Newbie after some suggestions

[Justin1971]

Hi,

I'm relatively new to VST Plugins and DAW's so have some (newbie) questions.

Firstly a bit about me - I have been lead singer and guitarist over the last 30 years playing mostly rock covers. Now starting to branch out into small synth sections (e.g. intro to Dakota by Stereophonics and intro to "All These Things That I Have Done" by the Killers.
My latest band is a four piece rock covers band consisting of Me (Lead Vocals & Rhythm Guitar), Lead Guitarist, Bass & Drums.

I have recently downloaded Luxonix Purity VST and tried it over the weekend with my small USB midi keyboard with pretty good results but not sure how customisable this software is as I've not really delved into it fully.

Basically I am after a low cost (ideally free) way of producing the above mentioned songs and would use the software on a 10" Tablet running Windows 8.1 - soon to be upgraded to Windows 10 and my small midi keyboard on a stand, mounted to my mic stand. As it will only be used for intro's and small fills (and small venues) I think that would suffice for now.

So, what DAW & Plugins would you recommend or is Luxonix Purity perfectly usable?

All advice, recommendations or criticism are welcome.

Thanks
Justin

[Passing Bye]

Free Cakewalk by Bandlab as DAW
Air Music Technology Xpand2 is nice rompler and at some point was free and 1$, maybe try to score second hand licence, it should be enough for your needs.

[Justin1971]

Thanks for that, I will check it out - I feel a lot of You-Tube tutorial watches in the pipeline lol

[planetearth]

What are the specs on your tablet? Cakewalk by Bandlab is a great free DAW, but as with any DAW, you need a system that can handle what you're trying to do. Reaper is a low-cost DAW that's generally considered to be more efficient than most DAWs and can run on systems with lower specs.

You'll also need an audio interface if you're going to record pretty much anything and/or play back entire projects and not just 2-track stereo mixes. You don't need an expensive one, but you won't get much done without it.

Steve

[Justin1971]

Hi Steve, It's a Dell running Win 10 Pro but can't remember the specs off top of my head - I'll check when I get home from work tonight.

Thinking about it, I might not need a DAW, just some sort of synth software module. I will be testing on my laptop but ultimately it will be going through my mixer and active RCF PA system for use in a live situation.

I basically need some standalone software that I can save presets on to use with my USB midi keyboard.

[Justin1971]

Update - an old friend of mine who is into home studio has mentioned Blamsofts VK1 synth based on the Moog Voyager, and he also says Reaper should do the trick for what I need.

Apparently he uses Reason and Synapse Antidote but I aint got that kind of dosh.

[planetearth]

Update - an old friend of mine who is into home studio has mentioned Blamsofts VK1 synth based on the Moog Voyager, and he also says Reaper should do the trick for what I need.

Apparently he uses Reason and Synapse Antidote but I aint got that kind of dosh.

Well...I don't want to throw cold water onto what your friend suggested, but the Moog Voyager wasn't a very versatile synth. For one thing, it's monophonic, which means it only plays one note at a time. So you won't get any pads from it. If you need "Moog Voyager" sounds (basses, leads and sound effects), the Blamsoft synth might be fine (although, at 51 MB, it's not exactly a "small" or "lite" synth). But a standalone bread-and-butter ROMpler might be a good idea too, in case you need any sounds other than what might come out of a Moog Voyager -- such as a chord. You can get some older ones (such as AIR's XPand!2) for around $1 sometimes, through Plugin Boutique. Of course, Reaper will have some instruments too, so you may be able to cover all your bases with very little additional cost.

You might still need an audio interface, too. Depending upon how much junk is running on your laptop (anti-virus, Wi-Fi, and all the junk that runs on startup, most of which you don't even need), the soundchip on the Surface tablet isn't made for turning MIDI instructions into audio. And that's essentially what you're asking it (and your CPU) to do. And if you use a DAW and add some effects to those instruments, you're taxing the CPU and soundchip even more. An audio interface can also give you balanced audio outputs (which can be very helpful in a live situation), or at least more rugged, 1/4" connections, instead of the 1/8" ones in a laptop. The larger connections are less likely to get pulled out of their jacks and won't require an adapter to connect to your mixer. This removes yet another piece that can become disconnected during a gig. (Yes, you can buy a 1/8" to 1/4" cable, but it will be a fixed length, and if something happens to it, you're still up a creek during the gig.)

I'm not trying to sell you any of these things, obviously. I'm just recommending them based upon years of experience with this sort of stuff.

Steve

[Kwurqx]

Well...as with most things: the solution has to fit the problem. And for each problem there are potentiolly many solutions. So, the better you define your problem, the better the suggested solution will be.

So...

What exactly are you trying to achieve? Most likely there will be many solutions. Free and/or commercial.

Basic stuff to consider:
- Are you gonna use the solution live / on stage? Or are you gonna rely on a DAW/sequencer in a studio.
- Are you looking for specific sounds? Some sounds rely on specific synthesis techniques, synthesizers/instruments, some on specific signalprocessing/effects (e.g. chorus, phaser etc.). Most likely you need some of both categories.
- Do you want to invest in programming synths/effects or would you rather rely on "presets"?

Generally it is a good idea to first check out the many free options. Use those to determine what you might need to buy to get what you can't get for free.

Currently the most feature rich free polyphonic synthesizer is Surge. It is capable of a huge range of sounds and has many presets (pre-programmed sounds) shipped with it.
https://surge-synthesizer.github.io/

The still highly praised evergreen Synth1 might even suffice. It's very light on resources, easy to learn and surprisingly versatile. Google will point you to tens of thousands of free presets.
https://www.kvraudio.com/product/synth1 ... chiro-toda

But there are many other options, all with their own pro's and con's. Some tailored towards specific sounds (e.g. emulations of highly praised instruments like the MiniMoog, Roland Juno, Yamaha DX, Rhodes/Wulritzer electric piano etc).

Most popular free instruments
https://www.kvraudio.com/plugins/instru ... ar#results

Most popular free effects
https://www.kvraudio.com/plugins/effect ... ar#results

And then there is the sampler option. Relying on samples/sample libraries rather synthesis. E.g. the free Kontakt Player or TX16W.
https://www.kvraudio.com/product/kontak ... nstruments
https://www.kvraudio.com/product/tx16wx ... -by-cwitec