Scarbee

Scarbe Vintage Keyboard caught my eye after downloading and using a demo of it. For some reason I don’t think they I found this vst in any American stores online. I ended up paying about 130 Euros for it from over seas. But once I paid, I was giving all my registration info and started using it right away. Now the special thing about Scarbee Vintage Keyboard vst was that it had a very good fx plug in that had a bunch of different effects processors and all of them are analog of course. All these effects and processers was what really made me purchase Scarbee Vintage Keyboard to begin with, I liked having the option to change all the sounds and make them sound way different then the preset sounds. It really gave me some new stuff to work with and I knew that most other people wouldn’t be able to come up with the same sounds that I had because of all of the effects and processing that you can do right in Scarbee Vintage Keyboard collection. SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE It was quick to install, it was s download only file, im pretty sure they don’t ship out a boxed version of it, because if they did I would have opted for the box version so I would also have a hard copy of it on file in case of anything happening I would still have it around in storage to use. The interface is awesome and everything is easy to access and get to right away. OVERALL OPINION Overall, you will love the sounds and effects that you can get with Scarbee’s Vintage Keyboard, even if you arent really intro vintage sounds you can still get some stuff out of this plug in that will blow your mind. It s worth every penny spent on it.

I run this on a Macbook Pro i7 core and an RME Fireface 800 and so far it runs pretty smoothly. I have had no glitches or dropped notes but I have experienced a little latency issue but I will go into that later. I have not needed to look at the manual so far as I am fairly experienced with Kontakt Libraries. Simply load up the Library, select the Bass tone you want (fat is my favorite) and you are off. All of the basic features can be accessed via the "front panel" of the plugin. If you have used Kontakt before, you know there is a ton of stuff you can edit under the hood, but that has more to do with Kontakt itself rather than this particular instrument. SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE I run this mainly in Kontakt Standalone but also in Ableton 8 and Logic 9. Everything performs stable and solid but like I mentioned before, I have had some interesting latency issues. I am not sure if this is an issue or is just inherent to the type of instrument it is. Essentially, this is designed to be a Bass Guitar sample set, but similar to how high end Violin Sample sets are played, there seems to be a hair of latency that is either a flaw or possibly a feature to further the realism. When you say, jump an octave and a half span, there is what I assume a little loss of time to allow the "computer bass player" to get up the fret board. My first experience with features like this was with L.A. Recording Strings by Audio Bro. To me, it sounds great in LASS but not as good MM Bass. It could be that I am biased as I am a pretty ripping bass player but a poor excuse for a Violin player so I could be expecting to much. It's funny, as I write this, I realize that maybe I should read that manual to see if I can adjust this. When I do, I will edit this review. With the current setup, I have to give it an 8 for performance due to this "latency issue." I have had this for a few months and still use it quite a bit for quick ideas and for some clients who, after hearing the scratch tracks done with these samples, were pleased enough and decided not to record a real bass player to save time and money. OVERALL OPINION First off, I should say that I was skeptical of this sound set because unlike the other Libraries I have, I actually own a good enough bass rig that I never thought I would want or use this sound set. I ended up getting it to do a commercial jingle rough draft for some clients while I was away from my studio and was quite pleased with the actual sound quality. In the end, it has ended up on a few final drafts. So what do I love about it? Now I have the ability to craft a solid, strong sounding bass line from my laptop, which can come in very handy. What I don't like about it is two main things. The first is the latency issue I discussed earlier and the other is something that can be found in a lot of sampled instruments, high frequency noise. It's not too bad by any means, but I noticed while comparing MM bass to my actual basses through the same rig that it will start to build if you get really busy on the keyboard. It can be masked enough to not drive you crazy with some eq/filtering though. I should mention that besides that little bit of noise and the little latency issue, the samples sound quite good through my bass rig, actually really good. If I could fix this latency thing, I might start leaving my bass rig at home and just do some performances with my keyboard as I almost always have to bring that anyway. I have never used any Bass sampled instruments that are of any note, but I have to say that I am fairly impressed with the beef this plugin can dish out. I would definitely purchase again as is has come in quite handy for studio work, but might shy away if it was solely for performance.

I run this program on a macbook and there are no compatibility problems so far. I have had no need for a manual with this plugin, its very very simple and easy to use. Yes, the general configuration and setup is very simple with this plugin. Its simply a virtual rack with 8 half rack units and a main control full rack. Yes, all the functions are very easily accessed. They are all right in front of you and the VKFX is a very simple, very clean interface. SUITABILITY/PERFORMANCE I run this mainly in Ableton Live 8 for use in performance situations. It does have one funny little problem. If I minimize Ableton 8 when VKFX is open, when I expand it again, the interface goes blank. I have to close it, then reopen it to get it back. That's the only problem I have noticed so far. Other than that, the plugin has never crashed or lost any presets I have made. I still give it a solid 10. It works great besides the one little bug and is a very easy plugin to use, which I love. I have been using VKFX for about 3 weeks. OVERALL OPINION I like a few things about this unit. First off, it sounds very good. I run my Real Rhodes Stage piano into two channels: straight into some nice boutique effects into a Twin Reverb and one going into Ableton (looping) and back out into the same Twin. When I A/B the real effects versus this plugin, I do notice a difference, but, the difference is not as big as you would think. I do notice its a little muddier on the Computer side (not in a warm way, more of a mushy way), but with a little EQ, the resemblance is pretty impressive and in a live situation, almost unnoticeable. I also really love the simplicity of the interface. For live use, using a convoluted interface can be risky. This one is easy to read and control. One other note, I love how you simply grab a 1/2 rack with your mouse and drag it some where different in the effects chain. Nothing I don't like about this guy. I paid around $200 for this plugin and its worth it for live use. The precision and quality is very good for computer based audio. I have used lots of different effects plugins and this one is high on the list. Yes, I would definitely buy this again.