XLN Life

[RichN]

As long as you don't use a recording of your wife moaning during sex, I don't see the big problem.

So what else would this app be good for?

[SLiC]

As long as you don't use a recording of your wife moaning during sex, I don't see the big problem.

Yeh, but if I'm holding the phone, who do I get to come round and have sex with the wife

[mxbf]

not a fan of the privacy features. why should XLN be allowed to listen to and use the samples we make? that's just scummy and predatory, there's no way around it. i dont want some stranger listening in on the weird recordings i'm making, that just makes me more hesitant to be really creative since ill know some douchebag is constantly violating my privacy while i'm making recordings.

that said i disagree that the app isn't good. i find the recording on phone and transferring to the app to have made very useful results. only concern i have is people are saying that the MIDI patterns that are used in the pattern generator are limited and you just get the same things after using it for a while? if that's the case that would be a problem.

but at face value i thought it was good for what it does and can add a lot

[SLiC]

Those rhythms (represented by the Euclidian looking graphic?) seemed fixed to me, I didn't see a button to generate new ones but I may have missed it?

PS- If you have Ableton Live the Ableton Note ($6 app) will do a very similar thing.

[perpetual3]

Charge me a lot of money to take my sample and give me a Euclidean slicer and also take my data? You want my data give me the plug for FREE.

[Rickskii]

now everything is called AI... ai here ai there...

yes even c AI ne123

[mgw38]

Those rhythms (represented by the Euclidian looking graphic?) seemed fixed to me, I didn't see a button to generate new ones but I may have missed it?

You've missed it.

[RikkShow]

Well I found the legal terms, umm, this gives them the rights to your uploaded samples? Hard pass if so:


7) For the purposes of enabling XLN Audio to enhance its Software and services, including by use of machine learning and for AI training purposes, the Customer grants to XLN Audio the following license:

a) a non-exclusive, irrevocable, free-of-charge, worldwide, perpetual, transferable, sublicensable license to access, analyze, copy, store, modify, create derivatives from, make available to the public and otherwise use, in any manner and media, all Created Music Work and any parts thereof, including but not limited to any recordings, stems, loops, sounds, samples, presets, MIDI files and underlying compositions (if any), and any other material generated by the Customer in connection with the use of the Software;
b) to the extent applicable and permittable under applicable law, you waive any so-called “moral rights” in relation to the license in paragraph 6(7) a) above;
c) for the avoidance of doubt, paragraph 6(7) a) and b) above shall apply also to Created Music Work created by the Customer during the Trial Period, regardless of whether the Customer exercises its right to withdraw in accordance with paragraph 5 above.

Wow! That is literally a legal cess pool. Imagine if you use a Splice loop or any other loop you purchased a license for. Use LIFE and YOU are now in violation with the original sample license. Meaning you can get sued or in legal trouble because you gave XO a right to use a sample that you did not have legal authority over. This could drive sample piracy to s new high by ignorant XO customers.
That is a nightmare clause that XO created, so this app is therefore EXCLUSIVE to your own original recordings, eg field recordings. Have fun, but I'm out!

[mxbf]

it probably wouldnt matter that much in practice but that definitely makes me think i won't be buying it. the thing is, I actually don't agree with some of the takes I've been seeing around about this plugin. I hate influencers personally, you know the types of people who shill on Youtube. I am against them. but still I thought it was pretty cool. very overpriced though, but what do you expect anymore. I will have to be pretty drunk to buy it.

XLN should be paying me for this:

1. "it's like Koala"
Lol wut... an iOS app that you can't incorporate directly into a DAW? that doesn't easily incorporate automatic rapid sample slicing? that doesn't have randomization of the sounds to allow you to rapidly hone in on a loop that might take hours of fiddling around with notes to reach otherwise... or combining various "randomize" sequencers with the sampler? and does koala even auto slice? this take literally makes no sense whatsoever, and I like Koala a lot.

2. "it's like Ableton Note"
well, except you have to manually cobble together multiple plugins every time you want to get that effect, which in theory sounds great, but in practice when you're making music are you going to remember some hidden Instrument Rack preset you built but don't remember the details of how it works, or just grab something you know works right out of the box to achieve a result? Oh... and I use Bitwig.

