What are your favorite Virtual Instruments?

[TheLP]

Figured I'd get this forum kicked off considering I'm a big fan of VIs. So lets here what everyone uses. This is a good way to learn about different kinds of VIs.

Anyway some of mine include:

FM7
B4
Reason
Garritan Big Band
Absynth
Sampletank
Xpand! (Well, when I recieve it tomorrow)

I need to start adding more to my arsenal.

[filosofem]

Moog Modular V The presets are very modern sounding, but the sole purpose of my investment is that it's fully programmable.





filosofem

[aliengroover]

Guess I'm batting second. (edit-haha, or rather a close third, lol)

I'm still basically a hardware guy, but I'm really digging:

ST2XL (a staple to me)
Reason
MrRay (both the 73 and 22)
Guru
Xpand! (did a track with it a couple of hours ago...I'm liking it and already seeing a place for it)

That's it for now. I'm actually looking into adding a softsampler, and I'm leaning towards the Emulator X2. And maybe either SonikSynth2 or Philharmonik (or both) to compliment ST.
Peace

[Jerry K.]

I love Sample Tank and BFD and I don't know how I ever got along without them but I just got NI Bandstand. It sounds great and works great in PT or as a GM player. It fills a void that I needed filled!

[TheLP]

Guess I'm batting second. (edit-haha, or rather a close third, lol)

I'm still basically a hardware guy, but I'm really digging:

ST2XL (a staple to me)
Reason
MrRay (both the 73 and 22)
Guru
Xpand! (did a track with it a couple of hours ago...I'm liking it and already seeing a place for it)

That's it for now. I'm actually looking into adding a softsampler, and I'm leaning towards the Emulator X2. And maybe either SonikSynth2 or Philharmonik (or both) to compliment ST.
Peace




Hmm how are the acoustic pianos? I should be getting mine around 3 tomorrow, very excited to try it out. And I'm eager to try out the Philharmoik.

[aliengroover]

Hmm how are the acoustic pianos? I should be getting mine around 3 tomorrow, very excited to try it out. And I'm eager to try out the Philharmoik.



Eh, they're okay. I wouldn't consider them for any critical work. I'd equate them, and really the entire soundset in general, to something like the classic Triton "sound", in that it's very clean and bright. While I didn't a/b the pianos with the Triton's, I'd say Xpand's are better, though. There's not a whole lot of variety with the acoustic sounds, as alot that is provided is basically to serve as "building blocks" to your own pathes.

Again, overall, I really like it. IMHO, it's worth way more than the $23 I paid for shipping, but if you're looking for this to be a solid source of "traditional" sounds, you may be disappointed.
Peace

[TheLP]

Hmm how are the acoustic pianos? I should be getting mine around 3 tomorrow, very excited to try it out. And I'm eager to try out the Philharmoik.



Eh, they're okay. I wouldn't consider them for any critical work. I'd equate them, and really the entire soundset in general, to something like the classic Triton "sound", in that it's very clean and bright. While I didn't a/b the pianos with the Triton's, I'd say Xpand's are better, though. There's not a whole lot of variety with the acoustic sounds, as alot that is provided is basically to serve as "building blocks" to your own pathes.

Again, overall, I really like it. IMHO, it's worth way more than the $23 I paid for shipping, but if you're looking for this to be a solid source of "traditional" sounds, you may be disappointed.
Peace




Well I just got it, but I'm not gonna install it for a little bit as eager as I am. But I see what you're saying, and this is just another piece to add to the library, I wasn't really thinking this was gonna be anything that would be the highest in quality in regards to pianos and stuff. But thanks for the information .

[GW]

Reason 3.0 - most "bang for the bucks"/sync's better then most/costumer support/versatility... The only downside to it is that some sounds are really not up to par with the best.

Best Piano: Ivory 1.52 Funniest Bass: Broomstick Bass Most curious at right now: Independence by Yellow Tools Worst buy: GPO Would like to get to work with Pro Tools: Band-in-a-Box Most in need of upgrades: ALL NI-products!

