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What Samples have you regretted buying?

kgdrum said:
Did you ever try adding a small pinch of saturation? Like True Iron,Big Al etc……..I find using these types of plugs very carefully can transfrom a sterile synth or VI substantially and create sounds that feel vibrant,alive and anything but sterile.For me the key is doing just enough to do the job but not enough to sound obvious.
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I will try this. Most of the stuff I’ve been producing lately has been funk, disco vibes. Ever since I found out Ian Kirkpatrick produced the Dua Lipa don’t start now bass line with the Scarbee MM-Bass I’ve been obsessed with that bass sound. It’s nails that style.

From wiki:

“Kirkpatrick used a Scarbee MM-Bass plug-in for the leading bass sound and played it on a keyboard before modifying it. He wanted to abstain from disco for a more 1990s sound in the bridge by adding sub-bass combined with thumb bass guitar and slaps in the drop from Trilian.”

But I’m excited to try your tips for modo. It is a great bass and much more versatile. I’ve barely scratched the surface.
 
It's not necessarily regret because the samples are fine but Angel Strings by Auddict has the mic position outputs broken so it's almost unusable for me as a layer to other stuff like I had hoped.
 
timbit2006 said:
It's not necessarily regret because the samples are fine but Angel Strings by Auddict has the mic position outputs broken so it's almost unusable for me as a layer to other stuff like I had hoped.
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Thanks for the feedback; I'd been interested in AS for a while but had heard bad things about Auddict's cusomer service. Dissapointing to hear this as the walkthru sounds really good
 
Futchibon said:
Thanks for the feedback; I'd been interested in AS for a while but had heard bad things about Auddict's cusomer service. Dissapointing to hear this as the walkthru sounds really good
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Yeah actually I have some personal grief with their support too on top of the broken output routing. I don't know if I want to go into details haha. It really is disappointing because the sounds in the library are really good
 
I was going to post this in the thread about falling for marketing, but it seems more appropriate here (even though given the company involved, marketing played a role in my purchases)

Truthfully, the sample libraries I am starting to regret the most are Spitfire Audio, arguably the worst culprits or geniuses (depending on your view point) regarding marketing practices.

I just really don't like their sample player.
  • I hate the lack of purge so everything loads
  • I hate that I have 10+ mic options, which inflates the size, but they make it hard for you to remove mics or add them back in.
  • I hate the interface and the hidden elements,
  • I hate that it doesn't have multi-timbral support,
  • I hate that you can't set a different set of mic options as default,
  • I hate that to reduce the number of articulations in a patch you have to save it as a user preset rather than over-writing their patches.
  • I hate all the issue you have at times when you move the content of a sample library and that you only get a set number of resets and have to contact them for more.

Even for the Kontakt instruments, I hate how small the interface is.

I have got to the point that there is nothing I like about how they do things.

On the positive side, I think some of the Originals are pretty cool and the above issues are less of a problem with those. But even then they feel more like entertainment than useful.

.... wow clearly I needed to get that off my chest after recently working with BBC SO and some of their other libraries.
 
Markrs said:
I was going to post this in the thread about falling for marketing, but it seems more appropriate here (even though given the company involved, marketing played a role in my purchases)

Truthfully, the sample libraries I am starting to regret the most are Spitfire Audio, arguably the worst culprits or geniuses (depending on your view point) regarding marketing practices.

I just really don't like their sample player.
  • I hate the lack of purge so everything loads
  • I hate that I have 10+ mic options, which inflates the size, but they make it hard for you to remove mics or add them back in.
  • I hate the interface and the hidden elements,
  • I hate that it doesn't have multi-timbral support,
  • I hate that you can't set a different set of mic options as default,
  • I hate that to reduce the number of articulations in a patch you have to save it as a user preset rather than over-writing their patches.
  • I hate all the issue you have at times when you move the content of a sample library and that you only get a set number of resets and have to contact them for more.

Even for the Kontakt instruments, I hate how small the interface is.

I have got to the point that there is nothing I like about how they do things.

On the positive side, I think some of the Originals are pretty cool and the above issues are less of a problem with those. But even then they feel more like entertainment than useful.

.... wow clearly I needed to get that off my chest after recently working with BBC SO and some of their other libraries.
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Amen.
Maybe they should spend part of the budget to make a new player and migrate all the libraries instead of marketing.
 
