YellowTools

I was just browsing and scouring the internet for more sample libraries (yes! we cant have enough of them!), when I stumbled upon this company that produces virtual instruments. I listened to the audio demos of many of the products. At the pricing of their instruments and collections, and by the amount of sampling they do to their virtual instruments, many of the demos sound amazing. I would say their products are very well worth the money!

Just like EastWest developing their own player engine, Independence from YellowTools is not merely a virtual instruments  development company. They are also a software company with a vision. This drives them to innovate and create a platform for other VI makers to run their instruments off from. 

Their engine is called Independence. It is not only a VST instrument. This is also a suite of software that can be used as a standalone workstation (or DAW replacement). It can also be used as VST effects in your DAW signal chain. 

I believe they have a powerful product going, and it will definitely enable many musicians to fullfill their musical vision regardless of their genre.

In a pleasantly surprising show of generosity, YellowTools has come up with a FREE version of their Independence product line. This is a very substantial 2.5GB of sampled instruments. Being a FULL version of their Independence 2.5 playback engine, there is no time-limit on usage, no limit on number of saves, no software keys and serial numbers to deal with, and the free samples CAN be used in commercial projects. 

The instruments from Independence Free comes from the Independence 2.0 Core Library.

These include:

- accoustic & electronic drum kits

-  accoustic  & electronic basses

- accoustic & electric guitars

- electric pianos

- synthesizers

- ethnic & tonal percussion

- world percussion

- pipe organ

- appregiator

- groove instruments

- arranger

- step sequencer

This is just a slice of their offerings from the full Independence packages. They are available as Independence Basic 2.5 (12GB instruments library @ 99 Euros) and Independence Pro 2.5 (70GB instruments library @ 249 Euros). They all come with the Independence 2.5 player. 

I feel YellowTools folks are really confident about their product and they really want people to give their product a try. If you are a virtual instrument addict, always looking for new sounds to inspire and broaden your horizon for musical expression, go download and try it out now!

Their website also features a range of Independence instruments pack. They all sound very good. Amongst them, the Instrument Collection 1 is definitely a good bargain. For 5.18GB of sampled instruments, this download collection costs 49 Euros. These include:

- accoustic & electric pianos

- accoustic drum kits

- electric basses 1

- ethno percussion

- pop brass and trumpet section

With the purchase of any Independence download instruments,  Independence Pro Software Suite 3.0 can be purchased at the special price of 49 Euros. 

SoundOnSound.com did a review of YellowTools' Independence sampler and core library pack. This article was published in 2009. Read it here.

After listening to their audio demos, I tend to agree with the review from SOS, that this is quite a comprehensive library with lots of instruments with strong character, it is appropriate for many styles including pop, jazz, latin, hiphop and even for some soundtrack work on games and TV. It can even become your one-stop go-to library, if you are working mostly with modern pop and contemporary genre of music. 

However, I find that some instruments sound weaker than the others. For example, many of the strings and pianos sound a bit thin. These are gaps in the instruments collection that has to be supplemented with other libraries. If you are scoring and arranging soundtracks for movies, you will definitely need an orchestral library on top of what the core library of sounds can deliver in terms of realism. Of course this is solely based on what I hear from the demo songs from the YellowTools site.

Having said that, I especially love the saxes from the Candy, their basses from their Majestic and the percussions from their Culture collections.

Do you like the sounds from their core library or any of their instrument collections?