Yellowtools Independence pro 3 review
Posted: Wed Jul 06, 2011 1:57 pm
After 2 days of downloading, I've finally got the library to work. I started using it for production today at work and here are some initial opinions.
The disparity between the good parts and bad parts of the lib is huge. One moment you can have a 16 layered drum sound, and then have a piano sound that has no layers at all. Seriously, no velocity switching.. how crazy is that. But overall, the good parts are very good. I actually like them. I guess I'll just ignore the crappier instruments.
The Independence pro is a collection of bits and pieces of all of Yellowtool's libraries. I'll go over each of the sections with comments.
I'll start with the strengths. Percussion is definitely Independence's strong point. Cinematic style taiko drums, barrels, anvils, viking drums, etc. Their membrane drums are very playable and sound great. They also have nice cymbal details, extra nonconventional play style samples that are nice to have to add rhythmic touch up. Most of the "good" sounds are in Soundtrack Percussion 1 and 2.
Orchestra samples are a mixed bag. Independence sampler has some sort of auto legato control that does start sample point switching based on note proximity.. but the end result is less than impressive compared to more advanced legato switching like Synful orchestra, which my ears are quite used to now. The trumpets have a good zing to them, seems good for bigband / pop brass. There's spiccato, sustain, pizz, and termolo for strings as separate instruments. They have a good sheen, but the legato seems to work only with very slow phrases. I'd much rather use Synful for strings, though they don't have too much hollywood flavor. Woodwinds are sort of bland... they're definitely not up for solo work, but will be okay for ensembles.
Pianos.. The grand piano has 1 velocity layer.. total fail. There's a DX rhodes patch.. whatever. Basically, there is no piano section.
Guitars.. I feel a good amount of care went into the guitar section. Acoustics are good, they sound very live with string fizzing and all. I'm personally not a fan of faking guitars on the keys so I just avoid using guitars all together.. but these do sound good. Their electrics. The clean one sounds good. Almost too clean. The thing is, Independence doesn't have any amp sim built in, so I believe their overdrive is baked in the sample. Depending on your preference, this may be a deal breaker. But anyway, for guitars you should just get a dedicated lib, or get yourself a guitarist.
ah dang. I gotta go. Will be back with more.
The disparity between the good parts and bad parts of the lib is huge. One moment you can have a 16 layered drum sound, and then have a piano sound that has no layers at all. Seriously, no velocity switching.. how crazy is that. But overall, the good parts are very good. I actually like them. I guess I'll just ignore the crappier instruments.
The Independence pro is a collection of bits and pieces of all of Yellowtool's libraries. I'll go over each of the sections with comments.
I'll start with the strengths. Percussion is definitely Independence's strong point. Cinematic style taiko drums, barrels, anvils, viking drums, etc. Their membrane drums are very playable and sound great. They also have nice cymbal details, extra nonconventional play style samples that are nice to have to add rhythmic touch up. Most of the "good" sounds are in Soundtrack Percussion 1 and 2.
Orchestra samples are a mixed bag. Independence sampler has some sort of auto legato control that does start sample point switching based on note proximity.. but the end result is less than impressive compared to more advanced legato switching like Synful orchestra, which my ears are quite used to now. The trumpets have a good zing to them, seems good for bigband / pop brass. There's spiccato, sustain, pizz, and termolo for strings as separate instruments. They have a good sheen, but the legato seems to work only with very slow phrases. I'd much rather use Synful for strings, though they don't have too much hollywood flavor. Woodwinds are sort of bland... they're definitely not up for solo work, but will be okay for ensembles.
Pianos.. The grand piano has 1 velocity layer.. total fail. There's a DX rhodes patch.. whatever. Basically, there is no piano section.
Guitars.. I feel a good amount of care went into the guitar section. Acoustics are good, they sound very live with string fizzing and all. I'm personally not a fan of faking guitars on the keys so I just avoid using guitars all together.. but these do sound good. Their electrics. The clean one sounds good. Almost too clean. The thing is, Independence doesn't have any amp sim built in, so I believe their overdrive is baked in the sample. Depending on your preference, this may be a deal breaker. But anyway, for guitars you should just get a dedicated lib, or get yourself a guitarist.
ah dang. I gotta go. Will be back with more.