Markrs said:
I was going to post this in the thread about falling for marketing, but it seems more appropriate here (even though given the company involved, marketing played a role in my purchases)

Truthfully, the sample libraries I am starting to regret the most are Spitfire Audio, arguably the worst culprits or geniuses (depending on your view point) regarding marketing practices.

I just really don't like their sample player.
  • I hate the lack of purge so everything loads
  • I hate that I have 10+ mic options, which inflates the size, but they make it hard for you to remove mics or add them back in.
  • I hate the interface and the hidden elements,
  • I hate that it doesn't have multi-timbral support,
  • I hate that you can't set a different set of mic options as default,
  • I hate that to reduce the number of articulations in a patch you have to save it as a user preset rather than over-writing their patches.
  • I hate all the issue you have at times when you move the content of a sample library and that you only get a set number of resets and have to contact them for more.

Even for the Kontakt instruments, I hate how small the interface is.

I have got to the point that there is nothing I like about how they do things.

On the positive side, I think some of the Originals are pretty cool and the above issues are less of a problem with those. But even then they feel more like entertainment than useful.

.... wow clearly I needed to get that off my chest after recently working with BBC SO and some of their other libraries.
Click to expand...
As this was a straightforward vent, I think the only proper response is to say 'Oh, I know. Awful. Oh, I know' whilst we read the weather on our phones.

But, Oh, I know. It is awful.

Mmmm.... minus one tonight...
 
Markrs said:
there is nothing I like about how they do things.
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What really annoys me personally and keeps me from continuing to buy their libraries without thorough thought is that there seems to be little to no development work put into their failed (ymmv) player. For instance: Number of updates of BBCSO-Player: 11 in 2020, 3 in 2021, none in 2022

Also, that each new product comes with its own player is extremely annoying.

Otherwise, I still consider Bernhard Herrmann Composer Toolkit and Chamber/Solo Strings to be among the best of my libraries. KONTAKT for the win... well, oh, but not Kontakt 7, still awful, not?
 
Michael Antrum said:
- Their download manager doesn't keep track of what you have installed and what version. If you have a copy of a library and another on a desktop it's so flipping confusing as to which version you have installed. I mean, how difficult is it to have a file in the library which clearly shows what version it is ?
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I totally agree. I have a similar experience after reinstalling some of their libraries on my new machine last year, but not all of them. Now it shows some of those that I didn't install as ones that need to be updated.
 
For me it's bbcso core, i bought it due to many recommendations as one of the best starter libraries, but the sound is just not what I wanted. Plus its quite slow to me. It truly sucks when you have to spend 300bucks and not even be sure what you're buying, due to not being able to try it out, and in the end dont have the option to refund it either.
 
Markrs said:
I was going to post this in the thread about falling for marketing, but it seems more appropriate here (even though given the company involved, marketing played a role in my purchases)

Truthfully, the sample libraries I am starting to regret the most are Spitfire Audio, arguably the worst culprits or geniuses (depending on your view point) regarding marketing practices.

I just really don't like their sample player.
  • I hate the lack of purge so everything loads
  • I hate that I have 10+ mic options, which inflates the size, but they make it hard for you to remove mics or add them back in.
  • I hate the interface and the hidden elements,
  • I hate that it doesn't have multi-timbral support,
  • I hate that you can't set a different set of mic options as default,
  • I hate that to reduce the number of articulations in a patch you have to save it as a user preset rather than over-writing their patches.
  • I hate all the issue you have at times when you move the content of a sample library and that you only get a set number of resets and have to contact them for more.

Even for the Kontakt instruments, I hate how small the interface is.

I have got to the point that there is nothing I like about how they do things.

On the positive side, I think some of the Originals are pretty cool and the above issues are less of a problem with those. But even then they feel more like entertainment than useful.

.... wow clearly I needed to get that off my chest after recently working with BBC SO and some of their other libraries.
Click to expand...
Does this mean you hate the actual instrument though?

Because I can agree that these are all legitimate issues, and certainly, they can be sometimes kind of annoying UX issues.

But I also feel that 99.9% of the experience of playing these instruments happens between my fingers and the keyboard.

So even that gui level of user experience was 100x worse than it is, I can't imagine it having all that much impact on the experience of the instruments.

