Synth Software

Bunky Markert · Post by **Bunky Markert** » 1 Feb 2007 4:54 pm

You guys give great advice. I'm in the midst of assembling a digital recording setup. I just bought a MIDI workstation/controller, an M-Audio Axiom 61, and now I need to get some synth software, for drums and eventually for keyboards. What are some good choices? I am using a laptop, an M-audio firewire 410 box and Sonar 4XL. What are the pros and cons with samples, loops, etc. I don't have to do this on the cheap, but I'd like decent quality without going nuts.

Dave Boothroyd · Post by **Dave Boothroyd** » 1 Feb 2007 11:54 pm

If you want to have the whole works on one program that will work perfectly along with Sonar, you should go for Propellerheads "Reason".
Most people (kids) use it as a quick way of producing loop-based dance tracks.
If you can work it properly and you know the parameters of hardware synths, you can do anything you can imagine.
Effectively you have a rack which you can populate with as many Synths, sequencers, drum machines, loop players, samplers, effects and mastering devices as your computer can cope with. I have scored full string arrangements on Reason.
The one thing it will not do is record audio- but your Sonar will do that and the two programs will connect via Rewire easily.
Cheers
Dave

Bob Martin · Post by **Bob Martin** » 2 Feb 2007 7:23 am

Hi Bunky, if you want something that is very easy and very quick to construct great drum tracks as well as super realistic give Toons EZdrummer a try.

It has a lot of professional type parameters like putting each drum on a different channel and adding bleed from other drum tracks. or you can just send it out stereo as you might sub group them.

The samples are in my opinion 7 to 8 out of 10 meaning that there are better drum samples out there but as a whole drum solution I'd give EZdrummer a 10.

If you are new to synths and drum samples you'll love this and if you're a pro you will still love it. It comes with many many midi drum patterns that you can hook up together like drum loops and they can be edited too.

The beauty over this instead of buying drum loops is that unless you buy loops that are separated into single drum patterns you don't have much control over the drum sounds individually.

Now there are some companies that are selling loops that are multi track loops meaning it's still loops but you can separate each instrument to it's own track. The down side to those loops is they are kind of expensive.

You can buy this complete package on line for 149.00 and never have to buy another drum sound as with the loops after a wile you get tired of hearing the same old loops on every project.

Well anyway that's at least a way to look at things and maybe get started good luck. The funny thing is I don't use EZdrummer

I use Tascam Giga Sampler and I have so much money invested in it now I'll just keep using it.

Bob

Geoff Barnes · Post by **Geoff Barnes** » 2 Feb 2007 2:43 pm

personally, I'm a BFD fan for drum sounds... no replacement for the real thing of course... but for getting a song up to a point where you can present it, BFD is great.
Modular in that you can change the individual drums around...top and bottom mikes on the snare, in and out mikes on the kick... overhead mikes, room mikes, PFM mikes on the floor...al movable to get your ambient mikes sounding the way you want... Each drum's damping can be tweaked...Cymbal chokes... bleed... I have fooled the odd drummer with this thing..... umm, drums are dry(ish), so you can mix 'em.... plenty of MIDI grooves that have been played rather than programmed, so you can drop them into Sonar and move, add or erase beats... www.fxexpansion.com (from memory..am at home writing this)
Sonar has a few synth/keyboard modules that ship with the software... I bought Dimension pro from them, and like it... but I also have a lot of hardware keyboards, (because I'm a grumpy old fart and like my Keyboards with lots of plastic and shiny, blinking lights)

Bob Martin · Post by **Bob Martin** » 3 Feb 2007 2:37 am

Bunky, you can't go wrong with Geoff's advice as well. BFD is a mighty fine product that I have very little experience with but I have a pal that uses them in his studio and they sound absolutely great.

Bob

Gary Shepherd · Post by **Gary Shepherd** » 4 Feb 2007 9:01 am

+1 for EZDrummer. It's, um, easy. And it sounds good and is very simple to get different sounds from. You'll like it. Seems like it's less than $200. It comes with built-in MIDI patterns so you COULD do all your drumming with no programming at all.

For keyboards, there are lots of choices. There's a free Steinway Grand Piano soundfont somewhere on the Internet. You could download that one. And there's a free SFZ soundfont player that you can play it with.

You might want to look into V-Sampler too. It will load most of the pro sample formats including soundfont, GIGA, AKAI, etc. You could use it for any sounds you wanted.

Native Instruments Battery also comes to mind for drums. It's a dedicated drum sampler. You can create your own drum kits from samples that you buy, download for free, create yourself, whatever. Each pad (each drum piece) has its own EQ, compressor limiter, pitch, FX, etc controls. Very versatile. And Version 3 just came out recently so Version 2 should be a steal on eBay. If you qualify for the academic version, you can get it for a little over $100.

Bunky Markert · Post by **Bunky Markert** » 4 Feb 2007 2:25 pm

Man, that's a pile of good info. I will definitely check these suggestions out. Thanks guys!

Gary Shepherd · Post by **Gary Shepherd** » 11 Feb 2007 10:51 am

VSampler will read most of the important file formats like .sf2 and .gig. You COULD use it for drums AND all of the others like bass, pianos, guitars, strings, etc.