Bought Plugsound Pro

[wvandyck]

How do the organs in Synth Anthology compare to N.I.'s B4? Now that I have PSP, It's giving me ideas... also, I have so many third party plugs that I sometimes forget about DP's - the SA organ + DP's Sonic Modulator could be the money combo.
Thanks.

PSP has several organ sounds that appeal to me.

I'm not sure about the organs in SA. But Mach 5 had a teaser version Charlie (now called Retro Organs). I liked what I heard. I downloaded the RO demo which includes 3 or 4 different organ sounds. That pretty much convinced me to put RO on the short list and pass over Organ 3 (LinPlugs upgrade of daOrgan. I liked the sound of daOrgan, but the O3 presets are certainly interesting but not to me). To my ears, the organ sounds in RO are richer than those in PSP. But if my universe were limited to just PSP I wouldn't complain.

[wvandyck]

Holy Moley, I just downloaded the PDF of all the presets, and this thing covers more breadth and depth than any product of its kind that I can think of. I am especially impressed by all the rare niches it covers in many genres, including many types of harpsichords and even urban styles.

Except for the meager sample collections I have within Mach 5, PSP is my core system.

At the right price, PlugsoundPro could help retire my remaining hardware synths, and also prevent me from having to buy any one-off specialty sample libraries for some time (such as harpsichord, or even vocal choirs).

I've finally reached that point. I think you're impressions make a lot of sense.

At $299 though, it better sound good!

It's really big bang for the buck. Although some sounds may not move you when heard by themselves, the idea is they show their sonic worth when layered.

[monkey man]

February's SOS features a mini-review on it.

Robin Bigwood seemed impressed.
It's in the DP section on pg 122.

[mhschmieder]

It turns out the demo downloads are just for the extra sound banks, using the dumbed-down player. Those downloads (only the SFX bank and the player) didn't complete until after 2am, so I haven't had a chance to try them yet. I don't recall finding audio demos yet for the main PlugSound Pro product.

I notice some websites sell this as a Korg product (notably my nearby indie store, Bananas at Large). I think I brought this up a year or so ago, but never really resolved it: does Korg distribute PlugSound Pro? Do they have a financial interest in, or outright own, the company?

I find this interesting mostly from the perspective of Roland being closely aligned with Cakewalk/Sonar and Yamaha having bought Steinberg (and of course Apple gobbling up eMagic). I don't recall ever seeing any combined packaging of MOTU and Korg product so I doubt there's any direct ruboff effect just because of the shared UVI engine (though I think Korg legacy Collection also uses it?), but it does seem to me regardless of Mach Five V2's delay, that success for other UVI engine based products (and relationships) would be beneficial to MOTU and their products as well.

At any rate, PlugSound lists Mach Five V2 on their website, so it should eventually come out. Maybe as early as this summer at NAMM?

Does Mach Five V1 ship with essentially the same or similar sound set as PlugSound Pro? Or a subset thereof? Or does it include parts of MOTU Symphonic Instrument augmented by other stuff to broaden it to a softwere workstation setup?

[wvandyck]

http://www.bananas.com/productdetail.as ... gsound-Pro
That's pretty weird. or maybe not. No mention of Korg at the USB website. Yah, that's weird.

Regarding M5 v1, it comes with what I would call, a good starter set. Limited in scope, but of good quality: a huge Bosendorfer piano, electric keyboards, drums, basses & guitars, 192kHz Percussions, a surround sound church organ, synths, a mini GM sound bank, the Charlie demo, and Plugsound free.

It definitely does not contain the equivalent of PSP. I who had nothing, found this collection useable. (K2 comes with 15 GBs of sound. Expansive like PSP). A PSP/M5 bundle would be really cool but that's not the case.

My preference is for samples vs synth emulations. PSP delivers. I'm gradually adding to M5. My two cents: PSP will more than meet your general music production needs without having to add specialty libraries. Of course the UVI sound cards can be played within PSP. (I just ordered RO and SA.)

Mach 5 is another issue. I don't have an Intel machine so v2 is a non-issue. M5 is really an elegant, powerful, but easy to use sampler. It's a pity.

If you're thinking about purchasing M5 v1...some reliable voices say v2 is coming. You could buy time by using PSP. Some, including myself have wondered what need for M5 with the power of PSP. Of course the answer is sample editting, importing libraries, etc.

K2 looks awesome and comes with the 15GB library. I tried the demo a few months ago. Really liked it. I took another look at it recently. For those with Intel machines, it seems like the obvious choice.

But if you're a MOTU supporter, PSP is the obvious safe choice.
The first sounds I checked out were pianos, bass guitars, and organs. Liked them all. The orchestral sounds are a subset of MSI, but still useful to have within one interface.

Latency with a buffer of 256 makes realtime MIDI guitar playing a blast.

[mhschmieder]

Now that I have installed Firefox on my Mac, I'm having better luck with European websites (many of which to not behave well with Safari).

So I listened to the audio demos for PlugSound Pro, and felt they were OK but not great. Some were of Kurzweil-level quality, which is great for gigging hardware but not anymore for studio work now that our expectations have risen . It is great buy for the price though, I think.

I'll hopefully get a chance to try the larger effects library tomorrow night on my now-installed demo of the player, and see if the extra libraries seem of high quality.

Thanks for answering the questions about the Mach Five default libraries. That's sort of what I thought I remembered. I think Kontakt 2 really upped the ante when they added part of Vienna Symphonic Library, but I still like Mach Five's interface much better and hope for its long-term success.

