Blimey Gabe - an honest review by someone who knows what they're talking about! 😊 It is as you say and, really, not terribly, er, ggod/useful. It's not AI, and I agree that too many companies try to jump on the AI spaceship. Kudos on turning down $$$ and selling out .👍
Which orb, pilot, captain, instacomposer, scaler allows me to take an old song and ad bass and drums to finish it? It has vocals is noisy so need minimal bass and drums to match empty spaces to avoid phasing so spacing. Which plug-in you recommend thanks? I could take the track put into midi but I don’t have stems so it’s a mess better to add on bass drums ducked or mspectral for multiple ducking. Which software gives me matching bass and drums no ducking? House.
Thanks for the honest review! You saved me 49 bucks. I already have Captain Plugins from the same company and I don't really see any mayor differences or progressions within this one.
Great video with the honest assessment I was looking for. I had an early copy of Pilot Plugins (and Captain Epic) and I just upgraded to v2 to finally try it out. I'm still totally confused on the differences between Pilot Plugins versus Captain Epic?!? Your skepticism around AI is very valid. I come from a systems world and AI systems learn from user input whereas expert systems use algorithms (albeit complex and sophisticated) so a lot of plugins that claim AI are not. Pilot Plugin's seems "cheesy", but there is an audience for this. I'm not sure it's really aimed at serious producers and musicians, whereas some midi generation tools like Scalar 2 probably are. One BIG question I have for you.... midi generative apps like Pilot versus groovebox devices like NI Maschine or MPC? Just thinking about what you get from the Maschine device, plus the latest expansions, in terms of sounds, beats and samples.... is there a reason to use generative midi apps like Pilot, Klimper, InstaChord, Hookpad, Chordz..... and so on?
Maschine and MPC are much more akin to workstations/DAWs in boxes. They'll have different scales and chords to pick from, but they're not generating stuff for you. But yeah with a lot of equal options out there, I don't know that the Pilot stuff really stands out.
The cheesy melody around min 18 is like 75% of the melody from green hill zone from sonic the hedgehog. You have a M8, if you have the community pack downloaded, one of the bundles is that song and you can hear the melody and the first 75% of it is almost the same with a variation at the end
Are these plugins a repackaged kind of subset of the Captain Epic plugins or do they complement these plugins? I think the Mixedinkeys plugin line is rather confusing.
@@BeatGoblin As someone who bought them solely to play with them side-by-side after watching, I would describe them as more like the Captain plugins on training wheels. They seem to be designed so that you open them up and they just work with as minimal human interaction as possible. If you want to tweak them a little bit, cool. You can do that. If you wanna just roll the dice and see what it gives you, hey that works too. They definitely are designed with modern pop and electronic music in mind, and from what I could tell there is a lot of "same-i-ness" to it like what was called out in the video which is a bummer. If you are wanting something that is dead simple and gives you ideas to work with though, then hey it works. Nothing I got to come out of them sounded truly "bad" by any stretch.
Right now it is selling for $116 which, going by this very honest and much needed review, is way too much. Honestly doesn't look much better than Captain Plugins really, procedurally generated notes based on a pre set parameter.
They have to respect you giving their product a fair review. If it got out there and thoroughly pissed-off their user base it would harm sales of all their products. In contrast people seeing an honest review can still decide "I can live with that" and buy the product anyway without any bad taste in their mouths.
I commend you for giving the plug-in a fair review. I recently purchased the plugin and I agree with your assessment. That being said, the plugin does have its uses. It's great for beginners and those people like me who have trouble generating ideas, or as you stated want to generate a lot of ideas quickly.. The sounds may be cheesy but if you run them through midi and audio effects you can produce some interesting sounds and rhythms. . It's definitely not going to replace Serum. It's also not a substitute for mastering you DAW. Also, don't expect it to transform you into Boris Brejcha or Rezz. Like any tool it has its uses and limitations. If you're an advanced or even an intermediate producer this plugin isn't going to be of much use to you.
Yeah I definitely agree that it's got uses, I used it for like two weeks pretty heavily in preparation for this video and made a lot of music in that time. I just want to be careful how I talk about tools like this because they're often waaaaayyyy oversold for what they are.
