Favorite Soft Synth?

[Blue Strat]

Looking for something high quality to do keys (a convincing Hammond would be great), brass, etc. I've got drums covered.

I hear that Colossus is very good and their samples do sound excellent.

Also, any tips on synth controllers (Keyboards)?

[theRocco]

Check out this comparison chart, Native is "off the charts":

http://www.cubase.net/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=1817&sid=54739c9b24514373212ed718be842d1c

For far out synth sounds, Reaktor is very cool but a steep learning curve (I've had it for years and still struggling).

As far as keyboard controllers, there are so many new ones out there now, and cheap, but I'm still using my old Korg N-1 88 keys!

[Bassomatic]

I'd look at Arturia's stuff, if I were you.

[LSchefman]

There's so much good stuff out there, and it's so inexpensive, why just pick one?

If the Hammond sound is important, there are a few good, dedicated choices, such as the B4 by NI, the Logic B3 emulation, and the Lin Plug Organ.

As far as general synths go, the choices are staggering, and most of the soft synths out there specialize: for FM there's Rob Papen's Blue, the NI FM8, the Lin Plug Octopus; the Applied Acoustics synths do FM and analog emulation better than anything else I've heard in terms of sound quality, though the presets aren't as "pop" as the NI stuff; the arturia stuff is wonderful, too.

Actually, I buy soft synths rather compulsively. I think right now I have close to 40 soft synths and samplers...um...yes, please shoot me soon.

Then there is the world of sample based stuff. I mean, it's endless.

[elambo]

Looking for something high quality to do keys (a convincing Hammond would be great), brass, etc. I've got drums covered.

I hear that Colossus is very good and their samples do sound excellent.

B4II (Native Instruments) is as close to a real Hammond B3 as you'll ever need, and it throws in some things that a real Hammond can't do.

Arturia's stuff is always great for vintage synths. However, their horns suck. I have yet to find a horn synth that's worthwhile. Although...

...There are some good samples in Goliath, which is essentially a larger version of Colossus. Goliath/Colossus have a lot of great instruments, and a good variety to boot.

I also like FM8 for the D7-ish sounds, and more. Very cool vintage vibe.

This may or may not be what you're after, but for orchestral sounds, Vienna Symphonic Orchestra is far and away the best library on the planet. Expensive, too. For less money, EastWest's Quantum Leap (I'd suggest at least Gold for variety, Platinum is even better) is really good. REALLY good.

Bass - a year ago I would have steered you towards Trilogy, but the company that makes it has screwed up huge and Trilogy's life is limited, and in fact "over" if you're on an Intel Mac. Yellow Tools "Majestic" is getting good reviews, as is Scarabee.

For electric keyboards, Velvet from Digidesign just kills!

Piano - you'd be hard pressed to find anything better than Ivory.

[LSchefman]

>>This may or may not be what you're after, but for orchestral sounds, Vienna Symphonic Orchestra is far and away the best library on the planet. Expensive, too. For less money, EastWest's Quantum Leap (I'd suggest at least Gold for variety, Platinum is even better) is really good. REALLY good.<<

These are indeed terrific products. And there are a few others worth discussing as well: the Miroslav Vitous library was 'it' a few years back, and it still sounds great in a track. I have a lot of VSL stuff, and yet still use the Miroslav libraries because the articulations and playing are equally excellent, and the sound is quite good. You can get Miroslav now from IK Multimedia, with their playback engine, but I simply imported mine into Mach Five 2.

There is also a little-known library from Kirk Hunter Studios that is absolutely a huge bargain. There aren't as many articulations as in the VSL libraries, but for me, that may be a plus, not a drawback, because sometimes you just need the bread and butter stuff, and the library sounds excellent. I don't own this yet, but I'm planning to buy later this month. It's truly impressive. And their Emerald library is I think around $200 (!).

Anyway, these are truly useful libraries, and worth looking at.

>> Piano - you'd be hard pressed to find anything better than Ivory.<<

Agreed, but on the same plane (and maybe better in the Steinway D department, close call) is NI's Akoustik Piano. I like the NI piano for its Steinway, but also because it's less taxing on my computer than Ivory. And its Bechstein is also great. I think Ivory's Bosendorfer is a bit better, but both of these programs are terrific. The Akoustik piano is cheaper and worth looking at, and I think it won the Keyboard shootout, so that ain't so bad ya know...

Anyway, I'm a pianist, and find them both absolutely top notch.

[theroan]

Spectrosonic Atmosphere

[elambo]

Spectrosonic Atmosphere

That would not be a good investment at this point. It was abandoned quite a while ago and and suffered the same fate as Trilogy for Intel Mac users. Great plugin in its day.

