# Innterreesting - ReFx Nexus2 Hollywood 2



## Guy Rowland (Nov 9, 2013)

I just know this will be a controversial one. But look at their mammoth video trailer / teaser thing and tell me you're not mildly intrigued:

http://vimeo.com/78107790

249 euros for the whole library bundle, and Nexus 2 itself is 249. Details:

http://refx.com/products/nexus/hollywood2/

As far as I can tell there's no legato, and I strongly suspect subtlety and refinement won't be a strength (at 8gb in total size) but I think it's a very interesting new entry-level contender for "how to get that big Hollywood sound". I've been very impressed with ReFx's demos for Nexus 2's dance patches, they do seem to have an uncanny ear for getting the real sound of whatever they're shooting at. Rompler for sure, but a particularly good one it seems to me.

Some intriguing patch names in there...


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## MacQ (Nov 9, 2013)

I think it sounds fun. Nexus (and Manuel Schleis' sound design) is pretty much de rigueur in the realm of commercial dance music these days. I know he's been obsessively working on this library for 2 years or more, and with a "club record" aesthetic, he definitely knows how to make sounds that punch!


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## woodsdenis (Nov 9, 2013)

Have to agree Guy, very interesting . They have upgraded the Nexus engine to cope with this it seems. It will never do Kontakt scripting but then a lot of its users don't need it.


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## paulmatthew (Nov 9, 2013)

It might be useful as a tool for layering , but that might be as far as it goes. Nexus 2 is a rompler and just about every sound is preset without the ability to do a lot of manipulating. This will work well with long sustain patches but not for full on orchestral writing .

I think Nexus 2 would be a great tool to do Orchestral percussion with . However , in the end , I think this hollywood expansion may be nothing more than a different version of Action Strings , Vivace , Minimal etc. A tool for users to save time in writing with preset rhythms and runs (which is not a bad thing). Remember , REFX is geared toward dance music and this is probably designed so dance music producers can add a hollywood sound into their trance , house etc productions.

I don't like to speculate on products until they're released and more demos are shown , but based on what type of product Nexus 2 is, I'm content to stick with Kontakt and VIP. Guy is right , this does sound intriguing , but let's wait and see more of what it can do and what it really sounds like.


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## TGV (Nov 9, 2013)

I got a bit tired of the big drums, but this thing seems to have a good sound out of the box. Judging by the patch names it's a bit limited (Category STring, Pirate Staccatos), but more than enough to impress. Feels a bit like competition for Orchestral Essentials and Albion.


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## germancomponist (Nov 9, 2013)

Ha ha, Pirate Staccatos? :-D


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## Guy Rowland (Nov 9, 2013)

It's a funny one, not sure it falls under any known category. Flicking through the patch list one wonders - is the harp any good? How are the Hybrid Two-style arps? Was Zimmer involved in Zimmer strings and what's the difference between 2.0 and 3.0? How are the rips and risers? Percussion any use? Do the string runs tempo sync? Do those Pirates spiccs hit the spot? Just what is involved in a movie dialogue mix? Is Alien Invasion Brass as fun as it sounds?

What I suspect is that playing a single note of most patches will sound impressive, but most will fall apart under any serious use. But even allowing for that, I'd bet there's some gems in there.

Then there's the player itself. I've been planning on Nexus 2 anyway this year for electronic stuff, and its fine for that I guess - wish it was mulit-timbral though. But I'd be cagey of relying on Nexus 2 for much in the template. Kontakt / VI Pro are so well optimised, it'll put Nexus to shame. On the other hand, if the entire lib of 300+ patches only takes 8gb, how bad can a couple of handfuls of patches be?


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## germancomponist (Nov 9, 2013)

Many "deutsche Schlager" producers in germany use that Nexus-rompler. Just another reason why they more and more sound the same.

In comparison with all the stuff what we have, I would say: Forget it!


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## Lex (Nov 9, 2013)

Guy Rowland @ Sat Nov 09 said:


> But look at their mammoth video trailer / teaser thing and tell me you're not mildly intrigued:
> 
> http://vimeo.com/78107790



Ok. I watched the video and I am not even mildly intrigued. 

alex


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## mark812 (Nov 9, 2013)

Lex @ Sat Nov 09 said:


> Guy Rowland @ Sat Nov 09 said:
> 
> 
> > But look at their mammoth video trailer / teaser thing and tell me you're not mildly intrigued:
> ...



+1

I lol'd at _Dream is collapsing_.


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## Guy Rowland (Nov 9, 2013)

Well I asked for the "not at all intrigued" responses, didn't I?

To my ears - it has a great sound, and they have a great track record in having quality sounds. It's also very cheap, especially for Nexus owners. It's also broad. If a 70 euro expansion has three great patches - and it's hard to believe that the percussion and effects one in particular won't - that's definitely of interest to me.

EDIT - I've just noticed there's a strings patch called "To Hell With Divisi" :D


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## shapeshifter00 (Nov 9, 2013)

Seems to me as a cool layering tool to add a bit of thickness to get that Hollywood sound, I believe it could be a bit of an alternative to PS OE.


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## KingIdiot (Nov 9, 2013)

I think tools like this are great for the pop/RnB/Dance music set. The old Rompler approach with sound design and nomenclature with references to instill recognition, is not only smart, but worth while product deign, because there is a whole subset of composers and songwriters that aren't going to, or don't want to learn to use the more elaborate tools. Nor should they need to if ultimate realism isn't their goal.

I love stuff like this, because it reminds me of some simpler times, and am glad that someone takes the time to design orchestral and "film like" tools directed towards those outside of the realm we normally see here. Maybe it will inspire some to learn more about orchestration. That's what the old Roland JV expansion board did for me, and look I'm here and still a giant hack! WOOOHOO!

truth is though, sometimes the ultimate realism approach just doesn't work for some styles of music, and in herent patch character might do better. It's how a lot of old pop music worked, and that's just fine.


