Plugins For Various Instruments

[DavidPardy]

Cakewalk is a DAW, but Keyzone is a VST plugin for piano sounds, much like MTPowerDrumkit.

I'm also a cheapskate - I mostly just use free stuff when I'm composing which isn't all that often. Most of what I use Waveform for is recording drums. But Collective was definitely worth getting - I think I originally got it in a bundle with W9 or 10 or something. It has some really, really nice instruments going on.

[ChiroVette]

I'm also a cheapskate - I mostly just use free stuff when I'm composing which isn't all that often.

lol I didn't mean financially. I have always had a little bit of a utilitarian approach to dumping tons of software onto my computer. Probably some leftover tech-superstition from back in the days when there were tons of driver incompatibilities, interrupts on ports, hardware and software glitches, and problems with a PC's registry when you had a ton of extraneous programs installed.

Now that computers have gotten much more sophisticated and software devs and hardware manufacturers have gotten incredibly good with fixing any compatibility problems before they even crop up, not to mention I just bought a really high end gaming laptop with a GeForce 3070 and i7-11800H CPU, with lots of RAM and decent HD space, with external SSD's being so easily obtainable, my antiquated reticence to having extra programs I may not need to use seems a little absurd.

That said, I am not financially cheap. I feel like, as a responsible consumer, even when something is offered for free, I should pay something. I probably have no need for the really high end paid versions of Waveform, but I do feel obligated enough for using it as much as I am to pay the devs the $60.00 for the Collective plugin bundle. I have been using PowerDrumkit for very, very basic stuff, only in one song right now, so I don't mind not paying for it at this point. But if I start using it a lot, I want to pay them as well.

[Stuttaton]

Isn't Collective included with Waveform anymore? I certainly got it at no additional cost when I uppgraded, some versions ago.

[Peter Widdicombe]

Collective, for someone that had the paid version of Waveform, was already included; and it's a pretty decent library of sounds that are USABLE, and of fairly high quality. There may be better (and frequently inexpensive) alternatives to some of the sounds, but it includes a number of Rhodes, B3, orchestra (strings, brass, etc.) and a somewhat daunting initially selection menu because there are SO MANY patches to select from. It's filtering mechanism allows you to select the "better" ones.

For instance, "organ" brings up 25 or so to choose from. You can then select "classic" or "electromechanic" or vintage. Electromechanic then shortens that list to 10, mostly variations on a B3; some clean, some distorted, etc. Most of those allow you to use the mod wheel to control the speed of the leslie. Click on E-Piano and you now have the combined list of organs and E-pianos, so re-click "organ" to turn those off. Select JAZZ in the second column and get a list of Rhodes and Wurli electric pianos. Double click on the rightmost column with the actual names, and that patch is loaded ready for use.

In addition, you can customize and save back those variations; but most probably just use these as is.

Oh, and ROMPLER is basically a sample player as opposed to a "synthesizer" - although that gets blurred in a lot of cases; as many synths (real and virtual) do both. Collective fits in that category.

[jabe]

-As far as the DX27 info, are you suggesting I buy a Yamaha keyboard? Or is that something else you're saying?

I'm not suggesting you buy a DX27 (and between you and me, I'd never suggest anyone buys an FM keyboard. One of my pet peeves is the wanton infection of 1980s music with hideous Yamaha FM presets).

I'm suggesting that you might find a bass sound you like using a differently named preset from some plug-in or other, and if you do happen to have a plug-in based on an FM synth, the Sitar one might be worth a listen.

[ChiroVette]

Okay, so I am downloading and installing Collective and Collective Content through the Tracktion Download Manager I installed when I installed Waveform. I will look at Cakewalk, Ample Bass, and ROMPLER a little later.

On a side note, the Tracktion people ought to seriously consider revisiting their trial period. Nobody should need 90 days to decide if your product is worth actually buying. 30 days should be all any sane person should need. I'm not complaining. In fact, I am grateful for your hard work, but you devs (if you read these threads) ought to think about maybe not giving 90 days to try one of products out.

[ChiroVette]

Okay, I spent about 15 minutes trying to get Collective to work, and unfortunately I don't have time to get deeper into this right now. But I am getting a weird error screen when I double click on either the Collective or Collective 64 Bit plugins after adding them to a track.

