Soft Synths - help a technophobe out pleeeeeaaaassse

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boudicca
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So I'm trying to put together a nice little rig for making my own bangin choons (a rig is what they call it right?... isn't it? oh :oops: ), and I have most of what I need worked out, but I am having some difficulty with soft synths/ virtual instruments.

Basically I want to get a simple controller keyboard to play all manner or funky instruments through the wonders of MIDI (which I think, after years of banging my head against a brick wall, I am finally beginning to comprehend). I want sounds. A lot of sounds.

Here are some of the kind of sounds I want:

* guitars - both acoustic and electric
* classic synthy sounds
* orchestral sounds
* bass sounds

Basically I want to be able to generate noises which sound like these things, without any of the actual instruments. So can anyone point me in the direction of some soft-synths that would do the job? Or should I be looking at loops? Or both?

Any help or advice at all would be appreciated, particularly from those of you who already are makers of choons 8)
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Quiff Boy
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Anything by native instruments would be a good starting point.

You using a pc sequencer? Which one?
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radiojamaica
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I can't help you out one bit, but succes with the experiment :D
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eotunun
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Besides being f*cking big your keyboard that you once mentioned might have midi ports on its backside.
If so one of these will be helpfull. :wink:
I was told that Edirol thingy was especially worth mentioning.
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James Blast
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no help, but I ken some Foriegns that have been seen tinkling the ivories :lol:
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radiojamaica
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didn't they use backing tapes? :innocent:
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James Blast
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prolly, they are Foreigns after all :lol:
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Izzy HaveMercy
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Klep toe.

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Ma Nia? :eek:
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Izzy HaveMercy
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Oh and just to be helpful, Claire:

Listen to the samples here

Like what you hear? You need a VST host for that (Cubase for example), and this plugin, which is oh so NOT available as a torrent, for example.

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boudicca
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Thanks Iz, that's exactly the kind of thing I'm looking for (though anyone else's suggestions would also be welcome. Would be nice to compare and contrast a bit).

I'll be using a PC and Cubase, if that's relevant.
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Izzy HaveMercy
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boudicca wrote:Thanks Iz, that's exactly the kind of thing I'm looking for (though anyone else's suggestions would also be welcome. Would be nice to compare and contrast a bit).

I'll be using a PC and Cubase, if that's relevant.
Cubase is guid. PC... dual to quadcore I hope?

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boudicca
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Quiff Boy wrote:Anything by native instruments would be a good starting point.

You using a pc sequencer? Which one?
The Native Instruments ones that I've been looking at all seem to be very focused on one type of instrument... for example one that just does guitar sounds. If possible I'd like to get something that has a wide ramge of sounds available on it... though I realise I might just have to get more than one....
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Izzy HaveMercy
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boudicca wrote:
Quiff Boy wrote:Anything by native instruments would be a good starting point.

You using a pc sequencer? Which one?
The Native Instruments ones that I've been looking at all seem to be very focused on one type of instrument... for example one that just does guitar sounds. If possible I'd like to get something that has a wide ramge of sounds available on it... though I realise I might just have to get more than one....
That's where the packages come in that I mentioned...

East West, Spectrasonics, Zero-G.... they are all NI (Native Instruments) based, mostly fit for their Kore/Kontakt/Intakt engines, but they make their own packages...

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Andrew S
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Oh just get a theremin Claire. You know you want to...
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Maisey
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Dodgy old Casio keyboard - relitively nice string sound, ok piano, seriously crap choir ahhs - what more to do you need?
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Its a little outdated, but for good (not excellent, but perfectly good) string/orchestral and synth sounds propellerhead's reason has them all in the one package, and a lot more, including a drum machine, samplers etc. You cant record audio into it, but you can in cubase, and you can rewire (ie: link) reason into cubase and control its transport functions from there.

Reason is fairly easy to use, and is only limited by your imagination (sounds cheesy but true), it would compliment cubase very well, as you can load external vst's into it either (but again, in cubase you can).

As far as guitars go, there are a few emulations out there, but to be honest, you would be better off buying a s**t 2nd hand one and bashing it out yourself, no matter what your skill level. There is a new one out though by rob papen that looks great for acoustic chord progressions etc....havent looked into it much as i play guitar anyway, but his stuff is usually quality.

NI stuff is great, but rather bloated and often buggy as far as software goes, but they do have some great stuff regardless. I think for the sounds you want though, you would be nuts to go past reason, especially if youre starting out as its a program that will only open up more as you learn.

Hope that helps.
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Izzy HaveMercy
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I think instead of Reason, which ain't bad at all but a bit overwhelming at first glance, she might opt for Ableton Live.

Then again, she already has Cubase, so no point really to put it side by side with Live.

The ReWire technology is pretty neat indeed, but as said, I should start with Cubase and a couple of sound libraries a la NI. At a further point you might try Reason or Live, but in my opinion they become (only) useful when sequencing becomes more of an issue...

NI buggy? Bah, I put in 4 gig memory instead of the 1 gig I had and my Altered States package went bonkers... I 'ran out of memory' every time I opened another instrument! :lol:

NI answered me that the issue was known because AS uses the older Intakt engine, I should upgrade to their Kore engine, yeah rite... it costs more that Altered States cost me!

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Spigel
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Propellerhead Software's ReBirth RB-338

This may not be what you are looking for but you can make banging tunes in a more old school acid electro style. It´s also now free to download once you register. Its very easy to use and very very addictive.
http://www.rebirthmuseum.com/

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boudicca
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Thanks for the suggestions people, keep em coming! :notworthy:
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James Blast
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a kazoo is pretty cool, you tried one of them, they're dead easy to play
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James Blast wrote:a kazoo is pretty cool, you tried one of them, they're dead easy to play
She did ask... :lol:
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robertzombie
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I've been playing around with midi recently (specifically Adobe Audition 3's sequencer + a bunch of free VSti's). A problem I sometimes run into is that the sequencer won't play all the notes I key in, it's as if it can't play all the notes and then gets confused and plays a big blurge of them at once. I thought this might have something to do with PC speed, but it even occurs in the wave mixdowns.

Any ideas? :)
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Blurge? Is that a technical term? :P
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Quiff Boy
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robertzombie wrote:I've been playing around with midi recently (specifically Adobe Audition 3's sequencer + a bunch of free VSti's). A problem I sometimes run into is that the sequencer won't play all the notes I key in, it's as if it can't play all the notes and then gets confused and plays a big blurge of them at once. I thought this might have something to do with PC speed, but it even occurs in the wave mixdowns.

Any ideas? :)
iz will probably be better able to advise, but it sounds like your soundcard's latency

(ie: your soundcard's speed, not your pc's speed)

depending on what your soundcard is you should either look to get new drivers (look for ASIO drivers as they have zero latancy, in theory), or if it's a soundcard that came built in with your pc you should probably think about replacing it with a dedicated "audio interface" - external usb ones are usually sufficient... try something by edirol or m-audio :)

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Last edited by Quiff Boy on 09 Jun 2010, 14:37, edited 1 time in total.
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