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mhschmieder wrote:Registering at the Audio Modeling customer portal was simple and painless -- only one step vs. three as before. You provide one of your library licenses when you register, and it has all of your information stored already, as long as you use the same email address as before.
I wish I could say the same. I registered, provided my Licence Keys, and got "You've got a mail, check" (sic). It's been this way for three days and I never get the email. I've checked my address over and over, turned off my spam filters, and...nothing. I've tried contacting them and I don't get any response. I tried re-registering my key and it says it is already confirmed and to wait for the email. Clearly something is wrong and if it is something I'm doing I'd like a hint.
AND, I repeated this process with four different browsers
The Xsample folks got back to me and explained that the bogus "insufficient amount" error message after the PayPal payment was due to multiple discounts being applied this weekend, and some quirk in the payment handshaking.
I have installed all of the add-on instruments and the two extended library editions that I bought yesterday, and am very impressed even before digging in with their extensive programming and customization. I do feel these are the best-recorded samples next to VSL. Also, they are the only ones (besides some small vendors with mediocre quality libraries) to cover "Clarinet in A".
Note that they are also one of the few vendors to support breath mode directly, but I haven't really checked into that deeply yet. My recollection is that Miroslav dropped that from the recent release and that it is only available in the older edition, whose content is thankfully also included in the new update at least.
No word back from Audio Modeling yet regarding a loyalty discount for the string bundle, which presumably would make it cheaper than buying Double Bass on its own before the Black Friday discount expires (whenever that is). I'm curious how well it handles jazz pizzicato playing.
So a nabbed up the Saxes bundle and as a goofy experiment, made some really schmaltzy smooth jazz from a video game tune using my Roli. Gotta admit, the alto (at least, I haven't tried the others) sound really great to my ears, and this is just one of about 12 models each instrument has.
It has been confirmed via the Samplemodeling forum, that the Double Bass is not intended for jazz and does not include a proper pizzicato style for jazz playing.
Probably it is not OK to cut/paste what was written there, but everyone knows how to get there from here, and the feedback for orchestral style bass is fairly positive.
cuttime wrote:
I registered, provided my Licence Keys, and got "You've got a mail, check" (sic). It's been this way for three days and I never get the email. I've checked my address over and over, turned off my spam filters, and...nothing. I've tried contacting them and I don't get any response. I tried re-registering my key and it says it is already confirmed and to wait for the email. Clearly something is wrong and if it is something I'm doing I'd like a hint.
I finally solved my registration problem by contacting their old email address info@swamengine.com if anyone else is having problems. The new strings v.2 sounds fantastic, BTW.
mhschmieder wrote:It has been confirmed via the Samplemodeling forum, that the Double Bass is not intended for jazz and does not include a proper pizzicato style for jazz playing.
Good to know, but not wholy unexpected, as it's obviously meant as an addition to the current strings line, which is orchestral. I was a little confused myself, and figured they probably have a pizz setting in there, but it's not intended for constant playing. Typically jazz basses are setup and played a bit differently between jazz and orchestral style, even with pizz: different strings, lower action, less bridge arch, and the fingering placement is usually different.
The one thing I would check, before putting this issue to rest, is that each SWAM instrument model includes a number of different instrument models in it's interface, but that option is a little buried, it wouldn't surprise me if they made a model that's setup better for jazz/rock&roll pizz.
MEANWHILE, I was getting my Wayne Shorter on trying out some Tenor Sax material. The Saxes are just positively glorious!
I never received a reply from Audio Modeling, so will skip the Double Bass as I'd rather have the upgrade path as before, if only because it simplifies updates as you have fewer licenses to deal with.
So I'd rather do the Strings package, even if an adjusted price matches the current (about-to-expire) discount on Double Bass, as otherwise I'll always have four vs. one double-handshakes to do every time there's an update.