Sounds Online big sale

[Cruciform]

I should add that unless you are doing really cinematic instrumental music, getting all of these packages might just be overkill.

Think of it as buying, say, 3, and getting 4 more thrown in as a bonus.

[davewalton]

I should add that unless you are doing really cinematic instrumental music, getting all of these packages might just be overkill.

Think of it as buying, say, 3, and getting 4 more thrown in as a bonus.

Yeah! Gold plus Pianos is normally around $1000 or so. So yes, if one was spending money on each and every package, then getting 7 of these would be overkill financially but they're essentially giving the buyer 7 for the price of 2 (or maybe 3). So they're free! Overkill away and expand your horizons.

[matto]

Desiree,

If you really need several of these EW titles, then $800 for 7 of them is a fantastic deal. On the other hand $800 is a lot of money and could buy a lot of things you might possibly need more.
With these "fantastic bundle deals" it's easy to get suckered into buying a bunch of stuff we don't need and will rarely ever use...I've certainly done it more than once.

It should also be pointed out that EW has sales a LOT, so this is not really a "now or never" kind of opportunity. Additionally, the Play engine which runs these VIs is not exactly universally loved and is known to be a bit of a resource hog, so I'm not sure I would commit to buying 7 Play titles before first trying one to see how well it runs on your system.

I'm only saying these things because in the past you've expressed that you wanted to spend your money carefully. To me the best way of accomplishing this would be to identify the weaknesses in your sonic arsenal as you encounter them in your daily composing, and then find the best solutions to fill in each those weak spots.

That being said I own most of the EW titles (although several of them in the pre Play version) and use them quite a bit, but then again I compose professionally and in just about every style imaginable, so I own a lot of specialized tools that somebody with a more limited compositional scope, and/or a desire to spend their money wisely, would not necessarily want to buy.

HTH,

matto

[fusilierb]

Matto said it better than I did. I only say that because I believe you write mainly vocal pop songs Desire. I might be wrong, but you should think about the purchase carefully. Most of these libraries are really geared for cinematic instrumentals. They all require a LOT of computing power to run correctly and a LOT of time invested in making them sound good. I'm not trying to discourage in any way. Although 800 is a GREAT deal for these libraries, 800 bucks is a lot of cash that may or may not be better spent. Just food for thought.

[DesireeBowen]

Thanks for all the thoughts, everyone!

I actually am writing and want to continue writing more instrumental tracks. I still love writing songs, but those take a lot more time, so I am trying to do a combo of both. Right now I am in most need of good drums, guitars and bass. The thing is though, if I had other good orchestral/world music instruments I would definitely use them.

Yes, money is an issue. (Sigh!). But I keep feeling this pressure that the longer I postpone buying good instruments, the longer I am postponing any little bit of success, and wasting my Taxi membership. And then of course there are the times where I wonder if I am even talented enough if it is at all worth it (to buy, not compose). I mean, as a hobby, I feel like I am fulfilled with my current set up. But as a profession (which is what I would truly love) I know my instruments don't cut it. We are not in the financial situation where this would be truly irresponsible, to spend $800, but we are also not in the situation where $800 comes easily.

If I could find a great bundle with awesome drums, guitars and basses, I would buy just that, for now. Does Goliath include these instruments? If those are included, then I can see how spending an extra $300-$400 to get all the extras would be worth it.

I really appreciate all your comments. What would I do without this forum? I've learned so much. Thanks yall.

[Kolstad]

Which sequencer programme/ recording set-up are you using now, Desiree? And what type of music do you do the most, or want to do? Many genres are quite specialized, and have particular requirements, so that's important to consider when investing that kind of money. 800$ can take you a long way, if you are focused.

[davewalton]

Which sequencer programme/ recording set-up are you using now, Desiree? And what type of music do you do the most, or want to do? Many genres are quite specialized, and have particular requirements, so that's important to consider when investing that kind of money. 800$ can take you a long way, if you are focused.