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## Lex (Nov 9, 2013)

I'm just confused with several references to "that Hollywood sound" in regards to what we hear in this video. When I think of "that Hollywood sound" I think of the sound of great musicians being recorded on great sounding stages by top recording engineers. I think of big percussion ensembles making the room shake and sing in the same time. I think of original and clever sound design and synth programming. I think of amazing orchestrators dealing with dynamics, textures, voicing...

The sound of this teaser makes me think of bad TV show music, bad trailer music, and a commercial for an off brand tooth paste.

I mean Peter Siedlaczek collection is what, 180EUR these days? That and a good verb/IR's will get you way closer "to that Hollywood sound" if you know what you are doing....if...if...

alex


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## quantum7 (Nov 9, 2013)

I believe that my Kurzweil PC3 could do just as well for this mockup. I think Nexus is mainly good at one thing- dance music. I will say that it is much better than Hollywood 1, which I thought was a joke.


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## Gabriel Oliveira (Nov 9, 2013)

Tron at 7:50


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## jleckie (Nov 9, 2013)

A couple of Star Trek later series cues as well. LOVE the out of context stock footage!


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## Guido Negraszus (Nov 9, 2013)

I don't agree with some comments here. People, this is a 8GB library. What other (Orchestral) library out there can give you THAT much in 8GB and to my ears "better than workstation" quality? Most Kontakt libraries nowadays are around 10-20GB and they usually "only" give you a limit of instruments. 

I have the first Hollywood edition and what I liked most were the so called SQ patches which are tempo-synced runs (drums, strings etc.) and I found them very useful to start a new track and inspirational. Sure, I bought this before I had all the Symphobia/Spitfire/Sonokinetic stuff so I don't use it anymore. I probably go for the $99 "core version" of this because I really like all the SQ patches.


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## Sid Francis (Nov 9, 2013)

I am very much more impressed by this that by the mega-giga libraries that came out lately since it seems, just seems, that someone gathered a lot of things in 8 GB that finally really WORK. I know it is a lot of show involved, and sometimes I am able to look behind the curtain, but there are also a lot of patches that also did sound great when being exposed.
At least this demo was made by someone who knew how to arrange...
And it gave me a big grin when the faked Harry Potter theme was presented... :D 

If the nexus player would not be needed which adds 100% to the cost, I would immediately buy it.


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## Guido Negraszus (Nov 9, 2013)

Actually, the video is quite clever. Took me a minute or two before I realized that the titles displayed are the ones which are actually playing in the demo at that point of time. This takes out the guess work what is actually playing.


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## germancomponist (Nov 10, 2013)

Lex @ Sun Nov 10 said:


> The sound of this teaser makes me think of bad TV show music, bad trailer music, and a commercial for an off brand tooth paste.
> 
> I mean Peter Siedlaczek collection is what, 180EUR these days? That and a good verb/IR's will get you way closer "to that Hollywood sound" if you know what you are doing....if...if...
> 
> alex



+1

ReFx do a very clever marketing with this video.... . What if someone would do a same vid with the old lib from Peter? :-D


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## TGV (Nov 10, 2013)

Lex @ Sun Nov 10 said:


> The sound of this teaser makes me think of bad TV show music, bad trailer music, and a commercial for an off brand tooth paste.


I think that's the whole point. This product is (not completely unlike products such as OE) aimed at bedroom producer kiddies, whose sole reference is lousy film and trailer music, consisting of blocks chords with predictable progressions, probably heard via bad speakers. So, what sound do they want? Those strings plus that epic percussion and that big brass, drenched in reverb. This library probably has no dynamic layers, no legato, etc., none of the stuff that has been hard fought by the likes of Spitfire, Cinesamples, Audiobro, East West, which allows you to create a fairly realistic mockup of complex orchestral works. But for its purpose, the sounds are impressive (although we actually don't know how much processing has been done).

Perhaps it will turn out for good: perhaps they will create one or two tracks, find something is missing, and come over to this side.

Perhaps...


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## TGV (Nov 10, 2013)

germancomponist @ Sun Nov 10 said:


> Lex @ Sun Nov 10 said:
> 
> 
> > ReFx do a very clever marketing with this video.... . What if someone would do a same vid with the old lib from Peter? :-D


I think the screen would be full of unintelligible abbreviations: Cellox fx ATT MW, Tuba stacc dry, Tmb Ens Stacc (med) sfz, ...


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## ysnyvz (Nov 10, 2013)

i don't get it why you guys compare it with spitfire, cinesamples, eastwest etc. libs
it's kind of a cinematic sound design lib like Sample Logic, Heavyocity etc. libs
actually it's not that bad and looks like there is a big improvement from Hollywood 1
may be Hollywood 3 will be much better, so you won't make fun of it :D


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## woodsdenis (Nov 10, 2013)

It never ceases to amaze me how defensive and arrogant some people get when products like this get released, it's a rompler that has got a very good orchestral sound set that would rival something like Project SAMs OE. Stop comparing it to something else. Snipes at "how bad " the demo is only show terrible insecurity IMO

If you have Nexus it's a no brainier. BTW, is Kontakt a rompler also? You can't sample directly into it and the vast majority of users never use there own samples but presets (sample libraries) created by others. Not much difference really.


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## Guy Rowland (Nov 10, 2013)

Well it looks like my "can't easily pigeonhole this" is proving true from the comments. The Siedlaczek comparison is fair only up to a point. This is very much for the 2013 set, far more skewed towards the big and epic with loads of synth arps and massive percussion, which in turn is more like a Heavyocity product (indeed, the sheer number of arps, percussion hits and loops means its worth checking out for that alone). So yeah - Siedlaczek meets Heavyocity with a sprinkling of Project Sam on the top might be a more realistic description.

As I said in the OP, I knew it would be controversial and get more than its share of dismissive comments, but I quickly figured that the combination of a very modern epic sound and sheer breadth piqued my interest, especially since I'm already planning on jumping on the ReFx bandwaggon for pop / dance music purposes.

I think its true that it's not primarily aimed at us, and I'm pretty sure the individual and solo instruments will be the weakest part from our perspective - you can hear that clearly enough in the demos. But I'm quite happy to ignore those. I'd be very surprised if there weren't more than a few for-the-juggular patches that will earn their keep.


