Reply To: Mini Review of Musio, My Pick for Best BF Deal of 2024; $149 Sale Ends Dec 10

[peter]

On Brian said

Appreciate the “Inside Baseball” @Peter.  I see on a VI thread that a Musio dev chimed in on what he is working on (I assume a contractor).  I got an a email from Musio a few days ago that they just released Cinestrings Runs- I assume still for Musio One.

I do feel a responsibility to investigate what’s going on now that I’ve given a mini review and recommended Musio 1.

It’s an incredible value. If this company stays around, there’s really nothing that can match it for twice the price. There’s easily dozens of sample libraries included that I absolutely love. String libraries, piano libraries, etc. I think for any hobbyist — putting aside the questions and concerns about Cinesamples’ health — this is as big of a no brainer that has ever existed for as long as I’ve been buying sample libraries. Just for the Tina Guo and other cello libraries for $149 US, I’d consider that an incredible deal, but then there’s a ton more than that.

As a hobbyist musician, I really want Musio to succeed. I’ve consulted to 8Dio / SoundPaint and I have dozens of their libraries (I had a bunch of them before I consulted and they gave me credit for more after I consulted) and those are awesome too and they have vast presets, good effects, programming and the ability for me to create my own presets and programs that I love, and Musio is a lot more barebones than the SoundPaint Sampler, but the included sample libraries are so incredibly good that it’s not a big deal for me, especially for the price. Yes, it would be awesome if Cinesamples later added presets and effects — or even if they came up with a premium version as an upgrade. If they had an upgraded plugin sample player that contained presets for everything, great effects, arpeggios and programming I would easily spend another $100 – $150 just for that.  All I can say is that if this company stays around — and I hope it does — this is the greatest sample library deal that has ever existed. Nothing can touch it.

What are your thoughts as a user of Musio, @Brian?

I realize that you bought the lifetime deal and are, rightfully, concerned about Cinesamples future, but how satisfied are you with the quality of the libraries, the playability, the software user experience and the customer experience with any support you’ve needed? Concerns about the business aside, everything about this product has been superb for me. The plugin runs great. The libraries download promptly. Cinesamples has done everything right. Mike Greene wants to influence the market to stop buying Musio based on a fear about the company’s stability — just like he tried to persuade the market to not buy 8Dio / SoundPaint based on what he knew to be lies about the developer (that’s from our direct communications; he even tried to persuade me not to consult to 8Dio — and I can tell you that my experience with them was very good and I have been the harshest critique of their libraries I am aware of — Greene furthered the fiction that 8Dio attacks anyone who gives it a negative critique, while knowing that two of the three stories being spread were lies; Greene told me that even though it wasn’t right, it doesn’t matter because he loathes 8Dio’s CEO and I should never work with her).

While Greene has caused widespread speculation about a number of his direct competitors by weaponizing VI-Control as an attack center, the reality is, we know very little about the financial health of any small sample developer. We have no idea if Mike Greene’s Realitone or Impact Soundworks are in the black or red. With one person companies like these — and a lot of sample developers and small plugin developers are one or two person businesses ran out of people’s homes — all it takes is the owner having a serious health issue or a legal problem for the business to crash and burn. But there is zero transparency for any of these businesses. That is, any of them can fold tomorrow. If that did happen with Cinesamples, I think their catalog of libraries is attractive enough that another company or entrepreneur would likely have an interest in buying the business or the assets and continue marketing these products.

LinkedMusicians Founder. Your friend who keeps the beat.

Check out my music. 

3