And a bit too about your computer specs (processor, memory, etc). An $800 "deal" wouldn't be much of a deal if there wasn't enough computer horsepower to run all those great VI's on.

[mazz]

I know it might sound strange coming from one of the resident gear heads here, but I think a basic set of sounds coupled with a high level of creative imagination and great writing chops will get you further than getting buried under multiple gigabytes of sounds that you may or may not put to use, just by virtue of the amount of possibilities available.

Don't buy the hype that this stuff will automatically make you sound better. In fact, high powered, highly flexible libraries will actually make you sound worse at first because of the flexibility and options built in. Most people don't take the time to learn the ins and outs of what they have and sadly their music reflects it.

If one can write and produce awesome sounding pop/rock instrumentals they will probably get many more placements (and spend less time on them) than someone who labors for days on one orchestral opus. I think you need to decide what you want to focus on (play to your strengths) and use that to make your decisions. It's a rare person like matto who excels at writing in multiple genres, and he didn't get there overnight. And it wasn't gear that got him there either!

I'm not trying to discourage you, but think about how disappointed you would be if you bought this software only to find out your computer couldn't run it or you didn't want to write world music (or whatever) after all.

These East West libraries are very specialized. I think Komplete 7 would be a better choice for someone needing a broad general palette.

Just my 2c

Mazz

[matto]

Thanks for all the thoughts, everyone!If I could find a great bundle with awesome drums, guitars and basses, I would buy just that, for now. Does Goliath include these instruments? If those are included, then I can see how spending an extra $300-$400 to get all the extras would be worth it.

Goliath does have drums, guitars, and basses, and so does Ministry Of Rock, but I wouldn't exactly call them awesome. For drums, Addictive Drums (on sale right now for $149 at select dealers) is going to slap these EW VIs silly... . The same can be said for Trillian ($279) for bass. Guitar is a bit trickier, it's the hardest of the 3 instrument to do convincingly with samples. The best electric guitar I know of is Orangetree's "Evolution Electric Guitar Strawberry" ($159...not exactly named by a marketing genius LOL), it will beat any electrics in any EWCC instrument hands down, BUT it requires a full version of Kontakt 4 (a $279 crossgrade for you since you own Alicia's Keys if I'm not mistaken).

If you bought all this, you'd spend a little more than the 800 on the special CCC bundle, but you'd have state of the art drums, bass, and electric guitar (as opposed to decent drums, bass, and electric guitars with CCC), plus the entire Kontakt 4 library which includes many superb instruments suitable to a wide variety of genres. In Kontakt 4 you'd also own the industry standard sample player for which the majority of today's most innovative sample collections are being developed.

Additionally, you don't have to buy all of this at once, which can actually be an advantage, as you can buy something, spend the time learning how to get the most out of it, buy something else, etc...plus you can spread out your music purchases over time which tends to be more affordable to someone on a budget.

You could also consider buying only Addictive Drums and Trillian (for a little over $400 currently), and find a guitar playing co-writer on these very forums for when you need guitars. A good real guitar player still easily trumps any guitar oriented VI for the vast majority of applications, and the collaboration will probably enhance your compositions to boot...

[mazz]

Yes, to echo what matto said: The drums and guitars in the EW stuff are good for what they are, but they are very specialized and are not as deeply sampled or as easy to use as something like Addictive Drums or the Orange Tree guitar.

If you are going to do guitar oriented music, then using sampled guitars will just slow you down. For guitar tracks that are buried in the mix to give the impression of guitar sound, samples can work fairly well, but for any rock styles that need convincing guitar tracks, I've found it's really not worth the time to mess around with samples. Others may have more success, but I don't want to spend the time tweaking around with a guitar sample. I would seriously consider matto's suggestion to collaborate with a guitar player. A good guitar player could knock out a part in an hour that might take a day of messing with samples and the results might still not be that great. There are good attempts at guitar stuff out there, but anything like that still takes a lot of tweaking and massaging to get a decent track. Most of that stuff doesn't live up to the hype of "easy tracks out of the box", IMO.