Well if it's 80s you like :
Superwave P8 - I love it.
Looking for a "second fiddle" VSTi
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- KVRist
- 199 posts since 12 Apr, 2005
Thanks Lorenzo for the link to the Rhodes soundfont! Oh yes, exactly, this is the right sound. Should be great for "Lounge" styles which I sometimes make.
(Actually I have been trying to find the exact sound as the e-piano of Hall&Oates in 'Rich Girl' and I worked with equalizers and all kinds of effects to get it sound as close as possible. Just as I installed and tested 30 huge multisamples of grand pianos to get the exact same sound as Keith Jarrett's piano... and I kept only one and will use that now. Yeah it seems crazy but I want virtual instruments that sound exactly as I like them most. In the end I only keep *one* of each instruments, and forget about the settings. I did the same when I started in the 80's with Roland samplers, I developed my perfect set of instruments and then made 90 songs with the same set. Like with a virtual band where you select each member. Anyway, this worked well. Just like you I hate most "preset" sounds...
Superwave P8? I second that! Downloaded it today, loved it, and deleted the MS42 Nebula I had bought for my synth sounds. -- Make sure to get the FREE version (there are others): http://home.btconnect.com/christopherg/main.htm
(Actually I have been trying to find the exact sound as the e-piano of Hall&Oates in 'Rich Girl' and I worked with equalizers and all kinds of effects to get it sound as close as possible. Just as I installed and tested 30 huge multisamples of grand pianos to get the exact same sound as Keith Jarrett's piano... and I kept only one and will use that now. Yeah it seems crazy but I want virtual instruments that sound exactly as I like them most. In the end I only keep *one* of each instruments, and forget about the settings. I did the same when I started in the 80's with Roland samplers, I developed my perfect set of instruments and then made 90 songs with the same set. Like with a virtual band where you select each member. Anyway, this worked well. Just like you I hate most "preset" sounds...
Superwave P8? I second that! Downloaded it today, loved it, and deleted the MS42 Nebula I had bought for my synth sounds. -- Make sure to get the FREE version (there are others): http://home.btconnect.com/christopherg/main.htm
Last edited by sonicsmurf on Tue May 03, 2005 6:35 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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- KVRist
- 336 posts since 1 Jun, 2003 from cyberspace
mmhh, you make easy listening-type stuff? .. need some background chords?
ok, Ensembler from Concrete FX, is just what you need
Foorius! have you tried it yet?
also ZynAddSubFX and Polyiblit deserve some attentions
and for those mellotron type sounds:
Tapeworm by Tweakbench and Nanotron by Dream Vortex Audio
peace!
ok, Ensembler from Concrete FX, is just what you need
Foorius! have you tried it yet?
also ZynAddSubFX and Polyiblit deserve some attentions
and for those mellotron type sounds:
Tapeworm by Tweakbench and Nanotron by Dream Vortex Audio
peace!
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- KVRAF
- 3347 posts since 8 Nov, 2003 from Amsterdam
... so you'll be asking advice about that in another thread?Lorenzo333 wrote:Also, I still need to buy a decent preamp to get the guitar inside the PC, so it would make sense to wait a little bit before buying any VSTi's.
...Yes, Soundfonts seem easier, but: only 16 bit quality samples (probably good enough for home use though) and often no support for expression / aftertouch / modulation. In contrast e.g. Manystations samples are 24 bit, and Manystation / Wusikstation offer expression etc. for most of the presets (or can be added with a single click or two).Soundfonts also seem a little easier to audition, don't they? Except for those humoungous GM ones, of course. Less knobs to fiddle with, in any case.
btw. be sure to check out sfz if you go soundfonts, not just as a soundfont player, but also an easy way to add your own samples in their sfz-format
Thanks for the suggestions
L[/quote]
Last edited by M'Snah on Tue May 03, 2005 6:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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- KVRAF
- 5818 posts since 9 Jul, 2002 from Helsinki
Lorenzo,
You could also try one mixing tip: to preserve the richness of a pad sound, but make it a bit thinner many use EQ to carve out some of the middle frequencies. (or if you want to get surgeonistic, carve out from the precise area where your guitar's main frequencies are). Reverbing the pads can also help to make way for lead sounds.
