strikinglyhandsome1


$197.50 is the 50% discount that a few are doing.

Seemed like a good deal.   I don't think I would have laid out $400 for it but I couldn't pass up $197.50.

papa2005


Cosmic Bob,

Is material from the two groups you mentioned available on CD or for download?

Hi Papa:

Both groups are available commercially both ways.  Both seem to emulate the earlier Beatles sound.  The Sponge Tones' record "Beat and Torn," sounds like a lost record from 1964.  Worth a listen if you see it!

$197.50 is the 50% discount that a few are doing.

I think I'm sold.  Even if I don't use it often, it looks like a great toy. 

...Sounds like the most common concern for using Play 2 is the need for a ton of memory, but that it does more or less work.

Incidentally, I asked the East-West Forum users for a similar recommendation on my concern about the Play engine, but my question didn't make it past the"moderator!"  Surprising. 

From reading this thread, I have done some searching and found that Digital Village are currently selling the Fab Four VST in the UK at £140, which is an incredible price, I am suddenly very tempted but have read also in the thread that there are concerns about the Play engine, can anyone expand a little as to what these concerns may be?

Soundsonline is having a 50% off sale.  I thinks it's over after this week

Marah Mag:


<snip>At first I thought I'd try to find some good string samples. I think I might've briefly tried the Garritan stuff that came with Dimension LE, just because I had it. But I realized that I wasn't really looking for a "good string sound." What I wanted was not "strings" so much as something that evoked strings, or that said "strings," ...


...I ended up inserting the TTS-1 and using a patch (under Preset, Ensemble) called 60's Strings, I played the parts with the right articulation, adding octaves and harmony as needed, and processing it so that it sounded bad enough to sound good in the mix and function as I wanted. Totally fake. When it goes by, I think it sounds about right and does what I want. </snip>

I think you hit the money on the head (pardon the mixed metaphor).   Many times I find the better sampled stuff is less than optimal and find myself returning to something that's not so realistic sounding because it just sounds right.  But I think you put it best when you said (paraphrasing) that it's about getting something to "evoke" the instrument rather than be exactly like instrument itself.


Nice writeup on the sound of The Beatles by the way.

back on track I purchased the fab four from audiomidi for 197 and downloaded the  latest play engine and insert it first..

I did freeze its instance and it works swimmingly on a core 2 duo with 4 gig and xp pro 32 BIT .. it loads quickly versus Sampletank (forever to load) and some NI stuff (almost as bad as ST)

I initally purchased the Fab Four as an alternative to NI abbey road 60 drums.. OK not a fair comparison, layers et all, but Im grooving on the 60s bass guitar (with the IK SVT ampeg B15 plug) and the Fab four guitars which in certain circumstances g\fit quite nice

I have NOT had a crash with Fab Four  but  have with other VSTIs who will remain  nameless

Since they've updated Play to Play 2, the EWQL libraries have been running great in Sonar 8.5 for me, in both the x32 and x64 versions. 

I don't own FabFour (yet), but I do own a number of their other libraries.  Before Play 2, Fast Bounces and Freezes were not reliable in Sonar.  Many times you would get dropped notes and were forced to do real-time bounces, which were not always successful either.

Now, with the new Play 2 engine, Fast Bounces and Freezes work like a charm.  (i.e. I haven't had one fail yet.)  This is a huge boost in my workflow.  I always found the quality of their virtual instruments worth the extra effort to make it work, but now that it's fixed, it's a joy to work with.

Thanks for the input, DLA.
That sounds positive.

Yes thanks DLA. So.... If I buy East West Fab Four then, it will be supplied with the Play 2 engine, is that correct ?