10 Essential Rock And Roll VSTs

[wagtunes]

Let's have some fun with this. This poll is in 2 parts.

Part 1

What do you consider the 10 most essential instruments for creating a rock, funk, soul, R&B, etc. track. I want to leave electronic music out of this (trance, techno, etc) because let's face it, Rock and roll is all but dead and electronic music has pretty much taken over the music scene. That's why most of the talk in this forum is about synthesizers. So you electronic music fans, this thread is for the rest of us. Unless of course you like rock too. If so, great. Welcome aboard.

Okay, here are my 10 essential instruments to make a rock, funk, soul, etc. song.

1 Guitar
2 Drums
3 Electric Bass
4 Piano
5 Organ
6 String Section
7 Brass Section
8 Sax
9 Percussion
10 Synthesizer

Okay, now, what vsts or package of vsts would you get in order to cover those bases or whatever your top 10 is. I don't think it's going to be much different from the above as rock music wasn't as broad in terms of sound as electronic.

Here are my vsts

1 Guitar - I would probably go with the Music Labs series of guitars as they cover the main ones and then for the FX, which is probably more important, I would go with Amplitube 5. With that, you can sound like just about any guitar out there.

2 Drums - MODO Drums. I feel for rock drums, they are the best and cover the most ground sound wise because of all the different kits and ways you can customize them.

3 Electric Bass - MODO Bass 2. Again, as with the drums, covers many types of bass.

4 Piano - Modartt Pianoteq. To my ears, most realistic piano sound and there are plenty to choose from though this can get pricey.

5 Organ - I would need a B3 and a Farfisa to cover pretty much all of it. For the B3 I would go with Genuine Soundware's VB3 II. For the Farfisa, I would go with the Arturia collection

6 String Section - For authentic strings I would go with VSL's Orchestra Strings.

7. Brass Section - For that wrecking crew sound I would go with a combination of Broadway Gig and Warp IV. Together they have it all covered.

8 Sax - I would go with the Warp IV Sax series. Pricey but well worth is.

9 Percussion - Native Instruments Cuba. Covers it all

10 Synthesizer - I would focus on a synth from the 70s era. I'd stay away from things like Serum, Viper, etc. because they focus more on today's sound. So I would go with something like the Korg Collection to get that Odyssey sound and similar sounds.

There you have it. My top 10 rock essentials and what I would get to achieve those sounds.

Now it's your turn. What are your essentials? What would you use? You might even give me some other ideas for myself and possibly help others out here who are also into rock and want to create rock tracks but don't have the tools yet.

[BBFG#]

Much of your list isn't that essential. Some are regarded as production "sweeteners" and there's a good amount of the population of fans that believe those destroy the inheritant idea of those genres.



And just like the pop apologists that declare all other forms are dead and they are the rule, we both know that's just their own lacking experience.



My "essentials" list is probably closer to:
1. Drums/percussion.
2. Guitars (including Bass)
3. Keyboards (Acoustic, Electric, Tube and Transistor)
4. Vocals

I only see those essential for a certain style in those genres though and not the total experience of those genres.

[Vortifex]

Impact Soundworks Shreddage is worth checking out for electric guitar. And pretty much anything from Amplesound.

[wagtunes]

Much of your list isn't that essential. Some are regarded as production "sweeteners" and there's a good amount of the population of fans that believe those destroy the inheritant idea of those genres.



And just like the pop apologists that declare all other forms are dead and they are the rule, we both know that's just their own lacking experience.



My "essentials" list is probably closer to:
1. Drums/percussion.
2. Guitars (including Bass)
3. Keyboards (Acoustic, Electric, Tube and Transistor)
4. Vocals

I only see those essential for a certain style in those genres though and not the total experience of those genres.

Thank you for your opinion, which is just that. Your opinion.

Let's not forget that as I try to ignore your insulting tone as if I was some kind of an idiot. I was probably listening to rock and roll before you were even born.

[wagtunes]

Impact Soundworks Shreddage is worth checking out for electric guitar. And pretty much anything from Amplesound.

I do own Shreddage and Amplesound stuff. It's really great. I have Shreddage Rogue and Site and 3 Ample Sound guitars.

[BBFG#]

Impact Soundworks Shreddage is worth checking out for electric guitar. And pretty much anything from Amplesound.

And we're off to races!
Seriously though, I personally am doing my best to move away from just sample libraries requiring a host and more towards the self contained. I've been quite interested in the Ample Sound Basses after learning they've ditched iLok, but the developer made a statement about upgrading the lite versions as demos that aren't actually recognized by my current DAWs. And then they went silent and did nothing.
I do use MusicLab quite a bit and also AAS Strum/String Studio.
Keeping with the other instruments, Pianoteq is also my number one instrument in the majority of what I do.
However, organs are still a mixed bag with tabbed organs being the least used. I much prefer the drawbar tube and transistor versions. (Hammond/Vox clones.) I also compartmentalize the CA Novachord in that category of regularly used organ types.