Procedurally generated = dumb ai aka exactly what and how you explained it. Parameters for changes allowed already worked out and set. Exactly what you said. AI used for the end to clean up would be too problematic and easily breakable. I am assuming they have the ai adjust or make correction. So not AI but AI really. So I would say you put it perfectly and you have a solid grasp and understanding of it. 9:01 - 😂 had me for a moment, I thought you went for Frog. Great video, thank you for your time.
Very much appreciate your transparency on these sorts of plugins! It's also a big advantage that folks like yourself who have UA-cam as a secondary income source (which is commendable given balancing it alongside a full-time job!). It's nice to know you're not beholden to keeping a positive relationship with manufacturers/developers and free to be as critical as you think. I generally don't bother with these sorts of things, though I did find HookTheory's trend function to map out chord progressions. Then build melodies based of that. I used Scaler 2 for a while also but it was just a bit too in-depth for my needs.
Cheesy yes, but with that supersaw it comes out pretty banging... as does just about anything using a supersaw. I think you're using this exactly how they meant for it to be used though. Nobody really wants these plugins to replace humans, after all.
Yes, imho, u are right controlled randomness is not AI. These plugins seem like a collection of midi databases and it grabs from that database based on the parameters set and information from the other plugins. After all conditions are meet it seems to me at least it's generating from that. In music with scales the options are immediately limited to the notes that correspond to the scale. So the "thinking" isn't really there. AI would learn what u like as time goes. Whether that's supervision or not. Captain plugins dontn"learn" per se. Also they lack cognition. They still dope tho. Lol.
House engine and Chillout engine vst does all of these things..Hexachords does this better,Ezbass and Ezkeys does and way better,waste of money..Basically Mixed in key product,totally useless.
Blimey Gabe - an honest review by someone who knows what they're talking about! 😊 It is as you say and, really, not terribly, er, ggod/useful.
It's not AI, and I agree that too many companies try to jump on the AI spaceship.
Kudos on turning down $$$ and selling out .👍
Which orb, pilot, captain, instacomposer, scaler allows me to take an old song and ad bass and drums to finish it? It has vocals is noisy so need minimal bass and drums to match empty spaces to avoid phasing so spacing. Which plug-in you recommend thanks? I could take the track put into midi but I don’t have stems so it’s a mess better to add on bass drums ducked or mspectral for multiple ducking. Which software gives me matching bass and drums no ducking? House.
What is the difference between this and Captain Chords etc?
What you are describing sounds like a generative note creation process. Just like a Turing Machine in eurorack.
Thanks for the honest review! You saved me 49 bucks. I already have Captain Plugins from the same company and I don't really see any mayor differences or progressions within this one.
@beatgoblin. have you used their captain chords? i've been debating getting it
Great video with the honest assessment I was looking for. I had an early copy of Pilot Plugins (and Captain Epic) and I just upgraded to v2 to finally try it out. I'm still totally confused on the differences between Pilot Plugins versus Captain Epic?!? Your skepticism around AI is very valid. I come from a systems world and AI systems learn from user input whereas expert systems use algorithms (albeit complex and sophisticated) so a lot of plugins that claim AI are not. Pilot Plugin's seems "cheesy", but there is an audience for this. I'm not sure it's really aimed at serious producers and musicians, whereas some midi generation tools like Scalar 2 probably are. One BIG question I have for you.... midi generative apps like Pilot versus groovebox devices like NI Maschine or MPC? Just thinking about what you get from the Maschine device, plus the latest expansions, in terms of sounds, beats and samples.... is there a reason to use generative midi apps like Pilot, Klimper, InstaChord, Hookpad, Chordz..... and so on?
Maschine and MPC are much more akin to workstations/DAWs in boxes. They'll have different scales and chords to pick from, but they're not generating stuff for you.
But yeah with a lot of equal options out there, I don't know that the Pilot stuff really stands out.
The cheesy melody around min 18 is like 75% of the melody from green hill zone from sonic the hedgehog. You have a M8, if you have the community pack downloaded, one of the bundles is that song and you can hear the melody and the first 75% of it is almost the same with a variation at the end
LOL I thought the same thing about the Sonic tune
Can pilot bass read my ding and match bass, can I upload audio not midi? Who does that? And it does this for midi only? Orb?
