is there a soft synth that does this stuff, like vintage vox organs and rhodes and all those cool things, or am I looking for some other kind of software? I don't want to buy organs, i want to do it with my midi keyboard. i have a ghetto setup with my cheap (free) yamaha PSR-240, but I'd like to know what else is out there, particularly something with a variety of vintage keys/organs, perhaps more realistic than the sometimes cheesy cheap keyboard sound. maybe this is the holy grail software keys program and it doesn't exist. does it? I would love it if something free could do something like this.

NOO-B!!! to all this keyboard/midi/synth stuff!

I have a cheap psr-225 so I know what sounds you are limited too..

electric piano and organ...
uhmm look at Applied Acoustic's LOUNGE LIZARD 2 and/or Native Instrument's B4

also check out the free ZR-3.. and big tick did a free ep plugin if memory serves me..

all are listed in the quick instruments links to your right

thanks! would the sfz soundfont thing apply for these kinds of sounds?

Plugsound Free would be a good option too

no worries..

uhmm I'm not quite sure of your question..

SFZ will play soundfonts.. so if you can find some EP and organ soundfonts.. then yeah.. it will play them.

but SFZ alone isnt going to make these sounds.. its just a player you know..

so with SFZ you are going to have to find some soundfonts and load them into SFZ and then play SFZ.. i think that makes sense...

SF2 stuff could apply but I think the Dash Signature EVE synth would fit your needs. It has a couple additional sample libraries that extend it. I have famous keyboards 1 which has a killer Yamaha CP-80 on it. You can play it straight up and it sounds killer or layer it with various other electric/vintage pianos.

I didn't realize how good it was until I unleased a couple hours of stuff I wrote back in the late 70s when the CP-80 was the only thing that came close to sounding like a grand piano, and yet it sounded hardly like it, but a very cool imitation. I saw a lot of prog rock bands using them, particularly Genesis. Having found the sample all I can say is that's my main piano for my new album. I prefer it to a completely clean and clear grand and certainly more than a Wurlitzer or Rhodes, both easy to make in EVE.

Strongly recommended.

EVE from DashSynthesis has some vintage keys and organ sounds, among them rhodes, wurlitzer, clavinet and hammond B3, and it's cheap. personally i don't like it's sound at all, but a lot of people seem to love it, so you might as well try it.

you could also take a look at Computer Music Magazine. they have a sampler that comes with every issue, and there are/have been some descent organ and epiano sounds for it. check what's on the cd, and if you can download some additional sounds from their website.

I would suggest getting the free sfz sample playback VSTi. You will have to find samples to play in it, but that shouldn't be too hard.

It can not only handle samples in soundfont format, but can play WAV and OGG recordings as well. It is also capable of playing a collection of several multisampled WAV or OGG files as a single instrument, via its new sfz file format.

This is currently the best free sample player available, by far. The new sfz file format is still being developed, but is already quite useable for many things. You can expect to see a lot of people creating sfz formatted sample sets in the near future. The best part is that you only need some WAV or OGG sample files and a text editor to create an sfz sample set.

This is definitely my favorite sample player.

Some good soft-organs:

- CesFerrari CesSynth2
- Rumpelrausch ZR1
- Centralogic Snorgan
- Odo 9p or Ah

But the best is:
http://www.xs4all.nl/%7Ehuygensf/pics/eul2.jpg

and check out Organized Trio..i like it..

http://www.kvr-vst.com/get/682.html


esh

What about USB's Charlie, it has a load of gorgeous organ sounds.

Check out

http://www.usbsounds.com/jsp/vi/charlie/home.jsp

for an audio demo.

6.

PJ Geerling is working on something special. YOu can read more here:

http://forum.cubase.net/forum/Forum4/HTML/013333.html

You can contact him and he'll send a beta that offers some wonderful sounds...

DashSynthesis Combosister will cover the Vox sounds very well I think, and Lounge Lizzard 2 is a fantastic epiano emulation. They are both synths not sample players so besides the regular staff you can do some pretty wild sound design with them if you're intrested. I suggest you download the demos.

As is obvious, there's an embarrassment of riches when it comes to organ sounds and soft synth options. But since no one has mentioned it yet, NI's B4 really is, as the kids' say, da bomb. With the Tone Wheel collection, which adds Wurly and Farfisa sounds to an already fantastic B3 emulation that's dead simple to use, you'll be covered for quite some time. Not the cheapest solution, but in terms of versatility and automation, you'd have a hard time improving on it.

did you try BigTick's EP-Station ?

I have a fetish for vintage sounds, so I'll give you my roundup. Recommended buys indicated by ***

Vox and Farfisa organs--***Combosister (SPOT ON, and CHEAP), ***Z3 (close, and FREE)

Rhodes--***mdaEPiano (spot on, and FREE--no GUI, but no problem), Lounge Lizard (somewhat pricey, but excellent and it does a decent Wurlitzer too), EPStation (decent price, but too FM-sounding for my taste)

Wurlitzer--Lounge Lizard does it pretty good

Hammond B3--B4 (wonderful, but not cheap), ***Da Organ (less expensive, and very good), Dirtbag (FREE, but sounds crappy IMHO)

You can do a lot with Soundfonts and samplers, but they're a little limiting, and virtual instruments are more fun to work with. There are no doubt many other options available, but these are pretty well known.

I just picked up DASH's bundle, and between EVE and Combo Sister, I feel it covers everything you're looking for... and you get a bunch of other neat stuff as well... I'd definitely check it out

NATIVE INSTRUMENTS "ELECTRIC PIANO" all the way! Love this synth its my favorite of all the NI. Also a great akai sample cd First Call "vintage keys".

Z-man

Plugsound keys rompler is decent....