This posit of return to the basics does remind me that synthesizers, in and of themselves, have the least importance on their own and it's only their programming to replace the others that make them the central focus.

[BBFG#]

Much of your list isn't that essential. Some are regarded as production "sweeteners" and there's a good amount of the population of fans that believe those destroy the inheritant idea of those genres.



And just like the pop apologists that declare all other forms are dead and they are the rule, we both know that's just their own lacking experience.



My "essentials" list is probably closer to:
1. Drums/percussion.
2. Guitars (including Bass)
3. Keyboards (Acoustic, Electric, Tube and Transistor)
4. Vocals

I only see those essential for a certain style in those genres though and not the total experience of those genres.

Thank you for your opinion, which is just that. Your opinion.

Let's not forget that as I try to ignore your insulting tone as if I was some kind of an idiot. I was probably listening to rock and roll before you were even born.

The insulting tone you hear is what you choose to hear. I'm not insulting you at all. And I understand your posit here is based on your opinion.
I'm chuckling at your belief you were listening to music before I was born though. When were you born? And at what age did you gain the spark of music being the thing you couldn't do without?
I was personally blessed with being the youngest in a musical family. So literally, born into it. Maybe you're older? I don't know. But I don't think your statement there indicates anything but an attempt to gain superiority in a field where it doesn't exist. A problem of perception that has no end for any of us.

[D-Fusion]

1. Korg Triton and M1
2. Diva and Repro
3. Musiclab Realstrat
4. The free Sample banks that is included in Bitwig

[wagtunes]

Much of your list isn't that essential. Some are regarded as production "sweeteners" and there's a good amount of the population of fans that believe those destroy the inheritant idea of those genres.



And just like the pop apologists that declare all other forms are dead and they are the rule, we both know that's just their own lacking experience.



My "essentials" list is probably closer to:
1. Drums/percussion.
2. Guitars (including Bass)
3. Keyboards (Acoustic, Electric, Tube and Transistor)
4. Vocals

I only see those essential for a certain style in those genres though and not the total experience of those genres.

Thank you for your opinion, which is just that. Your opinion.

Let's not forget that as I try to ignore your insulting tone as if I was some kind of an idiot. I was probably listening to rock and roll before you were even born.

The insulting tone you hear is what you choose to hear. I'm not insulting you at all. And I understand your posit here is based on your opinion.
I'm chuckling at your belief you were listening to music before I was born though. When were you born? And at what age did you gain the spark of music being the thing you couldn't do without?
I was personally blessed with being the youngest in a musical family. So literally, born into it. Maybe you're older? I don't know. But I don't think your statement there indicates anything but an attempt to gain superiority in a field where it doesn't exist. A problem of perception that has no end for any of us.

I was born in 1957. My first exposure to rock was seeing the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show on Geb 9, 1964. I was 6. I started listening to WABC radio immediately. I have all the top 100 lists from 1964 until 1979 when WABC became a joke of a radio station. In 1982 they stopped playing music altogether. By then, I had been listening to rock and roll for well over 25 years. My record collection took over the house. There was literally no more room.

As far as being born into a musical family, my father was a composer and my mother was a concert pianist and an opera singer. She introduced me to opera and Chopin at age 3. She hated rock and toll until I played Kansas for her in 1979. After that, she actually joined a rock band with my friend Warner playing keyboards. Hearing her play a rocking version of McArthur Park was one of the highlights of my life.

In high school in 1971, before synths were a blip on the radar and recording at home was a fantasy, I dreamed of being a composer. I used to write songs in my head in the cafeteria during lunch that never saw the light of day because I had no way of recording them. That all changed in 1977 when I got my first 4 channel recorder, a Teac A3440, and my first keyboard, a Honor Stringvox. It all sounded like crap in my apartment with nothing close to a studio but it was a start. I never dreamed I'd be where I am today, almost 50 years later.

This has nothing to do with superiority. I'm not superior to anybody. Not when it took me over 40 years to make my first buck from my music. It has everything to do with you constantly making me feel like I'm an idiot. All you had to do was come here and post your list without attacking mine. But that's what you do. You dislike me so much you can't help yourself.

And if that's all in my head, well, that's the impression you give me whenever you respond to ANYTHING I post.

And here's the best part. I already know all the people who are going to come to this thread and attack my list. Because it's always the same people.

It's getting very, very old and I'm sick of it.

FWIW, your list is fine. It's pretty basic and I am sure a lot of people would agree. I added what I did because of all the sub genres that use these things. Doesn't make me right or wrong. It's just my opinion.

Too bad you couldn't leave it at that.

[wagtunes]

1. Korg Triton and M1
2. Diva and Repro
3. Musiclab Realstrat
4. The free Sample banks that is included in Bitwig

Cool list. I assume you use Diva and Repro to cover the vintage synth sounds from the 70s and 80s?