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## Oompa Loompa (Nov 10, 2013)

I'm wondering if this is triggering my buy impulses because of a very clever and extremely well produced demo. Not sure you can expect that sound out of the box. 

Note to myself: Hold on to your wallet and calm down before making any purchases.


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## TheUnfinished (Nov 10, 2013)

The overall sound may be slightly behind the curve, but then so is a lot of music used in television these days. And there seems to be enough sounds of genuine quality in there to mask some of the weaker stuff.

I see a lot of dance/electronica producers talking about wanting to get into scoring and library music production, and this would be a very fine entry level product for them.

And anyway... doesn't matter whether we think it cuts it, it's whether directors/producers/music supervisors think it'll cut it.


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## RasmusFors (Nov 10, 2013)

Honestly the percussion sounds quite good, and so does the strings. The brass and winds sounds horrific though, reminds me of the orchestral patches in the old Korg Trinity. 

But i guess it's good for what it is. A cheap entry level library which may be usefull for some layering. Now I want to see some patchwalktrough or video review !


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## ysnyvz (Nov 10, 2013)

RasmusFors @ Sun Nov 10 said:


> Now I want to see some patchwalktrough or video review !



found it!


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## mark812 (Nov 10, 2013)

Reminds me of this:


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## paulmatthew (Nov 10, 2013)

The brass sounds awful in this demo vid.Very synth like and looks like there is no control of any kind over dynamics. The tuttis sound pretty solid , however , I would opt for Sonokinetic's Da Capo and Cinesamples Cineorch before Refx Nexus 2 Hollywood 2 expansion. For the price of Nexus 2 and the Hollywood 2 expansion ($600), you could get Da Capo , Cineorch , Hollywoodwinds and a Valahalla reverb. I'd like to go with door number 2 Bob!


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## korgscrew (Nov 10, 2013)

Guy Rowland @ Sun Nov 10 said:


> I'm already planning on jumping on the ReFx bandwaggon for pop / dance music purposes.



Guy, I did and jumped off without looking! The sounds are dated, un-tweakable and over compressed. If thats what your looking for, then go for it. Its a really expensive outlay too! I found that they were really difficult to mix, seeing as they are so in your face. Also alot are already pre-baked with reverb.

Also support is quite rude!


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## Stephen Rees (Nov 10, 2013)

TGV @ Sun Nov 10 said:


> I think the screen would be full of unintelligible abbreviations: Cellox fx ATT MW, Tuba stacc dry, Tmb Ens Stacc (med) sfz, ...



LOL. That takes me back....


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## Guy Rowland (Nov 10, 2013)

korgscrew @ Sun Nov 10 said:


> Guy Rowland @ Sun Nov 10 said:
> 
> 
> > I'm already planning on jumping on the ReFx bandwaggon for pop / dance music purposes.
> ...



Ooh, interesting / alarming - I've not heard such negative feedback before (beyond "it's just a bunch of presets"). Essentially I'm looking at it to complement Omnisphere which I use for pretty much everything, and know my way around pretty well. I seem to get asked a lot to do stuff which is quite dancy / poppy, and from the demos Nexus seemed to be a one stop shop for up to date genres with minimal thought (which, for this stuff, suits me down to the ground). Especially surprised to hear that they are untweakable - I understood the basic tweaks were solid and easy (and the arp much praised, for example), and I definitely understood all reverb / delays to be tweakable. Will do some more searching.

And again, I've heard nothing but good things from support. Sorry to hear your negative experiences, guess I'm hoping you've been unlucky....


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## quantum7 (Nov 10, 2013)

I would look elsewhere for Dance & electronic sounds. Nexus is VERY mediocre and generic in those sounds IMO. Zebra, Omnisphere, & Alchemy BLOW Nexus away for original sounds IMO. I've spent many hours with literally every expansion they have out for Nexus, and so many sound virtually the same. It blows my mind that they ask 3k for the entire lot.


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## germancomponist (Nov 10, 2013)

Yesterday, when I was listening on my little net.book, I downloaded the demo mp3. Today I have listened to it in my studio. All what I can tell is: It is only a toy and not worth it to buy! Absolutely not!


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## korgscrew (Nov 10, 2013)

Guy Rowland @ Mon Nov 11 said:


> korgscrew @ Sun Nov 10 said:
> 
> 
> > Guy Rowland @ Sun Nov 10 said:
> ...



Things like arp etc are tweakable, but you cannot tweak the sounds like a synth. Of course ADSR are there, but thats about it synth wise.

Ive had ok support, its not a nice as from Paul. Maybe its because im british  I have read alot of bitchy comments on their facebook page from the owner. I think at some point he blocked a users nexus account and licence because they asked about a bug on their facebook page.

I would spend the money on some great Omni Preset packs. Loads out there, but better than nexsus


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## Guy Rowland (Nov 10, 2013)

quantum7 @ Sun Nov 10 said:


> I would look elsewhere for Dance & electronic sounds. Nexus is VERY mediocre and generic in those sounds IMO. Zebra, Omnisphere, & Alchemy BLOW Nexus away for original sounds IMO. I've spent many hours with literally every expansion they have out for Nexus, and so many sound virtually the same. It blows my mind that they ask 3k for the entire lot.



Ooh now, I disagree with you there. There's no greater fan of Omnisphere out there than I - indeed I'm on record as saying I never want to use another synth. But for certain specific genre stuff, I don't hear Omni quite nailing it - not from any source and with any processing. I hear some of the Nexus demos EXACTLY nailing it. Like you, I don't see much point in getting the whole shebang, but I think a handful of carefully chosen expansions will, I think, fill the gaps I find in my arsenal.

And I know other synths - such as Massive - might get me there for certain patches and certain sounds. And ReFx's sound sets for Massive sound better than any other I've heard - but they don't have the sheer sonic variety that Nexus does. Which is its great strength for me, it just shamelessly thieves the best sounds out there and hands them out on a big dumb platter.

Or so I perceive, I may have it all wrong. But Omni will always be my virtual synth love, I've no doubt about that


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## korgscrew (Nov 10, 2013)

Refx do a demo of nexus I think, try it out.


