10 Essential Rock And Roll VSTs

[wagtunes]

I have been playing keys in rock, folk rock, and various metal genres since the 1980s

Currently I play in a classic rock cover band, and a classic southern rock cover band

IMHO you are over thinking it to justify GAS when it comes to plugins. Nothing wrong with that of course I do it also

But if we are being honest

For rock music any Rompler gets you 90% there. The Korg Triton Extreme plugin is a great workhorse for that. That will have all your Piano, Organ, Electric Piano, Strings and most of your synth needs covered. HALion7, and UVI Falcon will also get you there

Romplers also have lots of drum samples made from real kits, it you are going to use a synth or sampler for drums this will have you covered also with no need for anything else as rock and roll almost always uses real drums and when it doesn't there will be something in the Rompler library that will have you covered

If you are gigging, something like a Yamaha Montage (which I use) or a MODX will also cover all of that and come with a plugin as well. Those also come with Yamaha's fantastic AWM2 pianos, eps, and organs

Beyond that you can add some specialized plugins that make the sounds you are looking for. For me that is the Legend HZ because so much rock music uses a Minimoog and it can also do analog poly sounds, and Repro for Prophet 5 sounds. The Minimoog and Prophet 5 were either the Synths used directly in the bulk of 70s and 80s classic rock, or especially since you can use a Minimoog Plugin that is polyphonic be used in place of other Synths

Finally will say if you are a gigging musician trying to put together plugins for live use get a copy of Gig Performer and the free Decent Sampler plugin

You will use Gig Performer to host your plugins as you play live and there are many tools inside of it for live gigging and it has a built in autosampler that makes presets in the Decent Sampler format. Many plugins have a large CPU overhead and if you autosample them and turn them into a sample based instrument the CPU hit is minimized

No argument about any of that. Lots of things will cover the basics. Personally, I hear the difference between some specialized synths and all around romplers. The difference, for me anyway, justified getting the specialized synth.

It has little to do with gas. I just recently bought Shreddage 3 Sitar because nothing sounds like it. Period.

Is a sitar sample library "essential" for rock though?

If you're trying to recreate 60s Garage Rock and Psychedelic, yes.

[mambo888]

I love rock and roll but it's pretty much dead now. Killed by pop and edm, but that's how it was always meant to be, most people like to "chill" and "vibe" and for them rock is just noise. Also female taste in music drives and enforces what men like too, music is a tool of seduction and men play along and sing what women want to hear. Where are the rebels now? I call it "pussy warming music" (sorry for my english)

1 Guitar -- Everything from Orange Tree Samples, Musiclab, AmpleSound and NI Kontakt own guitar libraries
2 Drums -- EZDrummer, Addictive Drums 2, Logic Pro drums
3 Electric Bass -- MODO BASS, EZBASS, or anything else with good double bass for Rockabilly
4 Piano -- Triton Extreme Rock and Roll Piano, NI Claire
7 Brass Section -- Logic Pro bass, Korg Triton or Trinity
10 Synthesizer -- Zenology Pro, OP-X PRO-3, Omnisphere

Amp sim: TH-U, Neural DSP, STL Amphub, Kuassa Amplification, Mercurial Ambox, Muramasa Electrum, Cyberdrive

Organ, strings: anything is ok in the mix, depends on the playing
Saxophone: I'm still looking for the best sax + amp combo that sound good for soloing

[IvyBirds]

It has little to do with gas. I just recently bought Shreddage 3 Sitar because nothing sounds like it. Period.

Is a sitar sample library "essential" for rock though?

If you're trying to recreate 60s Garage Rock and Psychedelic, yes.

Only it's not because there are Sitar Samples in Romplers that will be all you need for that

The Korg Triton Extreme I mentioned early can pull off everything you want

I use that in our band to cover The Rolling Stones – "Paint It, Black" for example

There is also a phenomenal patch for the DX7 called "SITAR VIII" that was created by Psychedelic rocker and studio owner Charlie Foege in the middle 1980s. That's easily found in syx files online. it's in the "ethnic plucked" folder in most of the large DX7 collections

I have that loaded into the FM engine in my Montage as well as have it for use in Plogue OPS7

FM Synthesis is perfect for Sitar sounds

It's not essential to have a dedicated sitar sample library for Kontact to make rock and roll

[wagtunes]

It has little to do with gas. I just recently bought Shreddage 3 Sitar because nothing sounds like it. Period.

Is a sitar sample library "essential" for rock though?

If you're trying to recreate 60s Garage Rock and Psychedelic, yes.

Only it's not because there are Sitar Samples in Romplers that will be all you need for that

The Korg Triton Extreme I mentioned early can pull off everything you want

I use that in our band to cover The Rolling Stones – "Paint It, Black" for example

There is also a phenomenal patch for the DX7 called "SITAR VIII" that was created by Psychedelic rocker and studio owner Charlie Foege in the middle 1980s. That's easily found in syx files online. it's in the "ethnic plucked" folder in most of the large DX7 collections

I have that loaded into the FM engine in my Montage as well as have it for use in Plogue OPS7

FM Synthesis is perfect for Sitar sounds

It's not essential to have a dedicated sitar sample library for Kontact to make rock and roll

Maybe not for you but to me, all that other stuff sounds like crap in comparison.

To each his own. But if course we can continue to argue this all you want but here's the thing. My opinion is still my opinion. It isn't right or wrong in a technical sense. It's just right for me. Your opinion is your opinion. It isn't right or wrong in a technical sense. It's just right for you.

So nobody wins this argument. Just so we're clear.

