End of the Year. Time for 2001 programs´ Awards?

[Alejandro]

The internet allows us to know everything that is going on, concerning new programs and programs which are being developed. We can download demos and buy product thorough the net, that can be send and received within days, from one point of the earth to the opposite.

 

Tomorrow is the last day of 2001.

 

What do you think of making our 2001 programs´ Awards?

 

My Candidates are (these programs I bought and tried):

 

- Pentagon I (RgcAudio): Incredible VST virtual synth I believe and not expensive for what it is (you can check the reviews and demo)

 

- Sonic Reality sample based VST sound modules (Omnisynth and SonicSynth): To be played with SampleTank LE engine (included). Great sound and incredible cost/benefit value (you can check the reviews and mp3 demos).

 

Other Candidates to add to my list:

 

- FM7 (Native Instruments). I did not try it, but everybody says it is very good.

 

- Cakewalk Sonar. I use and prefer Cakewalk and Sonar adds, in my view, what was missing in previous versions.

 

My candidates for best Customers´ Support (according to my experience throughout the year, and not necessarily restricted to new products):

 

- RgcAudio (Pentagon Square Triangle VST virtual synths)

 

- Sonic Reality (OmniSynth SonicSynth sample based VST sound modules)

 

- Myriad-Guillon Bros. (producers of Harmony Assistant, great music score writing program)

 

- Software-Technology (producers of Vaz virtual synths)

 

This is also my way of thanking and wishing a happy new year to producers with which products and support I am happy with, and that helped me having a creative 2001 and will allow me to have lots of fun through 2002.

 

Did I started a poll?. I Hope so. Which are your candidates?.

[marino]

Hey, thanks for the list, Alejandro. I'm not that much into softsynths yet (I didn't know OmniSynth and SonicSynth, for example), but I absolutely love VAZ Modular. It's the best-sounding analog emulation I've ever heard from a computer.

Time to look into that computer upgrade...

 

Carlo

[Alejandro]

Marino,

You can check OmniSynth and SonicSynth at www.sonicreality.com, great sounds and specially so when it comes to acoustic instruments. If you want to try the engine (Sampletank) that those sound modules use, you can download a demo from SampleTanks web page.

I like Vaz too (it has sounds of its own). But try Pentagon or Square. You can also download a fully functional Triangle (monosynth) for free (www.rgcaudio.com).

 

Sorry. Back to the poll?

 

[ 12-30-2001: Message edited by: Alejandro ]

[Bobro]

Renee from RGC, definitely- excellent inexpensive software synths coming atcha from...Tierra del Fuego?!?! Even the free one, Triangle, kicks ass and is sitting serenely in one of my tracks along with a real analog. Maybe RGC is so good because the synths don't seek to emulate any specific analog synth in sound or looks and have a sweet round character of their own.

 

All the crew from Samplitude, for Samplitude 6.02 which came out in time for Christmas. Awesome! Not a "virtual studio" in the Steinberg/Emagic vein, but a multitrack, mixer, and editor. Finally my dream has come true- a harddisk "multitrack tape recorder" and "turbo razor blade", fast as a video game (zoom from overview of 1 hour's music to 1 sample in one second on my PIII 1k), rock solid (not one crash or weirdness since I got it a couple of months ago), good native eq and effects, lots of keyboard shortcuts for no-mouse no-looking recording...I have to wipe away tears of joy.

 

 

-CB

[Squids]

I'd also like to vote for the best underated movie to come out last year... A.I. Am I the only one who thought this movie was good? Speilberg- Kubrick, what happened? I don't get it. I thought it was cool.

 

Sorry, I really shouldn't vote on this but I will say that there are a lot of great products that have come out in the last year from many companies. Alejandro- thanks for mentioning us. It's good to see our new products come up in this forum a bit. I am here on the forum if anyone has any questions about any Sonic Reality products. I don't think it's appropriate for me to just blab away about them unless you want to ask me something but thanks Alejandro for bringing them up (and for putting some on your list- that 's great that you feel that way about our products).

