A Beatles Virtual Instrument

Timeline · Post by **Timeline** » Sun Feb 17, 2008 7:58 am

Thanks for your help Shooshi. I'll do this now.

Timeline · Post by **Timeline** » Sun Feb 17, 2008 9:43 am

It worked great. Thanks for the link tip S.

Cheers

G

Frodo · Post by **Frodo** » Sun Feb 17, 2008 6:58 pm

Timeline wrote:It worked great. Thanks for the link tip S.

Cheers

G

Timeline · Post by **Timeline** » Mon Feb 18, 2008 7:42 am

Maybe I missed something but I'm not impressed with the few samples available here in this collection. I imagined many more guitar bits and tons of cooler keys like mellotron.

"Where's the Mellotron"

Frodo · Post by **Frodo** » Mon Feb 18, 2008 12:55 pm

Timeline wrote:Maybe I missed something but I'm not impressed with the few samples available here in this collection. I imagined many more guitar bits and tons of cooler keys like mellotron.

That's what a few have said, but they are allegedly working on some sort of expansion pack TBA.

There are other limitations mentioned earlier in the thread. Maybe it's time for me to breeze through and compile an user-discovered feature summary of the pros and cons.

I know that Mister Zed has had some issues with his guitar MIDI controller, but while the sounds are usable, they did some silly things-- like the Revolution triplets that are the wrong tempo. They've also limited pitch bend to +/- 3 semi tones across the board and defended their decision by saying it would compromise the samples to allow for more. Some things ought to remain user-programmable, imho.

Timeline wrote: "Where's the Mellotron"

Strawberry Flutes is the mellotron, and afaik is the ONLY such patch. The good news is that it was licensed from mellotron, so it's about as authentic as it could get.

Timeline · Post by **Timeline** » Mon Feb 18, 2008 3:57 pm

The flutes... yep. That and the sitar stuff is cool. Not as good as the original mellotron sound. A few generations away it seems which is how most of this stuff sounds.

I did find that if you have the samples on a dedicated HD and put them all on at once it's an amazing sound.

I would have to freeze it though because of the resources it takes up.

I paid about $325 as part of the deal with a bunch of other stuff my friends purchased a couple of days ago like BFD, Kontakt3, VSL Special edition etc. in pairs for the upcoming two brothers project I have this year. One bro sings the other a keyboardist. Now they can move files back and forth and do overdubs saving me time in production so I can concentrate on mix.

I do love the F4's controller. The meters are great/responsive and the effects are extremely convenient to use. Would love to see them redesign the sample engine to include any aiff or wave samples and even SDII so it's more like kontakt.

I think I read earlier in this massive thread some feel they can do allot of this already and I agree so they should do what Steinberg did on VG2 and separate the effects into a plug for all of us to have and use on any channel of DP. It would be then like two products. That would be nice.

Frodo · Post by **Frodo** » Mon Feb 18, 2008 5:31 pm

Yeah-- there are plenty of things about FabFour to garner mixed feelings in and of itself.

I got it mainly for the PLAY engine because EWQLSO will go the PLAY fairly soon, I hope. That part of it is working very well, imho. It was nicer to try it out with something "fun" like FabFour rather than to transfer my whole SO library only to find out that it doesn't work as well.

As for FabFour-- no, for good ol' 60's rock you still have to pick up a guitar, but the sounds of the library are usable if you have the time to massage them enough. Indeed, it could be (should be?) a lot easier than that. I've often wondered why by this point they haven't posted more mp3 demos than they have.

Timeline · Post by **Timeline** » Mon Feb 18, 2008 5:36 pm

MP3 demos"

Now we know. BUT.... combining sounds is absolutely infectious because it's all sounds we have heard before and creates great new things.

The only thing that I see as an issue is the high lag times even with low buffer setting in DP. It just sucks on my G5. Any way around this?

zed · Post by **zed** » Mon Feb 18, 2008 5:46 pm

Timeline wrote:The only thing that I see as an issue is the high lag times even with low buffer setting in DP. It just sucks on my G5. Any way around this?

You will get the best results on a G5 by going into the PLAY settings and changing the sample engine setting to 4 or 5. I believe it is 1 by default. But even then, it is a resource hog. I am hoping that it will work more efficiently in DP with the release of DP 6. Some of the problem may by DPs handling of AU plugins.

On the BFD forum moderators were recommending DP users to upgrade to 5.13 because it is supposed to have included some improvements to plugin handling. I am still back in 5.11 and wondering if I wouldn't get better results with PLAY and with BFD if I upgraded to 5.13? I might try it... but then, I might just wait for the new release, which is only about a month away.

Timeline · Post by **Timeline** » Mon Feb 18, 2008 5:58 pm

Settings"

Yea. I tried 2 and it didn't make much diff. I'll give 4 a shot. 5.13 works well for me. I would go for it if you are able.

I was going to have my client buy 5 but we were afraid MOTU would not bump us up to 6 and we would have to upgrade so I stopped them from buying for a few weeks to see what happens. If MOTU would just make a policy statement about auto upgrades I would have them buy in now.

Makes me wonder if they're having some difficulties with bug stomping.

Thanks
G

Frodo · Post by **Frodo** » Mon Feb 18, 2008 9:39 pm

Timeline wrote: Makes me wonder if they're having some difficulties with bug stomping.

Thanks
G

That's what happens when the developers' systems work perfectly and users' systems don't!

Frodo · Post by **Frodo** » Sat Feb 23, 2008 1:36 pm

Another compilation for die-hard Beatle fans:

http://www.something-books.com/

Thumb through the pages, if ya like...

http://www.something-books.com/template.html

zed · Post by **zed** » Sat Feb 23, 2008 9:31 pm

Frodo wrote:Another compilation for die-hard Beatle fans:

http://www.something-books.com/

Thumb through the pages, if ya like...

http://www.something-books.com/template.html

Thanks Mr Frodo. I have always had a fascination for the HUGE variation of Beatles' releases in different countries of the world. While I am a collector at heart (for I have many collections)... collecting these rare records is really quite an expensive hobby, and one which would take a lot of dedication in order to make significant headway. The next best option, of course, is a detailed book which has them all included (with lots of additional info). Love it!

Pretty interesting that in the Russian version of Abbey Road, Paul is wearing shoes and Lennon is barefoot. I will definitely keep my eye out for a copy of that to hang on the wall.

Frodo · Post by **Frodo** » Sat Feb 23, 2008 10:52 pm

zed wrote: Pretty interesting that in the Russian version of Abbey Road, Paul is wearing shoes and Lennon is barefoot. I will definitely keep my eye out for a copy of that to hang on the wall.

Aha-- did you see that, too?!!

That was one of the pages that deserved a zoom-in!! Remarkable conversation piece!

zed · Post by **zed** » Sat Feb 23, 2008 11:58 pm

What about the French discography??? It is not mentioned... and I know for a fact that there are a bunch of Beatles LPs and singles from France with completely different artwork, and French titles. Hmmmmm... it would be disappointing to spend $200 bucks and not have a COMPLETE worldwide discography.

I have been kicking myself for years, since I went to a Flea Market in New York, and saw a French single from Rubber Soul, in a full colour mini-jacket of the album cover with French titles. It was only $25... and instead of grabbing it immediately, I decided to think about it... and somehow managed to forget about making the purchase. I have regretted that bum move ever since.