[theRocco]

For Piano I'm using "The Grand" by Steinberg. Massive amounts of space needed just to load the thing, but it sounds awesome, like having a Steinway in your living room without taking the space or upkeep (just the computer and processing space!).

[Brad Gregg]

Atmosphere is indeed a cool program, but Spectrasonics is coming out with Omnisphere next month, which by all appearances will completely blow Atmo out of the water. For ethereal/modularesque stuff, Absynth by Native Instruments is my go-to program.

[theroan]

I havent been with it for a while.

[retro]

I recently DL'd NI's Kore Player Free and really enjoyed it's morphing system.

Started checking out Kore Packs which are quite inexpensive and downloadable from the site. Once I added a few Kore Packs and realized it's capabilities and sound quality I became a big fan.

http://www.native-instruments.com/index.php?id=koresoundpacks&L=1&ftu=09d0625c65fb743

http://www.native-instruments.com/index.php?id=kspdrawbarorgan&L=1

http://www.native-instruments.com/index.php?id=absynthtwilights&L=1

[mrface2112]

B4II (Native Instruments) is as close to a real Hammond B3 as you'll ever need, and it throws in some things that a real Hammond can't do. +1 on NI's B4. it's excellent. but like using a POD, just don't stick to the presets.

as for a controller i've got an old midiman (now m-audio) radium 61 that i picked up for real cheap years ago. it's not very sensitive and plays a lot like a toy (read: cheap keyboard), but it gets the job done. i'm not much of a piano player so "feel" wasn't very important to me at the time.......but that said, a new (and BETTER) midi controller is on my list of things to upgrade.


cheers,
wade

[iaresee]

I tried NI B4's and while it sounded good I didn't think it blew away anything that Reason could do. I pretty much just use Reason (http://www.propellerheads.se/) these days. I had to go to 4.0 when I moved to the Mac and while I was grumbling about the cash at first the outlay was well worth it. Couple it with some of their ReFills and you're covered.

As for controllers I'm using an Axiom 49 but if I was feeling like splurging I'd be all over a Novation Remote SL (http://www.novationmusic.com/products/midi_control/remote_sl/) or a Roland PCR-500 (http://www.rolandus.com/products/productdetails.aspx?ObjectId=864&ParentId=19). Overall nicer feeling keys, encoders on those boards. And as you can see I'm not really a keyboard player 'cause I like the 49-key units. :)

[theroan]

Yesm reason is great to, sucks it can't be used a plug in

[iaresee]

Yesm reason is great to, sucks it can't be used a plug in
I slave it to Logic using ReWire. Did the same when I was PC/Cubase user. With it slaved I don't see the difference between it being a separate app or a plugin. You can run the outputs from each Reason-based instrument to a spearate ReWire channel in your DAW of choice so you're mixing your Reason session inside Logic or what not. MIDI is all handled by the DAW. Perfect!

[elambo]

Reason slaves to ProTools in the same way. Works fine. The ReWire app has been through some issues but seems ok these days.

[LSchefman]

Reason slaves to DP well also.

>> As for controllers I'm using an Axiom 49 but if I was feeling like splurging I'd be all over a Novation Remote SL (http://www.novationmusic.com/products/midi_control/remote_sl/) or a Roland PCR-500 (http://www.rolandus.com/products/productdetails.aspx?ObjectId=864&ParentId=19). Overall nicer feeling keys, encoders on those boards. And as you can see I'm not really a keyboard player 'cause I like the 49-key units.<<

Funny you should mention this. I AM a keyboard player, and while I have an 88 key controller for piano parts, I have a 49 key unit to sit in front of my monitor (Akai MPK49), and got my son the M-Audio Axiom unit which he liked. The keys on the akai are a little springier, but you can adjust the velocity curve on the M-Audio, and both have drum pads. The M-Audio's pads are more responsive and you can work with the velocity curve on them as well. I actually like it a little better than the Akai for feel, and honestly, I got the Akai simply because it sits lower and doesn't obscure the bottom of the monitor and it looks kinda cool and retro. My monitor sits very low, unfortunately. The Akai also has an arpeggiator, which I've used...once. ;)

But in any event, the 49 key thing in front of your workspace is nice for tweaking synths, effects, etc., and still leaves you some room for other stuff you need in front of you. I had my 88 key controller in front of me for a while when I first got rid of my big mixer and went to a summing mixer, but found myself piling stuff on top of stuff, and it kinda got in the way. So now it's at a 90 degree angle from my workstation, and I simply roll over to it when I need more keys or weighted keys.