 

[ 01-02-2002: Message edited by: DaKerz ]

 

[ 01-02-2002: Message edited by: DaKerz ]

[tenthplanet]

I liked A.I. and think once the DVD comes out there will be good word of mouth. The problem with the initial release was the people who would most appreciate it, the upscale and educated are the ones who are building home theaters and have stopped going out to movies.

 

Michael

[RABid]

Software Program - For software it is a hard choice. Cakewalk Sonar, Native Instruments Reaktor 3, Tascam GigaStudio, the list goes on and on and on, This may be the best year ever for computer music. I would be happy with any of the major sequencer programs, sample programs, or soft synth plug-ins. In a year that everyone can find something they like my vote goes to the people that make the shell programs (wrappers) that that allow Dxi and VST plug-ins to work cross-format. If the industry cannot standardize, at least some programmer can cover for them. (When I get home from work I will post the actual name of the program.)

 

Software Support I have not had any issues with any of my software this year than required any real support other than patch updates.

 

Hardware (keyboard/module) At first I could not thing of anyone that really deserves a vote. There have been some interesting products but nothing that made me say wow. Then I remembered my E-mu XL-7. Why? It covers a lot of needs in my rig. Drum machine with 16 pads and every drum sound you need, expandable sound module, midi control panel with 16 assignable knobs plus more, grove box with plenty of patterns, nice arp section. Probably the only have to have item I have seen this year.

 

Hardware Support (keyboard/module) I have to go with E-mu on this one. They drop the price on the new command stations. Yea, so a lot of companies drop prices. E-mu then offered customers that purchased the product at the higher price a nice $200 discount on an expansion ROM. Just give them a call and fax a copy of your receipt. I realize that they are not loosing money by selling the expansion ROMs at $200 off, but it is still a very nice gesture that I do not see other companies make. I am glad I was not one of the first to buy a K2600 at the original outrageous price.

[Dave Bryce]

Originally posted by DaKerz:

I am here on the forum if anyone has any questions about any Sonic Reality products.

 

Excellent!

 

It's a good thing when manufacturers and their representatives hang out here - it definitely adds value to the forum! It's really cool to know that we can go right to the source when we have questions.

 

Thanks, Dave!

 

dB

[Squids]

Thanks, D.B.

 

I like being here. I think this is a cool forum and I like to talk about all sorts of gear and music related stuff when I can. You guys will have to forgive me if I start to go off a bit on all sorts of things. I am known for really long posts!

 

But, I noticed that Alejandro from Argentina had voted for some of our products in this thread and I thought that was really cool. It's always nice to be appreciated. But, anyway, since I work on a lot of different things that relate to keyboards I can possibly lend an interesting perspective on either Sonic Reality products or other software and hardware instruments. I may not bring it up myself but by all means if you have any questions about the Sonic Synth VSTi plug-ins or our sample libraries just shoot me an email or post a thread about it and I'll do my best to be there to talk about it with you!

 

We just got finished programming a bank of sounds for Yamaha's Motif. What a nice keyboard that Motif8 is....whew. I love that Yamaha weighted feel. Well, see what I mean? I'm a gear junky at heart.

 

Anyway, sorry to take away from the voting on this awards thread. I probably shouldn't vote but it's interesting to see what others pick as their favorite stuff from 2001.

 

Peace!

 

DaKerz (Dave Kerzner)

 

Oh, by the way... go Dolphins!

 

Hey Tenthplanet- THANK YOU for agreeing with me about A.I. I am not saying it couldn't have been better. The one thing that did bug me is that the alien guy talked like father Christmas. What the heck was that? Kind of a Disney touch but I would have prefered him speaking in subtitles and bizarre lights coming from his face. But, otherwise that end sequence blew me away. I mean 2000 years later??? (Sorry if I am spoiling this for anyone). A.I. really didn't get what it deserved. I am surprised actually. It's not E.T. but even Close Encounters was a much bigger success and that required some thinking from the audience (okay, maybe an audience from a different time- one that didn't listen to Britney Spears!)

 

[ 01-03-2002: Message edited by: DaKerz ]