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Best Service's Engine software - experiences?

Hello August,
Sorry to hear that you don't like Engine. It is indeed a rather "vintage" design and I expect if we wait another 5 years, we will again be state of the art design-wise ;).
But I promise we won't wait that long. As other people already mentioned we are doing a complete rewrite and that takes some time. We expect first results (smaller libraries) by the end of the year.
Until then why don't you press the prominent "Browser" button on top of Engine? Maybe you like that way of browsing better.
Maybe you wantto try the free Halls Of Fame demo which is based on the recent Engine developement.
Best regards, Wolfgang
Sorry for the small OT... If I wish to create libraries for Engine, which tools I need? I mean, is there an Engine version built to do that?
 
I should add - and maybe this has changed or is different in other libraries - but the control knobs in Forest Kingdom and Medieval Legends are circular. Which I think is extremely unintuitive and difficult when using a mouse to adjust parameters. AFAIK, there is no way to change to linear mousing. I really don't know what the thinking was there...
 
Is there any way to get Engine to share memory between multiple instances? I've found the ERA products quite memory hungry and would love to be able to shrink things down when you've got a dozen or so instruments going. Thanks.
 
Or, does anyone know how the change the internal tempo of Engine?

Say that my project is 130 bpm, the looping phrase is 100 bpm and all I can do is to choose between auto (=130) and manual (=100) sync.
I want to halve the speed of the phrase and as there is not an internal /2 -button, I could just adjust the internal tempo of Engine to 65 bpm as a workaround

Except that I seemingly can't. The tempo in Engine seems to be firmly locked to the project tempo. Is this actually reality or am I just missing something?
 
I use it all the time because of tarilonte libraries which are amazing.

I do find that the cpu weight and real time performance of multiple instances of engine is a lot heavier than kontact. And I can feel the comparison with my other vep instances. The engine ones tend to increase the consumption of real time performance quickly. And this is after managing and adjusting the engine cpu parameters.

It's heavier. But, that is a sacrifice I take just to be able to use the tarilonte libraries which are second to none.

Hope that helps.
 
I use it all the time because of tarilonte libraries which are amazing.

I do find that the cpu weight and real time performance of multiple instances of engine is a lot heavier than kontact. And I can feel the comparison with my other vep instances.
Are you using the built-in reverb? It's good but resource-hungry. Using your own reverb might help.
 
Are you using the built-in reverb? It's good but resource-hungry. Using your own reverb might help.

No, I don't use it. I add EW spaces to place the instruments in a post fader setup in vep. But, I will check that I am not a mega idiot and have double reverb there.

That will be my only important complain with engine. But, honestly, the results and behavior of engine is WAAY better than any OT Sine thingy or Spitfire thingy..... Really, the accomplishment of Tarilonte's legatos in engine expresses well what engine can do.

Also, the libraries list UI is kind of clunky. It needs just a UI revamp. But, it does what it suppose to.
 
Until then why don't you press the prominent "Browser" button on top of Engine? Maybe you like that way of browsing better.

One thing that has made Engine work better for me is to use the "Favorites" folder. After I've loaded a preset I like, I can then save it as a Favorite. What I do is I then file it away in a folder that I've categorized.

So, for example, I can put all my favorite Tarilonte flutes and woods in one folder. You can make as many folders as you want. If you change your mind later, you can find the favorites in your user directory.

Another interesting feature is if you have a bunch of instruments you like to load up at the same time in Engine. If you put them in a single folder you can load them all up with one click.
 
Is it possible to have two or more layers on the same midi channel, so that they play at the same time?
I haven't been able to do it, but it seems ridiculous that you can't!
 
My experience with engine on a mac is a pure desaster.
Not even regular crashes, but a kind a like pink noise crash, distorting my audio interface and my ears.
This is just unacceptable @Best Service Wolfgang
And this is just standalone, browsing the libraries.
 
i have its gui. One thign what i dont like in tarilonte libraries what is hard when i improvisation i must hold keyswitches. what makes me think should buy other stuff even i like these and at least few them sounds useful for my own uses.
 
To give them at least some credit, they did release an update that got rid of the silly faux-chrome look of the interface. That's a step in the right direction.
 
I'll re-ask my previous question is it possible to have two or more layers on the same midi channel, so that they play at the same time? When I try it, it turns off any other layer on the same midi channel. I guess you have to open a second instance?
 
My experience with engine on a mac is a pure desaster.
Not even regular crashes, but a kind a like pink noise crash, distorting my audio interface and my ears.
This is just unacceptable @Best Service Wolfgang
And this is just standalone, browsing the libraries.
This, exactly. For me it's loading Celtic ERA Soundscapes (Cubase 10.5, OS X Mojave, plenty of RAM and CPU). Produces a dangerous blast of noise and tones when loading. The "Celtic Adventure" has never loaded correctly.
 
This, exactly. For me it's loading Celtic ERA Soundscapes (Cubase 10.5, OS X Mojave, plenty of RAM and CPU). Produces a dangerous blast of noise and tones when loading. The "Celtic Adventure" has never loaded correctly.


Not having that here with Logic Pro X and Catalina.
 
Not a big fan of Engine either. I don't hate it, but I clearly prefer Kontakt. I buy Tarilonte's libraries only because they're gorgeous and there's no equivalent elsewhere, but usually I mostly buy Kontakt based VSTs.
 
The interface isn't great but I don't think it's as bad as it's being made out to be.

One thing that sucks though is the space it takes up in your project save files. Single instruments in Celtic ERA (the only library I own) tend to add between 10 MB and 40 MB to my project save files apiece. Oof. Most of my kontakt instruments add less than 1 MB.
 
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