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

[peter]

DISCLOSURE: In case you weren’t already aware, I’ve advised more than 3 dozen plugin and sample library developers over the past 25 years. I have done paid consulting for 8Dio/SoundPaint for their SoundPaint division. I’ve also been an 8Dio/SoundPaint customer that easily owned around 3 dozen of their sample libraries before I did work for them. I also consider Tawnia, 8Dio’s CEO a personal friend. So, yes, you can easily see there’s an enormous potential for bias and I want to be very transparent. I think I still keep my objectivity and have made a rule of telling developers up front that my consulting is completely separate from my opinions as a user of plugins and sample libraries. I’m hypercritical of things by nature. Being super candid, what a consulting relationship or friendship does do is keep me from being absolutely brutal when I don’t like something and instead phrasing things more carefully. So with that in mind, before I started consulting to 8Dio, I was posting my opinions and experiences using SoundPaint at the Cakewalk Forum — the posts are still there.

So this is my take. It does not reflect SoundPaint’s brand positioning, only my perspective as a user.  The instrument plugins for sample libraries that I use most are (1) Kontakt, (2) SoundPaint, (3) Superior Drummer, and (4) Addictive Drums. If you’ve heard any of the music I’ve shared on SoundCloud, and/or posted in the LinkedMusicians song sharing forum, each song uses at least two of the aforementioned plugins.

Kontakt’s greatest strength, IMO, is the Kontakt ecosystem — all excellent libraries that NI and developers have made for Kontakt — and its scripting capabilities that allow developers like Orange Tree Samples (another developer that I have advised and have long been a huge fan of) to do sophisticated scripting and physical modeling that take Kontakt far beyond a standard sampler. Where SoundPaint shines, at least for me, is its capaibilities and user experience.  I can easily go deeper into editing and programming sample libraries than I am able to do with Kontakt — either do to Kontakt’s limitations for non-coders or due to my simply not being able to figure things out; and I’ve been a Kontakt user for more than 20 years. I have stated long before I consulted to 8Dio / SoundPaint, is that SoundPaint for free is a complete no-brainer. I think everyone should pick it up and grab all of the free sample libraries for it that appeal to you. I think that’s a very smart strategy on the developer’s part. I also think that doing that is really honest marketing. People get to use the product completely free before they decide if it’s right for them.

The free piano libraries, the free guitar libraries, the free tuned percussion libraries, and all of their freebies with demos that appeal to you are well worth having. I’d call it a complete no-brainer. Because if you decide that, for some reason, it’s not for you, you didn’t spend a penny. I have two major lists for sample libraries and plugins and there are other high-quality choices. But I don’t think that any of the free choices have a sampler plugin that has capabilities that approach SoundPaint — especially now on its fourth version.

What do you think?

Experience truly authentic analog synthesis—virtually indistinguishable from real hardware. Soundpaint 4.0 introduces revolutionary C.A.F™ (Capture Analog Filter) technology, offering meticulously modeled filters from legendary synths, including two free filter sets: the iconic MOOD Ladder Filter and the lush, creamy OBHM SEM Filter. This release also features high-resolution time stretching, PCM and Flat support, graphical envelopes, versatile LFOs, and completely redesigned J8 and J60 libraries. Additionally, Soundpaint 4.0 takes its first major step toward full MPE integration with polyphonic aftertouch support. Explore new “Analog Warmth,” inspired by the CS-80, layering pure sine waves alongside traditional filters for richer sound. Every note receives its own dedicated filter (C.A.F per-voice), offering unparalleled realism. Plus, built-in tutorials and dozens of intuitive presets allow effortless exploration.

 

Download Soundpaint 4.0 free at https://www.soundpaint.com

• This topic was modified 7 months, 4 weeks ago by peter.

LinkedMusicians Founder. Your friend who keeps the beat.

Check out my music. 

5

[RSMcGuitar]

Already downloaded! I haven’t gotten to deep into it yet, but I really like what they are doing.

2

[peter]

On RSMcGuitar said

Already downloaded! I haven’t gotten to deep into it yet, but I really like what they are doing.

For the freebies, if you’re doing rock, jazz, R&B, or pop, I’d strongly recommend the free piano, the plucked piano (it sells for around $100 US via 8Dio), the various guitar libraries, polyphon (a big music box), Smiley Drum, and Copperphone.

