Confused guy trying to get PC Worship pad sounds - help!

[ulrichburke]

Dear Anyone.

I've got a PC, I also lead a small worship group - you can't really call us a church. I've heard loads of gaw-gee-ouse(!) worship patches - the problem being they're one long drone, you can't play them. I've downloaded a whole bunch that went through the scales but each 'note' is a different sound and I can't work out how to get one of the sounds and play it like a preset on a keyboard. I tried sampling a bit of one in Audacity and chucking it into Samplelord but it just doesn't sound the same as the glorious original single note and I've no idea why.

So I read about something called Alchemy by Camel and how you could get loads of worship pad presets for it. Bought a copy for my PC - took a bit of hunting down, couldn't even find the Camel website - installed it, it came with a pile of presets but none of them had the gloriousness of the worship patches I'd downloaded. And I don't know enough to make my own from scratch. I've really tried but as of now, I can't do it.

Apple's got something called Mainstage which has great worship patches. Unfortunately it's waay outta our budget as we'd have to buy an Apple first and no way can we afford that. They use Alchemy with their Mainstage. I tried buying a pack (I suppose you'd call it that) of Mainstage pads - as it's Alchemy, surely they'd work on Apple and PC as it's the same softsynth - but I can't work out how to load them into the PC version.

Can anyone please tell me either how to load the Mainstage Alchemy pads into my PC Alchemy so I can play them like a preset, or where you'd get sounds like THESE from....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PBpVH6C7AA

There's other similar and equally lovely sounds in the playlist next to this particular sound in the link. I've tried downloading them and sampling them in Audacity but it don't work so good!

Please, right now, don't just say 'Oh it's easy, you get this sound, detune it like this, chuck a bit of reverb on it....' I've been trying for 3 months, I have more seal farts than I know what to do with. I've got 3 sounds that actually sound right unless you play them an octave higher than middle C, when the top end screeches like a banshee, or an octave below, where the bottom end hits seal fart territory and stays there. I'd LURVE a nice bank of variations on the theme of the link - New Agey variations would be awesome - not necessarily for Alchemy but for SOMETHING that's affordable (which puts Omnisphere out, sorry!)

Yours puzzledly

Chris.

[JerGoertz]

Absynth can definitely do the kind of sound in that video. It's been a while since I messed with the factory banks, so I'm not sure if they have such "worship pads", but I remember one in particular from the user library called "Sky Tamboura" which had a very similar quality to the vid. Maybe that does or doesn't help you. But in any case, Absynth will get you there, if you can find the right preset(s) or get the patch sussed yourself.

[glokraw]

There is an excellent new synth called Vital, and it has a very active preset creation community from which you can download shared archives, banks, single presets, and wavetables. The paid version is inexpensive, and the free version can use community created presets, of which there are many. Here is a link to the Vital thread:

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=555319

Links to Vital patch-sharing threads:

https://forum.vital.audio/search?q=%22F ... 0Thread%22

If you put: vital synth pads

into google, a bunch of pad-making tutorials are there.
Go through them, and what you learn will apply to other instruments you may come across. Since Vital can use wavetables from several other great instruments, people are creating tons of good sounds and sharing them.
-----------------------------------------

Alchemy was bought by Apple, whoever sold you a PC version was either a crook, or not very bright. Unless what you bought was a full account that transferred successfully to your computer, you should get your money back. If it actually works corectly as-is, keep in mind there will be no updates, so anything you paid over $50 would be a rip-off. It's almost a freebie for apple users.

Tone2 Firebird synth was commercial, now it's free, but it is very easy to use, and has randomization buttons, with a large collection of presets to start with. You can get it here:

https://plugins4free.com/plugin/1713/

some soundbanks for firebird are here:

https://rekkerd.org/patches/plug-in/firebird/

Cheers

[glokraw]

There was an Alchemy player PC version included for a while in Computer Music Magazine DVD's. Nearly a freebie

Make sure you got the full version of Alchemy for whatever you paid!

[Passing Bye]

You now have choice to spend money or time, you can start learning how to perfect those sounds on your own using whatever you got or you can spend money and get all that instantly, figure out what you value more, your patience and time or your money you earned sacrificing your time and patience.

You can get new M1 Mac via instalments, they aren't that expensive either, entry level Air or Mini are more than enough to run Mainstage.

If you choose to save your money
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzBy5tnDoBw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UWADcXOuP4

[BBFG#]

Suggest anything with a granular engine...
Omnisphere is the obvious direction of these threads and anyone that's watched the cycles here can easily see they coincide with the other current threads prior to or during a Spectrasonic announcement.

The biggest problem being that 1. It's expensive and there's no demo without traveling to a music store. And 2. The majority of players buying it for worship, often end up worshipping it and its EO instead. (Spiritually corrupting?)

I would then take a back step and ask, what other sounds you need beside this one pad.

Omni may still be a good choice if you can keep your focus on your original goal. But I would also suggest Steinberg HALion, which can not only give you this sound, but every bread & butter sound you probably need without having to buy another in their product line like you do with Spectrasonics. Plus you can demo it and it can be had at half the price.

https://www.steinberg.net/vst-instruments/halion/

Couple of things I find superior in HALion are:
1. You can have four separate controllers on separate midi channels setup in the standalone. So no need for mainstage or cantable or DAW.
2. It has a built-in recorder.

Oh, and it has a plethera of usable well organized sounds before needing to look elsewhere.

[seangm]

Lots of good worship pads at this place for different synths (including the free Vital):

https://thatworshipsound.com/product-ca ... ches/pads/

[bagpipe200]

The Holy Pad - probably doesn't get much more righteous than that!

https://thatworshipsound.com/shop/patch ... -holy-pad/

Lots of good worship pads at this place for different synths (including the free Vital):

https://thatworshipsound.com/product-ca ... ches/pads/

[seangm]

The Holy Pad - probably doesn't get much more righteous than that!

https://thatworshipsound.com/shop/patch ... -holy-pad/

Lots of good worship pads at this place for different synths (including the free Vital):

https://thatworshipsound.com/product-ca ... ches/pads/

Haha, yep I'm not even a worship musician but I buy stuff from that site because a lot of it sounds pretty epic.

[vurt]

"pc worship" as in, "praise the computer!"?