Anything worthwhile from Native Instruments under $100?

Re:Anything worthwhile from Native Instruments under $100? (BigBen)

Mon, 05 Sep 2011 01:58:56 GMT

Has anyone had any issues with X1 & Razor? (stuck notes after recording on playback etc..)

Re:Anything worthwhile from Native Instruments under $100? (digitalboy)

Sun, 04 Sep 2011 02:07:34 GMT

Well...You could buy a Maschine bag for $89,a Traktor bag for $89 or Traktor Kontrol X1 bag for $49...Or course if you're not taking the new DJ route that NI wants you to take like a good little sheep,you could pick up the Scarbee Rhodes or one of the basses - MM or Pre getting my vote " />

Re:Anything worthwhile from Native Instruments under $100? (maximumpower)

Fri, 02 Sep 2011 18:02:02 GMT

Please report back on The Mouth. I am anxious to here about it.

Re:Anything worthwhile from Native Instruments under $100? (Mesh)

Fri, 02 Sep 2011 15:08:36 GMT

LANEY

I got a $30 coupon in the mail today!! I am getting the mouth, I will let you know how it is.

Do you also own Razor? (if yes and after checking out the mouth " />), what are the positives/negatives of both?

Re:Anything worthwhile from Native Instruments under $100? (LANEY)

Fri, 02 Sep 2011 14:40:48 GMT

I got a $30 coupon in the mail today!! I am getting the mouth, I will let you know how it is.

Re:Anything worthwhile from Native Instruments under $100? (maximumpower)

Thu, 01 Sep 2011 18:01:56 GMT

I am new to recording and just do it as a hobby. I have a bass, so at this point the bass synth's have more limited value to me. I really want to get GR5 but you can't use the voucher on upgrades. The Razor synth looks good but I have soooo many synths that came with Sonar X1 Producer and I am not even a keyboard player lol That leaves The Mouth. It is certainly not my style either but I want to make it a fun place for my kids to hang out. We have finished our basement, put all our music equipment down there, purchased a big screen television, etc... with the goal that our children would have their friends over at our house more often, instead of whatever else it is that teenage kids do lol The Mouth appealed to me in that you don't have to be a musician to make music with it. It sounded like fun. Still with the voucher, it is $50 and I have new tubes on the way for my amp, just did some upgrades to the computer, etc... :-) Perhaps I will just pass on the voucher. It doesn't seem like there is anything I need. I just wanted to check with you all first. Thanks so much for all your input! -- Edit -- Sorry for the poor formatting. No matter what I do, the forum software removes the whitespace.

Re:Anything worthwhile from Native Instruments under $100? (LANEY)

Thu, 01 Sep 2011 11:08:57 GMT

If I had $30 voucher I would buy the mouth that would make it about right price IMO. It looks really fun.
Don't know what kind of music you do but I upgrade to GR 5 this morning and my system handles it a little better for performance and there are some amazing rock sounds now in there. It feels a little more "real" to me. Not a whole lot added in the 5 update from what I saw, Worth $79 to me.

Re:Anything worthwhile from Native Instruments under $100? (Mesh)

Thu, 01 Sep 2011 10:05:32 GMT

Not sure if these will be "better" than the real thing, but I too don't have a bass and these NI bass's are probably the next best thing (if I had a bass, I'd definitely would use it). The problem is I'm not a keyboardist and I have to do the best I can with my limited ability.

The Vocalizer (from Sonnivox) got much more attention in here than the Mouth did. I also bought the Vocalizer because of the recommendation given by Yorolpal.....and it has much more to offer (functionality wise) than the Mouth. The cool thing about the Vocalizer is you put any audio source (any noise) in front of it and turn it into something musical....very cool indeed.

Re:Anything worthwhile from Native Instruments under $100? (Glyn Barnes)

Thu, 01 Sep 2011 07:06:56 GMT

maximumpower

I thought the Scarbee basses were amp sims. I now, they are synths. Do you use these because you don't have a bass or because these are just easier/better than setting up the real thing? Thanks P.S. Funny, no one has or recommends "The Mouth". The last reviews of it on the web are from Feb of this year.

