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Native Instruments 2017 Thanksgiving Sale


Geoff Grace

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I'm glad I bookmarked the chart (at home, not at work, so I'll check later) that shows what's new for Ultimate owners, but did use last year's holiday coupon for one smaller update within the collection (not Reaktor though) as I figured I'd wait for K12U.

 

At $200, the K10U to K11U track might be worth it, but I forget what the expected timeline is (roughly speaking) for K12.

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I typically only upgrade every other release (even bundles), so I wouldn't be due until K12U; but I'm finding K11U to be more tempting than the usual single version upgrades. Even though you've bookmarked the chart, here's a link to the charts in case anyone else is interested:

 

What's new in Komplete 11 and Komplete 11 Ultimate?

 

Best,

 

Geoff

My Blue Someday appears on Apple Music | Spotify | YouTube | Amazon

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Any thoughts on how the Scarbee set is? (electric pianos).

 

I've just been using the one in Logic and haven't been too happy with it lately. I saw a modelled one on 80% sale or something silly like that (lounge lizard maybe) and REALLY regret not picking it up for peanuts.

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Hoo, didn't know about that. The new one from Soniccouture is so wonderful, but Scarbee sampled a different model and went into just as much detail, so at 53% off it might be worth adding. :-)

 

I no longer use the older Scarbee libs as better stuff has come along, but they're still among the tops and for a starter they are worth considering as an incentive for getting NI Komplete.

Eugenio Upright, 60th Anniversary P-Bass, USA Geddy Lee J-Bass, Yamaha BBP35, D'angelico SS Bari, EXL1,

Select Strat, 70th Anniversary Esquire, LP 57, Eastman T486, T64, Ibanez PM2, Hammond XK4, Moog Voyager

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Eh, is there a secret coupon code for that? I went to Scarbee's site, and the only thing showing on discount is Vintage Keys 2, which includes the new Classic EP-88S but isn't more than 40% off total.

 

Or is the sale already over due to time zone differences between US and Europe?

Eugenio Upright, 60th Anniversary P-Bass, USA Geddy Lee J-Bass, Yamaha BBP35, D'angelico SS Bari, EXL1,

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There's also a new product launch for a "Matrix" expansion to the EP-88S:

 

https://www.scarbee.com/products/matrix-expansion

 

So that people don't get confused, please keep in mind that this is a related product set to considering NI Komplete but is NOT part of Komplete; only the original keys are.

 

The newer EP-88S can ONLY be purchased at the Scarbee website; whereas there is overlap in sales of the products that are also included with Komplete.

 

As the full Vintage Keys Suite V2 is on sale at the Scarbee site as well right now, however, it is an additional consideration for people who might be considering NI Komplete mostly for the Scarbee stuff, as only the suite at the Scarbee site includes EP-88S.

 

Hopefully no one is confused by all of this. :-)

Eugenio Upright, 60th Anniversary P-Bass, USA Geddy Lee J-Bass, Yamaha BBP35, D'angelico SS Bari, EXL1,

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Oh, thanks for the discount link; I found his product page via a web search so never saw his front page.

Eugenio Upright, 60th Anniversary P-Bass, USA Geddy Lee J-Bass, Yamaha BBP35, D'angelico SS Bari, EXL1,

Select Strat, 70th Anniversary Esquire, LP 57, Eastman T486, T64, Ibanez PM2, Hammond XK4, Moog Voyager

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It rejects the discount code "birthday2017". It does, however, automatically apply a much smaller discount code for USA residents based on the VAT charge having been figured into the original price.

Eugenio Upright, 60th Anniversary P-Bass, USA Geddy Lee J-Bass, Yamaha BBP35, D'angelico SS Bari, EXL1,

Select Strat, 70th Anniversary Esquire, LP 57, Eastman T486, T64, Ibanez PM2, Hammond XK4, Moog Voyager

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Ah, linwood forgot the all-important space. It is "birthday 2017" not "birthday2017".

 

I have ordered the main library and the new matrix expansion. Good price; too good to resist.

Eugenio Upright, 60th Anniversary P-Bass, USA Geddy Lee J-Bass, Yamaha BBP35, D'angelico SS Bari, EXL1,

Select Strat, 70th Anniversary Esquire, LP 57, Eastman T486, T64, Ibanez PM2, Hammond XK4, Moog Voyager

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Sorry about that! oops...It's a great Rhodes and the matrix is really nice, too. You'll enjoy it. Have we got enough Rhodes yet? lol It's getting up there with string libraries. OT....what are you using to send CC data to your orch libs? You using anything separate from your controller with faders?
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I do all mock-ups the hard way after getting burnt so badly when putting stuff up for review. The standards are much higher with each passing year, for what passes as "listenable" by people reviewing your works. It's a shame as I'm highly prolific but have to suppress ideas and spend oodles of time instead on technical details. I prefer the old days of cassette tape based rough cuts.

 

I don't use CC's or live interaction anymore for mock-ups. I spend countless hours tweaking every minute detail of the MIDI and use keyswitches for articulation changes.

Eugenio Upright, 60th Anniversary P-Bass, USA Geddy Lee J-Bass, Yamaha BBP35, D'angelico SS Bari, EXL1,

Select Strat, 70th Anniversary Esquire, LP 57, Eastman T486, T64, Ibanez PM2, Hammond XK4, Moog Voyager

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I need to look into the Roli. A childhood friend who lived in India for ten years and seriously studied three of the main instruments in North Indian Classical Music bought one recently and says it is the first interface that he has ever been able to use to get close to the Indian scale and the peculiarities of those instruments.

