Any body tried these?

[hunter]

Neil Peart kit vol. 1

[CygnusX-1Bk2]

They are not Neil, but just his drums. "With the assistance of Don Lombardi and DrumChannel.com..." While in the studio recording the new stuff Nick got permission to sample the kit. Having a drummer other than Neil will give you different results. Nice idea.

 

Recording engineer Ken Scott (Beatles, Hollies, Supertramp, etc) just did a monster sample set with Terry Bozzio and Bob Siebenberg (Supertramp) and another drummer where the actual "artist" is sampled on their known kits. It's a huge library and proprietary to it's own system.

 

If you want Neil samples then cut up the GH pieces. At least that's him playing.

[hunter]

I don't really care if it's it's Neil or not. I just like the sound of his kit. If it's close and I can use it in cakewalk this would work for me. Just curious if anyone had actual experience with it and how it works.

[1-0-0-1-0-0-1]

Judging from that sample clip, I'm not crazy about that snare sound. Kinda dead sounding. The rest of the kit sounds good.

[CygnusX-1Bk2]

I use other Sonic Reality products in Reason. Another friend of mine uses BFD2 for his electric kit. It works either as a stand alone app or as a plugin. There is a kit window where you can configure small, medium or large kits then assign samples to each trigger (internal or externally speaking). Also each piece has its own fader for fine mix adjustments as well as faders for room and effects. It takes a pretty good chunk of CPU to run at the highest res, which includes room algorithms which are not just reverbs but blends "leakage" from mic to mic. There is a sequencer for programming and I am sure there are grooves included as part of the package. The basic BFD is limited in terms of kits (despite beng 5 DVDs full; I was the one who loaded it on my friend's machine) so they make a lot from sample sets. I have more experience with Drums From Hell. The latest version of BFD is fairly intuitive. The best mode of operation in a DAW with an app like this is to sequence then bounce tracks rather than to run live and thus strain the CPU. Edited April 15, 2011 by CygnusX-1Bk2

[CygnusX-1Bk2]

Just listened to the demo. Clearly not Neil. Part of the appeal of sample sets like these are the grooves from the actual players. So much of a player's sound is how that person plays their instrument. In a sense the Neil kit sample set is a DW sample set with Neil's specs and tuning. The demo doesn't sound like Neil. I would hate for someone to spend $400 on an app then $120 on a Neil sample set that isn't Neil. They are very careful to say that what you are getting are samples of Neil's kit but not samples of Neil playing. Having recorded with Drums From Hell triggered by a Roland kit I can say that the end result, while played live still had that midi/sample flavor to it. When you run with less bells and whistles to deal with CPU issues things start to happen like tails being cut abruptly or static attack sounds. I would love to be able to endorse this product but even with a lot of experience it can be a bit of a hassle using this type of product without a dedicated machine which is how many composers who use these types of tools work. They have machines dedicated to playing back samples for orchestrations. The programs are extremely sophisticated and CPU intensive.

[hunter]

Thanks for the in depth Cygnus. That's the kind of info that really helps an informed decision.

[CygnusX-1Bk2]

If someone is already using BFD2 or Kontakt (the other compatible application) then it would be good to have for only $120. My biggest concern is people buying BFD or Kontakt just to buy this sample set. Which I am sure many will do and perhaps be disappointed (or perhaps not).

[hunter]

I've been reading through more info on it and it says it comes with a complimentary license for the Infinite Player. Which in the install instructions in the manual suggest that Kontakt player 2 is part of that. I may be reading it wrong though. I know Kontakt is from native instruments. But if it's included and will run as a vst in cakewalk. I'll probably email their support and ask.

http://www.sonicreality.com/support2/infin...Manual_v1.1.pdf

[Cowtothesky]

QUOTE (hunter @ Apr 16 2011, 11:29 AM)

I've been reading through more info on it and it says it comes with a complimentary license for the Infinite Player. Which in the install instructions in the manual suggest that Kontakt player 2 is part of that. I may be reading it wrong though. I know Kontakt is from native instruments. But if it's included and will run as a vst in cakewalk. I'll probably email their support and ask. http://www.sonicreality.com/support2/infin...Manual_v1.1.pdf

The kontakt free player will only allow you to play the sounds. If you want to do any editing in kontakt, you will need the full version, which is $399. You can download the free version of kontakt from the native instruments website.

[hunter]

Ah I see. Seems weird they would limit their potential customer base that way.

Thanks for the info guys.

[CygnusX-1Bk2]

It's not limited, it's the freeware version. The full ($$$) version let's you have access to the editing capabilities. The sample set is a supplement to BFD and Kontakt, like a plugin. It's not the main course but a side dish in a buffet. Kontakt especially is a very powerful synth and sample station and BFD is a powerful drum system. The Neil sample set is in "addition to" not the "reason for." The free version is to give the user an idea of what the application is capable of without save or full editing capabilities. This is a standard practice with many instruments and plugs.

[hunter]

Yeah I get that. Believe me I know all about plugins, working in the 3D animation business. But they would have sold one if it simply ran in session drummer for cakewalk also. Why not offer the kit in different flavors?

[CygnusX-1Bk2]

Because that is a lot of programming. There is a company that makes plugins only for ProTools, but not in VST or AU or other Native formats because of the programming involved. The guy who owns the company is a former Digi employee so he knows the source code for RTAS and TDM but no others. These plugs are cheaper and better sounding than many well known expensive plugs that are cross platform. These plugs are fully usable in demo mode, aside from retaining settings, max resolution and certain functionality. The cost for the development on other platforms outweighs the potential return.

 

Sonic Realities probably has access to the proprietary development tools for BFD and Kontakt so all they need to do is plug in the samples to the existing framework rather than develop a cross platform plugin that requires development time and costs.