MIDI MIDI MIDI

johnnylakes

So,
I am finally taking the plunge and entering the world of MIDI. I have NO experience with MIDI !! I intend to use the M Audio Axiom Pro 49 as a controller/keyboard, in Cubase 5, and need some 'sounds' (man).. Can anyone recommend some good VI packs etc ?? What are yall using???

Neurojazz

johnnylakes wrote: »

So,
I am finally taking the plunge and entering the world of MIDI. I have NO experience with MIDI !! I intend to use the M Audio Axiom Pro 49 as a controller/keyboard, in Cubase 5, and need some 'sounds' (man).. Can anyone recommend some good VI packs etc ?? What are yall using???

What Genre of sounds are you after?

PMI

PC or Mac as some only run on one of the platforms

johnnylakes

Hey lads..
I am on a PC..(XP) . Just looking for sound decent drums maybe,strings and piano I guess...nothing too fancy like! Don't really know as regards genre.. It's more to get a feel for the whole process.. I guess a decent paino would be top o da list as I have drumkit/guitars etc etc.

Thanks

MilanPan!c

johnnylakes wrote: »

Hey lads..
I am on a PC..(XP) . Just looking for sound decent drums maybe,strings and piano I guess...nothing too fancy like! Don't really know as regards genre.. It's more to get a feel for the whole process.. I guess a decent paino would be top o da list as I have drumkit/guitars etc etc.

Thanks

pianos are a bit hard...

If you're talking about getting good piano samples, then the best bang for the buck IMO is gonna be something like this:

http://www.thomann.de/gb/native_instruments_alicias_keys.htm

Now, she claims to have recorded her entire last album with it:

http://www.synthtopia.com/content/2010/03/03/native-instruments-alicias-keys-virtual-yamaha-c3-grand-piano/

Here's a video review:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w04qwgcqB8g

For e100 (or cheaper if you poke around) it's amazing!

TelePaul

I'm kinda in the same boat as yourself man. Messed around with Midi with varying degrees of success, but have en e-kit now and a 49 key midi controller (also m-audio). I'm wondering whether it's better to go 'best of breed' with stand alone orchestras, keys and synths or whether it'd be better to go down the Kontakt 6 or Reason route. Really not sure.

alan kelly

Am no midi genius but i have the kore 2 and komplete 6 packs....

As far as samples excluding drums that pretty much all i will ever need(until my next paycheck ) From guitars to bass to keys and violins along with unusual soundscapes its all there.

Although its hard to advise anyone on a product because it might not be to everyones taste.... Maybe just try the demos..

MilanPan!c

TelePaul wrote: »

I'm kinda in the same boat as yourself man. Messed around with Midi with varying degrees of success, but have en e-kit now and a 49 key midi controller (also m-audio). I'm wondering whether it's better to go 'best of breed' with stand alone orchestras, keys and synths or whether it'd be better to go down the Kontakt 6 or Reason route. Really not sure.

The thing is, if you plan on making ANY of these sounds ^^^ dominant in a mix they will sound totally fake unless you specialise (IMO IMO IMO) ...

Even some fairly expensive stuff ain't great... and some really amazing stuff (like SD2 or IMO IMO IMO the AR drums) sound amazing, but ONLY if you do a lot of work to make them sound real-ish.

There's NO sampled orchestral stuff that'll suddenly make you sound like Shostakovich (for example) and most drum samples are lacking in some way, so you'll need two or three products to really nail a fantastic sounding track.

BUT!

The better the sample set, the easier it is... that's just reality.

E.g., if you get the AK Piano, it would be pretty damn simple to make it sound ENOUGH like a real piano as to be unnoticeable to 99% of people, but 1% is gonna know, no matter what you do.

(Of course, there's a LOT of people that think I'M a real drummer and others that think REAL strings are totally fake, because of weird or "too sterile" recordings... it's a odd time to be a musician.)

Get the best you can afford though, that's my advice... specialise and take your time... there's no rush..

Rockshamrover

[QUOTE
Get the best you can afford though, that's my advice... specialise and take your time... there's no rush..[/QUOTE]

Sound advice. I recently got this for piano http://www.acousticsamples.net/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=3&products_id=21

As the world and his mother will all be using AK in next to no time.

The piano sounds I'd been using from Logic were pretty bad in fairness. This thing is incredible though. Check out the vids on their site.

ebaysellerrob

Hi get some stuff like komplete,omnisphere or machine oh and trillian is good for bass

slavedave

A few tips from experience:
Think ahead when starting out - look at a platform that has the potential to "grow" with you as you progress. Kontakt, for example, is unlikely to disappear in the near future and has multigigabyte libraries that you can pick and choose from. Not cheap to buy at first though.
If you are clear about what type of music you are going to make, hunt the fora / sign up & post questions etc on music genre specific sites (there are sites for anything and everything and someone has already made the mistakes that you are going to want to avoid).
I bought a lot of VSti's for my home studio thinking I was getting loads of sounds for next to nothing but ended up never using 60% of the sounds - so listen to the previous posters who advise to go for good stuff in the first place.
There are nearly always special offers for products on the web somewhere. I got Superior Drummer 2 for 99 dollars! IK multimedia have a sweet deal on their libraries at the mo - buy one get 3 free (I already have Sampletank and Sonik Synth from the collection and they are good "bread and butter" products to get ideas down quickly. They include Philharmonik which is an orchestral plug-in which isn't too bad actually). AAS recently put out Ultra analogue for just 10 dollars download - it is usually 20 times this price!
Trial demo products if they have them- you may find that one manufacturer's work system suits your own whereas a competitor product may frustrate you and ......you end up not using it. it als means that you can see if it runs well on your own spec system.
There are free vstis out there that are not half bad - google is your friend. Some pop up on well known production tracks!
Your sequencer of choice (cubase?) has virtual instruments. Try them out and try to see what you don't and do like - and then seek out a third party product that fills in the gaps or builds on the bits you like.
Regarding Pianos - it is a very person-specific subject. Some people will go to the grave defending one against another. Clarify in your mind what you are visualising it to do and then listen to the audio samples of each one, at the same volume preferably - remembering that the audio is usually poor quality compared to the actual product when you use it in your DAW at higher bit-rates etc (Time and Space have loads of demo tunes on their site of differet piano libraries).
Ivory, Moddartt truepianos, PMI Bosendorfer, Garritan Authorised Steinway (which I have) etc etc - the world is your oyster but some need huge amounts of hard-drive space for the samples.
BFD, SD2, Drumagog, Epik Drums, Addictive Drums, Ocean Way Drums etc etc are all great libraries. I use SD2 and OWD and really like them. BFD 2 has a demo that I have tried and it sounds great (as does AD - which is more processed but immediately satisfying to play with edrums). Add-on paks for most of the above can be bought at a later date.
All the best with your endeavours - it is all about making music in the end. This can get lost when you trawl through endless presets looking for "that" sound though. It can be a distraction from the good stuff!

johnnylakes

Thanks for all the replies guys..much appreciated.
Food for thought