Soft Synths - help a technophobe out pleeeeeaaaassse

[weebleswobble]

blurge 1
1)to masterbate (male)
man, when im goin home, im going to blurge all over my hoe

2. blurge
extreme sickness near the end of a hardcore binge session.
combination of the words binge and lurge

Good Lord Rob!

[timsinister]

Students.

I'm partial to Kristal for slapping a song together, good beginner-level starting place. If I can use it, anyone can.

[Izzy HaveMercy]

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

ebay link: http://is.gd/cINOT

You don't need my help at all

Wot he said ROB, are you using an on-board soundcard?

Well don't. Look into usb or FireWire-powered cards instead, they aren't that expensive. M-audio, Tascam, Edirol, Echo (my new card, bit more expensive but what a sound!) all do good cards at a cheap price.

If you have one already, make sure the ASIO-driver is set up correctly in Audition (if this is switchable at all, I'm not familiar with Audition).

Good luck!

IZ.

[robertzombie]

Is this any good?


With this in mind...

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? Smile

[Ahráyeph]

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...

IZ.

Coming late to the party but always happy to chime in, I'm with IZ when it comes to the sample libraries. However, we - as I'm sure IZ just forgot to mention it due to his busy schedule, I'm including him - would like to warn you that the more sample heavy you get, the more your RAM will be loaded, so plenty of RAM (4+GB) and a 64 bit OS is definitely the way to go. NI's Kontakt and a few sample libraries of your choice coupled with a dual/quad core 64 bit PC with oodles of RAM should get you where you want to go.

In terms of interfaces : happily using the crystal clear and not too expensive Focusrite Sapphire Pro 40 Firewire interface and there are a few models with less bells and whistles (read : in- and outputs) for a decent price. And starting next week, they'll all be compatible with ProTools LE 9 too!

I'm slowly but steadily moving away from the Cubase/Nuendo herd in favour of the 40 Euros-for-a-license miracle DAW that is REAPER. Fully customisable to suit your needs (you can make it look and act like Cubase/Nuendo if you want, just download the appropriate skin) but more importantly, much less processor heavy on your PC/Mac, so more processing goes to the audio and you can hear that (at least, I can ). You can even run this DAW from a USB key. Mind you, when the Focusrite to ProTools upgrade is available, I am gonna try it out. After all, PT was the very first DAW I ever used.

[Izzy HaveMercy]

Is this any good?


With this in mind...

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? Smile

Eh, yes it is, but I don't like these M-Powered bundles. This one comes with ProTools and I've heard lots of horror stories about M-powered stuff. As in, when you decide NOT to use ProTools anymore some serious s**t happens

If you are into that price range take a look at Tascam US122MKII or the Presonus Audiobox

IZ.

[Izzy HaveMercy]

And ARF! I'm a Cubase fan, always was, always will be.

Although your REAPER alternative is something I recommend to young people as well, although these days most audio interfaces come with a light-version of some or other DAW. The Tascam, for example, comes with Cubase LE4, which will keep most people very happy for a while.

I have Cubase Studio 5 now, and in fact I find it a bit overkill sometimes. But it comes with some smasher VSTs and when I'm mixing a 50-channel project, the automation, the workflow and the batch processes are very intuitive.

IZ.

[Ahráyeph]

As you know, IZ, I've spent many years happily (ab)using Cubase and Nuendo and I do miss some of the functionalities in REAPER. However, I feel the advantage is in the latter's camp nowadays.

The REAPER people prove it's possible to crank out a pro DAW for very little cash, which doesn't take up oodles of disk space, processing power and RAM just to run (REAPER has a 5MB installer, ffs!) and its workflow is in some ways so intuitive, it takes a week to unlearn the often cumbersome processes you had to learn to use Cubase.

Maybe it's my long time experience in the DAW field, but I got the REAPER basics down faster than those of Cubase (starting with VST 5/32), which took a long while to wrestle through. In terms of automation it doesn't need to bow its head to the Big Boys out there either. That said, I'll always be fond of Cubase/Nuendo for the hours of creative pleasure it provided me with and I'll always keep following their progress closely.

By the way, batch processing in Steinberg's current DAW versions came about because REAPER actually offered it first. That's a fact. The wee programme is certainly putting a dent in Steinberg/Yamaha's sales (not to mention others, it doesn't surprise me Avid are now expanding ProTools LE to accept different hardware to keep being competitive), so they're playing catchup now.

[James Blast]

I've seen too many 'first placed' market programs getting bloated, the thing market leaders need to learn is 'trimming'.

I'm sure many of us can relate to fave progs trying to out-do each other with more and more add ons until they become a chore.

FreeHand ended with MX (ie. 11) when 9 was perfectly excellent.

bells and whistles, "Corks and safetys, pigs and donkeys, Alice Cooper WaaH! well it makes me so hard I could scream!"

sorry, I've been listening to a lot of Frank Zappa/Mothers recently

[nigel d]

i occasionally use kristal.
also got a Use Audio "plugiator" (ASX version)

Creamware have loads of gubbins.

Arturia have a few good packages

lots of sounds on the above, or just get an ipad with ims20 and the other available synths. apparently there is a gismo that give idi control of the apps (to be investigated)

[Izzy HaveMercy]

As you know, IZ, I've spent many years happily (ab)using Cubase and Nuendo and I do miss some of the functionalities in REAPER. However, I feel the advantage is in the latter's camp nowadays.

The REAPER people prove it's possible to crank out a pro DAW for very little cash, which doesn't take up oodles of disk space, processing power and RAM just to run (REAPER has a 5MB installer, ffs!) and its workflow is in some ways so intuitive, it takes a week to unlearn the often cumbersome processes you had to learn to use Cubase.

Maybe it's my long time experience in the DAW field, but I got the REAPER basics down faster than those of Cubase (starting with VST 5/32), which took a long while to wrestle through. In terms of automation it doesn't need to bow its head to the Big Boys out there either. That said, I'll always be fond of Cubase/Nuendo for the hours of creative pleasure it provided me with and I'll always keep following their progress closely.

By the way, batch processing in Steinberg's current DAW versions came about because REAPER actually offered it first. That's a fact. The wee programme is certainly putting a dent in Steinberg/Yamaha's sales (not to mention others, it doesn't surprise me Avid are now expanding ProTools LE to accept different hardware to keep being competitive), so they're playing catchup now.

All true. I really like it that Reaper came on the market as a no-budget solution, after the false start of Ardour.

Reaper is almost free, while Cubase 5 is 500-600 euro. AND indeed Steinberg learnt a lesson or two and inplemented REAPER stuff into Cubase, IMO that is a very good trend, keeps them up and about and busy those Steinberg dudes

IZ.

[paul]

We use Reason 5 (a total blast) in combination with Ableton 8. This combo works juuuust fine!