It keeps telling me:

"The Preset Instruments or Samples could not be found. Check if all locations are set to the correct folders in the Global menu"

I tried reinstalling it several times, and it seems to install all right. Although in one attempt, which I cancelled out, the installer asked me for "Disk 2" something that I haven't seen since the days of PC games having multiple install/play discs. Any idea what's going on here?

[Peter Widdicombe]

Collective is a relatively normal size VST with a 3-Gig or so config plus included audio sample pack as a separate download - probably to facilitate software updates without having to download the full content again. My guess is the content wasn't downloaded or installed.

[ChiroVette]

Collective is a relatively normal size VST with a 3-Gig or so config plus included audio sample pack as a separate download - probably to facilitate software updates without having to download the full content again. My guess is the content wasn't downloaded or installed.

I tried downloading and reinstalling several times. When I have a few minutes, I will reboot my PC and see if that helps.

[Watchful]

Just be sure you download and install both: Collective and its program file. As Peter said, two different ones.

Oh, and biggest complaint about Collective from everyone--let it install its files where *it* wants to put them. Don't move them, don't select a custom location.

[ChiroVette]

I left everything to the default install settings. There were two installs, Collective and Collective Content, and I did both of them.


Edit: Yeah, there is definitely something wrong. I rebooted the PC and I am still getting the error. I also tried manually validating the two files in the plugins section of the settings menu. The two plugins are listed as Collective and Collective 64 Bit to no avail.

[fde101]

Note that Collective is included in Waveform Pro. Normally $149, there appears to be a 40% off coupon code right now for the holiday, which knocks it down to less than $90.

You get a lot more functionality in the DAW for that, plus Collective, so if you think there might be any possibility that you would upgrade from the free version to the pro version later, you might want to consider that you would in effect be paying for Collective twice if you just buy that separately right now.

Either way works - just some food for thought...

Collective includes all four of the sounds you are asking for (several of each in fact), but getting a keyboard to sound like an actual bass guitar can be tricky as there are playing techniques that can't realistically be accounted for completely on a normal keyboard (bending one string while not bending another, for example, can be difficult to mimic, particularly without MPE functionality - and any given player may randomly "bend" the string very slightly while playing it by random amounts, which the keyboard won't really do on its own...). Try what comes with Collective to see if it works for you, but if you are not happy with the functionality it offers with the bass guitar sound, you may need to look into dedicated plugins designed more specifically for that particular instrument.


EDIT: I wrote the above based on page 1, before seeing page 2 of this thread. I do see that you are having trouble getting Collective set up. I am on a Mac so not sure if it differs in Windows, but I have never had a problem with this - it has always just worked for me - but I only ever had it installed by the Tracktion Download Manager or alongside Waveform Pro itself. I do note there is a gear icon (settings) along the top of the Collective window where there is a place you can point it to non-standard locations for the factory content and presets; you might want to check if those are set to anything and if so that they are correct.

[ChiroVette]

fde101, I installed both Waveform and the two Collective programs to the default directories.

[pough]

-I don't know what Rompler is, but I will look it up.

-Someone asked about my OS and stuff: Windows 11 64 Bit, very high and gaming laptop with way more horses under the hood than what I would likely need for these kinds of tasks. I am using Waveform 11 Free.

Thank you, that's very helpful. Now I know that you don't have Rompler. There used to be a page on the Tracktion website that showed what was and wasn't included in the free version. I can no longer find it. In any case, the Rompler plugin is new for version 12, so it wouldn't be in 11 Free, whether or not it will be in 12 Free.

There are some plugins that are native to Waveform, eg. Rompler, Multi Sampler, Micro Sampler, Drum Sampler and Micro Drum Sampler. (A couple of those might be new for v12.) They're relatively simple and have a distinctive look but can have decent basic content like drumkits and basses and organs. I have no idea if any of them are included in the free version.

Good luck with Collective. It has a lot of great content if you can get it working.

Up at the top right of the Collective interface is a gear icon. It opens up a small window that allows you to choose the location of the preset and sample data or at least see where Collective is looking for it. Mine are in C:\ProgramData\Tracktion\Collective.

[Watchful]

I'm thinking you might have installed different versions of Collective... you need to install the 64-bit version *and* the Collective Content. Content is where all the sounds are located that you need.

Just want to be sure it was the Collective *content* you installed, as well as the plugin itself. The Content is a HUGE file.