Meteo Xavier

Well, I guess what I'm just going to do is get Komplete 6 on their recommendations and then the headphones and then MOTU Ethnic. If I don't like/can't use Ethnic, I'll sell it on KVR. Its just another $300. I pocket like $400-500 a month anyway and my christmas bonus can cover it too. I'm look at Sony MDR-5706 (I think thats right) for my headphones. Dannthr recommended 'em and he's been one of the most helpful and accurate so far.

Ooh, thats actually a really good backup plan. Thanks, A.

My concern for computer resources goes back to my last computer. When I bought Z3ta+, the RAM usage was minimal but the CPU was constipating to say the least. I couldn't run but less than 3 z3ta instruments at any one time. Kompakt was easier but again I had no idea how little I could run then. And I was lucky, I got both those for cheap. I won't be able to do that here and VSTs aren't easy to just return for money back. Like I say, the price is not the problem. Numerically, I could afford all those mentioned here. Its the investment that is my concern. Getting that time and money back. The real reason I could go on and on with, but thats enough for now. I'll email MOTU on their return policies. To hell with it, I'll just get Komplete 6 AND MOTU ethno and if Ethno doesn't work I can (hopefully) return it properly.

I guess I can't argue with those recommendations. If Komplete 6 will let me effectively cover all my bases and get a good foundation so I can get some real work done, its a good price for it. I'm not just in love with the samples like I am with MOTU, and it will make it impossible to buy your drum VST, Andy, because I was wanting that one for its sounds and to thank you for the support you've given me the last year plus by sending my money your way. My last question then is how much I could afford, in resources, to use Komplete 6. I sometimes need to a lot of instruments going and I have some of these in previous versions already but I have yet to really, really go nuts with it. Edit: Is that Komplete 6 price time-weary? Do I have only a certain amount of time before it jumps up in price?

He has a URL for a sig....

*Click. Boom.* Alright, I'll just get MOTU for the ethnic and EWQLSO for the orchestral. That should save me enough money. Can I use the same iLok for both?

Well, I gotta make a choice here because I've spent two days on this. I either need to do Quantum Leap Silver Orchestra and RA or MOTU/VSL Symphonic and Ethno. I don't want PLAY and iLok at the same time.

I'm not running Windows 7 or FL Studio 9 on mine, plus I got an email from the MOTU sales and they tell me there shouldn't be a bug or anything with FL Studio 8. I can run like 20 instruments if I watch what I'm doing. Course, if you say PLAY is not a problem, then there really can't be any reason I shouldn't just get EWQLSO Silver... I could get Silver and RA then. Does RA have that round robin or alternate playing samples too? Edit: Looks like it does. Cool. I'm not digging how little Celtic stuff it has, but I suppose it would likely be a better buy in the long run. I can just use VSL harp for that kind of stuff, right? I wish EastWest just had something where you could just ask what their return policy is if there turns out to be a problem or I can't use it.

What system are you running, Jimmy?

Alright, I'll settle on VSL. I guess I'll just get MOTU Ethnic since I can't find another good ethnic library (QL doesn't count, Its $500 and has PLAY EDITION)

Its not worth tracking down. Vienna might be the way to go I guess. How good is it on CPU and RAM and so forth? The money isn't technically an issue, I just don't like spending it, but the resources are. Additionally, and I'm coming down to the end of the wire here I assure you, what about MOTU Ethno? I understand its probably not great compared to others, but by itself? It sounds like the kind of stuff I want, but are there issues there too

Its no secret I have a talent for missing the Elephant in the Room. EDIT: Ok, lets try this then. I'm looking at MOTU now. They have an Ethnic Instrument with great Mp3 demos (at least) and a Symphonic Instrument which is about what I'm looking for at $300 each. Has anyone tried any of these?

I just talked to both and it didn't take them long to shoot me down . I looked through that Kirk Hunter site but I couldn't find any Audio Demos at all. I'd say just for simplicity's sake to narrow it down between VSL Special Edition and Philharmonik. Is VSL going to be too big for my computer though? I still have a good 400GB of hard drive space that I'm not likely to fill, but naturally one has to be concerned with such an enormous and costly program to be purchased and not returned going on his computer.

