1. Ilya Efimov Nylon Strum

It doesn't just raise the price 'a little'. Those NI licensing fees are huge, and they want payment up front before you've sold a single copy of your product. It can be an insurmountable barrier for the mom 'n pop sample vendors. And they're the ones who come up with the most unexpected gems and off-the-wall instruments you didn't even know you were missing. Yup, it would surely be a waste to buy Kontakt for just one or two cheap libraries. But once you have it, you'll start noticing that there are just GOBS of free and cheap libraries out there and you'll quickly become a collector.

I've got nearly a terabyte of Kontakt libraries, and only a few of them cost me any 'real money'. Most were $50 or less. Kontakt has paid for itself many times over. I didn't have Kontakt anything until a year ago, so I can relate to the No Kontakt philosophy. But I'd agree, the quality of the stuff available that requires Kontakt makes it worth it, and yes you will be a few more hundreds after that buying sweet libraries. I'm glad I bought in, I'm a lot more inspired using the Kontakt stuff.

As far as Efimov goes, I've gotten a lot of mileage out of that Duduk and would heartily recommend it. I have their fretless bass, too, which is better than average but not jaw-dropping. Cheers, -Tom. Bitflipper.But once you have it, you'll start noticing that there are just GOBS of free and cheap libraries out there and you'll quickly become a collector.Yup - I got Kontakt just over a year ago and now I don't know how I ever lived without it.

It is my go-to instrument to load into my DAW and I use at least 3-4 instances of it in every song. Bit is right about 'the ones who come up with the most unexpected gems and off-the-wall instruments you didn't even know you were missing'. I've got numerous libraries over the last year or so, and some of them I would consider irreplaceable.

Most of them were very cheap and many were free. With regards to Ilya Efimov - I have most of his libraries, but my favorite by far is the Accordion, which I would classify as excellent. The Duduk is also very very good.

Ilya Efimov Nylon Strum

Don't leave his site without checking those 2 out. I think the TC Electric is going to be a nice addition to my arsenal - once I figure out how to use it. Today was a first for me: the first Kontakt library I've ever loaded up that I was initially unable to get ANY sound out of. Turned out it was because I had it set to 'MIDI' mode rather than 'Keyboard' mode, although I was driving it from an existing MIDI track and not playing it from the keyboard. I'll have to read up on the difference between the modes. Observation #1: the UI is not in the same league with Orange Tree products.

OTS instruments greet you with a nice preset selector on page 1, so you're making noise right out of the box and can easily peruse the range of possibilities from there. TCE has slots for 10 user presets, initially blank, and that's all. It's up to you to build your first patch from scratch. However, I don't like to judge a product by first impressions. A learning curve is totally acceptable if the end result is good. (That's why I hate software reviews in general: a reviewer has no business giving opinions on something he hasn't actually dug into and used extensively.).

JonD SmokeyJ628 I think Ilya Efimov has the best strumming acoustics period. Easiest and most realistic sounding.+1 Even if you own other guitar libs, it's worth grabbing at least one of the strum libraries. I got the whole Strum Bundle in last year's BF Sale.I have the Nylon Strum that I picked up in a fire sale. For some reason I have not used it much, I think when I was working away I had been try to come to grips with it them was away for few weeks and did not continue when I returned.

I have just been playing with it now and it is very good. The strum sequencer is similar to OTS in some ways. Now the question is not only do I get TC Electric but do I get the TC bundle??? Just spent another hour with Nylon Strum.

There are still a few things to sort out but its the business. The interface is not so intuitive as OTS but its equally versatile and the slide up articulations are a nice addition. Looking back I bought it together with three of the Russian Folk series in May 2014 the total cost of this purchase was 22.60 Euros, Nylon Strum was €9.90 an incredable deal if I had actually used what I bought I am cursing myself for overlooking this gem until now. Just bought TC Complete.

TEAM MAGNETRiXX 04 April 2014 2.17 GBWe are pleased to offer you fantastic realistic virtual guitar. The sound of this library is rich and sensual, transparent and incredibly expressive.

We have made fantastic realism by using 14 dynamic colors for each note. This library is essential for Acoustic Guitar imitation.

You can use all frets for each string. The select of the strings and positions can be both automatic and manual. The control over any parameter is available though Graphic User Interface and your sequencer. You can easily use any of 14 articulations, selecting a particular articulation that you need.Legato and glissando are implemented in the library. Using those features you can reach a higher level of realism.

Major triadmajor triad -5major triad +5major 7major -5/7 (major +11)major +5/7major +7major +5/+7major 7/-9major +5/7/-9major 7/+9major +5/7/+9major 7/9major +7/9major 6major 6/9major +7/13 (major 7/6)major 13 (major +7/6)major add 9 (without 7)minor triadminor triad -5minor 7minor +7minor -5/7minor -5/+7minor 7/9minor +7/9minor 6minor 6/9minor add9dim 7sus triadsus 7CHORD EDITIONThe chords will translate to correct guitar position and you can select one of four position for each chord. 1584 guitar tabulatures are available to play.You can change any chord to whatever you like. There is no restriction. This is intentional because it will allow you to build a “project” patch where you can assign complex chords to a single key.Easy & Flexible!You can imitate guitar accompaniment in two ways: in the manual and automatic modes.AUTOIn the automatic mode choose only the pattern to hear the required accompaniment while pressing chords.

In this case only the chords are recorded into the sequencer, like into Pad.REQUIREMENTSNative Instruments full retail Kontakt +4.2.4 or Kontakt 5Windows 7 or 8, Intel Core Duo or AMD Athlon 64 X2, 4 GBMac OS X 10.6, 10.7 or 10.8, Intel Core 2 Duo, 4 GB2 GB free disk space.