[wagtunes]

My latest, inspired by Rush

https://soundcloud.com/steven-wagenheim ... -principle

[IvyBirds]

It has little to do with gas. I just recently bought Shreddage 3 Sitar because nothing sounds like it. Period.

Is a sitar sample library "essential" for rock though?

If you're trying to recreate 60s Garage Rock and Psychedelic, yes.

Only it's not because there are Sitar Samples in Romplers that will be all you need for that

The Korg Triton Extreme I mentioned early can pull off everything you want

I use that in our band to cover The Rolling Stones – "Paint It, Black" for example

There is also a phenomenal patch for the DX7 called "SITAR VIII" that was created by Psychedelic rocker and studio owner Charlie Foege in the middle 1980s. That's easily found in syx files online. it's in the "ethnic plucked" folder in most of the large DX7 collections

I have that loaded into the FM engine in my Montage as well as have it for use in Plogue OPS7

FM Synthesis is perfect for Sitar sounds

It's not essential to have a dedicated sitar sample library for Kontact to make rock and roll

Maybe not for you but to me, all that other stuff sounds like crap in comparison.

To each his own. But if course we can continue to argue this all you want but here's the thing. My opinion is still my opinion. It isn't right or wrong in a technical sense. It's just right for me. Your opinion is your opinion. It isn't right or wrong in a technical sense. It's just right for you.

So nobody wins this argument. Just so we're clear.

I am not looking to argue with anyone. And my opinion is just as valid as yours

You started a thread for a list of a plugins that are essential for rock and roll

A dedicated sitar library isn't really essential for rock and roll, and even if you look at the entire history of rock music sitars were only used for a few brief years in the late 1960s.

Most famously on Paint it Black by the Stones and a few Beatles tunes. If you look at the entirety of the Stones and the Beatles catalog songs with Sitars represent a tiny fraction of it meaning even they didn't find sitars to be essential and by 1969 were never used again

If covering late 1960s Sitar based rock and roll is important to you, and you find the options I presented lacking awesome. Buy a sitar sample Library you like. Most users however won't find it essential to have one however which is my only point

If someone came to me and said "hey you have been playing keys in rock bands for over 40 years now what are the essential plugins I should get for that". A sitar plugin isn't on the list

[wagtunes]

It has little to do with gas. I just recently bought Shreddage 3 Sitar because nothing sounds like it. Period.

Is a sitar sample library "essential" for rock though?

If you're trying to recreate 60s Garage Rock and Psychedelic, yes.

Only it's not because there are Sitar Samples in Romplers that will be all you need for that

The Korg Triton Extreme I mentioned early can pull off everything you want

I use that in our band to cover The Rolling Stones – "Paint It, Black" for example

There is also a phenomenal patch for the DX7 called "SITAR VIII" that was created by Psychedelic rocker and studio owner Charlie Foege in the middle 1980s. That's easily found in syx files online. it's in the "ethnic plucked" folder in most of the large DX7 collections

I have that loaded into the FM engine in my Montage as well as have it for use in Plogue OPS7

FM Synthesis is perfect for Sitar sounds

It's not essential to have a dedicated sitar sample library for Kontact to make rock and roll

Maybe not for you but to me, all that other stuff sounds like crap in comparison.

To each his own. But if course we can continue to argue this all you want but here's the thing. My opinion is still my opinion. It isn't right or wrong in a technical sense. It's just right for me. Your opinion is your opinion. It isn't right or wrong in a technical sense. It's just right for you.

So nobody wins this argument. Just so we're clear.

I am not looking to argue with anyone. And my opinion is just as valid as yours

You started a thread for a list of a plugins that are essential for rock and roll

A dedicated sitar library isn't really essential for rock and roll, and even if you look at the entire history of rock music sitars were only used for a few brief years in the late 1960s.

Most famously on Paint it Black by the Stones and a few Beatles tunes. If you look at the entirety of the Stones and the Beatles catalog songs with Sitars represent a tiny fraction of it meaning even they didn't find sitars to be essential and by 1969 were never used again

If covering late 1960s Sitar based rock and roll is important to you, and you find the options I presented lacking awesome. Buy a sitar sample Library you like. Most users however won't find it essential to have one however which is my only point

If someone came to me and said "hey you have been playing keys in rock bands for over 40 years now what are the essential plugins I should get for that". A sitar plugin isn't on the list

Fine, You have made your opinion clear. Not essential for you, essential for me.

And that's the end of it,

[audiojunkie]

This is a second attempt. I accidentally spilled water all over my keyboard and in the process moved off of the web page and lost the contents of my message.

I use Linux, so it will likely be different from most of you:

* Guitars - MusicLab's RealStrat, RealLPC, and RealGMS
* Synths - Diva, Repro, Zebra 3, Hive 2, TAL-JX8, JULY, Chipsynth OPS7
* Samplers - TX16Wx, TAL-Sampler, Sforzando, Decent Sampler, Fluid (and about 320Gb of samples collected over 25 years)
* Lots and lots of effects

[wagtunes]

This is a second attempt. I accidentally spilled water all over my keyboard and in the process moved off of the web page and lost the contents of my message.

I use Linux, so it will likely be different from most of you:

* Guitars - MusicLab's RealStrat, RealLPC, and RealGMS
* Synths - Diva, Repro, Zebra 3, Hive 2, TAL-JX8, JULY, Chipsynth OPS7
* Samplers - TX16Wx, TAL-Sampler, Sforzando, Decent Sampler, Fluid (and about 320Gb of samples collected over 25 years)
* Lots and lots of effects

Thanks for sharing this.