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## Guy Rowland (Nov 10, 2013)

korgscrew @ Sun Nov 10 said:


> Refx do a demo of nexus I think, try it out.



Really? Never seen that. In fact, its a minor pain that the product seems to be only sold as a physical sale with international shipping.


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## korgscrew (Nov 10, 2013)

You do need an elicencer though. 16 hours of time.

http://refx.com/support/#2.13


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## zvenx (Nov 10, 2013)

if you ask them
I think they will give you a download and a 24 hour temporary license.
rsp


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## Guy Rowland (Nov 10, 2013)

Wow thanks guys - had no idea. I'll have a go at that later in the week.


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## TheUnfinished (Nov 10, 2013)

For dance sounds, Guy, you'd be much better off getting Sylenth and a handful of the best soundsets for it. Would be cheaper than Nexus too.

Or even Massive. 

Much better flexibility and much cheaper to add new, cutting-edge sounds.


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## Guido Negraszus (Nov 10, 2013)

Guy, I think Nexus is great value and offers some fantastic expansions. Even for media / film composers. You must check out the Bigtone expansions which offer some really great pads. I use them for years. Sure, if you have Omni, Alchemy and Zebra you probably won't need it. I have them all but still use Nexus regularly. My day to day template is Omnisphere, Zebra, Alchemy, RMX, Kontakt, Play and Nexus.


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## Lawson. (Nov 10, 2013)

As a guy who does usually only orchestral stuff, this library is HORRIBLE. If you want to add some "Hollywoodish" sounds to your compositions, fine, go for it. But if you're actually looking to write orchestral music, this is NOT the thing. I actually think the default Kontakt orchestral library is better than this.

EWQL guy for life. :D


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## chimuelo (Nov 10, 2013)

This isn't for film or composing.
It's for making music at the gym, and it's exactly why everyone comes with headphones to avoid hearing it.
The filter sweeps sound more like an EQ automation that anything...
It's just weak and should be left for wedding DJs and the like.


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## quantum7 (Nov 10, 2013)

Guy Rowland @ Sun Nov 10 said:


> quantum7 @ Sun Nov 10 said:
> 
> 
> > I would look elsewhere for Dance & electronic sounds. Nexus is VERY mediocre and generic in those sounds IMO. Zebra, Omnisphere, & Alchemy BLOW Nexus away for original sounds IMO. I've spent many hours with literally every expansion they have out for Nexus, and so many sound virtually the same. It blows my mind that they ask 3k for the entire lot.
> ...



OT- Now after viewing your Lumina videos I am reading your words in my mind using your voice.


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## germancomponist (Nov 10, 2013)

Normally I am a very friendly guy, but I must add this:

I am amazed, with what impudence the makers of the vid here adorn them self with borrowed plumes! As is shown: "ST Zimmer Strings 2", "The Dark Knight", etc .

This is an unpardonable insolence!

They are very lucky that Hans Zimmer is a such a kind and patient man. Other composers / companies would have long led an injunction by court, so that the video disappeared from the scene. ... . 

Just 2 other cents.... .


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## chimuelo (Nov 10, 2013)

Well Gunther you can't expect anyone putting their real name on such cheese and dairy products......... =o


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## paulmatthew (Nov 10, 2013)

TheUnfinished @ Sun Nov 10 said:


> For dance sounds, Guy, you'd be much better off getting Sylenth and a handful of the best soundsets for it. Would be cheaper than Nexus too.
> 
> Or even Massive.
> 
> Much better flexibility and much cheaper to add new, cutting-edge sounds.



I agree with Matt 100% on this. There's Sylenth and a handful of others much cheaper. Your best bet nowadays are vst synths like Sylenth , Massive , Dune , etc.. Even on the REFX site under vengeance sounds , they offer presets for these synths. You could buy 2 vst synths for the cost of REFX nexus 2 and you don't have to wait for them in the mail. :D


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## Lex (Nov 10, 2013)

quantum7 @ Sun Nov 10 said:


> Nexus is VERY mediocre and generic ...



Just like the music so many people make....

alex


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## Guy Rowland (Nov 11, 2013)

Guy Rowland @ Sat Nov 09 said:


> I just know this will be a controversial one.



Wow, you're a prophet!  

OK, a train journey here means somewhat inevitably that a Long Post is coming. For those pushed for time, here's the summary - you're all wrong. Well, at least partially wrong.

I don't think there's a synth out there that consistently draws ire and derision to quite the extent of Nexus2. Real palpable anger, often. Essentially, the reason for this boils down to one thing - "it's a preset machine / rompler". And real musicans / composers / people don't use romplers. Why? Because:

1 - it's derivative

2- it's lazy

3 - it's cheating

4 - it's needlessly expensive

5 - it's restrictive

Now, I don't have a problem with that rationale. However - and here I'm treading on some delicate toes - what I SUSPECT is also happening is to do with my little po-faced signature that graces my posts, that because people don't like the paradigm, they also convince themselves of all sorts of other things which aren't necessarily true. Because they are predisposed to dislike the product (for perfectly valid reasons) they start adding new ones. Specifically:

6 - why, it doesn't even sound any good.

It's rather like if you dislike a person because they're an objectionable bully, you're inclined to also assume they must also be untalented, which may well not be the case. 

OK, let's pick on that most passe of dance genres, dubstep. The soft synth that gets named most frequently as "king of dubstep" is Massive. I've had massive for a couple of years, and every couple of months I fire it up to see if I can find what everyone else hears in it, and every time I can't. To be fair, I'm put off by that ugly interface and horrible UI, so I'm not too inclined to try and create better patches myself (and, most importantly, I'm thoroughly lazy in such matters... hell I learned Omnisphere, damned if I'm going to learn something ELSE now). So I turn to third party stuff, and I hear some marked improvements, and all sorts of nice and clever expansions of all sorts of genres where I typically conclude "yeah, nice enough, but I'd rather stick with Omni for those sounds". I don't hear an appreciable difference in most genres and areas, or - more often - prefer Omni. I love my share of dark and cinematic, and I love it right there in Spectrasonics sky blue.

