New to music production... What to buy?

[mynewday]

Hello everyone,

I am Mark. I am mostly new to music production. I have played around a bit with free plugins, but now I want to move on to making more professional stuff. I would like to buy some plugins, but I don't know where to start.

The music I want to produce is a kind of arty rock, so guitars, bass, and rock drums are dominant, but with synths and some classical instruments as well. What I really need is the following:

- Good rock drums
- Good guitar with strumming and amp/effects (acoustic and electric sounds, but I don't need metal sounds, just a little fuzz)
- Bass with effects/multiple playing styles
- A few individual classical instruments (maybe violin, flute, clarinet, trumpet) - I don't need a full orchestra, just a few to color my sound a bit in places. Of course I want it to sound realistic, so multiple playing styles for each instrument.
- A decent synth for ambience and occasional leads, although honestly I might just go with a free one here since some of the free options are quite amazing and I'm familiar with them. (Do the paid synths really offer that much more than the freebies?)

I ideallly would like to spend less than 500 USD in all, but it's not a hard limit.

In short (because I've triggered a spam warning, I won't go into heavy details), I've been debating between VSTs, Kontact complete package, or doing something like the EastWest subsciption model. Which will best serve my needs?

Thanks for helping.

[mynewday]

Attempting to post the rest of the post.

Lastly, should I be looking at individual VSTs or should I look at something like Kontact Player and plugins? Kontact seems to have a lot for 199, but I'm not sure how realistic it is, particularly the guitars/bass, but the interface would be consistent between instruments, so it would be easy to learn. Of course I'd have more customization with individual VSTs from multiple companies, but that would be more expensive.

One last option is EastWest composer cloud subscription model. It offers a great deal of sounds, but I prefer owning my plugins. But I'd be willing to listen to anyone who has purchased it.

Thanks for helping.

[ATS]

Hello everyone,

I am Mark. I am mostly new to music production. I have played around a bit with free plugins, but now I want to move on to making more professional stuff.

with all the amazing free stuff that is available if you can't sound "more pro" with that, buying stuff isn't gonna help.

[Lejurai]

Hello everyone,

I am Mark. I am mostly new to music production. I have played around a bit with free plugins, but now I want to move on to making more professional stuff.

with all the amazing free stuff that is available if you can't sound "more pro" with that, buying stuff isn't gonna help.

This. So basically you should ask, what are the most professional sounding freeware

But if you really want to get rid of your money, Komplete 11 is around that 500 or cheaper few times a year https://www.native-instruments.com/en/p ... mplete-11/. It has pretty much everything you'll need for a looooooong long time.

[Touch The Universe]

If you want to keep things simple and not futz with lots of vsti's and sample libraries, but have a lot in single package, you can't go wrong with omnisphere. You can easily stick to freeware effects for the time being, imo.

[mynewday]

Hello everyone,

I am Mark. I am mostly new to music production. I have played around a bit with free plugins, but now I want to move on to making more professional stuff.

with all the amazing free stuff that is available if you can't sound "more pro" with that, buying stuff isn't gonna help.

This. So basically you should ask, what are the most professional sounding freeware

But if you really want to get rid of your money, Komplete 11 is around that 500 or cheaper few times a year https://www.native-instruments.com/en/p ... mplete-11/. It has pretty much everything you'll need for a looooooong long time.

[mynewday]

Hello everyone,

I am Mark. I am mostly new to music production. I have played around a bit with free plugins, but now I want to move on to making more professional stuff.

with all the amazing free stuff that is available if you can't sound "more pro" with that, buying stuff isn't gonna help.

This. So basically you should ask, what are the most professional sounding freeware

But if you really want to get rid of your money, Komplete 11 is around that 500 or cheaper few times a year https://www.native-instruments.com/en/p ... mplete-11/. It has pretty much everything you'll need for a looooooong long time.

Well, I'm sure there's some truth to that. I'm still an amateur for sure, and I have a long way to go to sounding professional!

The freeware instruments I've tried are pretty good, but I just feel there's a lack of realism there. For synths where realistic instrument sounds isn't the goal, this isn't a problem, and I've gotten sole pretty good sounds out of free synths. Drums also aren't that bad, and I'm sure with a bit of EQ and reverb, as well as research into how a real drummer plays, I could get a passable rock drum sound.

