Kirk Hunter Farewell Sale

[musicman]

After 25 years of crafting world-class instruments, Kirk Hunter Studios is closing its doors. To honor this incredible journey, we’re launching the Kirk Hunter Farewell Sale—a once-in-a-lifetime event!

For the next two weeks, we’ll be unlocking a different product at a deep discount every day. This is your final chance to own the award-winning Kirk Hunter collection at unbeatable prices.

We deeply appreciate your loyalty over the years, and we invite you to join us in celebrating this legacy one last time.

Don’t miss out on this historic opportunity to complete your Kirk Hunter collection before these legendary instruments are gone forever.

Thank you for being part of our journey.

https://www.kirkhunterstudios.com/?ct=t%28Farewell_Sale_Announcement

First Offer: (Original price was: $299.99 Sale price: $74.75)

https://www.kirkhunterstudios.com/products/virtuoso-ensembles-kontakt-retail/

• This topic was modified 1 year, 1 month ago by musicman.
• This topic was modified 1 year, 1 month ago by musicman.

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113

[peter]

Kirk is a friend. I advised his business many years ago, and worked with him on the concept and promotion of the Rock / Pop Strings library.

Kirk and I stay in touch. I’m sorry to see him close his business. I’m sentimental, I suppose. I’m sure lots of exciting things await Kirk. I’ll touch base with him and tell him about this forum and see if we can get some time with him.

Maybe an audio interview with Kirk led yours truly? Two friends talking, but I can do it in an interview style. I used to do a lot of public speaking, keynotes and panels, and I do enjoy interviewing people. If anyone is interested, I’m sure I could make it happen. Otherwise, I’ll just have a one on one call. But it might be interesting to just record me asking Kirk what’s up.

Let me know.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 1 month ago by peter.
• This reply was modified 1 year, 1 month ago by peter.

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3

[Kirean]

Sad to see a business close down.

Do they have anything absolutely and positively mandatory in their product range though, that one should be looking out for?

Maybe an audio interview with Kirk led yours truly?

Might be interesting to hear about the journey from beginning to end in the sample/plugin world, and the reasons to close it all down (with guesses about where things are heading in the future.)

• This reply was modified 1 year, 1 month ago by Kirean.

1

[peter]

Kirean wrote:

Sad to see a business close down. Do they have anything absolutely and positively mandatory in their product range though, that one should be looking out for?

Share

My friend @thor does music for video games and is a big fan of Kirk’s libraries — that was the root of our friendship. He’s a good one to ask. He’s one of the people I regularly turn to for audio advice who recommends stuff like FabFiliter.

LinkedMusicians Founder. Your friend who keeps the beat.

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1

[thor]

I had most of Kirks libraries over the years, I will write up some essentials later today, what was fab is that his libraries were focused on playing techniques and fantastic legatos in an very accessible way. He led the way with polyphonic legato technology!

4

[peter]

Thor is a really talented musician and one of the nicest people you’ll ever meet.

LinkedMusicians Founder. Your friend who keeps the beat.

Check out my music. 

1

[musicman]

I was a little disappointed to see this one as well as I have some KH libraries and quite like them. I did wonder how active development had been as I didn’t see a lot of new stuff being released, but I’m glad I’ve got some of the ones I do.

Permanently banned for three strikes rule violations inserting referral codes into posts, hostile, inflammatory posts and PMs, falsified user record.

[Kirean]

thor wrote:

I had most of Kirks libraries over the years, I will write up some essentials later today, what was fab is that his libraries were focused on playing techniques and fantastic legatos in an very accessible way. He led the way with polyphonic legato technology!

Much appreciated.

[peter]

musicman wrote:

I was a little disappointed to see this one as well as I have some KH libraries and quite like them. I did wonder how active development had been as I didn’t see a lot of new stuff being released, but I’m glad I’ve got some of the ones I do.

Kirk and I chatted for hours a few months ago, and he has talked about closing up for years — something I, of course, can only reveal now because he’s made this announcement. He is a songwriter and he shared a bunch of stuff he’s written recently, I don’t know if he’s ready to talk about it yet, but I’m sure that either I can record an interview, get him to post here or  at least answer some questions I can relay. I was thinking once things settled down it would be cool to have Kirk here. Maybe he’ll still want to be part of this community even though he’s closing his business. He’s still a musician, songwriter and a singer. He has a heck of a voice too.