Now I go to the Massive patches on the ReFx page, and say to the latest dubstep volumes. Wow, they are the closets I've heard to "the real thing". Relatively expensive, but I do now perceive that gap as being bridged... at least partially. Certain sounds are great, but it doesn't perhaps have the full range that a great complex dubstep track will have (no doubt using a gazillon different software and hardware synths), Which is fine - after all, Massive is just one synth.

Enter Nexus2.

I don't understand how it works, no-one seems to. I know it's not a bunch of sampled waveforms or just samples, there's more going on in terms of synthesis that we mere mortals cannot touch. But where it seems to excel - with their apparently brilliant team of programmers - is in mimicing The Real Thing. Here in the demos I hear my perceived gulf completely closed. For EDM and modern(ish) dance genres, I just hear patch after patch that sound the real deal, not a poor mans facsimile.

Now, a major caveat here. This is all based on IMITATION. If I'm asked to do something unimaginative for a TV show in a certain style, that's pretty much what I'm doing. Sadly, I'm not in Dave Porter's position of a blank creative canvass. If I want to nod to dubstep and go my own way with it, suddenly my options open up massively (and indeed Massively). What I'm after here though is a specific sound - not necessarily specific patches mind - but a sound that is strongly identifiable with a particular genre. I was very harsh on a well known developer's dubstep library which sounded all fake to me, while Mick Gordan's little charity effort sounded authentic. Other ears may vary, but those are mine - which also tells me Nexus 2's demos hit the spot in ways Massive's don't. (and as for Sylenth - I just don't get the fuss over it at all, plain and simple).

So that's electronic music. I have and love Omnisphere for the 90% of my needs. When I need something for a specific genre sound, that's when I plan to turn to Nexus.
 
My 2 cents is that similar dynamics are working on this Hollywood expansion, though it works differently in some regards. Some here have painted their demo as unlistenable, terrible, the worst thing that has ever happened to music since Da Da Da. I can only guess that a similar dynamic is at work to the dance music. The overall sound is authentically modern, specifically the recent Hans / trailer style (of which I'm not especially fond, but that's a digression). Good ears have been at work. There are clearly shortcomings - some of those exposed solo instruments aren't going to convince many, certainly not me. So what I guess is happening is that people with good ears (of which there are many) hear the poorer parts, add together all those vaild "nexus is for sissys" arguments, throw in a bit of "only 8gb" harrumphing and conflate it all to "it's all the most unlistenable horror imaginable". Which is where I would part company, of course.

From the beginning I saw this as a playground for the bedroom set, but could still hear the Nexus pitch at getting an authentic sound, with mixed results. Of course, you just can't do full orchestral in the same way as EDM - it's too subtle, too refined and requires too many resources to convincingly pull off any kind of detail. But my ears do tell me that there's some good stuff in there too amid the wanting.

And so (as the music builds behind me) as I see the City Of London towers amid a grey November London morning outside my window, I conclude my remarks ladies and gentlemen. Well done to anyone who made it to the bitter, incidentally.

DISCLAIMER other views are available.


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## Ed (Nov 11, 2013)

Judging this purely on that long video rather than knowing anything about Nexus, I think its an odd mixed bag of some things sounds nice-to-good, to very mediocre and horrible.

I can see a use for _some _of it, but I still wouldn't buy it. I think for the market Nexus is directed to its very good.


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## Guy Rowland (Dec 6, 2013)

Ok, ok - so I bought Nexus2 in the Christmas sale, and a few expansions. For EDM, it's EXACTLY what I wanted - off the shelf, instant spot on knock offs of whatever is in the charts. Omnisphere will of course be my bread and butter, but for dance music in particular this gives me a different sound which complements Omni perfectly. And actually you can do a reasonable amount of basic tweaking - filters, envelopes, mods etc.

And so I was just too curious and got the Core version of the Hollywood series. I suppose the quick summary is that it is exactly what I thought it would be, 90% sorta useless to working composers, but a sprinkling of useful patches in there. But...

There's a lot of claims here at VI-C library is just a press-a-button library to do all real composers out of a job, and I usually find some claims wildly over-inflated. With this expansion, I can sort of see it though. Nexus raison d'etre is to give people The Sound, and they've got a very modern cinematic sound here. A lot of the library is made up of complete sequences - left hand is an entire orchestra playing a 4 bar phrase, right hand a lead line. About half of those are minor key Dark Knight-style knock offs. And superficially they sound very impressive. And of course, they go nowhere, you're restricted to only certain progressions which harmonically work and end up making everything sound the same. But for a few seconds, you sure can sound like a 2nd rate trailer composer, and that'll be good enough for reality TV shows etc.

Of the rest, there's some useful Heavyocity type loops and then a mixed bag of individual instruments and ensembles. Most are orchestral, some are synth based (yes, there's a whole heap-o-braaaaaams in here). Irritatingly, the modhweel defaults to a kind of reverse action where pushing it up reduces the perceived velocity. There's a few playable orch tuttis that are in the Symphobia multi mode, usually nowhere near as good but there are some useful patches in there. Tutti Staccatissimo is a convincing insta-impact (though lack of rr on this patch reduces its usefulness). There's a harp with one dynamic which is pretty limited, but the arpeggios are nice. There's no legato instruments of course.

Probably the best stuff is the sorta hybrid orchestral, some very nice combos of instruments. Fantasy Layer is a piano, glock and synth that works, or Lyra Big Harp is like 6 harps playing at once - could be handy, its a colour I don't have. 

So what's the verdict? In truth, for working composers, perhaps a bit less than I thought. It's got useful stuff for sure, but you're probably better off getting a dedicated Heavyocity or Hybrid Two library for a lot of the stuff. On the plus side, it's kind of a guilty pleasure to play those ridiculous sequences and there is the odd hidden gem. On the minus side... yes, this does slightly worry me as to how much its gonna get used, cos the bottom line is that they have got that sound in a box, albeit very limited in where you can go with it.