However, the majority of my music is rock music, and guitar and bass are where I feel the freebies suffer. To get a realistic guitar sound, for example, you would need to emulate fingers on frets, proper up and down strumming and the delays that come from strings not sounding exactly at the same time, etc., as well as different playing techniques like hammer ons, slides, etc. For bass, similar things apply. The best I've found for free so far is the demos from Ample Sound, but they are limited a bit (the bass is missing important notes, and the guitar is limited to finger where I'd like to use a pick). Emulating something like a violin or flute also is tough, for example, the slides between notes, or breath and key sounds).

I know these are minor things, but I can't help but feel that although I can get 95% of the way there with freebies, I'll be never able to capture that last 5%. Just the perfectionist in me talking perhaps!

And if there's anything I'm missing in terms of free instruments, I'd be glad to check them out!

[ATS]

Hello everyone,

I am Mark. I am mostly new to music production. I have played around a bit with free plugins, but now I want to move on to making more professional stuff.

with all the amazing free stuff that is available if you can't sound "more pro" with that, buying stuff isn't gonna help.

This. So basically you should ask, what are the most professional sounding freeware

But if you really want to get rid of your money, Komplete 11 is around that 500 or cheaper few times a year https://www.native-instruments.com/en/p ... mplete-11/. It has pretty much everything you'll need for a looooooong long time.

Well, I'm sure there's some truth to that. I'm still an amateur for sure, and I have a long way to go to sounding professional!

The freeware instruments I've tried are pretty good, but I just feel there's a lack of realism there. For synths where realistic instrument sounds isn't the goal, this isn't a problem, and I've gotten sole pretty good sounds out of free synths. Drums also aren't that bad, and I'm sure with a bit of EQ and reverb, as well as research into how a real drummer plays, I could get a passable rock drum sound.

However, the majority of my music is rock music, and guitar and bass are where I feel the freebies suffer. To get a realistic guitar sound, for example, you would need to emulate fingers on frets, proper up and down strumming and the delays that come from strings not sounding exactly at the same time, etc., as well as different playing techniques like hammer ons, slides, etc. For bass, similar things apply. The best I've found for free so far is the demos from Ample Sound, but they are limited a bit (the bass is missing important notes, and the guitar is limited to finger where I'd like to use a pick). Emulating something like a violin or flute also is tough, for example, the slides between notes, or breath and key sounds).

I know these are minor things, but I can't help but feel that although I can get 95% of the way there with freebies, I'll be never able to capture that last 5%. Just the perfectionist in me talking perhaps!

And if there's anything I'm missing in terms of free instruments, I'd be glad to check them out!

seriously it's pretty much all truth. I wish I could start fresh not having spent a dime like you are now. PLEASE take your time and pick anything you buy very carefully. You seriously might want to start here: https://www.groove3.com/

I make electronic music so not a big help with rock music.

I would start first with a DAW and learn that really well before getting anything else. I like Studio One 3 myself but not sure that is considered the best for Rock or not. Many DAWs come with amazing effects and instruments as well.

[Touch The Universe]

Drums, definitely check out Addictive Drums, the best by far in my opinion -- stellar workflow. For bass, maybe try trillian or the new modo bass by ik multimedia. Komplete does seem like it would be a good option for you too

[malachy5]

What DAW are you using? Some DAWs come with a range of instruments and sample packs and decent effects. There are plenty of great freebies like Tokyo Dawn for mastering level compression and EQ. I think you could probably do fine with just a good DAW and Komplete.

Good rock will need great drums, it might be worth checking out the pro options like BFD3 which is on sale now and Addictive Drums was also on sale recently. Toontrak also. Demo them all if you can and pick one, then wait for sales if you don't go for BFD.

If you want Kontakt then check out free Sennheiser drummica, it is a pretty functional, tunable drumkit and if you can navigate the German registration process and get a registration serial I think you then qualify for an upgrade path to Kontakt and possibly Komplete. Worth persevering with, Once you have it registered with NI check your upgrade paths in your account.

Check out the Pettinhouse deal that is still on, a whole range of guitars for $99
For amp sims the world is your oyster, loads of options. I'm not a guitarist but I picked up Brainworx mega single over BF and it sounds really nice esp for clean tone. Their Rockrack has a free option with the same quality just limited tuning options. Komplete of course has Guitar Rig which also sounds great. I've seen a pro work a basic guitarish synth line through GR amp-sims and heard it played on a full club PA and it was jaw dropping. It's about knowing the tools.

