Hi everyone, total noob to composition

[Amelia70]

Hello everyone. I have "lurked" for a couple of years but only got around to making an account today so I could get help with virtual instruments.
I have a hardware background, having engineered songs for others over the years. I have only ever used hardware effects processors and hardware instruments. I have never really been into composing my own music, mostly due to lack of time (2 jobs including the engineering). Now that things have slowed down for me a little, I would really love to compose my own songs from scratch, but I want to do it all on one computer at home. It's a tiny room here and I have sold most of the hardware this year.

I can play guitar reasonably well, as well as keys. Right now I have a decent pc built by my husband (a 6 core i7 with 32 gigabytes of ram) and a korg midi keyboard. The music style I would say is closest to what i imagine composing, is sort of pop rock.
I have settled on a program called studio one (version 3, i bought it on sale just today after trying the demo for 20 days) and it comes with some 'ok' sounds, but i want more realistic instruments. The problem I have found is, that the non synthesised instruments are so large, they often don't have demos. I wouldn't even know where to start. I have followed the forum long enough to know that with Studio one I need to use VST plugins, and a sampler called kontakt is probably the right place to start? Any recommendations on instruments that cover a broad spectrum would be welcome! I will also investigate effects in the other forum later on. But right now, i would really love some instrument suggestions if possible I also have a mild fascination with synthesised sounds, having used many hardware examples over the years.. But they wouldn't be my first choice.. that said.. just to have "one" overall "good" synthesiser to add some variety to my songs, would be welcome also.

Thanks everyone!

[.jon]

For real instruments Kontakt is so best choice, it's almost the only choice. It's on 50% sale now, and comes with a library covering most needs.

https://www.native-instruments.com/en/p ... 5/library/

"Overall good" synth, on the other hand, is such a massive topic and purely subjective, that you're going to have to dive into synthesis bit more and see what you like. However, there's Synth1.

https://www.kvraudio.com/product/synth1-by-ichiro-toda

The most famous VST plugin of all times, still perfectly valid today. It's like the definition of a generic virtual analog synth.

[Amelia70]

hi .jon, and thank you. Yes i thought as much.. I didn't know about the sale though!

One thing I have found with all my research, are low to middling opinions of the factory sounds in kontakt.

This is why, although I know the kontakt engine is important, i was wondering if buying competing products that use the "player" engine ,might be the way to go.

I also have been investigating a company called sounds online.. They have a system called "play", and i am reading only good things about the sound quality. It says I need an ilok though. I presume that is this thing?:
https://www.ilok.com/#!ilok-intro

I have almost all the usb ports on my computer vacant, so it doesn't bother me. Oh, i am using Windows 8 still, and I don't feel the need to upgrade because the computer is working perfectly as it is right now. Does the ilok work ok with windows 8? I am very curious about these "play" products now.. and they seem to have a service where you pay a monthly low fee, for access to the entire product line. Failing that, I notice they are also on 50% sale right now. From the sound demonstrations I have heard on the company's respective websites, i prefer the soundsonline audio demonstrations to the ones at native instruments. I do however like many of the libraries that are not actually included in kontakt, but in another expensive bundle, komplete ultimate. It's a difficult choice, as I don't want to regret my decision.
When I used hardware, it was kurzweil samples, and most recently a korg kronos in the studio i freelance engineered at.. so i would want sounds at minimum to be the quality of the kurzweil and even better, the kronos.