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## peksi (Dec 6, 2013)

that thing sounds crazy good when i heard their dance / trance sounds. would love to buy it for those sounds only.. if i did such music..

but i bet the orchestral stuff is something they will not earn their living with.


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## Guy Rowland (Dec 6, 2013)

peksi @ Fri Dec 06 said:


> that thing sounds crazy good when i heard their dance / trance sounds. would love to buy it for those sounds only.. if i did such music..
> 
> but i bet the orchestral stuff is something they will not earn their living with.



For EDM... the way I see it is that its a best-of compilation of every other synth. Nothing new or innovative, but just hit after unashamed glorious hit. I think the real worth is in the expansions - if there's a particular style you need to nail, you'll probably be well covered.

The browser is pretty archaic, which is a shame.

I just bet Hollywood will sell very very well. Not to the VI-C crowd, but I tells ya - it's really quite hair-raising how easy it is to make a big ol' trailer noise with this. It'll be used by the dance crowd for a bit of Hollywood glamour, and - I suspect - a helluva lot of picture editors. It's not like me to go on about this stuff, but there's something vaguely disturbing about it.

I'll probably do a little video walkthrough eventually when I have a bit more time, maybe over Christmas, from a media composer perspective.


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## Sid Francis (Dec 6, 2013)

Hey Guy...

That walkthrough would be very welcome just to see the patches "as is" and not in context of other bombastic sounds. I give my thanks for all your nice work, also the Lumina vids which were very interesting too. If the damn thing were just not so expensive... :cry:


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## marcotronic (Dec 6, 2013)

Sid Francis @ Sat Dec 07 said:


> Hey Guy...
> 
> That walkthrough would be very welcome just to see the patches "as is" and not in context of other bombastic sounds. I give my thanks for all your nice work, also the Lumina vids which were very interesting too. If the damn thing were just not so expensive... :cry:



Yes, a walkthrough would be awesome! Hope you find some time! 

Thanks
Marco


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## Waywyn (Dec 7, 2013)

After reading some of these comments here, I once feel so refreshed to realize that I am without that much prejudgement, because crafting a well sounding trance track is actually really difficult and needs a lot of knowledge ... and I am pretty sure most of you bashing guys would suck a** doing it!!

Nexus is one of the most fat souding soft synth and not without a reason it's been used by lots of trance producers!

If you really compare Nexus and its soundsets to a high quality orchestral library, then it is probably time to rethink your philosphy or even your job!
I seriously had to burst out laughing when I was reading the comment about "it doesn't have legato" ... seriously, I don't mean to offend, but some people seriously miss the purpose of some things.

As a little add I totally understand when you think those sounds are not your cup of tea and it is always a matter of taste ... 

... but to talk about Nexus as some of you do, is like to blame a rechargable driller for not being able to tear up your road in front of your house to work on the water pipes!!!


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## TGV (Dec 7, 2013)

Waywyn @ Sat Dec 07 said:


> ... but to talk about Nexus as some of you do, is like to blame a rechargable driller for not being able to tear up your road in front of your house to work on the water pipes!!!


Still, if you had to break up the road and were looking for a drill, and someone came up and said: "Look what I've got", then you'd probably also politely decline.


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## Sid Francis (Dec 7, 2013)

So: did anyone recommend Nexus for an realistic orchestral mockup? Can´t remember. Nevertheless it can sound good, even without legato (omg :? :? )


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## Polarity (Dec 7, 2013)

(o) 
Nexus is one of the best trance synth plugin around.
It was born to be a trance/dance machine...
and for that purpose Vengeance (because it's them behind Nexus and lot of sound packs for other synths too, hardware included) made a terrific job.

Dance/Trance world is a world where imitation probably counts more than being totally original.
And Vengeance are very good at imitate the classic sounds of the most famous tracks.
Nexus made it much more simple to get that trance sound. 

The Orchestral demo sounds too much compressed?
Well, for the kind of genre is aimed at it probably must be!
Months ago I discovered Epic Trance, this expansion probably could be useful for those who make it.
I don't know, I did Trance years ago, and I'm going to revamp some of my old tracks and doing new ones... and sure Epic Trance would be one genre I like to do. 

Dance/Trance making is totally different from pure orchestral composition..
I'm not surprised to read such harshness about a preset-synth like this.

Presets? No, presets?
Well, there were tons of great musicians that used presets in past, but people didn't knew because they were not musicians themselves and didn't own those synths.
Think of Vangelis: can you say he's not a good composer or performer?!?
Many of his famous CS80 sounds were just presets!!

then, I agree with WayWin and GuyRowland.

@Guy: I shared your same feelings about Massive. 
Omnisphere is my first software synth to which I look for when creating electronic stuff (I'm programming most of my Jarre's sounds in it)...
but honestly I don't find it as the first choice for modern Trance sounds... 

As Waywin said, you need a lot of work and knowledge sometimes to get the right sounds... 
sometimes the famous sounds are so simple that you can miss them just because you are thinking about some other complexity that is not really there! And that trance sound you were looking at is just obtained with an excessive amount of compression/limiting and some other FX and layering it with another simple synth sound. 
An example: that kick in your face chorus lead in Dash Berlin's "Waiting".

Back on RFX demo:
I like a lot the visual effects in the background.
Tron stuff: I heard twice in the video, but on "The son of Flynn" cover the arping synth sound is not the same as the original.
Almost in the end: Mass Effect 3 main theme!  Also here, similar sounds but not the same (example: the alien invasion brass, emulating the sound of the Reapers machines)... but the piano tone is very very close.
I like a lot the three Mass Effect games soundtracks.


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## Guy Rowland (Dec 7, 2013)

Sid Francis @ Sat Dec 07 said:


> So: did anyone recommend Nexus for an realistic orchestral mockup? Can´t remember. Nevertheless it can sound good, even without legato (omg :? :? )



Well not in the conventional sense of mockup. I only have the core library, but I think its weakest area is detail in solo instruments (and "normal" ensembles too really).

