I have to say that Ensoniq really did a lot of things right with the resources they had at the time. I had both an sd1 and a ts10, and both had their good points. The upright bass on the sd1 still stands out, I have some tracks that I used it in that I still use in my live act. They had a nashville fiddle sound that I haven't heard topped by anything out there now. I still have the ts10 which crashes after a few minutes, but I want to sample the fiddle before I throw it out. I did do that a while back for the old akai s900 sampler and it really worked. And they did have some decent guitar sounds and the strings on the sd1 weren't bad either.
Gord----- Original Message ----- From: "Bryan Smart" <bryansmart@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <ddots-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Monday, April 05, 2010 8:04 PM Subject: [ddots-l] Re: Omnisphere soundsI think its worth the $250 special price. Not sure what they're selling it for in the UK.
Volume 1 is a good general purpose set of new samples/sounds that expands the default library.
Studio Orchestra is very good. It's much better than GPO, or the Virtuoso 2000 set. Lots of stereo programs, programs that use alternate samples when played legato, etc. Very worth it.
The acoustic kits are good when compared to the Dimension Pro kits, but aren't what you'd expect from a high end library like Superior Drummer or Adictive Drums. They are in general MIDI format, though, and that has some practical uses. They're much better than what is in Session Drummer.
The Guitar and Basses pack is pretty good. The instruments are multi-sampled. They're certainly a profound improvement on the stock guitars and basses.
The sound effects library is very good. It's like the Hollywood Sounds library that comes with Sonar, but there are hundreds of programs, all grouped in to categories like animals, water, tranportation, etc. Its great for dropping in foley effects on your songs.
The Ensoniq set is good if you want a real retro sound. The E-Mu libraries are a little old, so that they aren't very ontemporary, but they aren't old enough to be retro. The Ensoniq stuff is circa 1988 or so. I wouldn't call them cheesy, though. The libraries for those instruments was considered very good for the time, and lots of those sounds are in many top-40 and platinum selling records from the time. I'd even go to some of the percussion and effects sounds for a track today, even without going for a retro sound. Another good feature is that all of the drum kits (about 150+ of them) are all laid out in Ensoniq format.
I didn't think as much of their piano expansion. That is kind of rediculous, anyway. We have so many libraries with gigs and gigs of samples, and plugs that model pianos, who needs another 500MB sampled piano? The real use for something like this isn't to have the ultimate piano, but tl have workstation like combinations. If you want a piano and strings, or a piano and voice pad, it is really bad if the piano side of that is the stock Dimension piano. This pack contains a lot more useful combinations with a much higher quality piano.
All in all, you get something like 5 or 6 thousand presets with the whole pack. I think that its a good value, especially now with the discount.
Bryan -----Original Message-----From: ddots-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:ddots-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Phil Muir
Sent: Monday, April 05, 2010 6:31 AM To: ddots-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [ddots-l] Re: Omnisphere soundsHay Bryan. Totally agree with your comments about the programme browser in Dimension Pro. Dimension is pretty good but as you said, you can't easily locate what your looking for.
Bryan wrote: I'm thinking about sharing my presets. I think that would be alright, since you can't use them without purchasing the libraries (and their samples).
Phil replied; that should be fine as if you don't have the packs in question then, you wouldn't be able to run them anyway.
Bryan wrote: I really think that Cakewalk should do something like this themselves,
Phil replied; agreed.Bryan wrote: though. Dimension Pro has its faults, but with the fragmented standard library, where you never know exactly what you really have, it makes Dimension Pro seem much worse than it is.
Phil replied: totally agree. So Bryan, do you think it's worth purchasing the Digital Sound Factory: Vol 1-10 set that is on offer right now for Sonar 8.5 customers? Am thinking about it. I already have all of the E-MU stuff, and do on occasion reach for it, when I am looking for a particular brass sound that I require for a backing track that I am working on.
Regards, Phil Muir Accessibility Training Telephone: US (615) 713-2021 UK +44-1747-821-794 Mobile: UK +44-7968-136-246 E-mail: info@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:info@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> URL: http://www.accessibilitytraining.co.uk/ PLEASE READ THIS FOOTER AT LEAST ONCE! To leave the list, click on the immediately following link: ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=unsubscribe If this link doesn't work then send a message to: ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx and in the Subject line type unsubscribeFor other list commands such as vacation mode, click on the immediately following link: ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=faq or send a message, to ddots-l-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx and in the Subject line type faq
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