AIr Software Strike2 drums for Sonar

I recently purchased the new Home Studio to use on a special Laptop set up I'll be mostly using sans Audio Interface. Ya, I'm the guy who won't let anybody try and use Sonar with out one. But as you all know the new versions, and Home Studio was first, run smooth a silk under WASAPI. 
I'm really enjoying working with Home Studio which I'm at this point 100% editing midi files to make backing tracks. Everything I need works great and I've yet to find a missing feature that hold things up,,, but,, those terrible drums!!! 
 
We all know how we could never go back to TTS-1 GM kits now. Home Studio gives you that and even worse --SI drums... Sorry. big waste of Storage. 
 
One of the best things about this forum is when we talk about this someone has a solution. 
Thanks to "abacab" for this link found in this thread . http://forum.cakewalk.com/sonar-home-studio-got-the-3500-SPECIAL-QUICK-QUESTION-m3527969.aspx
 
Strike 2 drummer
https://www.jrrshop.com/air-music-tech-strike
 
I had never heard of the company or this product but for $49 ($43 at check out) how could I resist? 
The download was 19 GB and took a few days for me to get the 3 files. 
Wow, these guys give you your money's worth of content. And every kit I've loaded up so far sounds great.Real different stuff and I hate to say it, but this is working better than AD2 for me. WAY better. 
This software is as  deep and complicated as Sonar! But I ( ya right) read the manual and it's not that hard to get up and running once you figure a few important things out, LIke GM only works on CH 2.  
 
And get this... you can use your own samples.. This is huge for me and I continued to use Session Drummer on some songs because of this. AD2 forces us to keep spending money just to get a few more sounds. 
 
I have yet to find a feature that AD or Session Drummer has that this doesn't have. One bummer is the licence is only one user one machine, but I'm going to see what happens if I try a second machine. 
 
Anyhow, check it out, The regular price is $149 but it's on sale right now and JR shop discounts it even a few dollars more. 
Sonar should ditch AD and get these guys on board.... Add this to Home Studio and you have a 1st class ride for less than $100 ( Home studio was on sale for $34.99) 
 
 

kennywtelejazz
From what I have seen and heard so far w Strike 2 .
It's certainly a Keeper
I may even prefer Strike 2 over the Additive drums package that came w SPLat

Yup Kenny, I totally agree!  I admit that I have not used drum software extensively enough to know all of the features and pro/cons, but I am really enjoying the Strike! 
 
It's a blast to just jam with, very inspiring!  Load up some bass loops to groove along with and then trigger some of the variations and fills in the Strike patterns in latched mode. Great for experimentation 
 
I was just curious to see how I felt now that I have Session Drummer, Addictive Drums 2, and Strike 2.  So I created a new project and inserted all three of them, then auditioned them one at a time.
 
I am thinking that Strike will be my go-to drummer now ... even though it is a walled garden and lacks expansions, it comes with a whopping 19GB factory library, that does not suck!

Cactus Music
 
I had never heard of the company or this product but for $49 ($43 at check out) how could I resist?
 

Hey Johnny, glad you are happy with it!
 
So now I'll let you in on another little secret, now that you are a fellow AIR head, just like Kenny & me
 
We found out due to the AIR Xpand!2 $1 sale, once we had any one licensed AIR product, we became eligible for a cheap upgrade pricing to the entire AIR instrument collection. 
 
So pack that Sonar Home Studio laptop and your DAW with some more great instruments for $74.95.  You get two activations for use on 2 computers ...
http://www.pluginboutique...ck-3-COMPLETE-UPGRADE-
 
http://www.airmusictech.com/product/air-instrument-expansion-pack-3-complete

The AIR AIEP3 Complete Instrument Pack Includes:

• Hybrid 3.0 – High-Definition Analog & Wavetable Synth
• Loom – Modular Additive Synthesizer
• Vacuum Pro – Polyphonic Analog Tube Synthesizer
• Structure – Multi-Timbral Sampler Instrument
• Strike – Ultimate Virtual Drummer Instrument
• Velvet – Vintage Electric Piano Instrument
• Transfuser – Melodic & Rhythmic Groove-Creation Instrument
• THE RISER – Synth-based Transition Designer
• DB-33 – Tonewheel Organ Simulator
• MINI GRAND – Acoustic Grand Piano
• Fresh AIR Expansion – Presets for Vacuum Pro
• Flux Transitions Expansion – Presets for theRiser
• AIR Creative FX Collection PLUS – 28 Classic Audio FX
• XPAND!2 – MULTITIMBRAL ALL–IN–ONE WORKSTATION
• D. Ramirez Expansion – Presets for Hybrid 3
• Marco Lys Expansion – Presets for Hybrid 3
• Mark Knight Expansion – Presets for Hybrid 3
• Rene Amesz Expansion – Presets for Hybrid 3
• Tocadisco Expansion – Presets for Hybrid 3
• Analog Trap Expansion – Presets for Hybrid 3

Could anyone tell us how the install of AIR AIEP3 Complete Instrument Pack went?  How much disc space for the whole package?  Was wondering if AudioDeluxe requirements stating 70G download & installation seemed about right.  Did it allow custom installation location?  Can you select which of the VSTs you want to install individually?  What was download like - just one big zip file or multiple files?  I presume it uses the iLok Pace licensing?  Any issues with that?  Thanks all.

craigr68
Could anyone tell us how the install of AIR AIEP3 Complete Instrument Pack went?  How much disc space for the whole package?  Was wondering if AudioDeluxe requirements stating 70G download & installation seemed about right.  Did it allow custom installation location?  Can you select which of the VSTs you want to install individually?  What was download like - just one big zip file or multiple files?  I presume it uses the iLok Pace licensing?  Any issues with that?  Thanks all.