But as Alex says, its not really the focus. If you have some thundering great orchestra smashing away with your left hand, then in context the lead horns / strings sound pretty good really - tonally I think those are good patches, but its all rather skin deep of course. That's sort of the bottom line with it I think - for a big impressive noise knocked off within minutes not hours - albeit that isn't truly "composed" by you - you simply can't beat it. And as a bonus there are some useable patches in there too, I'm sure odd things will sneak into my "real" tracks.

It's inevitable that this is what a discussion on Nexus ends up with - c'est la vie. I'm pretty pragmatic... this isn't the tool to build your career or skills as a composer, and I wouldn't think of using those loops for anything "serious", but if you're a working composer on some reality show or something then why not. In that sense, in practice I see it as a competitor to using library music more than regular composition, and viewed at in that context it becomes a bit less threatening. Well, except for library composers perhaps.


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## woodsdenis (Dec 7, 2013)

Guy Rowland @ Fri Dec 06 said:


> peksi @ Fri Dec 06 said:
> 
> 
> > that thing sounds crazy good when i heard their dance / trance sounds. would love to buy it for those sounds only.. if i did such music..
> ...



Go for it Guy, I would be very interested, Nexus is the sound for a whole genre of music and as an intrument sounds great. My only concern is the cost of expansions and bang for buck with the core library.


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## Polarity (Dec 7, 2013)

Sid Francis @ Sat 07 Dec said:


> So: did anyone recommend Nexus for an realistic orchestral mockup? Can´t remember. Nevertheless it can sound good, even without legato (omg :? :? )



after I watched the walktrough by Vengeance...
I believe I won't recommend it for a "realistic" orchestral mockup.
I believe PS Orchstral Essentials or SF Albion give much better for about the same price of Nexus+Hollywood bundle.

perhaps the best thing for judge would be to do a direct comparison:
Nexus Hollywood pack VS Cinesamples libraries, or the other two I nominated.
On the same machine, the same audio system... the same MIDI performances.
Just a few sounds...not all of course! :mrgreen: 

So to check better..
There are some things interesting: sure the one key > ostinatos gives an attractive effect, and some strings have already that "tone" you heard in some movies.
but others I heard in the demos that didn't convinced me, like BassDrum and other percussion hits, the Steinway Piano seems weak in low registers... 
the winds seemed not bad to me, but....

I'd like to have all those kind of risers, rips and FX like the ones in Symphobia
without spending 1000 euros, but just 100


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## Celador (Dec 7, 2013)

Waywyn @ Sat Dec 07 said:


> If you really compare Nexus and its soundsets to a high quality orchestral library, then it is probably time to rethink your philosphy or even your job!



As the whole bundle is priced at 250 Euro and there are some very good entry level libraries in the same price range (e.g. Da Capo...) I think it is legitimate to compare the product with other libraries. In addition the Nexus developer seems to think this bundle is real competition: in the official forum he said something like "We are much cheaper than the big libraries, but we are doing some things better".


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## SyMTiK (Dec 7, 2013)

hollywood 1 sounded really cheezy to me, but after hearing hollywood 2 im actually a bit impressed by it. for a company primarily focusing on dance music synths and sounds, this is actually a really good sounding library. it may not bolster the quality and extensiveness of libraries such as albion or ewqlso, but for a 60 dollar extension on a 300 dollar dance music focused synth, you have to admit thats a pretty impressive sound for the money. 

im sure for someone who does dance music as well as orchestra mock ups this would be a good buy, and they probably already own nexus if they do dance music, seeing that every hit house song out there uses it nowadays :roll:

EDIT: wait nevermind this extension is 250 dollars. in that case i would probably question buying it, even if i owned nexus. especially considering you can get ewqlso on sale right now for the same price.


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## Waywyn (Dec 7, 2013)

Celador @ Sat Dec 07 said:


> Waywyn @ Sat Dec 07 said:
> 
> 
> > If you really compare Nexus and its soundsets to a high quality orchestral library, then it is probably time to rethink your philosphy or even your job!
> ...



1. I give a big damn what a developer thinks about his own library!!
Let's be honest here: WHICH developer would say: Oh well, our soundsets are actually not any better than any orchestral lib at the same price, but we are doing our best to averagely please the customer (who doesn't have much clue about real orchestras anyway)
Our strings are amazing. We got the best toms! Our brass shines like no other!
Come on! THIS. IS. BUSINESS! It is only about money and sales!

Check out advertising on TV. How many cleaning ads promise to be working best and fastest?

2. Only because it is the same price you can not compare it because both engines and the purpose of each product is totally different. While entry orchestral libs aim to deliver finest orchestra features, the Nexus stuff is all about sounds! Again mostly aimed for trance and stuff ... and again, I don't care what the dev tells me!


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## Waywyn (Dec 7, 2013)

By the way, I just checked the video!
Only because of the Epic Toms patches I would spend those 199 EUR! Excellent!
Libs with Toms like these are pretty rare, to be honest!


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## Celador (Dec 7, 2013)

Waywyn @ Sat Dec 07 said:


> 2. Only because it is the same price you can not compare it because both engines and the purpose of each product is totally different. While entry orchestral libs aim to deliver finest orchestra features, the Nexus stuff is all about sounds! Again mostly aimed for trance and stuff ... and again, I don't care what the dev tells me!



Btw, the engine of Nexus was extended for this expansion: Convolution reverb, better round robin, 8 velocity layers.


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## Polarity (Dec 7, 2013)

Waywyn @ Sat 07 Dec said:


> By the way, I just checked the video!
> Only because of the Epic Toms patches I would spend those 199 EUR! Excellent!
> Libs with Toms like these are pretty rare, to be honest!



or just 70.
I think that those Toms are on one of the four expansions only.
There are the patch list pdfs you can look at to be sure.


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## Allegro (Dec 7, 2013)

Wow. Some of you guys here who are comparing Nexus to a Sample Library seriously don't have any idea what they are talking about. Its a ROMpler guys. Comeon! Nexus is one of the most popular Rompler used in commercial music. Almost every other Major EDM artist from Armin to Avicii, Niky to Swedish House Mafia to....well, you name it, use Nexus.