LinkedMusicians Founder. Your friend who keeps the beat.

Check out my music. 

4

[musicman]

On peter said

musicman wrote:

I was a little disappointed to see this one as well as I have some KH libraries and quite like them. I did wonder how active development had been as I didn’t see a lot of new stuff being released, but I’m glad I’ve got some of the ones I do.

Kirk and I chatted for hours a few months ago, and he has talked about closing up for years — something I, of course, can only reveal now because he’s made this announcement. He is a songwriter and he shared a bunch of stuff he’s written recently, I don’t know if he’s ready to talk about it yet, but I’m sure that either I can record an interview, get him to post here or  at least answer some questions I can relay. I was thinking once things settled down it would be cool to have Kirk here. Maybe he’ll still want to be part of this community even though he’s closing his business. He’s still a musician, songwriter and a singer. He has a heck of a voice too.

Your friend who keeps the beat.

DISCLOSURE: I’ve advised more than 3 dozen sample and plugin developers on branding and marketing strategy. I’ve never been paid to make posts, they reflect my sincere opinions, and I’ve never been an influencer.

I think both ideas sound great! I’d love to hear the interview and he would be very welcome here 🙂

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2

[thor]

Here we go,

the kinetic series is fantastic but more for serious composing as its very specific

Diamond is a general purpose orchestra with very detailed options and extendable with the concert brass and string series which offer great techniques and things like very flexible vibrato and styles.

The adaptive and other series add on top from there to offer more complex elements to the tool box.

So if you have nothing get the Diamond, if you got that get the extras, I love the kinetic stuff for dramatic movie style composing as it offers a lot for quick passages.

In general Kirk has some of the most inventive special features like polyphonic legato, stops and quick play patterns with deep control like the kinetic series.

5

[antler]

On thor said

Diamond is a general purpose orchestra with very detailed options and extendable with the concert brass and string series which offer great techniques and things like very flexible vibrato and styles.

Is Diamond worth a look if someone already has a few orchestral libraries? Just wondering if it has any special features that other libraries might not have.

[peter]

Stay tuned folks…I just heard back from Kirk and he asked me to register him for the site.

LinkedMusicians Founder. Your friend who keeps the beat.

Check out my music. 

3

[Fleer]

So, how long will we be able to download our purchased libraries from his site?

[peter]

Just spent an hour talking with Kirk. Always a joy. He agreed to doing an interview down the road. He’s a great storyteller.  I really enjoy every conversation. He’s going to post something in this thread tomorrow.

I really should do a podcast, as long as it’s not on a strict schedule and just done for the love of it. I wouldn’t want to make the kind of formal commitment it takes for a revenue channel. Just an occasional chat with developers, musicians and engineers I’ve befriended over the years and new friends.

LinkedMusicians Founder. Your friend who keeps the beat.

Check out my music. 

3

[Kirean]

Seems like all the deals are available here: https://www.kirkhunterstudios.com/product-category/all-products/

[cclarry]

New deal is Diamond

Last Chance Ever: 75% Off Diamond Symphonic Orchestra

Kirk Hunter Studios Farewell Sale

1

[bapu]

So far (only two days) I’ve already owned both for quite some time.

My name is Ed. I Am still bapu though. My Studio

Virtual Bands: Citizen Regen, The Forum Monkeys,  Fizzy Pickle, The Coffee House Band

[fretman]

On thor said

I had most of Kirks libraries over the years, I will write up some essentials later today, what was fab is that his libraries were focused on playing techniques and fantastic legatos in an very accessible way. He led the way with polyphonic legato technology!

You “had”? Did you end up selling them?

Studio One, Windows, RME UFX, Yamaha MSP7

[KirkHunter]

Yesterday (10/3/2024), Peter reached out to me about my “farewell sale” forum page on his new LinkedMusicians site and encouraged me to share my thoughts there. As many of you know, I generally avoid forums due to their often toxic atmosphere. However, given Peter’s vision for this space, I felt it was worth a try.

