Best Service has released Engine Artists Library, a 1.81 GB collection of premium-quality patches for the free MAGIX Best Service Engine 2 sample player.
Engine Artists Library is a bundle of sixteen mini-libraries for Engine 2, featuring full and demo versions of various patches from Best Service’s commercial releases. The demo patches are still very playable as they, for the most part, only come with a reduced tonal range and no other limitations. There are no time limits, audio dropouts, or occasional noise bursts which are often used to remind the user that they’re playing a demo version of an audio-related product. As already mentioned, the bundle also includes a number of presets that aren’t limited in any way whatsoever.
The content covers a wide range of sounds and genres. There are plenty of world instruments to choose from, featuring a selection of presets from libraries like Ancient Era Persia, Gu Zheng, Era II Medieval Legends, and Volksmusik. Plenty of cinematic patches are also covered in libraries such as Epic World, Forest Kingdom II, and Klanghaus II. Also worth checking out are the vocals in Era II Vocal Codex and the numerous synthesizer patches found in Galaxy X, Synth Werk, and Titan 2 DEMO libraries. If you’ve ever played a Best Service library before, you’ll be familiar with the sort of quality you’re getting with these sounds. If not, expect to hear professional-quality multi-samples and patches that are well worth adding to any producer’s sound arsenal. The total amount of audio data when extracted is 1.81 GB (a 1.69 GB download).
Unfortunately, there are a few negatives that need to be mentioned, too. Firstly, the user interface is quite a bit outdated, resulting in controls and labels that are almost too small to see on higher-resolution screens. Titan 2, although packed with a large number of usable synth sounds, is the biggest culprit here. The sliders and buttons on its interface are tiny, making the extremely low-contrast color scheme even more of a nuisance. Thankfully, the large display in the middle of Titan 2’s interface displays the value of each control parameter when hovered with the mouse pointer.
Secondly, the download and activation process is somewhat complicated and time-consuming. You’ll have to log into your Best Service user account (or register if you don’t have one), complete the checkout process for Engine Artists Library on the product page linked below (you will receive a serial number at checkout), download the Engine 2 sample player separately, install Engine 2 and extract the Engine Artists Library files manually, and then finally activate your free copy of the library with a challenge/response key. I’ve seen worse, but be assured that the process will take at least 10 minutes of your time (even more if we count in the actual download period). However, if you’re looking to add some quality sounds to your arsenal and don’t mind jumping through a few hoops in the process, I do recommend downloading this freebie from Best Service.
Engine Artists Library is available for free download via Best Service (1.69 GB download size, ZIP archive, contains 16 libraries for MAGIX Best Service Engine 2).
Last Updated on September 28, 2017 by Tomislav Zlatic.
