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Re: VSTi piano - or other laptop synth
On 26 feb 2007, at 03.18, aaron leese wrote:
> Here a tangentially related topic .....
>
> I need a good keyboard synth program .... because I have a midi
> controller (keyboard), and a rack mounted synth, but would like to
> sell the rack mounted equip and use just a laptop (save space).....
>
> Sampletank is good (but very expensive) ... I have been looking for
> alternatives, but with little luck. The only free ones I found
> (4front and MDA) are mediocre, and have some latency issues running
> with VSThost.
>
> Can anyone offer advice on this? I wouldn't mind spending a few
> hundred if I can get something that will replace my korg triton rack
Hi Aaron,
It's difficult to find an answer to such a broad question. Is it
"piano sound" you are looking for? Or is it "synth sound"? And if so,
what type of synth? You mention Sampletank, but that's a sampler;
meaning it may mimic many instruments but lack the dynamics and
envelope option you get with synths. And if you are looking for
something in software to replace a Korg Triton - that's not going to
be easy. The Triton is very versatile and has great built-in effects
that play a big part in its sound shaping capability.
Maybe you should simply buy a software sampler and sample the output
of your Triton (including effects and all) before you sell it? I've
done that to two of my analog synths using the excellent "synth patch
ripping" software AutoSampler from REdmatica. It runs on OSX but I
just noticed the other day that another company have now ripped off
that application to provide a Windows version. Speaking about
samplers I have heard a lot good about SampleTank. Myself I mainly
use the sampler ESX24, which is part of Logic, because of Logic's way
of globally handling micro tonal scales. I also own NI's Kontakt 2
that is maybe the best sampler if you look to what you can do with
it. Question is if you're ever going to do all that stuff that K2
offers to? (also NI's user license may be a problem if you work on
many machines - more than two - and need to move the sampler between
them). If you start with getting a software sampler you need to
expand the laptops RAM to the max and get a huge hard drive,
eventually an external firewire drive for all those samples.
A software synth that I personally like is Arturias Moog Modular 5.
It has a good sound (which can not be said about every other software
synth out there). Deep fat sound, good high end, musical sounding
with great filters. The downside IMO is that it had no way of tuning
it into fixed micro tonal scales. If you want the classic Moog sound,
the MMV is a good choice.
I also like the Cameleon 5000. It uses additive synthesis and is
capable of some unique sounds. Whenever I can't use Logic and its
built-in modeling synth Sculpture I go for C5k (Logic only runs on
Mac). What I like about C5k (as with all Logic's synths) is that it
can be set to all kinds of micro tonal scales. There are a lot of
demo tracks at the web site so you can hear how it sounds http://
www.camelaudio.com/
Synths and samplers that I have bought but and not use much, because
I don't like their quality of sound, are Reason (a complete
production environment) and Albino 3. Not saying they are bad, I just
don't like the way they sound.
Greetings from Sweden
Per Boysen
www.boysen.se (Swedish)
www.looproom.com (international)
http://tinyurl.com/2kek7h (latest music release)