I use it because I don't have and dont play bass. All my music is produced "in the box" these days.

The Mouth looks fun but I do not see how I would integrate it into my type of music. YMMV

Re:Anything worthwhile from Native Instruments under $100? (maximumpower)

Thu, 01 Sep 2011 06:49:47 GMT

I thought the Scarbee basses were amp sims. I now, they are synths. Do you use these because you don't have a bass or because these are just easier/better than setting up the real thing? Thanks P.S. Funny, no one has or recommends "The Mouth". The last reviews of it on the web are from Feb of this year.

Re:Anything worthwhile from Native Instruments under $100? (Rain)

Thu, 01 Sep 2011 01:39:03 GMT

They both seem to sound great, really. Even if I'm more into rock n' roll these days, those funky sounds are cool, and I can certainly imagine finding a use for them in one of my other projects.

I was a bit surprised to see they were so inexpensive. I'd heard good things about them but always thought they were one of those $400 libraries so I didn't bother.

Re:Anything worthwhile from Native Instruments under $100? (BigBen)

Thu, 01 Sep 2011 00:57:27 GMT

+1 for Jay Bass.

Then again, I do like funky, jazzy, rock with a little soul. This has a lot of options/sounds for this genre.

I'm thinking of Pre Bass as my next addition as I do love a deep bass to keep it rocking.

Re:Anything worthwhile from Native Instruments under $100? (Glyn Barnes)

Wed, 31 Aug 2011 23:35:16 GMT

leapinlizard

can anyone recommend either the Jay Bass or the Pre Bass as a starter? The Jay Bass seems to have more "stuff" with it, but I'm not so sure I need popping, slapping bass as much as just good straight-up bass tones. Thanks.

It depends on the type of music. For Rock the Pre Bass has the heavier, solid bass sound, the Jay is better for soul/funk and R&B with its larger range of articulations and lighter sound.

Re:Anything worthwhile from Native Instruments under $100? (leapinlizard)

Wed, 31 Aug 2011 17:29:01 GMT

Excellent tips, Rain! Thanks for posting that, as it helps my decision a lot.

Re:Anything worthwhile from Native Instruments under $100? (Rain)

Wed, 31 Aug 2011 16:02:46 GMT

I picked up Pre-Bass, as it seemed better suited for my type of music.

I have loads of bass instruments in Logic, some of which sound surprisingly good, but they all lack the little things that make a midi bass track more realistic.

So I squeeze a few extra miles out of the Pre-Bass. I use whichever bass library sounds best for the song I'm working on. If Scarbee isn't it, then I use another, but I duplicate the midi track, send it through Scarbee, put a hi-pass, removing the actual notes/sounds and keeping only the "bad" stuff: finger noises, pick up hits, etc.

A bit of compression, and, voilà, I now have the extra topping for my good sounding but a little boring bass. This also gives me full control over that stuff - I can automate, mute, bring the fader up or down for specific spots in the song...

Re:Anything worthwhile from Native Instruments under $100? (leapinlizard)

Wed, 31 Aug 2011 14:59:12 GMT

I'm glad I ran across this thread, because I was wondering what to do with my nearly-expired $30 voucher as well. The Scarbee basses sound pretty good, but can anyone recommend either the Jay Bass or the Pre Bass as a starter? The Jay Bass seems to have more "stuff" with it, but I'm not so sure I need popping, slapping bass as much as just good straight-up bass tones. Thanks.

Re:Anything worthwhile from Native Instruments under $100? (mumpcake)

Mon, 29 Aug 2011 21:13:20 GMT

Check out this Torley dude, who goes through most of the presets category by category(leads, pads, bass, etc):
http://www.youtube.com/us...y#g/c/E82955710A419D09

That should give you an idea of what it can sound like.