[xalama qo]

Hi Amelia, welcome to the crazy world of computer music!
Studio One v3 is a great choice of DAW. Before you go buying Kontakt or any commercial synths first know that Studio One's built-in sampler, Presence, is able to load and play "unprotected" Kontakt instruments, and a number of other sampler formats too. I'm not exactly sure how Kontakt's libraries are protected or which ones won't be compatible with Presence, but I'm sure there are many other people in the know here who could help you.
There's also so much high quality stuff available for free, or nearly free (such as Computer Music magazine's bundle of software), that rushing into any further software investments is unnecessary until you know exactly where your tool-set is lacking and what you need to fill in the gaps, or extend your abilities/workflow.
I second the choice of Synth1 as a low CPU great sounding synth. Mai Tai included in Studio One is also an excellent synth, a bit heavy on the CPU, but stands up to commercial 3rd party synths soundwise (very broad generalization there!) In other words it's far from cr*p.
Studio One is a fantastic DAW with a really intuitive workflow which hits the spot with high-quality included effects and instruments without any real perceivable bloat. I think you're off to a good start!

[Googly Smythe]

Soundsonline is actually a company called EastWest. They are pricey but excellent. They also have a subscription which, if you have a fast unlimited broadband service, may be ideal for you. $30 a month, start and stop whenever you want. $50 for the top of the line stuff.
If you are not using a laptop iLok is a non-issue.

[Googly Smythe]

For a synth I'd suggest Steinberg's HALion. I must admit to being something of a fanboi, but it has several synthesis engines, including granular and subtractive, is a sample player, can import samples which can be mapped across the keyboard. Comes with HALion Sonic, a sort of an "easy" version. And it's multi-timbral.
Not cheap, though!
HALion link
Watch out for GAS!

[JonSolo]

For that price she could go with Absolute 2 vst collection which is on sale.

[ATS]

For that price she could go with Absolute 2 vst collection which is on sale.

I just upgraded my 1 license to that yesterday. It really is very good stuff.

[filkertom]

For DAWs, there's also Traktion and the brand new Sonar entry level (that one's $34.99 til the end of the month).

[Googly Smythe]

For DAWs, there's also Traktion and the brand new Sonar entry level (that one's $34.99 til the end of the month).

The op has already bought S1...

[Googly Smythe]

For that price she could go with Absolute 2 vst collection which is on sale.

It's nice, spending other people's money!
But I do agree.

[Amelia70]

Hi everyone and thank you for your replies. Sorry I didn't answer sooner, but just after I posted, I realised this was my first "thanksgiving" (uk here, so never even thought about it before), sales weekend. My husband said I drove him mad, as I was listening to demos of so many products from different vendors all day every day. In fact, it was really overwhelming, as i felt incredible pressure to decide on something before the sales ended. With the uk pound now having dropped dramatically against the US dollar, and most products being sold in united states dollars, the savings were very large. I just couldn't decide on native instruments products in time, so i will look at them again in future. I settled on the east west subscription that they had for $249 for the year. I have been spending the last few days downloading and auditioning sounds, and find the quality to be extremely good. A colleague told me that if i wait for the native instruments "komplete" 50% sale which will likely happen in a few months, that if i were to then buy komplete ultimate, i would have every type of sound my heart were to desire, including synthesised and acoustic sounds. So this is what i will do, and in the meantime, I am enjoying auditioning the huge eastwest "play" library. It has crashed studio one a couple of times for me so far, so I will write to them about that and hope they have good support! Thanks again.

[Amelia70]

For DAWs, there's also Traktion and the brand new Sonar entry level (that one's $34.99 til the end of the month).

The op has already bought S1...

Hi. Yes indeed, Studio one was my choice by far. I did try tracktion briefly, and it kept on disappearing as I was using it! It was the strangest thing, and really put me off. Also, i do like the software to have a complete one screen mixer, as I have been producing for others using hardware mixers for many years. I have just invested in a faderport for studio one in the meantime, to give me some hands on control. In a few weeks I will be looking at investing in a larger mixer controller for studio one, and would really appreciate some advice from you all when the time comes.
Sonar was interesting, however it's workflow just wasn't in tune with the way my brain is wired. It seemed to have everything in it and then the kitchen sink too, but studio one has a much nicer look to me, and "feel". I found sonar quite confusing to navigate, where as studio one just came to me more or less naturally.