Crystal's patches are mostly experimental/weird stuff, I really can't remember any "normal" pads.
If you liked DX7, you could try Vivaldi MX from Stefan Kuhn, and Galactix from Smartelectronix. Some of the FM synths (FM7 obviously) can also import DX7 patches.
You could also try one mixing tip: to preserve the richness of a pad sound, but make it a bit thinner many use EQ to carve out some of the middle frequencies. (or if you want to get surgeonistic, carve out from the precise area where your guitar's main frequencies are). Reverbing the pads can also help to make way for lead sounds.
Crystal's patches are mostly experimental/weird stuff, I really can't remember any "normal" pads.
If you liked DX7, you could try Vivaldi MX from Stefan Kuhn, and Galactix from Smartelectronix. Some of the FM synths (FM7 obviously) can also import DX7 patches.
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- KVRian
- 755 posts since 12 Mar, 2004
Try PlugSound Free from Ultimate Sound Bank. Sounds really nice and it's free
here is the download page: http://www.ultimatesoundbank.com/usb/exec/demo
here is the download page: http://www.ultimatesoundbank.com/usb/exec/demo
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- KVRAF
- 7880 posts since 16 Apr, 2003 from -on the outside looking in
Given your music style, I would definitely suggest PlugSound free also:OMU wrote:Try PlugSound Free from Ultimate Sound Bank. Sounds really nice and it's free
here is the download page: http://www.ultimatesoundbank.com/usb/exec/demo
it has a decent selection of great presets, including diff. keyboards, synths, drums and everybody's favorite: the spanish guitar patch
Sounds good, looks nice, can tweak it if you want butready to roll upon installation!
Last edited by ouroboros on Tue May 03, 2005 9:25 pm, edited 1 time in total.
..what goes around comes around..
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- KVRAF
- 13090 posts since 14 Nov, 2000 from Hannover / Germany
In case you love Rhodes (it seems you do), make sure not to miss MrRay by ZioKiller.
There are 3 kinds of people:
Those who can do maths and those who can't.
Those who can do maths and those who can't.
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- KVRAF
- 7748 posts since 13 Jan, 2003 from Darkest Kent, UK
I think that's kind of the point, to sound 'Cheezy'.Lorenzo333 wrote: Cheeze Machine: tried it, didn't like the presets. They all had this "mwah" sound that gave it kind of an "ironic" vibe to my ears. Like if it was saying "aren't strings cheesy?" Is there a "serious" preset bank that I should try?
I just like that quality, maybe it reminds me of some recordings I admire (Grant Harts 'Intolerance' per chance?)I'm a bit jealous actually that you know what you want and can audition these vstis so effectively. I just have a rambling mess of a vst folder with all these freebies with one half decent sound that "may come in handy one day".Oh and by the way, I don't want to sound like I'm putting down all the great work the developers are doing. On the contrary, I think they are doing a great job. Even the instruments that I discarded sounded fine, just not for my style of music...
Good luck in your quest.
.g
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- KVRAF
- 3441 posts since 15 Mar, 2003
sonicsmurf,
I'm curious, which piano did you settle on?
Lorenzo333,
If you like the Wusikstation but find it too thick maybe
all you would need to do is roll off the low end a bit.
I'm curious, which piano did you settle on?
Lorenzo333,
If you like the Wusikstation but find it too thick maybe
all you would need to do is roll off the low end a bit.
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- KVRist
- 199 posts since 12 Apr, 2005
Hi PT. First of all let me say, I am closely following what "Lorenzo333" is writing here! Why? Because his long list of comments on different instruments comes VERY close to my own experience and decisions. So I hope I can see what Lorenzo chooses, he seems to have a similar taste.
If you're interested, here's my current setup for my "virtual band". Yes it's compact and I only chose one instrument per type, as it's all I wanted:
- Grand Piano: Steinway soundfont "WST25FStein_00Sep22.sf2" plus very specific EQ settings to make it sound full and mellow like Keith Jarrett's piano -- which was only possible with the multiband graphic EQ LinearPhaseGraphicEQ 2", plus "PSP PianoVerb" a reverb that generates piano-specific frequencies.