About the sale:

Support: Rest assured, I will continue to provide support after the sale for the foreseeable future.
Download Links: After a certain period post-sale, download links will no longer be accessible. I strongly recommend that customers back up their products—this has always been my advice.
Reasons for Moving On: Many have speculated about my decision to step back. There’s no single reason, but primarily, at 65, I feel it’s time to pursue more creative and enjoyable ventures, which are already gaining traction. Additionally, with the rise of AI and evolving technology, I believe the business model for sample library development no longer aligns with my goals.
Peter has also suggested the possibility of an interview, and I’m open to that idea. I’ve enjoyed interviews in the past—they’re always fun.

In summary, I’m grateful to be part of this community, as long as it remains a positive space—unlike some other communities I’ve encountered.

121

[cclarry]

Thanks for coming here and chiming in Kirk!!!

7

[bapu]

Welcome to the non-toxic place @KirkHunter

My name is Ed. I Am still bapu though. My Studio

Virtual Bands: Citizen Regen, The Forum Monkeys,  Fizzy Pickle, The Coffee House Band

41

[peter]

bapu wrote:

Welcome to the non-toxic place @KirkHunter

I loved seeing that comment, @bapu. My mission– and yes, it’s idealistic–is to create an environment where everyone is treated with respect. Where there’s not a developer owner using the forum to defame and bully competitors or pushing crowds into following their worst motives; where personality cults aren’t the norm. It was over a decade ago that I first spoke out against that on another forum and one of the three forum bullies ended up purchasing the forum. That planted the seed in my mind to start a forum of my own where that would never occur.

It was my experience at the Cakewalk Forums –prior to the censorship era — that also inspired this site, which candidly was the best, kindest community I’d experienced in a forum since the days just following 9/11 when I unloaded to the members of my publication’s site about the lives lost at my (then) employer and my experiences handling two forums used by our surviving employees and family members and significant others of employees looking for information on their missing loved ones. That experience forever changed how seriously I saw forums and social media. Far beyond marketing purposes. I witnessed and experienced how they can be significant in people’s lives. It certainly had given me little tolerance for unethical business people exploiting communities purely for profit. This community doesn’t reflect me as a marketing expert. It reflects my ideals and passions. Sure, I’m going to try to make it pay for itself. But that’s not its purpose. This forum represents a proof of concept. That ethics and just basics of kindness and acceptance can exist without being overrun by profit motives that manipulate, censor, and steer conversations without forum members even realizing what’s going on but often getting caught up in the toxic behavior, even justifying it because they’ve been presented with fabrications to serve a forum owner’s objectives. That’s coded. Some day soon, I’ll uncode it. I suppose I can leave it at, this community is for honest conversations — and sharing positive and negative experiences and opinions of the tools we use to make music. It’s not about a developer leveraging a forum to defame and attack other developers. That was the inspiration behind this community.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 1 month ago by peter.

LinkedMusicians Founder. Your friend who keeps the beat.

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5

[antler]

Thanks for the info Kirk. And for providing support even after the doors close.

2

[thor]

On fretman said

On thor said

I had most of Kirks libraries over the years, I will write up some essentials later today, what was fab is that his libraries were focused on playing techniques and fantastic legatos in an very accessible way. He led the way with polyphonic legato technology!

You “had”? Did you end up selling them?

Studio One, Windows, RME UFX, Yamaha MSP7

No I didn’t sell them,  don’t know if that even works. Just didn’t buy every single library but most of what Kirk produced and it was always inspiring.

My download.page is just somehow broken at his page need to message Kirk to get it fixed.

1

[Fleer]

Welcome @KirkHunter

Love your work!

2

[cclarry]

New deal is Concert Strings 80% Off – $79.80

Concert Strings 2

• This reply was modified 1 year, 1 month ago by cclarry.

2

[Yan]

Welcome here @KirkHunter ! I’m a long time customer and even participated at your demo contest many years ago. Thank you for being so kind back then with my awful submission!

2

[peter]

@kirkhunter

LinkedMusicians Founder. Your friend who keeps the beat.

Check out my music. 

1

[doug]

It is interesting that in at least one thread regarding the farewell sale over on VI-Control, people are singing Kirk’s praise. The other thread about the sale does have one of the moderators questioning the legitimacy of the sale. That is sad.

This would be a clever signature if I could think of one.

2

[bapu]

On cclarry said

New deal is Concert Strings 80% Off – $79.80

Concert Strings 2

Why wait day by day? Just call up the products list and they are all there with the sales prices except Chamber Strings Adaptive. That one is still at full price.