I installed the AIR AIEP 3 Select pack, which has the same instruments and core sample libraries as Complete, minus the extra FX and expansion packs.  No issues with mine and I put it on my DAW, as well as my laptop.
 
That took 63.8GB for the content on my secondary hard drive.
 
I install Windows and all of my programs and VSTs on my primary SSD drive, and then put all the Cakewalk and 3rd party content on the HDD.
 
You can download the VSTs and install individually.
 
AIR installers will ask what folders you want your 32-bit and 64-bit VST plugins installed in (they provide both), as well as ask where you want your content.  So no issues with that, you have complete control over where it puts stuff.
 
I got it here http://www.pluginboutique.com/product/1-Instruments/58-Inst-Bundle/2294-AIR-Instrument-Expansion-Pack-3-COMPLETE-UPGRADE-
 
Plugin Boutique is selling it for $74.95USD, and I had no problems with the links and instructions that they provided.  The only catch is that you first need to register for a free iLok account if you don't have one yet, then install the iLok license manager.  After you get the hang of that thing, it's smooth sailing
 
Best of luck!

abacab

kennywtelejazz
 
It was a monster of a disc space eater ....70 GIGs X 3
first you have the zips , (70 GIG's )   then they have to be unpacked ,( 2nd set of 70 GIG's ) then you have the installation itself which is what really ends up getting installed on your computer ...3 rd set of 70 GIGs
 
IIRC , Structure & Strike 2 were massive ....
 

I forgot to mention the disk space required for setup, primarily because I reserve a bunch of free space on my C: drive to accommodate for downloads and unpacking, etc.  That is temp space to me, so I delete the unpacked installers when finished and archive the zips elsewhere.
 
After install, my content drive shows me this usage size:
Structure 38GB
Strike 19.3GB
Transfuser 4.7GB
Mini Grand 978MB
Velvet 846MB
 
The rest of the VSTs are mostly small enough as far as content and programs, with some patch folders and wavetable stuff, not huge, so that I let it install on my C: drive.  The advantage this way is they launch and load programs in a flash from my SSD drive

 
abacab ,
 
Sure I get what you are saying .
I had the available space on my machine to accommodate all the full downloads and install w out having to move anything also ..Yes afterwards I had to free things up again to free up space ...
 
The same would not be true for my main DAW since there is so much less available space ...
In any event , with these  AIR synths and plugs my secondary machine has been getting all the use and Love
 
I think we both were typing up our individual posts around the same time and it seems we both focused on different point of views and angles of the download and install process ...
I look at that sort of thing as if we both described a beach ball from different viewing options ...
Metaphorically speaking , You saw and described the Red ,White and the Blue . I saw and described the White , Blue and the Green
 
That's my story and I'm sticking to it  ....
 
always nice to talking with you ...
 
all the best,
 
Kenny 

I would have to add this additional thought to the subject.
 
Now I love Platinum and all the things it includes, and got a decent upgrade price for being on the Producer bandwagon for many years ... but if I was just starting out now ... and needed a DAW with some good FX, and a good collection of instruments ... The Professional edition may be the best choice, when coupled with a few select budget VSTs.
 
There are some awesome 3rd party instrument bundles available, such as the AIR AIEP, that combined with Pro would be a great starter setup for many.

Well, I jumped on the offer of XPand!2 to AIE3P upgrade offer. It's a fantastic deal for the price. Wow, what a monster DL, though. I'm still DL-ing it all.

I do a little junction magic to my PC, as I run a 1TB SSD for the C: drive. Basically, directories that can expect a lot of write thrashing are linked to a directory on my D: drive, which is a regular spinning platter HD.  I.e. Downloads (from my user profile) is mapped to D:\downloads, and C:\Cake Projects maps to D:\Cakewalk projects. Sonar can beat all it wants on my project files, it won't affect SSD wear. I do install my VST's (and their sample data) to C: though - they can take advantage of the SSD's seek-less access speed. I haven't' really run into any issues with frozen tracks and audio files streaming from the D: drive. I could be anywhere from 12-40 tracks.

husker
I'm wondering if I made the right decision to go Splat as my very first Daw.   Perhaps Pro with some of these great deal libraries would have been a better deal. 

Don't bother 2nd guessing it!  Splat for life is the killer diller!  When I think about how much I paid into Cakewalk upgrades over the past decade and a half, it's a no-brainer!  But if you can't get lifetime updates anymore, then perhaps ala cart has some tasty deals to roll your own with