Re:Anything worthwhile from Native Instruments under $100? (BigBen)

Fri, 26 Aug 2011 20:04:23 GMT

I'm in the same boat as you maximumpower. I also have a $30 voucher, but don't have razor or Scarbee (I only have the J-bass). I'm leaning towards Razor as I do love cool synths, but am very limited in playing a keyboard...
Would love to hear more reviews on Razor.

Re:Anything worthwhile from Native Instruments under $100? (maximumpower)

Fri, 26 Aug 2011 18:10:56 GMT

Thanks for the ideas! Really there isn't much to choose from for under $100. Both the Scarbee basses and Razor sound interesting. I am not a keyboard player but I like to add some to some songs (with my limited playing ability). I have all the synths that come with X1 Producer, plus the Rapture, which I got for free because I purchased X1 in May. If I were to spend money on another synth, I would seriously think about getting the upgrade to z3ta 2. I do have GR Pro 4 which has a bass rig sim in it. Again, thanks for the ideas and I will check out Razor and Scarbee bass.

Re:Anything worthwhile from Native Instruments under $100? (PerChr)

Fri, 26 Aug 2011 15:37:36 GMT

+1 on the Scarbee basses, they are all excellent!

Re:Anything worthwhile from Native Instruments under $100? (dmbaer)

Fri, 26 Aug 2011 13:17:40 GMT

cwig

Razor?

http://www.native-instruments.com/#/en/products/producer/powered-by-reaktor/razor/

Probable +1 on Razor. I just finished reading a review of it in the upcoming issue of Wusik Sound Magazine that made me really want to get my hands on it. The review will be on-line on Sept. 8, if I'm not mistaken, and I'll be posting a notice here when that happens.

I'm not sure if you can download a demo. I've always just gotten everything from NI in Komplete. Unfortunately, NI chose to keep Razor restricted to the super expensive really-complete Komplete bundle this time around. Probably a marketing mistake, judging from the number of people sayint they don't see justification to upgrade at all. But I digress.

Apparently, Razor was a collaboration between NI and an outsider who was the brains behind it. It really looks like it's worth checking out.

Re:Anything worthwhile from Native Instruments under $100? (Rain)

Fri, 26 Aug 2011 01:20:19 GMT

Another vote for Scarbee. One of my best buy of the year.

Usually when I use "fake" bass, I make sure they're as discreet as possible - just so you feel them but so that hopefully, they'll pass under the radar. Scarbee allows me to add a little bit of expression - I still try not to use them to upfront, but I feel it helps making them a bit less dull, so they don't get your attention that way either.

Re:Anything worthwhile from Native Instruments under $100? (Glyn Barnes)

Fri, 26 Aug 2011 00:34:05 GMT

Depends on what type of music you do, what you have already and what instruments you play.

If you don't play bass guitar one of the Scarbee basses ($89) is as close as you will come to faking it.

Re:Anything worthwhile from Native Instruments under $100? (Anubis)

Fri, 26 Aug 2011 00:24:10 GMT

cwig

Razor?

http://www.native-instruments.com/#/en/products/producer/powered-by-reaktor/razor/

Yeah, that's what I got with my voucher. Additive synthesis, whatever that means. lol" />

Re:Anything worthwhile from Native Instruments under $100? (cwig)

Thu, 25 Aug 2011 19:21:24 GMT

Razor?

http://www.native-instruments.com/#/en/products/producer/powered-by-reaktor/razor/

Anything worthwhile from Native Instruments under $100? (maximumpower)

Thu, 25 Aug 2011 18:46:16 GMT

I have a $30 voucher from NI that expires in a few weeks. I was going to use it on the GR Pro 5 upgrade but it does not apply to upgrades. I was so excited but now I am not sure I will even get GR Pro 5 for a while. I just purchased GR Pro 4 a month or so ago. There is nothing I need (for sure) but I wondered if there was something at NI that you all felt that with $30 off, would make a nice new toy? For a while I was thinking about The Mouth. It looks fun and $30 off would make it $50 but... I don't know. Not sure I would ever use the thing past the initial checking it out phase. Any ideas? Thanks