- E-Piano: "Mr. Ray 73" (checked many sampled Rhodes, even bought LoungeLizard, but only kept this one). Ah well, and I keep the "4Front E-Piano" which is nice to use in Pop songs. Since I find the chorus effect too coloring on EP's, I use the effect "Univibe" (part of this effect package, a sound which is awesome but not really chorusing. A univibe does not use time delay but more of a phase change.
- Guitar chords: Natural Studio soundfont "ns_broadway with Wide-Boy effect and chorus (the internal Tracktion chorus is actually nicer with this than the Kjaerhus chorus). If I don't use my real guitars, I also use some guitar samples ("ultimate guitar kit 2") by Geoff Khan in this forum (I was unhappy with all guitar VSTi's I tested, such as Revitar and Slayer).
- Bass (precision bass guitar): Natural Studio "NS_J-Bass" soundfont (tried many bass VSTi's and only kept this soundfont).
- Synth sounds (mostly for pads): Superwave P8
- Drums: "Clean Drum Kit" which is part of the soundfont "233-poprockbank.sf2" (I tested about 50 drumkit soundfonts, I used to teach drums and was a bandleader so I know how it must sound in a band), plus sharp EQ boosts at 226Hz and 1310Hz (with the internal Tracktion EQ), plus Crysonic "Spectralive", a brand new acoustic vitaliser/exciter that makes the drumkit cut through in a band mix while still sounding natural.
- Strings: Same problem here, did not find a solution yet (and deleted all the string VSTi's I checked). Looking for a natural sounding string section with fast attack parameters.
For the soundfonts I use SFZ in multiple instances (though I have to make sure all the SFZ settings are right in order not to overload my CPU on big sample banks)
And I love playing with the Spanish Guitar of "Plugsound free", it was the first virtual instrument I downloaded since I installed Tracktion.
PS: I did not like Wusikstation at all
(Edit: I just added links, so I can use this post in future if I should ever lose a component and forget where I found the thing
If you're interested, here's my current setup for my "virtual band". Yes it's compact and I only chose one instrument per type, as it's all I wanted:
- Grand Piano: Steinway soundfont "WST25FStein_00Sep22.sf2" plus very specific EQ settings to make it sound full and mellow like Keith Jarrett's piano -- which was only possible with the multiband graphic EQ LinearPhaseGraphicEQ 2", plus "PSP PianoVerb" a reverb that generates piano-specific frequencies.
- E-Piano: "Mr. Ray 73" (checked many sampled Rhodes, even bought LoungeLizard, but only kept this one). Ah well, and I keep the "4Front E-Piano" which is nice to use in Pop songs. Since I find the chorus effect too coloring on EP's, I use the effect "Univibe" (part of this effect package, a sound which is awesome but not really chorusing. A univibe does not use time delay but more of a phase change.
- Guitar chords: Natural Studio soundfont "ns_broadway with Wide-Boy effect and chorus (the internal Tracktion chorus is actually nicer with this than the Kjaerhus chorus). If I don't use my real guitars, I also use some guitar samples ("ultimate guitar kit 2") by Geoff Khan in this forum (I was unhappy with all guitar VSTi's I tested, such as Revitar and Slayer).
- Bass (precision bass guitar): Natural Studio "NS_J-Bass" soundfont (tried many bass VSTi's and only kept this soundfont).
- Synth sounds (mostly for pads): Superwave P8
- Drums: "Clean Drum Kit" which is part of the soundfont "233-poprockbank.sf2" (I tested about 50 drumkit soundfonts, I used to teach drums and was a bandleader so I know how it must sound in a band), plus sharp EQ boosts at 226Hz and 1310Hz (with the internal Tracktion EQ), plus Crysonic "Spectralive", a brand new acoustic vitaliser/exciter that makes the drumkit cut through in a band mix while still sounding natural.
- Strings: Same problem here, did not find a solution yet (and deleted all the string VSTi's I checked). Looking for a natural sounding string section with fast attack parameters.
For the soundfonts I use SFZ in multiple instances (though I have to make sure all the SFZ settings are right in order not to overload my CPU on big sample banks)
And I love playing with the Spanish Guitar of "Plugsound free", it was the first virtual instrument I downloaded since I installed Tracktion.
