KVR Audio

skolskoly · Post by **skolskoly** » Sat Aug 11, 2018 2:00 am

(This seemed like the most appropriate forum, but please move the thread if it belongs somewhere else.)

I am a keyboardist with experience producing mostly electronic music, and I want to make a purchase to expand my instrument library. I'm looking for decent quality, playable, acoustic instruments, which I haven't been able to get from freeware. Big emphasis on playability here, because I've messed around with a various commercial plugins but couldn't find anything that meets my needs while being well tuned for keyboard playing. This is my checklist, in order of descending importance:

1. Dynamics - Instruments designed to feel natural for keyboard playing
2. Variety - Keyboards, Guitars, Drums, some assortment of Ensemble & Solo Orchestral Instruments
3. Quality - Should at least sound as good as cheesy 90s romplers
4. Price - Ideally around or below the $1000 range

Right now I am using the GeneralUserGS soundfont by S Christian Collins, which sounds and feels surprisingly good despite how lo-fi it is. I prefer the well crafted sample library approach rather than having 100 gigabytes of round-robin multisampled kontakt libraries. My only complaints are that the instruments can sound a bit dull and static (by nature of it being a 30MB soundfont I suppose.) Other than that I would say it's a good reference point for what I need; a clean sounding GM library, like what you would find on a Yamaha or Roland workstation.

I'm looking for sounds that will be good for jazz and orchestral music. I've included some examples and a piece I wrote with GeneralUserGS that I'd like to improve with more lively drums and fuller sounding instruments. Is there a software solution, or am I better off buying a workstation keyboard? Thanks for your input!

https://soundcloud.com/skolskoly/rivkah
https://soundcloud.com/rbcaislir43/ondee
https://soundcloud.com/umiai/drizzling-sun-free-dl
https://soundcloud.com/muship9052/solit ... nic-island
https://soundcloud.com/sakuzyo/closing-time

Etienne1973 · Post by **Etienne1973** » Sat Aug 11, 2018 7:13 am

Steinberg HALion Sonic 3

rlared · Post by **rlared** » Thu Aug 16, 2018 5:54 pm

Agreed Halion Sonic 3 makes sense.

Peter - IK Multimedia · Thu Aug 16, 2018 5:59 pm

You can go way under budget and still meet your requirements with SampleTank 3 on sale for a little while longer at $/€99.99 or SampleTank 3 MAX on sale for $/€199.99. Very much meant to be a workstation-like experience.

Tj Shredder · Post by **Tj Shredder** » Sat Aug 18, 2018 4:07 pm

Nothing can beat Mainstage in this regard as the UI for your workstation and with its collection of expressive synths. That is what I see often in live rigs.
Adding Halion to this would still not break your budget. Of course NI Komplete is to consider as well...

zerocrossing · Post by **zerocrossing** » Sat Aug 18, 2018 4:25 pm

I don’t find that any one software solution fits my needs. I go to Kontakt/Komplete for a lot of things (with a few third party libraries), but I’m also in Omnisphere a lot and for vintage synths I’ll turn to Syntronik. Sometimes Falcon and some UVI libraries.

surreal · Post by **surreal** » Sat Aug 18, 2018 6:48 pm

With this budget I would rather go the hardware route. I am sure you could pick up a yamaha psr s970 in this price range?

zzz00m · Post by **zzz00m** » Wed Aug 22, 2018 11:25 pm

SampleTank 3 or Halion Sonic 3.

Or a used Korg Kronos.

Otherwise you will end up spending thousands on software to get everything that you may need.

skolskoly · Post by **skolskoly** » Sun Aug 26, 2018 10:09 pm

I decided to buy SampleTank 3 since it was cheap and had a pretty good selection. Thanks for all the suggestions.

zzz00m · Post by **zzz00m** » Sun Aug 26, 2018 10:29 pm

skolskoly wrote:I decided to buy SampleTank 3 since it was cheap and had a pretty good selection. Thanks for all the suggestions.

I think that you will find that you can cover a lot of ground with the variety and quality of the instrument collection in the SampleTank 3 factory library. I am happy with ST3 for use as my go-to ROMpler workstation.

ChamomileShark · Post by **ChamomileShark** » Tue Aug 28, 2018 5:39 pm

I'd suggest Kontakt. I think, and I could be wrong, that there are far more acoustic instruments, especially the orchestral ones, within the factory library than in the Halions.

The other advantage is that if you suddenly decide you need a Papua New Guinea nose flute you will be able to find a kontakt library for that. Plus there are many free libraries (like LABS). So you can easily add new sounds.

The issue with Halion (of all flavours) is that there are not many 3rd party libraries and therefore they are more closed in that respect. In other respects Halion offers alot more - but not perhaps for the OP (I'm thinking of the auto sampling, wavetable and other synthesis engines).

jdoo · Post by **jdoo** » Thu Oct 04, 2018 6:54 pm

Tj Shredder wrote: ↑Sat Aug 18, 2018 4:07 pm Nothing can beat Mainstage in this regard as the UI for your workstation and with its collection of expressive synths. That is what I see often in live rigs.
Adding Halion to this would still not break your budget. Of course NI Komplete is to consider as well...

+1

I am in the process of moving, and had to pack up my hardware synths / equipment. While my synths, mixer, effects, etc are boxed up - I am temporarily back to using Logic Pro / MainStage (ITB setup). I picked up a MainStage template and have been re-creating my hardware patches into the MainStage (Logic Pro) synths. I had somehow forgot about the depth and breadth (and sounds) that are in Logic Pro/Mainstage.

MainStage is $30.

Looking for workstation-style software