I also bought the Axiom 25 key controller for traveling with my laptop. Nice piece of gear!

[iaresee]

>> As for controllers I'm using an Axiom 49 but if I was feeling like splurging I'd be all over a Novation Remote SL (http://www.novationmusic.com/products/midi_control/remote_sl/) or a Roland PCR-500 (http://www.rolandus.com/products/productdetails.aspx?ObjectId=864&ParentId=19). Overall nicer feeling keys, encoders on those boards. And as you can see I'm not really a keyboard player 'cause I like the 49-key units.<<

Funny you should mention this. I AM a keyboard player, and while I have an 88 key controller for piano parts, I have a 49 key unit to sit in front of my monitor (Akai MPK49), and got my son the M-Audio Axiom unit which he liked. The keys on the akai are a little springier, but you can adjust the velocity curve on the M-Audio, and both have drum pads. The M-Audio's pads are more responsive and you can work with the velocity curve on them as well. I actually like it a little better than the Akai for feel, and honestly, I got the Akai simply because it sits lower and doesn't obscure the bottom of the monitor and it looks kinda cool and retro. My monitor sits very low, unfortunately. The Akai also has an arpeggiator, which I've used...once. ;)
Maybe we should start a separate Axiom thread 'cause I can't get very deep with this thing. I've had it for going on two years now and the Enigma editor is still...umm...ahh...and Enigma to me. I can't make heads or tails of the thing and how to use to adjust things like the curve on the keys. I also find the pads to be waaaay too sensitive. They're on or off, which is particularly annoying when you're trying to use them with something like the Reason Drums ReFill and NN-XT -- there are so many levels to those samples and I can only seem to trigger three tops with the pads.

[LSchefman]

>>and Enigma to me. I can't make heads or tails of the thing and how to use to adjust things like the curve on the keys. I also find the pads to be waaaay too sensitive. They're on or off, which is particularly annoying when you're trying to use them with something like the Reason Drums ReFill and NN-XT -- there are so many levels to those samples and I can only seem to trigger three tops with the pads.<<

It's very simple to program the velocity curve. But it's easier from the keyboard, Enigma sucks as software. Don't bother with Enigma, it makes everything ten times more complicated. I'm going to talk about the 61 and 49 key versions of the Axiom, as the 25 is different to program.

Let's start with the PADS. For the PADs, do this. I'm quoting the manual:

"There are nine velocity response curves and three fixed curves. (note from Les: You probably don't want a fixed curve)

To change the velocity curve for the pads:
49- and 61-note versions:
< Press the Bank LSB and Bank MSB buttons together to access the Pad Curve setting.
< The LCD will show the currently selected pad curve. Proceeded by a ‘C’ if a curve is selected, or ‘F’ if a fixed velocity* is selected.
< Enter the new curve number using the numeric keypad or use the -/+ keys to step through the options."

If your pads aren't responding, you might have accidentally locked the velocity!

"The Velocity Lock (Vel. Lock) feature allows you to immediately turn off the response curve of the pads, and lock them to a set velocity. You can assign a different Lock velocity to each pad individually.

To turn Vel. Lock mode on and off for Axiom 49 or 61, press the Bank LSB and Glob Chan buttons together. The display will show “Loc” if you turn Vel Lock on. Please note that the Vel. Lock feature only applies to pads set up as trigger pads. If a pad is assigned as a pressure pad, the Vel. Lock function has no affect. The velocities that are locked by this function are set using the Data 2 and Data 3 parameters for each pad. Setting the Vel. Lock parameters as follows: 49- and 61-note versions: < Select the pad for programming as explained in section 2.4.2.
< Ensure the pad is set up as a note trigger pad as described in section 3.5.1.
< Press the Data 3 button. Enter the fixed ON velocity.
< Press the Data 2 button. Enter the fixed OFF velocity.

Now let's do the curves for the KEYS, here's how, from the manual:

"To change the velocity curve: 49- and 61-note versions:
< Locate the label Vel Curve. Press the two buttons above this label.
< The LCD will show the currently selected velocity curve, preceded by a ‘C’ if a curve is selected, or ‘F’ if a fixed velocity is selected.
< Enter the new curve number using the numeric keypad or use the -/+ keys to select a different curve.

Really, this is so easy, I was able to do it without tearing my hair out like I usually have to with midi gear. ;) I'm quoting the keyboard manual simply because I couldn't make it any simpler in my own words.

But when I tried using Enigma? A Mess. Plus I discovered Enigma doesn't like it when you use a USB hub instead of a direct connection. I finally gave up on it.