8Dio’s forte has long been cinematic / orchestral libraries — it’s a very established brand with pro cinematic composers for a long time. If you look around this forum, you’ll see that I’ve recommended a bunch of their competitors. For example, for Black Friday I picked up Musio and I absolutely love the sample libraries, at $149 US or $199, I consider it the most amazing sample library deal there is from a cost / sample quality ratio persective.  But the Musio player is barebones and nowhere close to the same league as SoundPaint. It lacks effects and presets, which is disappointing. It’s ideal to create presets in a player and save them to use or to use as a starting point in other projects. It’s a lot more work to have to use external effects and have to write down everything if you want to recreate that — or put it in a template. However, the quality and value of those Cinesamples samples in the Musio collection is incredible, I’d say, unequaled value for the price per library. I bought the Abbey Road Iconic Strings 2 library which I absolutely love. In fact, last year, I posted on Cakewalk Forum that my dream library would be called George Martin strings — basically for the string sounds and arrangements he did with The Beatles. Someone, I think it might have been @TheSteven — or maybe it was you — who told me that the library exists, Abbey Road Iconic Strings 2. And it sounds fantastic. I would recommend it. But I find the Spitfire player disappointing, which seems to be the consensus. So, I think Troels (the co-founder of 8Dio), is doing fantastic work with SoundPaint. But Kontakt remains a critical part of my toolkit. But for the sample developers who have created their own plugins, I think 8Dio leads the way with SoundPaint, and with the pace that Troels is focused on it — and i don’t know how many people know this, but while the man is a super talented composer (I love his work), he has a PhD in AI, so he’s very involved and incredibly passionate about SoundPaint. I don’t think any sample developer has a sample player moving at anywhere near the same pace.

Eventually, I think I may do a podcast, or at least interviews with developers and musicians, and Troels is a fascinating individual, extremely creative, and extremely talented, I would love to interview and publish. I really love his work as a composer. He’s done a lot of popular video games and movie trailer music. But these days, his heart and passion is very focused on SoundPaint. Besides his work as a composer, Troels has won two TEC awards. One of them was for the Prophet X is an analog hybrid sample synth that he worked on with the legendary Dave Smith (founder of the original Sequential Circuits). So, he has a very impressive track record in this space co-founding Tonehammer and 8Dio.

LinkedMusicians Founder. Your friend who keeps the beat.

Check out my music. 

21

[RSMcGuitar]

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!

1

[peter]

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.

LinkedMusicians Founder. Your friend who keeps the beat.

Check out my music. 

[locrian]

Sadly, “deeply sampled” does not mean full, natural range of timbral variation with velocity.  The timbre of 8dio instruments sounds the same whether a gnat lands on your keyboard or you drop an anvil on it.

And that’s why I rarely use Soundpaint; its VIs lack expression.  It’s a shame b/c it’s a really nice and well-supported plugin!

1

[peter]

On locrian said

Sadly, “deeply sampled” does not mean full, natural range of timbral variation with velocity.  The timbre of 8dio instruments sounds the same whether a gnat lands on your keyboard or you drop an anvil on it.

And that’s why I rarely use Soundpaint; its VIs lack expression.  It’s a shame b/c it’s a really nice and well-supported plugin!

They make a lot of different kind of libraries. Can you provide a specific example of it? Ideally with an audio example? Are you referring to piano libraries, string libraries, tuned percussion, percussion, etc.?

I haven’t done a sentiment analysis of SoundPaint, but I’ll do one at some point this week. I’m dealing with a health emergency in my immediate family this weekend, so I’m not going to be as active at LinkedMusicians the next couple of days. FTR, please don’t misinterpret my question as being defensive. I want this community to be a place where everyone feels comfortable expressing their honest opinions. I’m just trying to figure out what specific libraries you feel have the issue you’re describing. I don’t recall seeing that criticism of SoundPaint before.

LinkedMusicians Founder. Your friend who keeps the beat.

Check out my music. 

1

[locrian]

Hey Peter,

Sorry to hear about the health emergency.

Regarding Soundpaint, none of the 21 libraries I own have any discernable timbral variation including Bazantar Bass, 1975 Soul Guitar, Terz Guitar, Songwriting Guitars, 1976 Rhode Vintage MK1, 1928 Vintage Grand Steinway, 1967 Clarinet Paris, SoundLabs Music Box, etc.  In fact, I’ve never heard a Soundpaint lib *with* timbral variation. Playing Soundpaint to me is like using a loop/sample launcher set to max velocity.