If you opt for Komplete you'd also get Monark which is a super Moog emulation, a bit brighter and edgier than the much raved about Legend but I think it would be perfect for rock. Massive and FM8 and Absynth are all very useful for adding atmosphere.

Orchestra I don't know much about apart from a decent full lib will take all of your $500 and then some. For strings there is 8dio Adagietto on sale which is really nice but it will only get you strings and might duplicate the session strings in Komplete.

True that pro stuff won't make you pro but a lot of them help you get that pro sound quicker, they are nice to have and you can always sell them. (Check resale options, some like FXpansion are punitive on resale charges). You can also do nicely on secondhand plugs but sales so far this year have been so good I reckon you can do as well or better just timing the purchase wisely.

Then you just need decent distortion plug, keep an eye out over Xmas for deals on Soundtoys little radiator and devil loc. Soundtoys decapitator and Brainworx VCS3 are both great but there are many options.

[thecontrolcentre]

Wondering if the OP plays guitar (?) . Seems a much better option for rock music than sample based stuff.

[malachy5]

Wondering if the OP plays guitar (?) . Seems a much better option for rock music than sample based stuff.

Indeed or even a mate that can strum 3 chords could do. But guitar GAS is deadly. Guitars, pickups, strings, amps etc...

[mynewday]

What DAW are you using? Some DAWs come with a range of instruments and sample packs and decent effects. There are plenty of great freebies like Tokyo Dawn for mastering level compression and EQ. I think you could probably do fine with just a good DAW and Komplete.

Good rock will need great drums, it might be worth checking out the pro options like BFD3 which is on sale now and Addictive Drums was also on sale recently. Toontrak also. Demo them all if you can and pick one, then wait for sales if you don't go for BFD.

If you want Kontakt then check out free Sennheiser drummica, it is a pretty functional, tunable drumkit and if you can navigate the German registration process and get a registration serial I think you then qualify for an upgrade path to Kontakt and possibly Komplete. Worth persevering with, Once you have it registered with NI check your upgrade paths in your account.

Check out the Pettinhouse deal that is still on, a whole range of guitars for $99
For amp sims the world is your oyster, loads of options. I'm not a guitarist but I picked up Brainworx mega single over BF and it sounds really nice esp for clean tone. Their Rockrack has a free option with the same quality just limited tuning options. Komplete of course has Guitar Rig which also sounds great. I've seen a pro work a basic guitarish synth line through GR amp-sims and heard it played on a full club PA and it was jaw dropping. It's about knowing the tools.

If you opt for Komplete you'd also get Monark which is a super Moog emulation, a bit brighter and edgier than the much raved about Legend but I think it would be perfect for rock. Massive and FM8 and Absynth are all very useful for adding atmosphere.

Orchestra I don't know much about apart from a decent full lib will take all of your $500 and then some. For strings there is 8dio Adagietto on sale which is really nice but it will only get you strings and might duplicate the session strings in Komplete.

True that pro stuff won't make you pro but a lot of them help you get that pro sound quicker, they are nice to have and you can always sell them. (Check resale options, some like FXpansion are punitive on resale charges). You can also do nicely on secondhand plugs but sales so far this year have been so good I reckon you can do as well or better just timing the purchase wisely.

Then you just need decent distortion plug, keep an eye out over Xmas for deals on Soundtoys little radiator and devil loc. Soundtoys decapitator and Brainworx VCS3 are both great but there are many options.

I'm using Reaper at the moment. My free trial expires soon, and I was planning on buying it, but if there's something better that doesn't cost an arm and a leg, I'd be willing to give that a shot too.

Unfortunately though, Reaper is pretty bare when it comes to bundled plugins.

I'll check out your recommendations ASAP. I get paid on Friday, so I'll probably purchase at least something this weekend.

[mynewday]

Wondering if the OP plays guitar (?) . Seems a much better option for rock music than sample based stuff.

I can play a few chords (slowly) or basic strumming or arpeggios, but I wouldn't call that "playing guitar". Besides, here I guess I want to challenge myself and restrict myself to computer technologies. See what I can do with it.

[Zexila]

Check maybe Sonar demo too, think it comes with some stuff there that may interest you , there's also payment option, so you don't need to shell out bulk, but start slowly and get pieces you really need over time.

https://www.cakewalk.com/Products/SONAR/Versions