Reply To: New SoundPaint V 4.0 FREE – More Than a Dozen Free Deep Sampled Instruments

[Peter DeLegge]

On RSMcGuitar said

Thanks. I watched some of the live stream from earlier today, seems like a cool guy.

Whenever I start getting too deep into synth stuff, I usually remember “oh yeah, I play guitar, I should probably practice!”

If only days were longer!

Exactly. That’s why I stop myself from buying FL Studio, Reason and other tools, as I only have so much time for music making. As it stands now, I tend to use a DAW like I used a reel-to-reel recorder as an 11 yr old kid, to multitrack record (with the exception that I’m now using a bunch of virtual instruments and sample tracks instead of physical drums, piano, organ, guitar, like I did back in the day). I still need to make time to learn Studio One Pro. Yep, I’m still using Cakewalk by BandLab — grrr — only because I don’t have enough time to invest in learning a new DAW while I’m spending so much time on this site. Although my tendinitis provides my excuse for not practicing. It’s really not much of an option when I’m in pain two minutes into a song or even more if the tempo is above 110 BPM and I have to do anything beyond the most simple arpeggio or a 16th note drum pattern on one hand.

As far as Troels, I do find him a very fascinating guy. Really creative and passionate. The first time I spoke with him was nearly two decades ago and I was (and still am) impressed with his work as a composer. But he seems to enjoy his work developing software as much as composing. In all these years, he certainly hasn’t lost his passion and if you watch what he’s doing with the SoundPaint plugin, when you see how quickly it’s advancing, it’s really a testimony to Troels’ passion. I don’t really think any other plugin owned by a sample developer is moving at the rate of SoundPaint. It’s A LOT more intuitive than Kontakt and other sample players, IMO. The fact that it’s free and there’s a really nice piano and other libraries for it makes it super compelling. Yes, as a marketer, I think that’s a great way to grow the product in a very crowded market. Give away a bunch of stuff for free to get people to experience the product. You have to really believe in your product to pursue that strategy.

The biggest criticism I’ve seen of SoundPaint — and candidly, I think it’s a reasonable one — is that they need to work on reducing file sizes. A big part of the reason for the large file size is because the 8Dio / SoundPaint ethos is all about very detailed sample libraries, which, of course, results in large file sizes. But, as SoundPaint has greatly reduced the price of high end, detailed libraries, they’ve also been reaching different types of users, and a lot more amateurs, some of whom would gladly trade detail for smaller file size. I have discussed this with them and I do think it’s on their radar and they have offered less detailed versions of some libraries that result in smaller file sizes. I think that’s a good idea.

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