Easier said than done so far. I can't even find sponsored links for 'em.

Ok, so how good does a computer need to be to handle PLAY EDITION fairly well? My computer specs, I don't know if I wrote them down earlier, are 4gig RAM, 3.0 Intel Core Dual Processor, XP SP3, and like I say it handles a LOT more than my old computer used to and even handles quite a bit from Colossus, which is a bloated piece let me tell you.

Well, what are the other options? I'm up to four now and none of them seem to be the right choice. EWQLSO is a great sound for a cheap price with a huge flaw called PLAY EDITION. Philharmonik has good sound for low size but costs a lot and no one seems to like it despite good reviews. Dannthr introduced me to Complete Classical Collections 2nd Edition which is a decent price and seems to be pretty good, but I played with a demo of it and it didn't sound great to me at all. Then there's VSL Special Edition which seems to be the best overall, but might be too expensive and too big for my computer. For a lot of quality VSTs, its pretty difficult to ascertain a proper decision here...

That's not a bad idea. Thanks for bumping this topic too, btw.

Here's a question, what about Miroslav?

VSL Edition is quite a bit more expensive and probably more than I really want to work with right now. I discussed EWQLSO with Usabellchan, he uses the gold edition, and he told me its all about the hard drive memory, not so much the resources it uses. Is Play something you can turn off? My computer? Brad built it, and he put in a dual-core processor of which the name escapes me and 4gig RAM. It has worked extremely well so far and I don't imagine it would struggle too much with EWQLSO, more so at least with Colossus which is not even close to that level of quality yet still costs me over 100MB for a harp or a violin each. Right now I can guarantee you that buying a whole new computer, new speakers or new DAW is quite simply out of the question. I had to do earlier this year and it was a nightmare made flesh.

Well, the fall part-time job I thought had slipped out of my grasp just showed up again unexpectedly and it looks like I could come into some decent money here. Since upgrading myself into a decent music-maker is my number one concern right now, it is only fitting that this money, which I have little else to really spend on, should go towards that. I have between $500-$1000 conceivable budget to spend here. Because I'm planning to work a wide range of styles and not particularly interested in trademarking a certain style, I need very general versatile stuff - whatever I can get. I fully understand I can't get the absolute cream of the crop going so general and with a budget as limited as that, but thats fine. I just need to be able to make tracks with believable quality where the instruments work well with each other and help minimize any extraneous effort and time-wasting. I'm already planning to get EWQLSO Silver (Silver is what Nutritious uses, so you can imagine why I'd want that version), and maybe some good monitor headphones that Dannthr recommended me. Here is what I generally lack (aside from what EWQLSO Silver can offer me): - Decent, believable pianos - A good PROG Hammond organ sound, the kind that you hear whirling and screaming in a lot of Pink Floyd and Motoi Sakuraba tracks (maybe B4 II does something like it. I don't know) - Acoustic guitars and electric guitars, though I'm not in a huge rush for the electric. - Good, mystic harps - Vox, Vox, Vox! I'm a choir freak. From the synthie washes to the Celtic chanting. Anything I can get here of decent quality is essential. - Reliable acoustic drums. Maybe that one Zircon did. - Good ethnic stuff so I can do Middle East and Japanese music. I have some stuff here already, but it only seems to really work as loops and samples. - Any further electronic samples, sounds, and soundscapes so I can do Metroid Prime style tracks. Again, I have a start here, but I'm missing the atmospheres. I considered Spectrasonic Atmosphere. Its really not a good idea right now to be concentrating quality into one thing here, so narrowing it down to just spending the budget on one or two really high quality things is not going to work. I need my foundation to be wider and filling in the holes before I can build something on top of it. Anything else I might need to be able to really get to work on decent-quality track writing? Recommended FX and processors and so forth to get a more professional sound going?

Been playing BOF 3 some, Rozovian?

Bah. Call me when Square-Enix is working on Gyromite and we'll talk.