KVR Audio

JavaJ · Post by **JavaJ** » Tue Oct 02, 2012 3:15 am

Folks,
I just got a Korg SV-1 piano that I am in love with. It has me covered for keys. I would like to simplify my rig for church and not bring my MacBook Pro. In doing this, I am loosing out on all my synths I would rely on normally. I have and audio pass through on the SV1 and want to use the iPad for supplemental pads, strings and box that I don't have. Which ONE synth would you recommend? Not looking for wild sounds but the bread and butter backing keys when I am not playing lead keys. Eyeing Alchemy or maybe Sampeltank.
Thoughts?

JavaJ · Post by **JavaJ** » Tue Oct 02, 2012 4:26 am

Thusfar, I am not finding those bread and butter sounds I was hoping for in either Alchemy or Sampletnak. Magellan seems like it has the potential. Also noticing that lack of punch using the headphone out- so much so- questioning the idea altogether. Tomorrow I will see if Animoog using basic pads can cut through. Wish Spectrasonics would come out with an Omnisphere for iPad module like Alchemy- that would be awesome!

iPlogger · Post by **iPlogger** » Tue Oct 02, 2012 5:17 am

Unfortunately, I wouldn't consider Alchemy or SampleTank to meet your need, as you also mentioned.. I really like Alchemy and have purchased several addons but it is geared more towards space and ethereal pads than for bread and butter pads. SampleTank is an all around package, but I personally do not find the pads or strings useful for worship. The only pad I like is "Lush XPander" which is an excellent soft and warm pad sound. But many of the rest of the pads are not warm or mellow enough for backup pads. The orchestral strings I find too harsh and dramatic. That said, I did just use SampleTank's music box sound during yesterday's set.

Amazingly, my recommendation might be GarageBand. I have gotten many good pad and orchestral strings out of it. The one issue with it is polyphony. Some of the sounds cut off after five notes, while others give you more notes. GB is also OMNI only so responds on every MIDI channel which can be an issue if you have a chain of MIDI devices. The synths are fairly limited in editing parameters, but I have been able to come up with a few usable sounds. I also really like the organs in GB. They have nine drawbars, and other parameters like click and distortion.

Another synth is Additictive Synth. This doesn't have orchestral strings, but can give you many different pads.

Magellan might work. It can get some nice pads. I don't think Animoog will be what you want, though it IS a really nice synth.

I have yet to find an all-around app. I have found these different apps excel at different things and I ended up having to switch apps and it just wasn't working out. So, eventually I ended up buying the Yamaha Rack XS earlier this year. VERY VERY happy with the decision. Every so often, I still use the iPad live.

I haven't found the headphone out to be too much of an issue, and I believe I have read many others use it as well. Though ultimately I would love to get an audio connector to the 30 pin connector for better quality. Keep in mind to turn off wifi so you don't get alerts coming in while playing live. I also turn off lock mode so the iPad never accidentally goes to sleep while playing.

Sans Nom · Post by **Sans Nom** » Tue Oct 02, 2012 11:42 am

My recommendation would be Addictive Synth. Very easy to produce string machine like sounds and very nice pads, especially with its very good chorus unit built in. Actually all the FX are really good, which is remarkable on iOS. Up to 6 oscillators can be stacked in different configurations, detuned. And the synth itself is designed to make nice evolving sounds if you wish.
By definition (it's an additive synth), all organ type sounds are super easy to do. It's also good for choirs (the most important formants Aaah, Oooh, etc are basic presets).

Jazz Franco · Post by **Jazz Franco** » Tue Oct 02, 2012 2:01 pm

Haven't tried it myself, but by description this may be what you want
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mellotro ... mpt=uo%3D4

DrApostropheX · Post by **DrApostropheX** » Tue Oct 02, 2012 2:36 pm

I actually like SampleTank for the bread and butter sounds, but for Pads you might want to check out PPG WaveGenerator. I was expecting only Dr. Zarkov spaceship sounds (for some reason, don't ask me why I was), and so I was blown away by how musically inspiring the factory presets actually are.

peanut_gallery · Post by **peanut_gallery** » Tue Oct 02, 2012 3:06 pm

My best iOS pad sounds have actually come from Sunrizer. It's got a number of really good presets to get you started, and if you are familiar with basic synth programming, you can great custom pad sounds fairly easily using the super saw oscillator. You can easily get those nice warm analog lush pads, as well as sounds that sound more like string ensembles than pads.

JavaJ · Post by **JavaJ** » Tue Oct 02, 2012 4:11 pm

Sunrizer I tried and will need to spend more time to see if I can get enough out of it. It is tough to find one instrument to do it all. I was looking at PPG but haven't pulled the trigger yet until I hear more demos. Addictive Synth I will need to spend more time with as well. Suprised that I am having such a tough time- and I don't think my requirements are that unique. There must be a lot of people who have a good master keyboard with great key sounds that would like to use the iPad for fill in B&B pads and such. Thanks for all your responses- I will spend more time looking at each suggestion as well (if any church musicians do find stuff- please post).

peanut_gallery · Post by **peanut_gallery** » Tue Oct 02, 2012 5:52 pm

If you're looking for a "1 stop shop" app (rather than using many apps), you could also check out bs-16i, which is sound font player for the iOS. It comes loaded with the full General MIDI sound-set, made with some good quality sound fonts, and has the ability for you to load your own sound fonts as well.

audiojunkie · Post by **audiojunkie** » Tue Oct 02, 2012 6:56 pm

peanut_gallery wrote:If you're looking for a "1 stop shop" app (rather than using many apps), you could also check out bs-16i, which is sound font player for the iOS. It comes loaded with the full General MIDI sound-set, made with some good quality sound fonts, and has the ability for you to load your own sound fonts as well.

^^ This! Pick your pad, load it, and play it!

--Sean

audiojunkie · Post by **audiojunkie** » Tue Oct 02, 2012 6:58 pm

If you have a particular synth that you love the pad sounds on, you can get the soundfont of that particular synth pad. Very easily too. Audiocopy/paste is coming this fall.

As Audiobus starts coming out, we may very well see audiobus for this app too! It would make the BS-16i the ultimate instrument player.

--Sean

BMoore · Post by **BMoore** » Tue Oct 02, 2012 9:49 pm

Beatmaker. Lots of bread and butter.

JavaJ · Post by **JavaJ** » Tue Oct 02, 2012 10:16 pm

So BS-16i is look interesting- but how would I resample some pads I have in my AU collection to use as soundfonts for this. Very intriguing if I could clone some of my go-to sounds (which in reality, is the only reason I used my laptop/mainstage anyways). If I could just harness some of the pads I use int his- it looks like it would be the best solution.

audiojunkie · Post by **audiojunkie** » Tue Oct 02, 2012 11:01 pm

You might try Disco DSP's Highlife sampler vst. It creates SFZ files, and the SFZ files can then be converted by many of us here (myself included), via Extreme Sample Editor (or similar tools).

--Sean

JavaJ · Post by **JavaJ** » Wed Oct 03, 2012 5:14 pm

crud- it only does VSTi sampling (I am on Mac).
I wish I could just get my Onmi Afterglow in the format- that is my most used backing pad

iOS synth for pads and strings