Plugins For Various Instruments

[ChiroVette]

Watchful, the download manager says, Collective and Collective Content, both of which I installed. In the plugin settings of Waveform, it says Collective and Collective (64 Bit). I did try reinstalling at least once more than the initial install.

[ChiroVette]

Hookay, making progress. I'm not sure why, but when I searched my computer for "Collective Content" my PC spit out a different .exe file, which I installed again. That seemed to work, sort of.

Right now, I seem to have one page on the main screen when I open the plugin. There are several categories, including Pack, Author, Category, Style, and Character.

Pack says "Empty" underneath it. The others all have entries or subheadings. Author has 5, which I assume are the names of the developers. Category, Style, and Character all have a lot of entries.

Now here's the thing: I am quite sure I must be doing something wrong. First off, there aren't a lot of sounds in total, and the folder icon near the top left is greyed out, so I don't seem be getting into more places for sounds/instruments.

Second thing is, the sounds are very low end to my ear. They sound very artificial and are obviously synthesized, and not very well, if I am completely honest. The piano in the "Category" section is the best of the bunch, though it isn't very good, I suspect it would at least be serviceable for backing tracks. Again, I must be doing it wrong, because I seriously doubt they would be charging $60.00 for what I seemingly have access to at this point.

[Peter Widdicombe]

Pack are add-in packs you can buy. For many, this may be empty.

E-Piano - Jazz - Worli or Mark's suitcase 73

Organ - Electromechanic - Full or Shout

Must admit Bass was surprisingly weak in most "packages". The FB-1 or the Bandlab were "better" than most, but still disappointing. Some good upright, but no really good Fender P- or J-Bass or Rickenbacker.

[ChiroVette]

Okay, well before I comment further, I have to ask; is this what I am supposed to have in the Trial version of Collective? Or am I missing some stuff? I need to bite my tongue and not lead with my mouth before I actually have the facts. I tend to do that, go off half-cocked before I actually know what I'm talking about, and then when someone corrects me, I feel like an idiot. This may be one of those times.

Here is a screenshot of what I think represents all of the sounds in the Collective plugin?



Oh and it looks like there are two different plugins I can drop into a track. One is called Collective and the other is called Collective (64 Bit). They're both kind of samey, but I think there are some differences between the two variations of the Collective plugin(s)

Also, the Category and and the Show Only Favorites vertical sections both have a vertical slider to access more entries.

[Peter Widdicombe]

The "show only favorites" works once you have DEFINED which ones are favorites - otherwise you get all of them. Right now you have PIANO tagged, so the rightmost list is all of the PIANOs available- including those you have to scroll for. Double-click to select which you want.

[fde101]

The actual sounds are in the list on the right side.

The items under "Author", "Category", etc. are used to filter that list, narrowing it down to find specific sounds quickly.

For example, select Piano under Category, and Acoustic under Style, leaving Pack, Author and Character unselected, and you should have narrowed down the list on the right to about 8 acoustic piano sounds.

Note that you need to double-click the sound in the list on the right to load it.


If you want to look at a few other potential sources for piano sounds:

* The Spitfire Audio Labs series (free) includes a "Soft Piano" which (as is typical of anything from Spitfire Audio) is VERY high in quality: https://labs.spitfireaudio.com/soft-piano

It is hard to go wrong with anything from Spitfire Audio - the quality of their products is generally top-of-class, so it is easily worth grabbing the free stuff they offer.

* Komplete Start (free) from Native Instruments includes an assortment of instruments and effects plugins, one of which is "Hybrid Keys" which loads into their Kontakt plugin (a limited version of which is included with the free Komplete Start): https://www.native-instruments.com/en/p ... ete-start/

Hybrid Keys lets you pick two from an assortment of keyboard instruments (and some non-keyboard instruments), including acoustic and electric pianos and organs, and blend the two sounds that you pick.