It is light on resources and you can achieve unique sounds with it. Don't let others confuse you that all sounds are dated or ripped off from popular titles. While I am not a big fan of Hollywood Expansion 1 or 2, you cannot simply diss nexus by listening to just two expansions and saying that it doenst have legato. Lol I can't believe how someone would complain about that.

I also want 2x Oscillators with LFO Adjustment, A built in distorter , custom arp and a gate ,4 different delay types from SABLE String Series. because the product has little value in it.

Does this makes sense to you?^^ Ofcourse Not. This product isnt for creating your next realistic mockup but the quality, and variety of sounds makes it a swiss knife in my opinion. Its great when you don't need the realistic sound. On Purpose. to make the track more static when required.

You also cannot compare it directly to Omnisphere as it is a different beast. But Thats a topic we can discuss later maybe.

Here are some of the sounds that I've been using from Nexus that I couldn't recreate successfully on other synths incl. Omnisphere. Not saying it is impossible to, but considering how easy it is using Nexus

Examples:
1- : https://soundcloud.com/dexound/starlight-concept-v6-5
2: https://soundcloud.com/dexound/sublime-original-rnb


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## Allegro (Dec 7, 2013)

Double Post. Ignore


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## germancomponist (Dec 7, 2013)

Allegro @ Sat Dec 07 said:


> Here are some of the sounds that I've been using from Nexus that I couldn't recreate successfully on other synths incl. Omnisphere. Not saying it is impossible to, but considering how easy it is using Nexus
> 
> Examples:
> 1- : https://soundcloud.com/dexound/starlight-concept-v6-5
> 2: https://soundcloud.com/dexound/sublime-original-rnb



Now this is interesting for me! 

Can you post an example with one or more "soloed" sounds what you could not do with a real virtual synth or maybe with Kontakt?


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## Waywyn (Dec 7, 2013)

Allegro @ Sat Dec 07 said:


> Does this makes sense to you?^^ Ofcourse Not. This product isnt for creating your next realistic mockup but the quality, and variety of sounds makes it a swiss knife in my opinion. Its great when you don't need the realistic sound. On Purpose. to make the track more static when required.
> 
> You also cannot compare it directly to Omnisphere as it is a different beast. But Thats a topic we can discuss later maybe.



Exactly! I couldn't express it better.

Just as a general add. I am currently working on the album for Eva Mali - a very promising upcoming classical/pop artist. The orchestra was recorded at Abbey Road by the LSO ... and afterwards I had to do additional programming. Mainly my choice for synths easily fell on the Nexus because it sounds so huge, lush but still transparent leaving lots of room to the orchestra.

Of course you can recreate most sounds with hardware synths or even other software synths, but then again, HEY, why do we still buy string libraries when there was Miroslav/EWQLSO/VSL? Technically speaking these lib do NOT sound bad and with a lot of scripting you can achieve a lot!

We simply do buy stuff because we either like the sound of it, we think it makes it easier for us to work with it, eventually inspires us and it is something fresh enabling us to try out new things etc. ... my choice would always fall on the Nexus when it is about lush stuff ... and NO, mostly I do not have time to go through a 6 squaremeter wall of hardware synths throughout all ages!


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## Guy Rowland (Dec 8, 2013)

Ha ha, great post Alex!

The more I think about it, the idea of Nexus being a "best of" sums it up very well. I mean, you can be original with it (and that huge harp patch in Hollywood 2 core I haven't heard anywhere else for example), but it's not really the focus.

I got the demo to evaluate first, pressed one note and said out loud "I'm gonna buy it". It was exactly what I expected and hoped - instant chart-ready sound to sheer perfection. I'm under no aspirations of pioneering a new underground 437th variation on Dubstep, I just want something that sounds authentic if I'm asked to do something for a client in that vein, in much the same way that I want an authentic string or French horn sound.

BTW, the procedure for buying Nexus as a download is fiddly but possible, for anyone thinking of taking advantage of the once-a-year December sale. Here's the full steps I used.

1. Make sure you have an elicenser.

2. Register and send a support ticket requesting a demo. 

3. Wait for the links to arrive, you'll get an iso file and a small program

4. Burn the ISO to DVD, then run the installer. You can choose the library location.

5. Run the exe file for all the latest versions of the plugs. Add the elicenser license.

6. Play with it (it's just a 16 hour license mind) - if you like it, buy the regular version on the website inc international p&p + any expansions - you get an additional discount when buying expansions with the original product.

7. Immediately send another support ticket confirming you don't need the retail version.

8. You'll receive your full license and expansion download links. Download the master key and follow the instructions of installing it and the expansions (pretty easy actually). Don't panic if you get a FedEx tracking number like I did

9. The guys will then cancel the shipping and give you store credit for the amount.

It's cumbersome and imperfect, but still preferable to me than international shipping, customs etc.


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## Allegro (Dec 17, 2013)

germancomponist @ Sat Dec 07 said:


> Now this is interesting for me!
> 
> Can you post an example with one or more "soloed" sounds what you could not do with a real virtual synth or maybe with Kontakt?



Oops. Totally missed this post. Well, I can post solo sounds from this demo if you like? I mean synths separated. Everything used here is Nexus except the drum sounds of course. 

https://soundcloud.com/dexound/synth-te ... pt/s-0JirO

Notice the fake synthetic violin group in the second part of the drop. This is what I meant by 
"not needing the realistic sound, on Purpose. to make the track more static."

Besides, almost all sounds come drenched in reverb (as an effect) and some delay. Which is another reason its sounds great and commercial out of the box.

I usually layer nexus sounds to make my own ones sometimes using 4 or even 5 instances with drastic Eq. (built in) so that my sounds don't sound like every other nexus user.


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## Guy Rowland (Dec 22, 2013)

So here's the much-promised scattershot walkthrough of Nexus in general and also the Hollywood 2 Core expansion - http://youtu.be/s5D5w1I9cwo

(HD might take a short while to come through, but finally got to grips with encoding it at 1080).


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## marcotronic (Dec 22, 2013)

Thanks for the nice overview, guy!

Marco


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## woodsdenis (Dec 22, 2013)

Tx Guy, kinda what I expected. Killer at what it does well. Out of the Expansions which are standout.


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