[TelosHedge]

i love BFD. i will love it even more when fxpansion comes out with the PT7 optimized version updates in the next couple of weeks...

i also picked up guitar rig 2, and have been playing with that. the sounds are pretty wild, and they're putting out a lot more clarity then most other direct/modeling options i've tried - but now it seems i've lost all the bottom out of my signals.

has anybody used GR2, and liked? disliked? i'd love your thoughts.

[EGS]

I like Reason 3. The factory sounds are good / tons of third party sounds / the combinator is cool / CPU efficient / mature software / multichannel rewire to PT / really stable on Mac and Win.

[Bentley Ferrari]

In no meaningful order:

Symptohm Mehlohman by Ohmforce

Minimonsta, Imposcar, Oddity and M Tron by GForce (M-Audio)

From Native Instruments:
Reaktor (the user library is a musical "Garden of Eden"--you can literally have any VI you want...very few "bad apples.")
Kontakt
B4
Pro53
Absynth

Melodyne by Celemony (not technically a "VI" I suppose, but I often use it as one)

DrumCore by Submersible

From Cycling 74:
Pluggo
Mode

I should probably stop. There are a good many others I love and use often, but my list is already approaching the point of being too long to be meaningful.

Mike Colucci

[MDog]

Best sounding VIs to my ear:

Virus Indigo
Reason

Virus is an "analog" synth, and I use Reason for the NNXT sampler.

And also, while not an instrument, it deserves an honorable mention:

FXpansion VST2RTAS version 2

[DiamondDawg]

The synths I'm using most are Reaktor and Aurora - they're both deep enough that I don't find myself needing anything else (except some sort of direct brain dump thing for TDM - I could go for that sort of thing I also do like the stuff from Cycling'74, but my pea-brain gets lost in space sometimes with it all.

[mrtunes]

Sampletank 2 and Reason have served me very well for the past few years. The thing I love most about Reason is how you keep learning new things about it... the CV patching is pretty much endless, it's almost like a Video Game that never ends to me. Sometimes i'll lie in bed and think "ah the Matrix can go there and make this filter do a weird gating effect" or something you know?

A lot of people around the boards rave about Reaktor and I feel like Reason is much more accessible for the average composer whose fairly synth savvy. Reaktor's just way too much for me.

Oh yeah and I have to say it was a good idea to create a V.I. forum here cause before the only board I read was the Pro Tools LE Windows forum and wasn't interacting enough with the other users out there on HD or Mac, so this is a cool idea.

[lwilliam]

Would like to get to work with Pro Tools: Band-in-a-Box



..and I thought I was the only one who used BIAB on occasion

Does Guitar Rig 2 count as a VI? I just bought it and am loving it.

Other than that, Reason and Stylus RMX.

[darrenriley]

Sampletank has just become a favourite, with some excellent sounds. I love the Arturia CS-80V and use that quite a lot but the one thing that I can't live without has to be BFD and the XFL Expansion. I'm mainly a rock and pop musician and this is perfect for the stuff I record. I've also been recording some country tracks and it's great for that too, even more so.

It's eating up my CPU and RAM like a very hungry monster but it's worth it!

[bassbuddy]

Battery 2
Reason 3
EWZG Intakt -NI
EWZG Kompact -NI
PS03 -DrumsPercs
PS05 - Synths
EWQL Platinum Symphonic Library

I use all these VI's on a regular basis. The EWQL Platinum Library is stunning...!!! As of late, I have been studying Reason in producing electronic music, and I am loving the Matrix Pattern Sequencer + Redrum.

Best,

Kenny

[kv331]

Has anyone here heard the name SynthMaster yet? Probably not, but you will in a couple of weeks
It's a new RTAS/VST/DXi/Standalone soft synth + fx plugin for Windows that has many features, and will have a FREE version that is fully functional except polyphony/instance count limitations.

