BlahBlahCafe - Jean-Michel Jarre forum

Hi, Anyone used the Nostalgia plugin? Authentic? l was wandering - i have a mac osx and wanted to know if i could use this as a stand alone plugin like my M-Tron or do i have to run it from a sequencer such as logic etc?

Hi,
Yes, you can use it stand alone

minton wrote:Hi, Anyone used the Nostalgia plugin? Authentic? l was wandering - i have a mac osx and wanted to know if i could use this as a stand alone plugin like my M-Tron or do i have to run it from a sequencer such as logic etc?

Runs as standalone in a Native "Kompact" sampler (included) or as VST plugin in compatible host aplications (like Nuendo, Cubase, etc.).

The samples are authentic and incredibly realistic (great quality and "analog" grain), but the effects are rather cold... better used raw, and with added dirt/warmth with other fx (Steinberg Magneto, Voxengo's Warmifier, Native Intruments Reverb, Waves Supertap, etc.).

Kind Regards,
AMR
http://www.alvaromrocha.com

On the strength of the excellent magazine reviews :
especially 5* from Sound on Sound magazine

Nostalgia

and considering what it offers
and considering its rather low price EURO 147 + postage

Bought Nostalgia last week.


Having spent this weekend on Nostalgia
I can appreciate why it got rave reviews from various quarters.

It has a Lot of Excellent samples
that can easily be used to make a full album or two of various kinds of electronic music.


SOUNDS (17 banks : 1.33GB)

Of the Synth banks:
US Classics; Japanese Classics; Playback Keyboards!
Digital ROMpler synths; Vintage Samplers;
Atmosferics; 16 String Synths
Had the most useable sounds (samples), with some really superb ones available.

(Of the samples sadly lacking
Eg Yamaha CS80 samples … just one was included !.
Any decent Roland D50 samples
These were probably due to copyright etc).

1st thing is with the synth banks is turn off the Reverb & Chorus for 99% of sounds.
One can then make use a Large selection of sounds
that don’t sound thin or harsh or “too synthy”or “cheesy”
Hence IMO useable.
A few of them need to be played on the lower octaves to sound “phat”.
Some of them will require a little bit of editing to sound better.



Of the Drum banks:
Classic Beatboxes; Obscure Beatboxes (includes Korg MiniPops)
had the most useable sounds, with some real phat drums available.
Excellent for hip hop, house, electro, trance, some drum n bass
… various eletronic music from 70’s through to 2006,
even latin, rock.

(Though in some samples afew of the cymbals came across a bit harsh).



IN USE

It is very straight forward menu driven selection of sounds, which load fairly instantly.
An up down button would have been useful,
as having to always go to the menu to select a sound is not the easiest method.
The Kompakt interface is simple with buttons for Filter, LFO, Micro Tuning, Instrument Amp,
3 different fx (Reverb, Chorus, Delay with presets for each).


SUMMARY
A big thumbs up.

Congrats for your new baby !
And I think you are happy too with your IBM Thinkpad, no ?

I've been thinking of buying the GForce Mtron. But I've also been looking towards this package. Are there any good samples of the Mellotron in Nostalgia? Are they as good as mtron?

Mogwai wrote:Are there any good samples of the Mellotron in Nostalgia? Are they as good as mtron?

At least not as many, that's for sure M-Tron covers all existing tapes for a very reasonable price!

True.
I think I'll stick on my plan and finally buy the Mtron Collection. Gotta love those rhytmtapes.

noyau wrote:Congrats for your new baby !
And I think you are happy too with your IBM Thinkpad, no ?

Thanks.
You are right on both accounts.

Mogwai wrote:I've been thinking of buying the GForce Mtron. But I've also been looking towards this package. Are there any good samples of the Mellotron in Nostalgia? Are they as good as mtron?

Nostalgia contains no Mellotron samples .... maybe cause couldnt get the copyright.

There are 3 Free Mellotron soft synths available that are pretty neat.

tapeworm



MellowSound



stringer
stringer 1.2 download page

This is based on
- Eminent 310 (later striped to Solina string ensemble)
- Mellotron
- Arp string ensemble
- Crumar Performer
- Korg Trident