UVI stuff

Finally got around to installing UVI player and all those free libraries I've received during promotions. My previous experience wasn't all that great, and I guess that my laptop was underpowered for the player. This somehow affected my perception because I simply couldn't rely on it. Cracklings and clicks somehow casted a shadow over the actual sounds.
 
On the new iMac, things are much smoother, though this thing is still pretty CPU intensive at times. When I started playing with Digital Synsations, the minute I messed with the filter, I got a severe case of crackling. Likelwise, the (free) Mellotron seems particularly heavy for such a small library. I realize that my computer isn't the fastest machine on the market, but with nothing else going on, I'd expect a synth to run smoothly. After all, the same comp can handle relatively big Kontakt libraries in full sessions and lowest latency.
 
I was wondering if any of you guys experienced similar issues with it.
 
Overall, though, it's now entirely possible to use the UVI Player and I've realized just how good the free instruments they offered were. I wasn't impressed when I heard demos of the Model D piano they gave away through Audio Deluxe a few weeks ago - I almost skipped installing it, but I'm glad I didn't. It's much better than I expected. 
 
This also means that they'll probably make a lot of money with me since they have plenty of interesting instruments that I want. Last night I ordered their E-MU Emulator/Drumulator combo, which AD is selling for $29. I'll probably grab their Beatbox anthology as well because it's also on sale and I'm a sucker for beatboxes, and even though I own a bunch of sample collections, I like the convenience of having one huge collection.
 
 

As far as free goes, so far I've received Digital Synsations, Analogic Piano 9, Grand Model D, and Mello.
 
Though something like Analogic Piano 9 is of marginal use, in the end, even just for the freebies, it's worth having UVI player installed, fo me anyway.
 
At that rate, I'm pretty sure there'll be other freebies down the road.
 

I just tried out the Grand Piano D yesterday myself. Very happy with the sound. I don't have many pianos and I don't have the full Kontakt either. Most of the sampled pianos like from Sampletekk require the full kontackt except the $100 Black Grand (one offering will work on Kontakt player) I think. I've always balked at that even when I saw it on sale for $50, so this for free made me pretty happy even after playing it a bit.

Well, it seems that they got me hooked.
 
I'm liking the E-MU combo a whole lot and I've just ordered their Beat Box Anthology. I'm a sucker for beat boxes, even though I have a fair supply of them in my DAW. Theirs seem like a quite extensive collection.
 
I also grabbed their more generic Plugsound Pro, which was used in a couple of projects I've worked on with a friend. Again, a few instruments but mostly beat boxes which I liked when I dug back the archives recently. JRR Shop had it for under $60.

yorolpal
I've got about $110 in vouchers with them I have to use or lose before years end. Looks like I'm in for some listening tests.

I kind of regret disregarding all those promotion e-mails a while back - as I mentioned, I had a negative impression of the player. But now that this has changed, practically everything in their Vintage Vault would interest me, as I'm a huge fan of most of those old synths. For whatever reason, I often seem to prefer sampled synths.

I've just spent the evening working with Plugsound Pro and I must say that it really exceeds my expectations. I wanted that one for the beatboxes but there are plenty of totally usable sounds. Even for such an older library, in many aspects it stands toe to toe and even outperforms the competition. 
 
I was browsing through the patches and taking mental notes - this I could use, this would work there, I need to try this one on that song, etc.
 
Looks like I have a new best friend. :P
 
And I just received my registration for Beat Box Anthology.

You can get Ping for free. http://www.uvi.net/en/

Fleer
Been eyeing this one too, Rain. How would you compare it to SampleTank?

I've not played w/ ST3 all that much - I've used it mostly for bass lines for demos, as I find it surprisingly good in that department. 
 
The rest I browsed and wasn't really impressed. And I hate browsing patches in ST - one long menu w/ disclosure triangles doesn't work for me.
 
Plugsound Pro made a much better first impression on me - particularly when I hit the orchestral and choir selections. I browsed "pragmatically", that it, looking for things I'd be likely to use and disregarding things like pianos, guitars and such.
 
But overall, I like it better than ST. It's much easier to navigate (though just like with ST, you can't use the arrow keys on your keyboard to do so) and better organized.  You even have a subfolder called GM, if you want to access the traditional set of 128 patches. 
 
I'll have to further investigate as, at 8 GB, it shouldn't be a match for ST and its 30 GB of content. But a lot of what comes with ST, such as world instruments and choirs, left me unimpressed - I prefer what comes bundled with Logic's sampler by a long shot.
 
In the case of Plugsound, I stumbled upon things that I already know I want to use.

Hope you enjoy it as much as I do. 
 
Otherwise, I'll feel pretty bad, I guess. lol

Cheers, Rain. Plugsound, here I come.