverb and shimmer.

The Vertikal has all sorts of choices, but I'm not sure how to make it work properly, because each iteration is separate. You do get a Jazz piano and a Pop piano. Plus they both come in a basic and a K2 version Plus a Halion and EXS-24 versions.

For the base piano with no effects, they sound pretty similar to me. I would think they sound somewhat similar to the Addictive Keys upright? I am not a pianist. I can play basic chords and stuff, but when it comes to pedal action, I can't really help you.

As far as round robins go, they aren't a problem as if you are playing your velocity will vary enough that it doesn't sound like the same note/shotgun with either piano.

[D.Wako]

I wonder if it's worth upgrading the White Grand and the Black Grand to vs.2? Anyone?

[WatchTheGuitar]

Yeah, it's not the fastest, but on the bright side the libraries aren't super huge, mostly around 1GB in size.

I bought
Worra's Prophet / INIL Choir / Tubed Keys Mki 73 / Little Bastard / Rain Piano MKii / WG2 MkII - Studio Grand Piano

Have just run quick tests on all apart from the WG2 which I'm still downloading - the Tubed Keys stands out, really characterful well sampled dusty old Rhodes sound. It's got that "found it covered in cobwebs at the back of the studio" vibe.

How's the INIL Choir's playability? I'd guess it doesn't have anything like legato?

I'm thinking of Rain Piano MK2 or Vertikal. Currently the only good uprights I have are Tom Thumb Piano and Addictive Keys. I love the description of Rain Piano, but I doubt it will actually make people think of Tom Waits. Are its 11 velocity layers enough to take the place of round robins? Listening to the demo with that in mind, it seemed more like a looped sample than the same motif being played repeatedly (then again, with most contemporary genres there's nothing wrong with looping a sample). Vertikal has I think 16 velocity layers. Is Rain harder to fit in a mix?

I've still not done much with Rain, but INIL doesn't seem to have any associated scripts, it's pretty much just a recreation of the voices used on I'm Not In Love as samples. You won't get a legato articulation, but I think with the right sort of reverb - something that creates a kind of granular mass of pitches with tails like Valhalla Shimmer you could probably get close.

Quite a few of the Kontakt instruments are pretty old Kontakt 4 libraries so there isn't a lot of tweaking available other than changing a few mix levels.

One of the pianos seemed to have a slightly odd sustain pedal action where the level jumped unnaturally high in use occasionally on certain notes, but that may be something you can dial down.

[dlt123]

It looks like Plug & Mix's, "Plug & Mix V.I.P. bundle" is on sale for $49.00 again. The usual price is $249. There are some really nice sounding plugins in this 50 app bundle...

Check it out here...

[Uncle E]

Been eying up an MPE controller with some bells and whistles for awhile now, looking at the LinnStrument 128. Few questions:

1. Does it ever go on sale (or offered) for less than the $1k? Uncle got any deals rocking?

Sorry, we're not a LinnStrument dealer.

[Stephan]

Hope this counts as a bargain. The German magazine Beat now has an English version available to Readly subscribers, starting with the current issue, 174. This issue gives away full versions of Waves Element 2 and T-Racks One. The app also has Computer Music, Future Music, Electronic Musician and Music Tech available.

The Readly app is available on both iOS and Android and costs £7.99 a month, but a free trial is available...

Readly also has Computer Music, Music Tech plus loads of other magazines included in a monthly subscription of just £7.99 - get a free trial with this link:https://get.readly.com/W13qsNYOOCJ-AE0N

NB I don't work there or anything but I use it al the time!

[timbit2006]

Hope this counts as a bargain. The German magazine Beat now has an English version available to Readly subscribers, starting with the current issue, 174. This issue gives away full versions of Waves Element 2 and T-Racks One. The app also has Computer Music, Future Music, Electronic Musician and Music Tech available.

The Readly app is available on both iOS and Android and costs £7.99 a month, but a free trial is available...

Readly also has Computer Music, Music Tech plus loads of other magazines included in a monthly subscription of just £7.99 - get a free trial with this link:https://get.readly.com/W13qsNYOOCJ-AE0N

NB I don't work there or anything but I use it al the time!

Do you get all the extra computer music free stuff when you sub through there?

[Stephan]

Yep!

[dzilizzi]

Hope this counts as a bargain. The German magazine Beat now has an English version available to Readly subscribers, starting with the current issue, 174. This issue gives away full versions of Waves Element 2 and T-Racks One. The app also has Computer Music, Future Music, Electronic Musician and Music Tech available.

The Readly app is available on both iOS and Android and costs £7.99 a month, but a free trial is available...

Readly also has Computer Music, Music Tech plus loads of other magazines included in a monthly subscription of just £7.99 - get a free trial with this link:https://get.readly.com/W13qsNYOOCJ-AE0N

NB I don't work there or anything but I use it al the time!

Do you get all the extra computer music free stuff when you sub through there?

I usually go with Zinio because they will extend my subscription when I buy during a sale. Pocket mags will just give you a concurrent second copy (of a digital subscription) if you buy on sale.

That said, any digital copy will give you access to CM's vault. Some items are time limited, but the rest is there forever. Music Tech only lets you download for a limited time - about 3 to 4 months worth of copies. Since the digital version is about 1 to 2 months ahead of the actual stated month date, this can be a problem.

I've never used Readly.