Are these plugins a repackaged kind of subset of the Captain Epic plugins or do they complement these plugins? I think the Mixedinkeys plugin line is rather confusing.
I believe they're entirely separate, and either more stripped down or just a different approach. But yeah I'm not 100% sure either lol
@@BeatGoblin As someone who bought them solely to play with them side-by-side after watching, I would describe them as more like the Captain plugins on training wheels. They seem to be designed so that you open them up and they just work with as minimal human interaction as possible. If you want to tweak them a little bit, cool. You can do that. If you wanna just roll the dice and see what it gives you, hey that works too.
They definitely are designed with modern pop and electronic music in mind, and from what I could tell there is a lot of "same-i-ness" to it like what was called out in the video which is a bummer. If you are wanting something that is dead simple and gives you ideas to work with though, then hey it works. Nothing I got to come out of them sounded truly "bad" by any stretch.
Right now it is selling for $116 which, going by this very honest and much needed review, is way too much.
Honestly doesn't look much better than Captain Plugins really, procedurally generated notes based on a pre set parameter.
They have to respect you giving their product a fair review. If it got out there and thoroughly pissed-off their user base it would harm sales of all their products. In contrast people seeing an honest review can still decide "I can live with that" and buy the product anyway without any bad taste in their mouths.
I commend you for giving the plug-in a fair review. I recently purchased the plugin and I agree with your assessment. That being said, the plugin does have its uses. It's great for beginners and those people like me who have trouble generating ideas, or as you stated want to generate a lot of ideas quickly.. The sounds may be cheesy but if you run them through midi and audio effects you can produce some interesting sounds and rhythms. . It's definitely not going to replace Serum. It's also not a substitute for mastering you DAW. Also, don't expect it to transform you into Boris Brejcha or Rezz. Like any tool it has its uses and limitations. If you're an advanced or even an intermediate producer this plugin isn't going to be of much use to you.
Yeah I definitely agree that it's got uses, I used it for like two weeks pretty heavily in preparation for this video and made a lot of music in that time. I just want to be careful how I talk about tools like this because they're often waaaaayyyy oversold for what they are.
I have Captain Epic plugins, so, it seems like Pilot is not giving me anything significant extra. ( ? )
Companion 'Packs' I guess.
Procedurally generated = dumb ai aka exactly what and how you explained it.
Parameters for changes allowed already worked out and set. Exactly what you said.
AI used for the end to clean up would be too problematic and easily breakable. I am assuming they have the ai adjust or make correction. So not AI but AI really.
So I would say you put it perfectly and you have a solid grasp and understanding of it.
9:01 - 😂 had me for a moment, I thought you went for Frog.
Great video, thank you for your time.
Very much appreciate your transparency on these sorts of plugins! It's also a big advantage that folks like yourself who have UA-cam as a secondary income source (which is commendable given balancing it alongside a full-time job!). It's nice to know you're not beholden to keeping a positive relationship with manufacturers/developers and free to be as critical as you think.
I generally don't bother with these sorts of things, though I did find HookTheory's trend function to map out chord progressions. Then build melodies based of that. I used Scaler 2 for a while also but it was just a bit too in-depth for my needs.
Everything it generates kinda sounds like late 90s/happy hardcore or something
synthwave techno?
Cheesy yes, but with that supersaw it comes out pretty banging... as does just about anything using a supersaw. I think you're using this exactly how they meant for it to be used though. Nobody really wants these plugins to replace humans, after all.
Yes, imho, u are right controlled randomness is not AI. These plugins seem like a collection of midi databases and it grabs from that database based on the parameters set and information from the other plugins. After all conditions are meet it seems to me at least it's generating from that. In music with scales the options are immediately limited to the notes that correspond to the scale. So the "thinking" isn't really there. AI would learn what u like as time goes. Whether that's supervision or not. Captain plugins dontn"learn" per se. Also they lack cognition. They still dope tho. Lol.
In my opinion captain plugins are waste of money, inspiration and eventually time. And I’m ready to shout it on every corner:(
House engine and Chillout engine vst does all of these things..Hexachords does this better,Ezbass and Ezkeys does and way better,waste of money..Basically Mixed in key product,totally useless.