I just went ahead and purchased all that I did not own at the sale price except the Legacy libraries since I started with Pop Rock Strings & Diamond/CB2/CS2 many moons ago. I also picked up Chamber Strings Adaptive awhile back.

My name is Ed. I Am still bapu though. My Studio

Virtual Bands: Citizen Regen, The Forum Monkeys,  Fizzy Pickle, The Coffee House Band

[Yan]

On doug said

The other thread about the sale does have one of the moderators questioning the legitimacy of the sale. That is sad.

It’s Mike Greene, the owner of Vi-Control

1

[peter]

Yan wrote:

On doug said

The other thread about the sale does have one of the moderators questioning the legitimacy of the sale. That is sad.

It’s Mike Greene, the owner of Vi-Control

I’m just going to say it plain. Years ago, the head of ethics at Wharton stated that every Wharton student should be reading my writing due to my deep understanding of business ethics. I have not known of any business person with worse ethics than Mike Greene in my career. He is the inspiration for me doing this site. It’s not Cakewalk. Over a decade ago, Mike Greene, a user by the name of re-peat, NYC Composer and Paolo from Fluffy Audio all participated in a despicable bullying series of posts targeting Kirk. They ended up attacking and defaming me when I tried to stop their attacks against Kirk (who was not participating in the thread, but the thread made VI-Control an incredibly hostile and toxic environment for Kirk).

Last year, Mike Greene using proxies and participating directly, made an attack thread on 8Dio. The basis of that attack was a fabrication of a story by a Kontakt scripter employed by Mike’s friend Andrew Aversa, Impact Soundworks. The Kontakt scripter 14 years earlier had turned to a developer, who turned to me, after the scripter had done a fake review of a sample library he worked on, probably got paid royalties on, praising the library and comparing it to ToneHammer’s similar library, stating how the library he worked on and made royalties on was superior — except he never disclosed that he worked on that library and made royalties on it. He deceived the community by withholding that vital info.  Troels — later. a cofounder of 8Dio with Tawnia, his wife — contacted that scripter — heck it was Mario / Evil Dragon — and told him (very accurately) that what he did was unethical and not legal and he could destroy his reputation and be sued. Troels pushed him to make things right. So, the developer that mentored Mario called me up and I gave the advice that Mario should apologize to Troels, and never engage in that kind of unethical behavior again.

14 years later, Mario participated in a thread at VI-Control with his Impact Soundworks co-worker, Sarah. attacking 8Dio claiming that he was bullied 14 years prior simply for doing an honest review. When Troels posted the completely accurate story, Mario called him a liar, all of this egged on by Mike Greene — as anyone could see in the thread — Mike was calling Troels all sorts of names, it was clearly libel. So, I posted in the thread that I was the person who gave Mario advice all those years  ago and his story in that thread was untrue. Mario acknowledged that what posted was true. Mike Greene freaked out. Deleted my posts and Mario’s responding posts acknowledging that what I wrote was true (Mario and I have always gotten along well, FTR, but I will not be party to these unethical acts). So behind the scenes, Greene and I argued. Greene acknowledged that what he  was doing wasn’t ethical but that he hates 8Dio for various reasons and that they’re heavy discounting of their libraries is destroying the industry. Greene also tried to persuade me to never work with 8Dio. I cc’ed 8Dio’s CEO, Tawnia on this, in my reply to Greene. When I told him that I thought his behavior was reprehensible and I was cc’ing Tawnia so she could be aware of his libel, Greene threatened to humiliate me on his forum. Which he did. First by libeling me, calling me mentally ill and other names. Tawnia persuaded him that was legally problematic and an easy lawsuit.

Now since then, Greene has gone after three other developers. The most recent of which is Cinesamples. He’s been spreading a rumor that they’re on the verge of going under.