PS: I did not like Wusikstation at all
(Edit: I just added links, so I can use this post in future if I should ever lose a component and forget where I found the thing
Last edited by sonicsmurf on Wed May 04, 2005 8:29 am, edited 4 times in total.
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- KVRist
- Topic Starter
- 211 posts since 27 Feb, 2005
Sorry to dissapoint but... I just realized that it's possible to programmaticaly generate soundfonts from DX7 patches. As in: download 100 preset banks out of the thousands floating around the 'Net, leave the machine running overnight and come back in the morning to find 3200 soundfonts (one per patch).sonicsmurf wrote:Hi PT. First of all let me say, I am closely following what "Lorenzo333" is writing here! Why? Because his long list of comments on different instruments comes VERY close to my own experience and decisions. So I hope I can see what Lorenzo chooses, he seems to have a similar taste.
That's going to be a *lot* of presets to try...
Thanks for the instrument/ soundfont recommendations, I'll try them. I'm also tending towards the "one instrument per class" phylosophy.
BTW: The Steinway soundfont seems to be not royalty free?
Oh well, I'll have to switch to some other soundfont whenever I start making money...Finally: Maybe a "purging my VSTi folder" thread is in order?
Thanks again for all the pointers
L
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- KVRist
- 199 posts since 12 Apr, 2005
Wow Lorenzo, you have a lot of work planned with that DX7 bank (I also had a DX7, many years back and I loved it... until I got myself the D50 and then the S50 by Roland
The grand piano: Hmm I see the problem with commercial use. Okay, so try this (YamahaGrand_Adcock), it's the second best I found. Sounds very natural. And in the reviews for it, someone says: "this is the only soundfont here that has a solid body to it, all the other pianos seem to a bit floatry sounding". True!
About cleaning up the plugin folder: I did something special to make it easier and much better organised. I re-named the file names of the VST's, for example instead of the file name "4Front EPiano Module.dll" I renamed the plugin file to to read: "- E-PIANO (4Front EPiano Module).dll" and the "MrRay 73.dll" I changed to "- E-PIANO (MrRay73).dll"
And so on. I did the same for all my effects, e.g. a file is called after renaming it: "ECHO (mda Delay).dll"
The result? Now I have all my filters *logically grouped* when I open the filter list. My list now starts with the internal Tracktion filters, then the compact section with ALL the instruments (the "-" at the beginning of the file name ensures that the instruments are listed before my effects) and then all my effects, grouped by type (AmpSim, Chorus, Echo, EQ, Reverb etc.).
Sounds confusing, but if you try renaming the files in this manner, everyhing is nicely organized when you open the filter list.
(Well, for a few plugins that have separate folders with settings, you also have to rename the settings-folders to ensure that the dll files still work).
PS I am seeing that you are starting to create soundfonts - cool, I also started a few days ago. I use the "Viena" editor (not "Vienna" because that only works with SB soundcards it seems).
The grand piano: Hmm I see the problem with commercial use. Okay, so try this (YamahaGrand_Adcock), it's the second best I found. Sounds very natural. And in the reviews for it, someone says: "this is the only soundfont here that has a solid body to it, all the other pianos seem to a bit floatry sounding". True!
About cleaning up the plugin folder: I did something special to make it easier and much better organised. I re-named the file names of the VST's, for example instead of the file name "4Front EPiano Module.dll" I renamed the plugin file to to read: "- E-PIANO (4Front EPiano Module).dll" and the "MrRay 73.dll" I changed to "- E-PIANO (MrRay73).dll"
And so on. I did the same for all my effects, e.g. a file is called after renaming it: "ECHO (mda Delay).dll"
The result? Now I have all my filters *logically grouped* when I open the filter list. My list now starts with the internal Tracktion filters, then the compact section with ALL the instruments (the "-" at the beginning of the file name ensures that the instruments are listed before my effects) and then all my effects, grouped by type (AmpSim, Chorus, Echo, EQ, Reverb etc.).
Sounds confusing, but if you try renaming the files in this manner, everyhing is nicely organized when you open the filter list.
(Well, for a few plugins that have separate folders with settings, you also have to rename the settings-folders to ensure that the dll files still work).
PS I am seeing that you are starting to create soundfonts - cool, I also started a few days ago. I use the "Viena" editor (not "Vienna" because that only works with SB soundcards it seems).