If you'd like to see SynthMaster in action, here's a tutorial video:

http://www.kv331audio.com/synthmaster/samples/synthmastertutorial1.wmv

If any of you would like to be a BETA TESTER, please e-mail me at:
bulent AT kv331audio.com

If you're wondering what it is capable of, here's the feature set:

1. Superior synthesis engine with bandlimited waveforms. Support for Additive, Subtractive, AM/FM/PM/PWM/Wavehaping/Osc Sync Synthesis.

2. 3 Additive Oscillators each having 8 separate waveforms (or partials so to speak), volume and frequency envelopes. Osc 2/3 frequency can be hard synced to Osc 1.

3. 3 Multimode filters that can be connected in split,parallel, series configurations.

4. 4 modulators that can modulate (PM/FM) each other,or osc1/2/3 (volume, phase/frequency), filter1/2/3 (gain,cutoff,reso,env amt)

5. 16 step arpeggiator with customizable step volumes/lengths/deltas. The number of steps for the arpeggiator is user selectable, so it possible to create rhytims in different time signatures like 9/8, 5/8, 7/8, etc...

6. 16 band analog modelled vocoder.

7. 2 32 step patterns that can be used to generate sequences/rhytims. The number of steps for each pattern is user selectable, so it possible to create rhytims in different time signatures like 9/8, 5/8, 7/8, etc...

8. Support for saving preset sections (ex: Arpeggiator, Chorus, Reverb, EQ, Vocoder, etc etc...) as "partial" presets. By combining these "partial" presets you can create complex presets easily.

9. Intelligent editing features. Right click on any preset section, copy, paste, reset, load, save presets for that area only. SynthMaster comes with about 400 partial presets, so by combining those you can create an infinite number of presets.

10. Mouse wheel support: Change parameter values using the mouse wheel.

11. Support for linking upto 16 parameters to a MIDI controller. Midi Links settings can be saved separately to be used globally.

12. Support for Microtuning. Tuning settings can be saved separately to be used globally.

13. Support for using your mouse as a MIDI CC generator. By default, x coordinate modulates filter 1 cutoff, y coordinate modulates filter 1 resonance. By clicking the middle mouse button, you can activate/deactivate the MIDI CC generation.

14. Support for using shortcut keys to generate Midi messages (Standalone version only)

15. Sidechain (audio input) support. The sidechain signal can be used to generate MIDI CC messages or to modulate oscillator/filter/modulator parameters as well.

16. By setting Synth->SideChain\Always On parameter to "On" SynthMaster can be used as an FX Processor, so you can apply EQ, Chorus, REverb, Tremolo an audio track, or use the standalone version of SynthMaster as a real-time effects processor.

17. Easy Parameters: SynthMaster comes with 8 easy parameters, each of which can be assigned to upto 12 parameters. Easy parameter settings can be saved separately to be used globally.

Bulent Biyikoglu
President, KV331 Audio LLC

[chrisk23]

1)Arturia stuff rocks my world--the CS-80,MiniMoog,MoogModular, and the ARP 2600 are all top notch synths

2)i also like the z3ta by cakewalk--killer interface and some of the best presets (if you're into presets)

3)my sampler of choice is NI's Kontakt--the ability to import any type of file is a plus & a time saver

4)very underated are the VSTi's by Synapse Audio--the Hydra in paticualr--cheap as heck ($60) and just as many features as vst's costing triple

5)probably my favorite of the bunch is Spectrasonic's Trilogy bass module--massive 3Gig sound library and incredible preformance features

6)i have been using FXpansion's Guru more and more lately as a standalone sampler/sequencer--can't beat the price

[Evil Jack]

MOTU MX4...my favourite by far. Please check it out

CLICKY (http://www.motu.com/products/software/mx4/whatsnew.html)

[TheLP]

MOTU MX4...my favourite by far. Please check it out

CLICKY (http://www.motu.com/products/software/mx4/whatsnew.html)




Looks very nice and promising.

Well I recently upgraded to the full version of Reason and I must say, it's fantastic. I never upgraded to the full version before because I thought it it was decent at best (and the adapted version really is just decent). I can see myself definitely using it a lot more than PT. For now, at least.