But while again, it's perfectly reasonable to complain about this things, I guess I'm wondering if the player gui issues really bug people that much to lead to actually regretting buying the library as a whole?

Or - is this just an expression of just not actually liking the libraries themselves? Whether or the sound or the expressive dimensions of the design or just the general spitfire aesthetic very much.

And just hating the libraries is also, of course, a perfectly valid aesthetic position to take. But if you hate the libraries themselves (and clearly a lot of people just hate SF libraries, and should really stop buying them), then surely they deserve to be slagged off in their own right rather than projecting onto the gui?

Or maybe I'm wrong. Just a thought.
 
ism said:
Does this mean you hate the actual instrument though?

Because I can agree that these are all legitimate issues, and certainly, they can be sometimes kind of annoying UX issues.

But I also feel that 99.9% of the experience of playing these instruments happens between my fingers and the keyboard.

So even that gui level of user experience was 100x worse than it is, I can't imagine it having all that much impact on the experience of the instruments.

But while again, it's perfectly reasonable to complain about this things, I guess I'm wondering if the player gui issues really bug people that much to lead to actually regretting buying the library as a whole?

Or - is this just an expression of just not actually liking the libraries themselves? Whether or the sound or the expressive dimensions of the design or just the general spitfire aesthetic very much.

And just hating the libraries is also, of course, a perfectly valid aesthetic position to take. But if you hate the libraries themselves (and clearly a lot of people just hate SF libraries, and should really stop buying them), then surely they deserve to be slagged off in their own right rather than projecting onto the gui?

Or maybe I'm wrong. Just a thought.
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I really like the Spitfire Symphonic Orchestra. Chamber Strings is a delight.

I'm sure that if BBCSO were in Kontakt I would use it a whole lot more. Spitfire seems to have lost its way since the new player came out, but there are the odd gems that shine through like Appassionata Strings.
 
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ism said:
Does this mean you hate the actual instrument though?

Because I can agree that these are all legitimate issues, and certainly, they can be sometimes kind of annoying UX issues.

But I also feel that 99.9% of the experience of playing these instruments happens between my fingers and the keyboard.

So even that gui level of user experience was 100x worse than it is, I can't imagine it having all that much impact on the experience of the instruments.

But while again, it's perfectly reasonable to complain about this things, I guess I'm wondering if the player gui issues really bug people that much to lead to actually regretting buying the library as a whole?

Or - is this just an expression of just not actually liking the libraries themselves? Whether or the sound or the expressive dimensions of the design or just the general spitfire aesthetic very much.

And just hating the libraries is also, of course, a perfectly valid aesthetic position to take. But if you hate the libraries themselves (and clearly a lot of people just hate SF libraries, and should really stop buying them), then surely they deserve to be slagged off in their own right rather than projecting onto the gui?

Or maybe I'm wrong. Just a thought.
Click to expand...
The user experience definitely can influence how much you enjoy a product (I am 20 years a UX Designer and this is consistent for most people, UX is a real driver of how much someone likes a product).

All the points I mentioned have soured my experience when I use BBC SO Pro. The sound of BBC SO is good, though not the Mix 1. I prefer to mix the mics but I have to do this on every patch I load, rather than changing the default (you can save a mic preset but you have to load it each time with a new track).
 
Markrs said:
The user experience definitely can influence how much you enjoy a product (I am 20 years a UX Designer and this is consistent for most people, UX is a real driver of how much someone likes a product).

All the points I mentioned have soured my experience when I use BBC SO Pro. The sound of BBC SO is good, though not the Mix 1. I prefer to mix the mics but I have to do this on every patch I load, rather than changing the default (you can save a mic preset but you have to load it each time with a new track).
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Yes, I absolutely experience the same frustration I finding a mix with EWC. The UX of paginated mic lists is atrocious. And it probably took me 30% longer to arrive at a template with a mix that I like that it would have.

So it's worth complaining about. Perhaps even bitterly. But in truth the UX could be *way* worse before it would have an appreciably impact on my love for the library itself.


But fair enough. I have a friend who's a graphic designer who, it sometimes seems, can't walk down the street without being incensed at the travesties of typography she sees. Which is cool, I get that. And it's not that I would ever defend comic sans as anything other that a travesty against typography and good taste, just that so long as the beer is ok, I can forgive any sins of typography the bar's logo might have committed :)
 
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