Now, I don’t engage in libel. I can verify everything I wrote as fact if Greene came after me and countersue. But this is how Mike Greene operates and I stood up for two developers Greene bullied and used proxies to bully. Hans Zimmer called Vi-Control toxic, So did Christian Henson. Henson wrote that it was so toxic that he needs to take breaks from it. I can tell everyone that developers are afraid that they will be next on Greene’s list to be attacked. He exploited my friend Cory Pelizarri when Cory was in a terrible mental state. I had pleaded with Greene to stop exploiting Cory, that it deeply troubled him and Cory actually asked me to make posts on his behalf — but I never did it. Tawnia knows all of this from back then. So I pleaded and pleaded that this was causing Cory to go into a tailspin. Greene did not care. Cory eventually took his life and there was also another person who had a suicide attempt during all of this. Greene didn’t care.

Sorry for sidetracking your thread, Kirk. I do want people to know about this guy. I wouldn’t be doing this forum if it wasn’t for him. And FTR, that doesn’t mean I’m competing against him. I’m not. I made this forum to be a place for people who want to avoid that toxicity. That was why I created a bunch of graphics about it. It is significant to me. I realize that people just care about great deals. But I care about people, including developers. I loathe bullying. I’ve raised my kids to not just stand up for themselves, but to stand up for others. I could have avoided being bullied by Greene if I just STFU like he told me. But I knew that what he and Impact Soundworks employees were doing was all based on a lie in order to destroy a competitor’s

Greene and Andrew Aversa (Impact Soundworks) sent Tawnia a series of electronic messages I would consider gaslighting, bullying, demeaning and just plain demented taunting. She sent them all to me. I was and still am repulsed by any individuals who can do that to anyone. I doubt that they would have demeaned the CEO the way they did if Tawnia was a man and not a woman. That was blatant misogyny, IMO.

Business doesn’t have to be that way. Most developers are decent people. I’ve become friends with a bunch of them and a bunch of them are afraid Greene will harm their business. They’re afraid to work with 8Dio / SoundPaint — and that is part of Greene’s mission — because they’re afraid Greene will retaliate against them if they work with 8Dio. And I’m sure many are afraid to come to my forum because they’ll be on Greene’s enemies list even though I’m not a competitor to Greene’s forum and have no intention to spend money to attempt to attract people here. I’m super happy just to have my friends from Cakewalk Forum here. I’m simple AF.

Vent over. But every word of what I just shared is true. Kirk is my friend. I haven’t consulted to his business in a decade. But we chat a lot and it’s a beautiful friendship. It’s not business. He’s my friend. That’s all there it to our relationship. But I’m sickened by Mike Greene and his unethical behavior. I’m calling it out.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 1 month ago by peter.
• This reply was modified 1 year, 1 month ago by peter.
• This reply was modified 1 year, 1 month ago by peter.
• This reply was modified 1 year, 1 month ago by peter.
• This reply was modified 1 year, 1 month ago by peter.

LinkedMusicians Founder. Your friend who keeps the beat.

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1

[peter]

If anyone wants to see Greene’s ethics in action, here it is. Mario and I have always been kind to one another. But Mario’s statements in this thread are lies. He knows it and the developer who called me in 14 years ago, a friend of Mario also knows Mario is lying and has notes on the original situation and stated that Troels told the truth. Mario already acknowledged that I told the truth in a series of friendly posts that Greene deleted and told me to “stay out of this!” Later acknowledged that what he did was unethical and heaped completely empty praise on me for having “a heart of gold” and “great ethics.” It was the most manipulative series of emails I could imagine. Mike’s rationalization for everything? Nobody likes 8Dio and they’re destroying the industry by their discounting too heavily so that it’s impossible for him to make the profit margins he’s accustomed to.

The law doesn’t permit me to share emails without consent. But I would love to.

https://vi-control.net/community/threads/adachi-important-update-8dio-threatens-reviewers-and-competing-devs.116094/page-43

LinkedMusicians Founder. Your friend who keeps the beat.

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[peter]

Now back to my friend Kirk. He’s been talking about doing this for several years. He told me very specific things he’s doing regarding closing down his business. I believe that to be true. Ask yourself why Mike Greene, who’s been part of a little tribe that has made really ugly, vicious and personal attacks on Kirk dating back more than a decade, including posting about Kirk’s private life, feels the need to take cheap shots at Kirk now? Why would any decent person do that?

The answer is simple. No decent person would do that.

Now back to the thread, or maybe someone start another one about Kirk’s sale. He doesn’t deserve Mike Greene doing this.

LinkedMusicians Founder. Your friend who keeps the beat.

Check out my music. 

[Author]

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