Virtual Instruments - Package recommendations

[kemccarthy1]

Hey all, I've been using DP for some time but strictly to only record and mix audio until now. However the time has come that I need to get up and close with VIs. I don't have much, in fact hardly any, experience with them but am amazed at what I'm seeing available.
Any good directions to go in, recos on manufacturers, packages, what to look for, etc, specifically to work well with DP? My signature indicates what I'm working with. TIA!

[mikehalloran]

No need to go overboard at first, probably. Packages from NI (Komplete) or IK (Sampletank) will get you started with a good variety of useful sounds. No one stops at one and, once you've begun, there will be email offers for discounts on upgrades and add ons.

[kemccarthy1]

No need to go overboard at first, probably. Packages from NI (Komplete) or IK (Sampletank) will get you started with a good variety of useful sounds. No one stops at one and, once you've begun, there will be email offers for discounts on upgrades and add ons.

Thanks! I've been checking out Komplete - that's the Kontakt company, right? Native Instruments? Looks like Komplete Select is a good place to start.

[apanacci]

I really Like Expand II from AIR. Great VI to get started. It has everything and you can get it cheeeeep

[mikehalloran]

No need to go overboard at first, probably. Packages from NI (Komplete) or IK (Sampletank) will get you started with a good variety of useful sounds. No one stops at one and, once you've begun, there will be email offers for discounts on upgrades and add ons.

Thanks! I've been checking out Komplete - that's the Kontakt company, right? Native Instruments? Looks like Komplete Select is a good place to start.

Komplete Select includes the free version of Kontakt only. I don’t consider that a very good deal but, as mentioned earlier, there will be upgrade offers.

[kemccarthy1]

Komplete Select includes the free version of Kontakt only. I don’t consider that a very good deal but, as mentioned earlier, there will be upgrade offers.

This is all pretty new to me, very confusing exactly what is what with Kontakt and Komplete. I like what I've heard of theirs so far. Basically I'm looking for something to get started with within DP but not sure what exactly I should buy. I put in a request to my guy at Sweetwater, he knows what I have and I've made plain what I'm looking for. Hopefully he can narrow it down for me. Any thoughts on your end?

[cuttime]

I would just start with the NI full Kontakt package. The included samples are completely serviceable, although nothing to write home about. The main advantage is that you will have access to the de facto sample standard for just about all VI libraries, some free and great, and many paid and not so great. All of them require the full Kontakt package. The free Kontakt Player will play these libraries too, but only for fifteen minutes with no saves. Perhaps you might just want to get your feet wet with the Kontakt Player and see where you can go from there. It couldn't hurt.

[Rusty Shackleford]

+1 for NI Komplete. Omnisphere is another staple worth investing in early.

[HCMarkus]

+1 for NI Komplete. Omnisphere is another staple worth investing in early.

Make that another +1 for both.

Komplete, especially Ultimate, has tons of bread & butter stuff, plus enough in the esoteric department to keep you busy for a long, long time. As suggested by Mike, if you can wait until the inevitable sale, which will take place just before NI releases the next version of Komplete, you can snag a very good deal.

Omnisphere is less well-rounded, but there is so much great stuff there that I use it on almost every project.

[midilance]

+1 Komplete is amazing for the price.

[mhschmieder]

Hah, I thought this was another Vienna Instruments question, until I saw some of the responses.

Do you want sample library recommendations, or standalone synthesizer plug-in recs (including modeled stuff like Sample Modeling winds/strings)?

General MIDI oriented coverage of "all basic instrument groups", mostly acoustic instruments, vintage keys, synths, world instruments, etc.?

Are you interested in learning how to modify sounds, whether acoustic samples or synthesizer patches or what have you? That could affect your preference for Kontakt vs. HALion vs. Falcon vs. ENGINE vs. the free UVI player, e.g.

[kemccarthy1]

Hah, I thought this was another Vienna Instruments question, until I saw some of the responses.

Do you want sample library recommendations, or standalone synthesizer plug-in recs (including modeled stuff like Sample Modeling winds/strings)?

General MIDI oriented coverage of "all basic instrument groups", mostly acoustic instruments, vintage keys, synths, world instruments, etc.?

Are you interested in learning how to modify sounds, whether acoustic samples or synthesizer patches or what have you? That could affect your preference for Kontakt vs. HALion vs. Falcon vs. ENGINE vs. the free UVI player, e.g.

For now I'm mostly interested in acoustic samples of keyboards - piano, organ, etc. - in a package that will play nice with DP, but will in all probablity branch out from there. Not interested (yet) in modifying sounds at all but again I'm just on the first leg of this new journey.

Has anyone experience with either Spectrasonics or Arturia at all? They each look like an amazing library of keyboards.

[mikehalloran]

Once again, you might want to look at SampleTank 3. IK has just dropped the price to $199.
http://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/sampletank3/

UVI has many keyboard packages.
https://www.uvi.net

AudioDeluxe has either for 15% off — you have to create an account to see the discount.


The paid version of Kontakt is required for many 3rd party libraries. Quite a few are inexpensive.

[Rick Cornish]

+1 for NI Komplete. Omnisphere is another staple worth investing in early.

+1 on both. Komplete (the”Ultimate” version is unnecessary) has a lot of good VIs as well as effect plugins. Once you have the full version of Kontakt (part of Komplete—all these “K” names are confusing), it opens up a whole world of third party stuff from Spitfire, Soniccouture, etc., etc. As for Omnisphere, I use it more than anything else for ANY synth sound, so that’s one I couldn’t live without. There are also a lot of great third-party patch libraries for Omni (Plugin Guru and The Unfinished) that add great sounds for not a lot of dough (if you need more that the 10,000 patches it ships with, that is).

[kemccarthy1]

+1 for NI Komplete. Omnisphere is another staple worth investing in early.

+1 on both. Komplete (the”Ultimate” version is unnecessary) has a lot of good VIs as well as effect plugins. Once you have the full version of Kontakt (part of Komplete—all these “K” names are confusing), it opens up a whole world of third party stuff from Spitfire, Soniccouture, etc., etc. As for Omnisphere, I use it more than anything else for ANY synth sound, so that’s one I couldn’t live without. There are also a lot of great third-party patch libraries for Omni (Plugin Guru and The Unfinished) that add great sounds for not a lot of dough (if you need more that the 10,000 patches it ships with, that is).

Thanks, Rick. This definitely looks worth checking out.