Humble Bundle has launched the Humble Software Bundle: Music Producer, offering a range of Applied Acoustics Systems instruments and sound libraries at a low price.
For those unfamiliar with the Humble Bundle, it is a website that offers software (mostly video games) at discounted prices. A portion of the price goes to charity. At the moment, they are running multiple offers, including Steam games, programming ebooks, and a music production software bundle.
See also: Best FREE Autotune VST PluginsOur reader Johan Bach wrote to let us know about this Humble Bundle offer. Check out his mashups on YouTube and read his thoughts on the bundle offer below:
The AAS player is useful for testing out the Applied Acoustics Systems sound packs, but I’m not sure I’d want to use it as my main instrument. I guess if you are just starting to use VST plugins instead of loops, it might be a good place to start.
Strum Session I use quite a lot. I wasn’t paying attention and thought I was buying Strum GS-2, which is a great tool. The Session version is pretty good for the £15.50 it cost. It includes a decent MIDI library, a basic but functional virtual amp, distortion, reverb, tremolo, etc.
The most useful part for me as a non-guitar player (well, a very bad one) is the ability to play chords, with several voicings, or pick individual notes via a MIDI keyboard. On the chord side, the basic ones can be triggered via single key presses. The strumming is done with single keys on the other hand. If you want something extravagant like Gbmaj7sus4, you can do it with 3 fingers. There are some articulations (palm mute, strum direction), but the free SampleTank 4 Custom Shop from IK Multimedia might have more.
If you feed Strum Session some MIDI chords, the display shows you what it thinks the chord is, which can be handy. I generally use the virtual guitar (electric or acoustic) completely clean rather than using the inbuilt effects. Then I process that clean sound with other VST plugins modeled on amps and pedal effects to get the tone I want. “Use the right tool for the job” is as accurate in music as any other field.
I’ve just had a swift play with Lounge Lizard Session and Ultra Analog Session, and I can’t see myself ever using them, but I’m sure some people will like their simplicity.
Having typed all of that, I’m not sure I’ve answered the question. There are still two weeks left to get the Music Producer Humble Bundle, so I’d recommend that people install the free AAS Player via the Swatches, and demo the Session instruments. If they like them, they can go be humble!
Get the Humble Software Bundle: Music Producer until April 15th, 2020. You can enter any amount starting with $1 and adding more money to unlock additional items and support the charity.
More info: Humble Bundle
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Last Updated on April 2, 2020 by Tomislav Zlatic.
