Looking for a Synth/Instrument for organic sounds - Question about East West Play

[musicproducerdee]

I want to produce modern pop/dance music and I'm confused as to which plugin would be the best to get. I'm trying to produce songs that need sounds like Mallets, Woodwinds, Brass etc etc. I have Arturia Jupiter 8 and Vital for my basic Synth needs but these are not really ideal for the sounds I'm looking for.

I'm considering the East West subscription as it includes everything I'm looking for and then some. Can someone please give me some insight on how CPU intensive these are? I've heard they need quite some processing power. However, I'm not trying to do any orchestral music. Some sound examples would be Perfect Strangers by Jonas Blue, the Marimba, Piano and the Brass.

Thanks in advance

[jancivil]

probably not going to bring your system to its knees to just get a couple mallets up by it, anyway.
Historically it's been a not-very-efficient engine relative particularly to certain things which do a lot more, and there are still complaints on its sluggishness, but those wouldn't tend to be very heavy. They have a somewhat different engine than during my time trying with it afaict.
I would say if this is the more economical situation, that lot will likely sound quite good for the money, if it's not a lot less expensive I would actually recommend other things, I'm not a fan.

[jancivil]

depending how much brass as well...

[musicproducerdee]

The thing is atm, I'm not able to shell out a chunck of cash, or else I'd get NI Komplete or probably the UVI stuff. Tbh, I'm not much a fan of sound degisn and I don't make a lot of sounds from scratch. Usually I'd just tweak some already present presets or use presents directly. I'm open to suggestions as well. I'm also considering Pigments 3 by Arturia as I'm getting it for $69 because I own some of the Arturia stuff, but I'm not so sure it is the best option to go to, considering the type of sounds I'm looking for.

[jancivil]

I've been there, it was long before subscriptions were a thing... but to me, this vendor and its development are pretty far behind the other major players, so it would have to be significantly less expensive for me to... approve. lol

certain of my objections are as an orchestrator, too, I should be scrupulous and say it. I know their player looks different than Play and it seems like it's called something else. Haven't followed them in years, they were dishonest actors on something consequential that wasted time unnecessarily some of us remember too well.

[Robinrobo]

Best bang for buck for orchestral sounds in my book is miroslav philarmonic. Lots of articulations of lots of instruments in a reasonable size. A bit too much reverb in the default sounds but you can dial that back easily.

[telecharge]

I suggest trying the free stuff and demoing before making any significant investment. Here are a few ideas...

Komplete Start - https://www.native-instruments.com/en/p ... lete-start

SampleTank 4 CS - https://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/st4cs

KVR Best Free Instrument Plugins - https://www.kvraudio.com/plugins/best-f ... nt-plugins

Best FREE VST-Instruments suitable for PopRock (and Lovesong-) composing - viewtopic.php?t=518882

[jancivil]

miroslav as great is a popular sort of reply here but you can do so much better for that money
you can pick up Big Bang Orchestra by VSL for zero dollars and zero cents including the free player

[jancivil]

^
agree with start with free things and get a lay of the land

that said, you can grab the solo pitched percussion in the BBO set right now for 69 euro
# Phoenix
Timpani, mallets, bells, gongs

[Zookes]

The recommendation I think depends on how you wish to use the instruments. Woodwinds, brass and mallets for a performing musician who likes playing orchestral music live will demand much much more than a producer who needs only textures and chords to make a club banger sound nice.

If such textures made for pop /EDM is all that is needed, Nexus is very very good and covers many bases. Good presets and production quality being "mix ready". Some orchestral and Hollywood expansions for it have sounds that are good enough for texture and chords, tho if money is available, I think you should prefer such things as the Heaviocity Novo, Vento and Forzo for the very big produced sound they have.

Those will not satisfy a musician wanting a detailed horn solo to play soaring and romantically above a soft bassoon and clarinet passage, tho they are very good for producers who need organic sounds for a production.

Composer Cloud... personally I do not enjoy using Play. Always whenever I am tempted to use the Hollywood instruments, I remember how painful and bad the player is and reach for something else. Maybe it will not bother you? I do not allow for the time it requires to learn its problems because there are many and I have better options. The subscription tho is inexpensive and maybe you can learn to tolerate it?

[musicproducerdee]

I've been there, it was long before subscriptions were a thing... but to me, this vendor and its development are pretty far behind the other major players, so it would have to be significantly less expensive for me to... approve. lol

certain of my objections are as an orchestrator, too, I should be scrupulous and say it. I know their player looks different than Play and it seems like it's called something else. Haven't followed them in years, they were dishonest actors on something consequential that wasted time unnecessarily some of us remember too well.

Did some more research and they're out of picture for me atm, seems like there might be better options both technically and financially.

[musicproducerdee]

I suggest trying the free stuff and demoing before making any significant investment. Here are a few ideas...

Komplete Start - https://www.native-instruments.com/en/p ... lete-start

SampleTank 4 CS - https://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/st4cs

KVR Best Free Instrument Plugins - https://www.kvraudio.com/plugins/best-f ... nt-plugins

Best FREE VST-Instruments suitable for PopRock (and Lovesong-) composing - viewtopic.php?t=518882

Thanks a lot for all the suggestions. However, I recently sold all my IK Multimedia stuff and sadly I also sold Komplete 13 Select (which comes bundled with hardware), will check the free version out though. I don't like the IK Multimedia installers and also their plugins seem to be CPU intensive (I have used them in the recent past). I guess I'm gonna wait till I can afford NI stuff. I got the Spitfire BBC and labs in the meantime to cover me, decent stuff, limited, but decent

[musicproducerdee]

^
agree with start with free things and get a lay of the land

that said, you can grab the solo pitched percussion in the BBO set right now for 69 euro
# Phoenix
Timpani, mallets, bells, gongs

This looks fun and interesting, can I move those mics around? (At the bottom of the UI)

[musicproducerdee]

a producer who needs only textures and chords to make a club banger sound nice.

This is exactly what I'm looking for. I did consider Nexus 3 but for $250 (basic edition) I'd rather get Komplete by shelling out a bit more or during their sale no?

As for Play, I do not want to tolerate it but I want to have fun while making music haha, and everyone seems to have a similar opinion about it, so I'm definitely gonna skip on that, even though it's inexpensive, comes at a different kind of cost I gusss :p

I will check out the Heaviocity stuff though, have heard good things.