[D-Fusion]

1. Korg Triton and M1
2. Diva and Repro
3. Musiclab Realstrat
4. The free Sample banks that is included in Bitwig.

Cool list. I assume you use Diva and Repro to cover the vintage synth sounds from the 70s and 80s?

That is correct

[BBFG#]

Those genres are basic.
My first owned album (not my parents or siblings) was Fats Domino at around two - three years old. I also played my brother's Brubeck album and my father's Mancini albums whenever I could get away with it then. My parents were church involved. Mother playing Piano/Organ and Father was the choir director. Siblings all played in that regard too and their albums started with late ' 40s rock and jazz. Both parents played a lot of the swing era music and oddly enough, had quite a bit of Bluegrass mixed in. They understood I had a love of classical music that no one else in the family had and that wasn't generally to received as well in our house. Your birthdate only proceeds me by maybe a few months. So I think at best, we're at draw and as I said before, no superiority can be determined either way. (And why should it?)
Even though I was playing from the moment I could sit and reach the keyboard on my own, my first outside lesson was at eight. Around the same time my brother brought in a FenderRhodes Suitcase piano. My first owned synthesizer was at twelve-thirteen and started playing Guitar at that time as well. Then after a couple of years in Honor Choirs (Latin-Gregorian base) I added playing flute in band. I went from begining band to advanced band in less than a week. Within that month, I also joined my first Drum Corps and went from Rudimental Bass to Snare in about a month. Joined my second Drum Corps two years later as a Marimba player and in that year also learned Cello and Oboe.
Somehow, I bet if we had ever collaborated, it would be better than either of us. But at this point in my life, I would still find it boring.
Considering these posits are productive in a way though, although I'm not currently sure how.
Thank you for sharing them.

[wagtunes]

Those genres are basic.
My first owned album (not my parents or siblings) was Fats Domino at around two - three years old. I also played my brother's Brubeck album and my father's Mancini albums whenever I could get away with it then. My parents were church involved. Mother playing Piano/Organ and Father was the choir director. Siblings all played in that regard too and their albums started with late ' 40s rock and jazz. Both parents played a lot of the swing era music and oddly enough, had quite a bit of Bluegrass mixed in. They understood I had a love of classical music that no one else in the family had and that wasn't generally to received as well in our house. Your birthdate only proceeds me by maybe a few months. So I think at best, we're at draw and as I said before, no superiority can be determined either way. (And why should it?)
Even though I was playing from the moment I could sit and reach the keyboard on my own, my first outside lesson was at eight. Around the same time my brother brought in a FenderRhodes Suitcase piano. My first owned synthesizer was at twelve-thirteen and started playing Guitar at that time as well. Then after a couple of years in Honor Choirs (Latin-Gregorian base) I added playing flute in band. I went from begining band to advanced band in less than a week. Within that month, I also joined my first Drum Corps and went from Rudimental Bass to Snare in about a month. Joined my second Drum Corps two years later as a Marimba player and in that year also learned Cello and Oboe.
Somehow, I bet if we had ever collaborated, it would be better than either of us. But at this point in my life, I would still find it boring.
Considering these posits are productive in a way though, although I'm not currently sure how.
Thank you for sharing them.

Sounds like we had very similar upbringings. Maybe if we had known each other back then, who knows. But honestly, sounds like you were a lot more talented than I was. I had the love but, well, my mother, God rest her soul, when she'd hear my early songs would ask me "Steven, when are you going to get off the merry=go-round" because my songs had no structure. They were just loops that went on and on and on. When I told my friends I wanted to be a songwriter, they laughed at me. That's when I said to them, "You'll see. One day you're going to hear my songs on the radio." Unfortunately, by the time I made any dent in this business, radio was a pretty dead animal unless you're Taylor Swift. It's pretty much all streaming.

So 40 something years later, I've got 4 albums released by a cover band a 12 songs released on my own through Music For World Peace. The money isn't great but it's something.

At least now I can say this wasn't all for nothing.

Maybe I should have them put that on my tombstone.

[Examigan]

I used to use Shreddage 3 Stratus for guitar, but I'm not really creating guitar parts anymore for my own music.
Sometimes I'd use the Sampetank 4 Les Paul and add Amplitube on it, but sort of like with Shreddage... it's not getting much use lately.

Bass: IK's MODO Bass.
Drums: Addictive Drums.
Synths: Icarus 3, OP-X Pro, Diva, and Synthmaster.
Piano: A decent one from Sampletank 4 will do, Triton, or Meldway Grand. I'm not picky about the latest and greatest.
Strings: I don't really use them much, but if do, l use old Mellotron or Chamberlin sounds, or just get some decent strings from Sampletank 4 Max. (Arturia's Mellotron V and Emulator II V for the older crunchy sounds). Korg's Triton is another good one to check out.

[wagtunes]

Here's a Garage Rock tune I just did. Not much to it.

Guitar
Drums
Bass
Organ
Electric Sitar
Lead & Background Vocals

https://soundcloud.com/steven-wagenheim/out-in-the-sun