Update: Raised initial rating to 7.5 and changed value estimation.
Update #2: Raised rating to 8.0, value estimation remains the same. I feel like the negatives made me feel a bit of purchasers regret and lower the rating more than necessary, but upon using the 'useful' samples a bit more, I really like the quality of the pack overall.
Original Review Below
If you're reading this wondering whether this pack is worth $60: It's hard to say. I love Shapeforms audio packs, and would recommend nearly all of them in a heartbeat. But at $60 it's a bit of a hard sell.
I think I'd give this pack a 7.5/10 for now. I believe layering and/or post processing is a must to make full use of this pack. If you are willing to layer / process and don't mind subpar impact sounds, I say go ahead, you're all set. Although I would sooner price this at $45-50 rather than $60, for one particular reason.
Want to know more? Read on ahead:
First the good things.
Positive Points:
* There's enough useful samples in pretty much every category. Every important category is represented, and then some.
* There is a variety of sound profiles available. 'Combustion' style sounds, alien pulses, there's a bit of everything. (Although some profiles are more 'prevalent' than others, and this 'slanted' distribution is present in every category)
* The sounds are really suitable for layering. This can be a good or bad thing, depending on whether you were looking for a drag & drop amazing sound experience. (Spoiler: This does not provide that in my opinion)
* There's a guide that explains how to use the sounds, with some suggestions on how to combine sounds for a vehicle. A very welcome addition for people who may not be as well versed with audio, and just good guidance in general. Especially since again, this seems to be strongly designed to be used in layering.
* Some pre-combined engine & boost sounds are provided, they sound quite neat.
* There's 3 sounds in the engine harmonics folder that should either be in a BladeRunner movie as part of a Vangelis soundtrack, or in some crazy trippy ambient production. They make me want to pick up music production again. (So this made me happy, and I'll give it a point for that)
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Now the bad things:
Minor Complaints:
* Not truly suitable for 'individual' sound use.
The description mentions you can use some sounds individually, but I would highly recommend only getting this if you're into layering stuff together. There are a few sounds that sound good individually, but it's a fraction of the total set. (There are better options if you're looking for drag & drop)
* Some sounds are a bit too 'wet'.
As a result, they feel like they dictate the environment a bit more and make it a bit harder to post process, and also makes the quality between samples feel a bit inconsistent.
* I was hoping for a more "cohesive" feeling between the sounds.
For example I expected a set of x sounds for each 'sound profile':
"Alien Ship (Synthy pulsy waves): Take Off / Landing / Engine Loop"
"Combustion Ship (think Jet Engine): Take Off / Landing / Engine Loop"
etc.
Instead what you get looks more like:
"Turbine: Jet Turbine 1 - 2 - 3"
"Turbine: Sci Fi Thingamajig"
"Take Off: Spaceship 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-100"
"Take Off: Cool Sound SineWave Pulse"
I have two issues with this:
1: Not all sound profiles are represented equally. (1 folder can have 1 jet engine sound and another can have 10)
2: It makes it harder to find 'cohesive' sounds. I would've preferred a bit more organization/curation in the types of sounds provided. Does spaceship 5 sound good with Sci Fi Turbine 3? No idea until you try.
* Boosts is all right, but could've used some more diverse recharging loops and has some 'odd' one shots that feel out of place.
Major Complaints:
* Some of the sounds edge a bit too close to being a basic sound shape + LFO.
For $60 I do not want the sound to remind me of someone fiddling around with a DAW. Worst offender? Some of the Engine Loops - Pulse sounds. "Bass Pulse Layer Loop_01" literally sounds like an LFO'd C3 Sine Wave OSC from Fruity Loops,
* Impacts.
Oh boy, impacts.. Impacts does have some useful sounds like all the other categories, but overall too many of them sound either too 'flimsy', or like someone just took some drum kit samples & metal sheet, whacked it a few times and called it a day.
Worst offenders are:
"Impact Clean Kick Thud_01" (Sounds like a pure DrumKit bass drum)
"Ship Hull Impact 05 & 06" (Sounds like a pure big orchestral drum)
There's a few sounds that sound a tiny bit like you T-boned someone's KIA, but no "groaning metal" sounds, no big heavy bombastic metal crashes like you see and hear in your favorite space games.
This is the one category where this pack really dropped the ball, and could've provided some more heavy / deep metal clangs & clashes, screeching noises and groaning metal. If I could change one thing in this pack, it's a re-do of this category. And for this reason I would really wish this pack was priced a tiny bit cheaper.
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In conclusion: Despite my negative points, every category in the pack does have some useful sounds, some more than others. Layering these together and some optional post processing can make these sound epic. However the question is whether this is still worth $60 despite the shortcomings.
If you are looking for 'ready made' drag & drop sounds I might consider looking elsewhere as there are packs for $25-30 that provide 'ready made' sound profile sets for specific space ships.
But if you are looking for a layering product, I'd argue this pack would be easily worth $40, maybe $50. Now that's not $60, but do note that there are not really any proper alternatives as most packs don't focus on layering, so you don't have much of a choice. Do I regret spending $60? A tiny bit, but if the content issues were fixed (Impacts!), I would feel much happier already.
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Note to creator:
Please please please consider adding some additional Boost loops and revisiting the Impacts section to add some more proper impact sounds in there.