anyone check out this yet! golden ensembles II...

http://www.mcrow.net/Reaktor Ensembles.htm

looks interesting... wonder what the quality is like... terrible graphic design on the box... hardly the look for something as cutting edge as reaktor...

g.
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just finished listening to the mp3s... boring and conventional... i think i'll pass...

 

Those all look like reskinned things from the User Library. I wonder what NI's take on this is?With that price tag !

 

Cobra, looks as though it might be interesting.... but as for the rest, i think they look quite tacky.

and i agree, most of them look as though they have just ripped off stuff from various sources :|

sowari

 

I really do not mean to critical or hating on anyone in these comments I am going to make, but since it has a price tag that can compare to some amateur commercial products that I think those are some really bad/poorly thought out GUI's. I can't judge a book by its cover, I dont know what is going on inside. Perhaps they are at a programming level of G. Mulzer or the like, but I am not convinced it is. Why would I say that what does it have to do with GUI’s. Well, it’s a product. Who markets a product that looks like crap unless they are selling crap? If these are programed with great care then I think the effort should/would be extended to it GUI. Perhaps the developer should have considered the appearance does not tally with the price tag, it does not convince me its a product worth spending money. I think they should have left the GUI out of it, it would make sense then just slapping some less they cool stuff in there. So I find it suspect. Sorry to be so cruel but before I ran out of money I was giving away stuff that looked better then that and they could have used it for free! Hell I would have done GUI's free I do for everyone else. I find this all rather amusing, I just cant imagine that its better then the UL builders.

 

Eh. They're not forcing anyone to buy it. If I were to somehow lose abilities I had already previously bought, I'd be mad. But if they offer some lousy stuff along with the one awesome thing I already bought, that doesn't bother me.

 

So are you saying that you have something from them? How is the programing style? Complexity level? How does it sound (the audio sample are not really inspiring)? what kind of snapshots? If I was to spend money I would certain want at least one full bank of decent sounds.

 

A friend of mine bought them (if I had known beforehand I would have slapped him out of it) and the demo mp3's pretty much are telling the whole story.

Every time they release an 'update' I go to the site and my impression is the same as everyone elses...it must be the spirit in which ensembles are made and contributed to it that makes the UL SO much better

 

i tend to agree w/ the comments above.

people discredit GUI as mere aesthetic wrapping paper, but a well though out interface is key to the usability of any instrument. it can even influence the kind of sounds you might make with such an ensemble, i.e. if it looks like a retro synth w/ wood panels you might not push it beyond those kinds of sounds.

for me the key to reaktor is Futurism. it is a tool for creating the music of tomorrow and i think the GUIs should reflect that, i.e. massive and newskool, etc.

if you want classic emulations of old school hardware there are other places to look... even guitar rig 3 is better for this kind of creative approach. i personally want my reaktor ensembles to push the boundaries of what is possible sonically - such as metaphysical function - not recreate analogue antiquities. i have the arturia suite for that

my 2 cents.

g.

 

i agree, n that i wish Reaktor builders did more experimentation - i miss that fact that builders such as Sigmar Kreie no longer creates things anymore - but i don't like the GUI in Massive and i find the knobs in Newscool (that seemed to have been ripped off in a host of vst designs) a bit tiresome.

to clarify, some GUI designs have a shelf life of 1 year, whilst others seem to cut through changes in fashion.

but one thing that is did notice about the ensembles on that site, is that the 'normal' Reaktor knobs and switches are really looking dates now

sowari

 

Not trying to discredit it on the GUI only. The fact is its a product with a price tag, the key word being a 'product.' No one that wants to sell a product will have it look less then 100% first class. NI make the GUI nice and every other product even the junk at the dollar store. Its the lack of attention that in making me think the rest might be the same, hence I though leave the GUI out of it and perhaps it will focus on the programing instead.

Must be making some money the site has been around as long as I have had reaktor and gets rightups in mags that rate it well (by they could be purchased...who knows.)

Keep your money in your pocket, buy a nice bottle of wine for the weekend, then scan the UL.

 

I'm pretty sure those people have been around since Reaktor3.

 

I took a moment at my friends studio to open up the 'Oberlin', I don't even know if I would bother to download this for free (quite terrible in both implementation and sound IMHO, enough where I didn't even bother to peruse anything else)! but then again i have been spoiled by both the innovation (I OWNED vintage equipment, been there, done those sounds...give me 2020!) and craftsmanship of OUR community...seriously we have some real ARTISTS working for us all and any company that wants to sell me something better be raising some serious bars, not just hyping me. Justify the cost by having put the same development time and aesthetic as any other paid product AND DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT. I see nothing even close to either EI sets in their package.

But then again, variety is the spice of life and if someone hears their 'Accordian' and thinks 'where has this been all my life', then 'the market' supports it. Just not me
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Good advice and one of the things i look forward to EVERYDAY

 

sowari

I wonder who are your favorite experimentalists except for Sigmar Kreie?

 

Well, I listened to most of the audio demos yesterday. Yes, most of the synth patches were none too exciting, though I did like the Piano Magic ones. The effects, however, I thought sounded pretty good and, and seemed to be a pretty good collection of garden-variety reverbs and delays. Trolling through the user library searching for good reverbs and delays really doesn't yield great results, imo. UL ensembles range from zero GUI with a few knobs to engineering degree required complexity that requires a decent time investment to understand. While these Golden Ensembles do indeed have cheesy graphical backgrounds (angled boxes with unangled front controller panels, lol, my god it doesn't get much worse than that), at least the control panels are laid out in an comprehensible style so that one could quickly dial in the delay parameters, for example.

The UL could really use a better structure, imo, it's kind of a mess, so as it stands, I don't see what's wrong with Musicrow releasing a set of decent effects like this. Most of the Electronic Instrument or Reaktor bundled effects/instruments are a bit esoteric, while the Kore effects are extremely simple with zero GUI. The Golden Ensembles may fill that middle space for many users.

 

i have to disagree with you on this.have you not looked at that michats series? for me the Musicrow stuff is a real rip-off of that series.

sowari

 

I use Michat's stuff, though as with any VST plugin I'd prefer to have tool tips and snaps, let alone a little pdf manual.

 

i agree that some tool tips would be good. btw, if there are some things that you need clarifying, you could ask here

but a pdf manual is a lot of work, especially for something that is free to download. i don't expect a pdf, but i always hope for tool tips.

sowari

 

Golden Ensembles 2

Post a scarecrow against mcrow and keep your money ... like Horuschild told you. Everything what's glimmering are not really nuggets.

 

I bought it a few days ago, and 3 of the ensembles worth the money for me: Cobra, Piano Magic, and the theremin (I was looking for something like that for a long time). Some of the ensembles are not as exciting as the others, but at the bottom line I am satisfied with what I have got. Like anything else it is a matter of taste, I guess...

 

i saw these ensembles when i was completely iliterate in reaktor and tested the sounds since gaining an understanding in r5 i believe these crow comercail pack to be complete rubish the gui reflect the effort of the deisgner and i could pick a far better selection of instruments from the UL but if you don't have a clue then maybe this stuffs for you,get educated use the UL build your own kit.or buy EI2XT