* My personal go-to plugin for piano sounds is Pianoteq (NOT free - $149 for the entry-level version) which artificially recreates the sound of a piano by applying physics to a mathematical model of the piano; it sounds VERY realistic and can capture nuances of the various interactions of the strings and other components of a pianos that the more common sampled piano instruments simply can't reproduce: https://www.modartt.com


For Bass Guitar, if you don't like what Collective offers, there are various options around - you might check out the products from Acoustic Samples for example (NOT free - various prices, but generally reasonable for what is offered): https://www.acousticsamples.net/bass

[pough]

Oh and it looks like there are two different plugins I can drop into a track. One is called Collective and the other is called Collective (64 Bit). They're both kind of samey, but I think there are some differences between the two variations of the Collective plugin(s)

The former is VST version 3 and the latter is VST version 2.4. The VST spec has been updated a few times over the years. You probably don't want to go down that rabbit hole yet, but I'll just say that in my experience VST version 2.4 plugins have a tendency to be more dependable.

[ChiroVette]

For the record, this was the game-changer, right here:

Double-click to select which you want.

Note that you need to double-click the sound in the list on the right to load it.

That explains why literally everything sounded almost exactly the same, with minor variations. Because I didn't realize you had to double click on the actual sound on the right.

Why is that column designated as "Show Only Favorites"? Not for anything, but that is absurdly confusing. Shouldn't it be labeled as "Sounds" and then maybe put "Show Only Favorites" in parenthesis or a subheading?

Anyway, okay, that's a lot better now. I really thought that Collective was just complete and utter crap before reading your responses. I don't think the sounds are great, but they are definitely serviceable.

Question: How do you get a good B3 sound out of this? I tried all of the variations of the Organ sounds, and so far the closest I have been able to come are some of the various Pipe Organ combos.

Also, what are you guys using for a Rhodes sound as well as a regular electric bass guitar?

[Watchful]

A great free bass guitar is ABPL (Ample Bass P Lite, at amplesound.net). Basic, does the job well. Another great freebie is MODO Bass 2. I know you're not opposed to paying for a quality plugin, but these demos are perfect for you to see which approach you like.

I don't use plugins for a Rhodes--I have hardware for that--but the Collective sounds were pretty good. If you want to experiment at no cost, check out Sampleson.com. They specialize in paid/free electric pianos. They ALSO have a great free B3 emulator there, but to be honest I find it's a RAM hog.

I just realized a farmer from 1950 would have no idea what I mean by a ram hog.

[ChiroVette]

Thanks, Watchful, I will check them out!

[fde101]

There is actually an officially licensed B3 plugin if you don't mind the price: https://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/hammondb3x/

Again, you might want to check out Hybrid Keys that comes with Komplete Start - it is free and has numerous keyboard sounds (acoustic and electric pianos as well as organs and some other things).

[ChiroVette]

There is actually an officially licensed B3 plugin if you don't mind the price: https://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/hammondb3x/

Again, you might want to check out Hybrid Keys that comes with Komplete Start - it is free and has numerous keyboard sounds (acoustic and electric pianos as well as organs and some other things).

If I end up doing any serious production or becoming some kind of music engineer with this stuff, like I suspect a lot of people here are doing, then I would certainly pay the $150.00 for that B3 Plugin. As it is now, I decided to go ghetto and use Collective's pipe organ sounds, just playing with it until I got something decent sounding.

Now before I go on the hunt for some better bass guitar plugins, does anyone have any exact settings for Collective to get a solid bass guitar that actually sounds like a bass guitar and not some cheesy-ass synth nonsense? I will get a better package if I have to, but there must be one in here I am missing.

Otherwise I will just go with Watchful's suggestions. But I hope I am doing something wrong, because while I am not looking to sound like Jacko Pastori here, I'll take a bass that sounds like a rickety $99.00 pawn shop bass over anything I have been able to come up with thus far from Collective. Like I said, I am really hoping this is user-error, me being the erroneous user.

[Peter Widdicombe]

The APBL listed above is pretty good and easy to install (no registrations needed!).

Oh, and adding Bass Professor (also free) immediately AFTER APBL (or presumably any other bass-like plugin) really allows you to shape the sound. Want punch/slap to stand out? Wanna chop off the high end and have it sound like 20-year old strings?

[Watchful]

Second on Bass Professor.

[ChiroVette]

Okay I will definitely check those out, Peter, thanks. So is that your way of telling me that Collective has no good bass guitar sounds? lol