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Most Disappointing Library Purchase?

Heavyocity Intimate Textures

The textures are a cool idea, but these recordings are scratchy in a harsh and unpleasing way for my ears. Many of them are also on the busy side for me. The other stuff, the whole processing strings through distortion, compression, gating and sequencing just sounds awful to to me. It just sounds so gimmicky. While I can get some use out of the basic texture patches (so long as I EQ them), I do regret the purchase

I recently figured out the slight scratchiness and slight harshness is what makes Heavyocitys Intimate Textures stand out. They provide a surprise element in a composition, makes it a bit more sharp, and add color by that. Especially to the soft stuff, they do a wonderful surprise contrast. But must be used in moderation.
 
Probably the only library which has lived up to my expectations is Una Corda.

Heavyocity's Scoring Guitars has some really nice stuff in it too.

U-he are really nice but to be honest I barely use Zebra and don't often see how I would.

My current hype is on Xfer's Serum. The walkthroughs make it look totally amazing. But these days I'm jaded. P.S. I've never bought a single Spitfire product.
 
Same here, it's no where near spitfire in audio quality. Heavyocity has some great ideas and some good sounds but they always need so much eq and processing to get the mixing right.

I think their drum stuff sounds great and has a signature sound. Also their earlier hybrid synth stuff like the Evolve's sound great as well, but some of the more recent releases that are more vocal/orchestral based just don't do it for me. They are all about heavy processing really and that has worked well in those earlier libraries. Personally I just don't like hearing strings with distortion, or vocals with gates etc... Output is going down this path full on. I guess it's the latest thing.

I'm getting much more satisfaction from smaller creative developers like Sound Dust. Really cool, original, flexible stuff at very affordable prices. I've never regretted a purchase. I'm afraid to make expensive purchases from companies that don't allow license transfers. Burned too many times -
 
Unfortunately, Sonikenetic libraries let me down... and I purchased several over the holiday sale.

The cracking between chords on playback makes them virtually unusable for me. And I'm on a modern Mac with relatively high specs and even using lite. And plenty high buffer, etc.

Just not worth it at all in this case.
 
I think their drum stuff sounds great and has a signature sound. Also their earlier hybrid synth stuff like the Evolve's sound great as well, but some of the more recent releases that are more vocal/orchestral based just don't do it for me. They are all about heavy processing really and that has worked well in those earlier libraries. Personally I just don't like hearing strings with distortion, or vocals with gates etc... Output is going down this path full on. I guess it's the latest thing.

I'm getting much more satisfaction from smaller creative developers like Sound Dust. Really cool, original, flexible stuff at very affordable prices. I've never regretted a purchase. I'm afraid to make expensive purchases from companies that don't allow license transfers. Burned too many times -

Yea, Output has gone down this route a lot in my opinion.

I'll check out Sound Dust.. looks interesting.
 
I can't even remember any libraries I bought because they were not expensive. I always think the cinematic/fx type libraries are always a crap shoot. Maybe it's time to make your own. As many synth VSTs I have I do find the smaller developers making some great Kontakt synths. I expanded more of my Hideaway Studio collection and will move on to getting more stuff from Frozen Plain. I'm staying away from orchestra libraries except when VSL have sales. HWO Gold will probably be my final library purchase someday. I think disappointments increase as much as our library collections increase. For me Live packs are often disappoint. Installation is a rocket science, samples aren't loaded correctly and easily forgotten when they are installed. The Samples from Mars collection might be it for me. The drums are useful but the synths are not. Some vintage synth emulations using samples are probably a waste. The real disappointment is myself for thinking gigabytes of sound equals value.
 
I have not regrets. Life is too short, plus I carefully listen to demo's, reviews, feedback, buy on need, and most importantly to not buy on impulse or sale.

This is the way. I make a list over time of things that I really need/like. I then wait until I either need it immediately or there is a big sale. Almost every time I've purchased on an impulse I've regretted it.

As for my biggest regret: Spitfire solo strings. Still holding out hope to turn that one around when I finally get the update ;).
 
Heres another (half) regret: Albion 2.

Main reason is the out of tune flute. Being the respectable company they are, they should fix this crap with an update, and, it should have been fixed long ago. From a customer viewpoint (and we are talking 400€ here), if you buy a car and one tire come in a rectangular shape, the company should fix that tire pretty damn fast. And give a box of chocolates as compliments.

The strings are not that unique - you can tweak Albion one to same sound. So 400 € for that great sounding euphonium. Nope. Fix that flute, thanks.
 
Lyrical Cello Phrases by Sonuscore.

Somehow I mixed this up, and bought wrong library, I thought it was another product called Emotional Cello.

Whats even the point with a library that isnt tempo fixed. I opened it once and have never opened it since - why even have something like that for sale among VST:s. Straight from the arab market.
Hope you eventually picked up Emotional Cello
 
I tend to not “regret” libraries so much as wishful-think that one day I’ll figure out how to use them and then I’ll make something wonderful.

Phobos, for example, I’ve used very little. But the few good moments I’ve recorded, are very good indeed. To this day, i find Christian’s phobos demo to be very moving, and I aspire to capture that mood.

Ditto Sonokinetic. I picked up sotto, maximo, capriccio, and minimal over holidays. Wow, that’s a lot of phrases. Now, I haven’t created a full track with them, but only sprinkled a few phrases here and there, and that’s been nice. Someday, someday, a full track ;)

Now... and you guys are gonna scream at me... the one library I DO actualy regret, becuase I insta-bought it the moment it came out because I’d been waiting for it for so long: cinematic studio solo strings. The sustains and the vibrato are just awful. The shorts are nice but that’s not enough. I know I’m in the minority here.
 
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I feel blessed in comparison. The sample libraries I bought last year I really love.
Except!
There are always exceptions.
The last few Native Instruments Maschine Expansions I bought really haven't clicked with me.
The demos were great, but when I started playing around everything just kinda fizzled.
But I only buy the expansions when I have a coupon, so for $25.00, I'm not complaining too loud.
Maybe I'll find a studio partner who could really put them to good use.
 
Sonokinetic Grosso. It sounds pretty out of sync. I own several Sonokinetic phrase based libraries and they don't have that issue. An no: I didn't use it in a 4/4 context ;).
 
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Come to think of it, I think I probably use less than 5% of all the patches in all the libraries that I have. I mean NI Komplete U comes with so much I guess that's inevitable. And of all the extra plugins I've bought, I probably haven't used more than 10% of the patches.

However, when I find a patch I like and tweak it a bit.. I can use it absolutely to death
 
What a strange thread. Kind of like a wierd confessional.

Not a regret per se, but mine would be Spitfire eDNA Earth.

I absolutely love the sound. But Kontakt’s general preset clunkiness gets in the way of using it, so I always reach for something else in the heat of battle.

Hence I’ve used it precisely twice.
 
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