The Song Fight Bulletin Board

Free chorus plugin from Acon Digital: https://acondigital.com/products/multiply/

I really thought I had signed up to get that free BBC Symphony VST but it looks like I did not. Did anybody get that for Mac? If so, would you be able to send it to me somehow? Also I'm curious what folks thought of it.

I guess I'm going to try this free one for now:

https://www.orchestraltools.com/store/collections/45

Except, haha, 700GB for the samples. Wow. Also plays in its own player. Also, the narrator of the demo video says the word "triads" like "TREE-adds" and I always thought it was "TRY-adds"???

Logic Pro X users just got a whole shload of free stuff in the 10.5 release.

Lunkhead wrote: ↑

Fri Jun 05, 2020 2:29 pm

I really thought I had signed up to get that free BBC Symphony VST but it looks like I did not. Did anybody get that for Mac? If so, would you be able to send it to me somehow? Also I'm curious what folks thought of it.

I only played with it a little bit so far (on PC) but it sounded good to me. A bunch of different sections, and different articulations to choose from within each section. I was hoping to have the time to do a shadow this week with a bunch of orchestral arrangement goodness courtesy of the plugin, but I haven't had time yet and it's already Friday. Are signups for it closed now, though? I just sent a link for it to someone a few days ago.

I got the BBC Symphony and haven't tried it yet, but unfortunately it's already attached to my Spitfire account.

jb wrote: ↑

Fri Jun 05, 2020 2:56 pm

Logic Pro X users just got a whole shload of free stuff in the 10.5 release.

Oh neat, most of that stuff I'd known about but I didn't know about slip editing, to which I shouted "FINALLY!" because holy hell that's a useful function that's long-overdue.

I'm mostly looking forward to the slicer sequencer for remix purposes. Everything else seems interesting too. Just wish I had the wherewithal to play with this update, because there's so much stuff in here I've been wanting for *years*

Oh right, Spitfire account, so, no piracy. Dang it! Signups aren't closed but they say that they'll send the plugin license in 14 days, and I need something this weekend to try to crap out a Bond theme. The other thing I downloaded and installed is very limited, you can only do chords, and only major, minor, and sus4, and I need to be able to do a diminished chords. owl, do you know if the BBC thing is limited like that or if you're free to program individual notes for sections/instruments?

I just played with it briefly. It lets you play whatever notes/chords/etc. you want. All the notes are separated out.

I'm not sure if it'll sound any better or worse than the much more expensive string libraries I already have. At a quick glance it seems to be better than the ones built in to Logic but not as good as Native Instrument's String Ensemble stuff, but I've not come even close to putting it through its paces.

Great, thanks for the info!

Playing with it a bit more (even though my body is telling me not to): The functionality is okay for basic backing tracks and playing chords etc, but I'm not finding any way to set per-note instruments or articulations, which is unfortunate. You can automate that at an instrument level but you can't mix and match multiple instruments or articulations at the same time, as far as I can tell. Slightly annoying but not all that surprising either. I think NI is the same way (although it provides a bunch of ways to set up articulation switches and split regions and so on so it's less annoying to do).

I'm actually liking these samples better than the ones in the other sample libraries I have available. They aren't as versatile but they sound better and are easy enough to work with for basic things, at least. I'll probably try using these more in the future.

Oh hey Spitfire has some tutorials and project templates to work with the plugin more effectively. I haven't looked at this yet but it'll probably be helpful. https://www.spitfireaudio.com/bbcso/dis ... g-started/

EDIT: Blah, it's what I was afraid of - they set up separate tracks for each instrument/articulation. Booooo.

Ooh, cool, thanks again for that too. It seems like even though in the Cubase template I looked at they'd put each separate technique in its own tracks, it has a featured called "keyswitch" which let you change technique/articulation on the fly within one instance of the plugin, using really really low notes. So at least you can switch between sustain/staccato within one brass instance, for example, but so far no sign of a way to have multiple sections within one instance of the plugin.

https://youtu.be/JjnJsFgezSw?t=137

Hmm, I looked all over for a keyswitch thing (which is what I was referring to with how NI handles articulation switches) but I couldn't find it. Looks like it puts them exactly where NI does though! Neat.

I like this person

That was great, thanks for sharing that! I learned a bunch. I really need to use step input for MIDI tracks in Cubase, especially for arpeggios.

Spitfire also has a bunch of other free virtual instruments in their "LABS" plugin. Some of it is "normal" stuff and some of it is more "out there":

https://www.spitfireaudio.com/labs/

I just tried the drums this weekend for the Moss Palace "North Beach Vampires" song for Nur Ein. It's only 24 samples, so, pretty basic drum kit coverage, but I think they sound really really good (except for maybe the ride cymbal which sounds a little anemic, like maybe they only have a bell hit sample for some reason). And the mod wheel controls the "intensity" of the playing, similar to in the BBC Symphony Orchestra (and maybe all Spitfire's instruments).

I downloaded a few more and hope to check them out soon.

A coworker just mentioned Melda Production and that they offer a whole bunch of free basic and fun looking plugins:

https://www.meldaproduction.com/effects/free

I haven't tried any of these yet but there's lots to dig in to.

Mm, I may snag that spectrum analysis tool. The ones built into FL look good but are a bit busy for my liking.

sleepysilverdoor wrote: ↑

Thu Jul 02, 2020 10:09 am

Mm, I may snag that spectrum analysis tool. The ones built into FL look good but are a bit busy for my liking.

Man that’s like most of FL at this point for me

Just found a link to download one of my favorite plugins, CAMEL CRUSHER. This makes everything sound awesome.

https://www.audiopluginsforfree.com/camelcrusher/

“CamelCrusher is a free ‘colouring’ multi-effect plugin. It offers two characteristically different distortion sounds which can be blended together to create a wide variety of tones and textures. Great for guitars, drums and plenty more!

There’s also a warm, smooth analogue-style low-pass filter with buckets of resonance. Assign a MIDI controller and start tweaking!

Finally, let’s not forget the easiest-to-use compressor you’ll find anywhere. It can ‘phatten’ up your sound as quickly as you can turn up the ‘Amount’ knob! Find out more in the manual.

Best of all, CamelCrusher is available free of charge!

Features
Two different distortion types.
Warm, analogue-modelled resonant low-pass filter.
High quality, easy-to-use compressor, with ‘Phat’ mode.
Powerful ‘MIDI Learn’ function.
A collection of useful Preset patches to get you started.
Randomize for instant inspiration.”

Spitfire Labs has an entire suite of free virtual instruments. I feel like I've known about them for a while, but today I'm planning on downloading and installing a bunch of them.

https://labs.spitfireaudio.com/

n infinite series of free software instruments, made by musicians and sampling experts in London, for anyone, anywhere. Presented in our own plug-in, they are easy to use, and compatible with any DAW. And in case you missed it — they're all free.

Need help getting started? You will need the Spitfire Audio App in order to get LABS.