[wvandyck]

http://www.audiomidi.com/aboutus/review ... undpro.cfm

[joelmusic]

Well, since I started this string, I bought Plugsound Pro, Extreme FX for a movie I was finishing. Well, the PSP & FX didn't arrive until AFTER the deadline... so I was wondering, should I return PSP & FX to Sweetwater and wait for Mach 5, since it's the same thing with editing features? Also, will PSP do anything that Mach 5 can't, such as play the Extreme FX, or can Mach 5 play them with equal ease? Any insight into the advantges of owning both I would appreciate. If it doesn't make sense, I'll return it, and just run Extreme FX through Mach 5 when it makes it's long awaited debut.

Thanks -

JP

[wvandyck]

Well, since I started this string, I bought Plugsound Pro, Extreme FX for a movie I was finishing. Well, the PSP & FX didn't arrive until AFTER the deadline... so I was wondering, should I return PSP & FX to Sweetwater and wait for Mach 5, since it's the same thing with editing features? Also, will PSP do anything that Mach 5 can't, such as play the Extreme FX, or can Mach 5 play them with equal ease? Any insight into the advantges of owning both I would appreciate. If it doesn't make sense, I'll return it, and just run Extreme FX through Mach 5 when it makes it's long awaited debut.

Thanks -

JP

Sorry to hear about the missed deadline.

You could make a case for either decision.
Right now, PS Pro and "soundcards" cannot be loaded into M5.
Without restating the painfully obvious..., how long are you willing to wait?

If you like the sounds of PS Pro and Extreme soundcard, then you have them available for use right now!!! You can load the FX "soundcard" into PS Pro to build up layers of sound within the VI. Otherwise you would have to use separate instances of the UVI player on separate MIDI tracks to do the same thing. PSP seems to run a little leaner, cpu-wise, than M5 v1.23.

I'm extremely pleased with PSP sound quality and range of sounds available. The Retro Organ soundcard is loaded with rich-sounding organs. The Synth Anthology has the historic gamut of synth sounds pretty well covered. (Sorry, I tend to be an uncommissioned salesperson with plugs and such that I become enamored with).

I am crazy about MOTU hardware and software. M5 is a brilliant blend of power and ease of use!!!

I can be patient and understanding because I don't currently use a macintel. However, I'm reviewing model specs and my budget with the hope of purchasing a new mac in the fall. (Depending on conditions at that time: connect the dots..., fill in the blanks... )

[MIDI Life Crisis]

... I'll return it, and just run Extreme FX through Mach 5 when it makes it's long awaited debut.

Thanks -

JP

There is no guarantee M5-2 will load those banks and even less of an assurance that it will EVER be released. At this point I have a somewhat different view.

I see PSP as both an additional tool and insurance policy against M5-2 never being released. I know that sounds harsh. But you just experienced a similar situation. You ordered PSP thinking it would be released in time (in this case, manufactured in time) to finish a project. Had you been waiting for M5... well, you see.

Also, while PSP cannot load samples, it does have a great library to start with and does allow for manipulation. And the number of samples is fairly large. Loading and setting up all those banks in M5 would be a daunting task and something I would not want to tackle. And the loops (which I really don't use) would not be as functional (if functional at all) in M5. You would loose a lot of very nice functionality and a good number of features in ditching PSP.

If I had to choose ONE, I'd go with M5 simply because I need to load samples very often. But that is like having one piece of cookware. You can buy the 8 quart stock pot and it will cook everything. But frying an egg or melting butter is going to be problematic, and you can only cook one thing at a time.

I would go ahead and KEEP PSP (you will not be sorry!) and hope the M5 rears it's head (although some of us have stopped holding our breath on that one.)

[wvandyck]

MLC,
Great response.

Speaking of loops, (as one who prefers to work out parts in MIDI/QS/drum editor) I did discover a very useful application: On a whim, I loaded a tamborine loop from the 05-Percussions bank which sync'ed to my DP sequence. However, the timing was a bit out of sync. The PSP documentation does address this stating something like it's a recording of a real person playing a real instrument. Yep. I agree with that.

I then dragged the loop from the...Drag & Drop box on PSP into DP, set S.B. tempo to sequence, then quantized "beats within S.B."

So at this point, I can see adding tamborine and shaker loops to my productions.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

I then dragged the loop from the...Drag & Drop box on PSP into DP, set S.B. tempo to sequence, then quantized "beats within S.B."

So at this point, I can see adding tamborine and shaker loops to my productions.

Drag and drop TO AND FROM PSP is a great tool for shortcuts like this.

[wvandyck]

Drag and drop TO AND FROM PSP is a great tool for shortcuts like this.

That's very cool.

[joelmusic]

[/quote]
Sorry to hear about the missed deadline.[/quote]

Thanks. It was a horror film, and I got by getting the unreal sounds with Absynth & Reaktor - and Stylus RMX's Cinematic Soundbank. That gave me enough unsetteling ammo and the director is happy.

Thanks for the suggestions. Judging on th feedback you guys gave, I've decided to keep PSP. I'm so slammed with scoring that I haven't even opened the box! Whatever happens with M5 2, it sounds like the library avialable with PSP is useful in itself. It's kind of like when I used to import other libraries into Giga, and they wouldn't be mapped right - at least now I have a product made by the guys who INVENTED the UVI engine, and I don't mind giving them my $ - I love those plugs.

JP