This issue is not new.  It was (hotly) debated on VI-Control a while ago.  IIRC, the problem is that, although Soundpaint is new, the sound content it uses is derived from fairly old libs which were recorded with little or no timbral variation (probably to save time and memory [though 8dio libs are famously *huge*]).

Soundpaint is supposedly capable of interpolating across all 128 levels of MIDI velocity yet, sadly, its sound content is devoid of timbral variation, so there’s nothing to interpolate.  I think filter ADSR was used to simulate timbral variation.  This was commonly done decades ago to reduce RAM usage.

The Soundpaint situation is like spending years to create the most aerodynamic plane that completely eliminates drag, but then building it out of cast iron.

Cheers…

1

[peter]

This is the archived livestream SoundPaint did the other day, where Troels went over the latest functionality. It also gives you a taste of the 8Dio /SoundPaint ethos. If you’re really into virtual instruments, sounds, and the tools we use to make music using our computers, I think this is really interesting. I mean, Troels is a very interesting and visionary player in this field. And I like him best in a format like this where he’s not selling, but explaining and sharing his vision. Yes, a marketing strategist who doesn’t enjoy people hyping products, it’s true.

Even the greatest products don’t necessarily sell themselves, it takes work to show people what’s there.  I also think Troels is better suited for this format than the promo videos for products. With this livestream format, he’s much more relaxed, more himself — friendly, not as fast-paced, it shows how his imagination and mind works a lot more and also conveys his passion for all things music.

LinkedMusicians Founder. Your friend who keeps the beat.

Check out my music. 

1

[peter]

On locrian said

Sadly, “deeply sampled” does not mean full, natural range of timbral variation with velocity.  The timbre of 8dio instruments sounds the same whether a gnat lands on your keyboard or you drop an anvil on it.

And that’s why I rarely use Soundpaint; its VIs lack expression.  It’s a shame b/c it’s a really nice and well-supported plugin!

Your posts I’ve replied to — for the second time — have received a WOW reaction from someone. Now, it’s perfectly fine for someone to have a WOW reaction, that’s why that emotion icon exists. But I think when I’m involved in a thread — especially when it’s for a developer I know and have consulted to — it may cause people to think I did that reaction and could result in the community mistakenly thinking I’m not okay with people expressing their honest opinions — positive or negative. Consequently, I just want to be clear that I am 100% good, and actually appreciative, of Locrian sharing his honest opinions/criticisms. I want people to feel very comfortable expressing their views, and I think Locrian is a very smart thinker who does a very good job of expressing his opinions, and that adds value to this community.

I know from DMs and chats with folks here — and a few Google Meets — that some of you have experienced censorship at various forums like VI-Control, GearSpace, Cakewalk Forums, etc. I want to make clear that one of the things I greatly value and want here is to have people feel they’re in an environment where they don’t have to agree with everyone else (and that includes disagreeing with me). There’s never a problem with respectfully sharing positive and negative opinions about products, services, and companies as long as we always keep it respectful.

To make the nerdiest post ever, in college, I fell in love with Socratic dialogue and the idea that we can all learn from one another without having to conform to the same ideas. Subsequently, the incivility and culture wars commonplace on social media and in my nation these days is beyond disappointing. I love debate, not people in a battle to demean each other. I want this community to be a place where people can agree to disagree and still be respectful and kind to one another. We can share a wide range of opinions without losing our sense of respect and kindness for one another.

Sermon over.  🙂

LinkedMusicians Founder. Your friend who keeps the beat.

Check out my music. 

21

[RSMcGuitar]

I might have “wowed” I can’t recall. But it wasn’t intended as a negative, more as a “oh really, interesting”

Sometimes I just add them to acknowledge I’ve read it, though I don’t have much to add!

✌️

[peter]

On RSMcGuitar said

I might have “wowed” I can’t recall. But it wasn’t intended as a negative, more as a “oh really, interesting”

Sometimes I just add them to acknowledge I’ve read it, though I don’t have much to add!

✌️

No worries. Everyone has the right to the wow emotion. 🙂

I just didn’t want anyone reading into it that the guy who owns the site was discouraging anyone from making honest opinions / criticisms.

Now, it would be kind of funny if this post gets a bunch of WOW reactions!

LinkedMusicians Founder. Your friend who keeps the beat.

Check out my music. 

3

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