3. "it doesn't produce great sounds"
Maybe people don't make the same kind of music as me, but for electronic beat-focused music, slow or fast, or future-pop, or IDM or whatever... I think this thing quickly can add a ton to a beat. You just pull out your phone, make some sounds or whatever fits the track, and then randomize until you have something that sounds cool, then there are features available in Life to allow you to take that and sculpt it closer to something that you want. but apparently that's "taking the creativity out of music" but plowing together 100 euclidian sequencers that make random bleeps and bloops is super creative and totally not derivative. I think tools like this should be seen as a means to explore and extend your ideas/

It reminds me more of StiX from Xils lab that has a sound randomizer and beat randomizer but is very outdated and doesn't let you directly mess with the sounds and hone in on something. and it is similar to XO, but is more like an added tool that can enhance something else. Personally I think being similar to XO is a good thing. XO is one of my most used plugins.

[burkek]

The elephant in the room, too, is the quality of sound you're going to get from your smartphone (if using that for audio capture). Plus - if you're out making recordings in restaurants, on the street, in a mall, in a park ... the captures, post-slicing, will not sound radically different from one another. I tried downloading a lot of "environmental captures" from FreeSound - from street sounds to markets to factories and machines, and was unimpressed by how similar everything, ultimately, sounded. Plus the stem outputs from Life are just not good sounding. Probably best not to normalize.

[m-ac]

The browser needs a lot of work. The app only comes with 10 samples / presets so not a big issue on first glance, but after users start adding dozens or hundreds of their own samples, that's going to be a hell of a long list to browse. It needs some kind of folder or category sorting at least.

[SLiC]

Don't expect a lot of updates if XO is anything to go by....

[kraster]

it probably wouldnt matter that much in practice but that definitely makes me think i won't be buying it. the thing is, I actually don't agree with some of the takes I've been seeing around about this plugin. I hate influencers personally, you know the types of people who shill on Youtube. I am against them. but still I thought it was pretty cool. very overpriced though, but what do you expect anymore. I will have to be pretty drunk to buy it.

XLN should be paying me for this:

1. "it's like Koala"
Lol wut... an iOS app that you can't incorporate directly into a DAW? that doesn't easily incorporate automatic rapid sample slicing? that doesn't have randomization of the sounds to allow you to rapidly hone in on a loop that might take hours of fiddling around with notes to reach otherwise... or combining various "randomize" sequencers with the sampler? and does koala even auto slice? this take literally makes no sense whatsoever, and I like Koala a lot.

2. "it's like Ableton Note"
well, except you have to manually cobble together multiple plugins every time you want to get that effect, which in theory sounds great, but in practice when you're making music are you going to remember some hidden Instrument Rack preset you built but don't remember the details of how it works, or just grab something you know works right out of the box to achieve a result? Oh... and I use Bitwig.

3. "it doesn't produce great sounds"
Maybe people don't make the same kind of music as me, but for electronic beat-focused music, slow or fast, or future-pop, or IDM or whatever... I think this thing quickly can add a ton to a beat. You just pull out your phone, make some sounds or whatever fits the track, and then randomize until you have something that sounds cool, then there are features available in Life to allow you to take that and sculpt it closer to something that you want. but apparently that's "taking the creativity out of music" but plowing together 100 euclidian sequencers that make random bleeps and bloops is super creative and totally not derivative. I think tools like this should be seen as a means to explore and extend your ideas/

It reminds me more of StiX from Xils lab that has a sound randomizer and beat randomizer but is very outdated and doesn't let you directly mess with the sounds and hone in on something. and it is similar to XO, but is more like an added tool that can enhance something else. Personally I think being similar to XO is a good thing. XO is one of my most used plugins.

It's probably closest to Serato Sample in terms of slicing but Sample lacks a sequencer.

It also overlaps with HY Slicer 2 in places. HY Slicer 2 lacks automatic slicing but has a better sequencer, more effects and you can use multiple samples in a sequence.

[mxbf]

after using it for the first time working on a track today, i did notice 2 things that I would consider to be issues:

1.
it needs 1/2 time (imo) and 2X time. but especially 1/2 time. I don't see that on it anywhere...

but really, a lot of the time you're building a 1/2 time beat in a fast tempo and want a slower pattern, or sometimes a slow tempo and want a faster pattern over the time. with this theres no way to use the tool provided in the way it's meant to be used (experimenting quickly to get a sound). you have to export loops and then drag them one at a time to audition of they sound good or not.

should be easy to add a 1/2 time and 2X time to front panel

2. it seems like randomize randomizes the sounds/pattern at the same time, and you can't just randomize the pattern or sounds individually. that is not good. in XO you can randomize sounds


that said, even with these problems I am finding it to be producing novel sounds that I would spend a lot of time fiddling around in XO to reach.

[Viktor [TUC]]

I think we can all relax a bit:
https://support.xlnaudio.com/hc/en-us/a ... gs-Period-