Eugenio Upright, 60th Anniversary P-Bass, USA Geddy Lee J-Bass, Yamaha BBP35, D'angelico SS Bari, EXL1,

Select Strat, 70th Anniversary Esquire, LP 57, Eastman T486, T64, Ibanez PM2, Hammond XK4, Moog Voyager

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It's a great instrument for sure. My go to VST for Rhodes for the last few months. Mark says the Canterbury is his go to Rhodes now but I personally don't use Rhodes VST's enough to justify the price at the moment to add another one. Especially because I'm really trying hard not to spend the $199 to upgrade from Kontakt to Komplete before the end of the month, although I think it's gonna happen.

:snax:

:nopity:
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Well, we shall see which is better, and in which contexts. I finished the installation a bit ago but have an audition to go to now so hopefully will have a chance to try it later tonight, but certainly tomorrow night at the latest.

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Select Strat, 70th Anniversary Esquire, LP 57, Eastman T486, T64, Ibanez PM2, Hammond XK4, Moog Voyager

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I looked up the chart of what is new in KU11, and found that I had spent $74 after last year's $25 voucher, for the India instrument.

 

I had already upgraded to the excellent Replika XT delay plug-in earlier, so that left the Reaktor upgrade as the only thing of strong interest in KU11.

 

So, for me personally, $200 isn't worth it vs. waiting for KU12 and probably spending twice that. But only due to my unique circumstances.

 

For those who have NONE of the new products or updates in KU11, it is more than worth $200 to grab this while on half-price. Replika is by far my favourite delay (and I have dozens); even in the free version.

Eugenio Upright, 60th Anniversary P-Bass, USA Geddy Lee J-Bass, Yamaha BBP35, D'angelico SS Bari, EXL1,

Select Strat, 70th Anniversary Esquire, LP 57, Eastman T486, T64, Ibanez PM2, Hammond XK4, Moog Voyager

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Geoff, I was curious about Una Corda, so it's good to know it works well in a scoring context, where perhaps string sections might be too dense for a regular three-string piano design to cut through.

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I have spent slightly over two hours with Scarbee Class EP-88s at this point, and the results are mixed, so I need more time to study and compare the interfaces to understand why.

 

Starting from scratch with both products, I get way more bark and bite (and articulateness) from Soniccouture Canterbury, and that's the sound I wanted on the five jazz and fusion pieces I've been working on with Rhodes as the piano.

 

But then a funny thing happened. I went to a song where I have heavy pedaling and lots of CC1 action going on, and tried an actual preset in the Scarbee (most were too wimpy and new-agey for my current tastes).

 

"Mr. Fingers" seems to be the one, for whatever reason, so I'll go back to the other pieces tomorrow night and see if I get even more of that Chick Corea sound that I aim for, on the pieces where I felt Canterbury had more energy than Scarbee earlier tonight.

 

"Mr. Fingers" includes a Leslie effect, but I don't know if that comes from Kontakt, from Scarbee, or is baked into additional samples. I did ultimately turn off the Reverb, like I usually do, but the ones in Classic EP-88s seem better than most and don't tend to muddy the sound much at all.

 

Overall, I am VERY impressed by this product, and it's a HUGE upgrade from the original one that is currently part of NI Komplete.

 

I suspect that both Canterbury and Scarbee will find their place in my projects. But I want to first understand what is baked into the samples, how they were recorded, and when I should defeat various effects in favour of using my own effects plug-ins downstream.

Eugenio Upright, 60th Anniversary P-Bass, USA Geddy Lee J-Bass, Yamaha BBP35, D'angelico SS Bari, EXL1,

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After a few more hours last night, I find that I can more easily match Scarbee with Canterbury than vice-versa, and that I seem to be able to get more articulateness and "cut" with the latter, but a more silky "top end" with the former.

 

And yet, I can get them very close to each other, compared to any other Rhodes libraries that are out there, and the Scarbee is technically a larger sample set. Without more recording info at hand, I just have to guess that the timbral and dynamic differences are mostly in mic choices and mic techniques.

 

I do wish it were well-documented whether each library is piggy-backing atop Kontakt's and Guitar Rig's built-in effects or supplying their own, as I do find some of the presets useful (though I usually build my own) and don't want to waste time emulating the signal path of said presets if there isn't a strong likelihood that I can get even better sound that way.

 

It's interesting that Scarbee has several Chick Corea oriented presets, but I still find that Canterbury gets me closer to the ones I like (Chick hasn't used just one sound, after all). But I could easily live with either of these libraries as my main or only Rhodes; it doesn't take too much effort to tweak it to each song's needs.

 

One could also layer either one of them with Soniccouture's deconstructed "dirty") Rhodes library ("EP73").

 

As far as I know, these two libraries are the only ones that sample a full 88-key Rhodes model.

Eugenio Upright, 60th Anniversary P-Bass, USA Geddy Lee J-Bass, Yamaha BBP35, D'angelico SS Bari, EXL1,

Select Strat, 70th Anniversary Esquire, LP 57, Eastman T486, T64, Ibanez PM2, Hammond XK4, Moog Voyager

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Back fully on-topic vs. partially off-topic to the issue of the NI sale itself and whether to participate, is there a demo of "Una Corda" that one could try out first?

 

This is more for other people's benefit than my own, as I already know that my previous purchases have seriously diminished the benefit of a K11U update for me at this point vs. waiting for K12U.

 

It can be nice though to slate something ahead of time when you're confident it's what a song or project needs, to avoid too many placeholder iterations while waiting. My mic buying pans out that way too; holding off on final takes until I have the mic I intended to get all along.

Eugenio Upright, 60th Anniversary P-Bass, USA Geddy Lee J-Bass, Yamaha BBP35, D'angelico SS Bari, EXL1,

Select Strat, 70th Anniversary Esquire, LP 57, Eastman T486, T64, Ibanez PM2, Hammond XK4, Moog Voyager

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