Posted
It might be helpful to Andre if we all post the virtual instruments, midi hardware, or sound modules we are using. also our degree of success with different methods,IAC, drones, plugins, shared racks etc and how they work for us.
it would also be helpful to other users, the methods we use.l
I've gotten used to certain methods, but would like to expand my palette.
Tue, 2013-07-02 - 22:28 Permalink
Hi mark great idea, so here goes....
Radical instruments spectralis : fantastic sounding hardware synth but difficult to use with a daw. Sound selection is by twiddling knobs on the synth. Only midi control is midi clock sync, note velocity, after touch and mod wheel. I tend to make up a sound and record a sequence to audio, then loose the sound and keep the static audio recording. Waiting for an os update which will improve its daw friendliness. Ths one connects via a midi cable. Have driven ths as a midi device direct from synfire and also using a midi drone driving the ableton external instrument (midi out, audio in device)
Access Virus ti : my main synth, 16 part multi timberal hardware synth. Comes with a vst and au pluggin so it looks and acts like a soft synth.does support sound selection va banks,etc but I have a library of 1000s of patches, so tend nt to use a device setup or sound select. Just use it as a bunch of private instruments with custom sounds. Connects via USB with virtual midi and audio cables (as part of the vst/au). This does work in a drone but you can only have one instance. Lately been experimenting with midi drones drones driving this.
Massive : my go to synth for bass sounds, a vst/au that has a great programmability. Does support bank and sound selects but tend to use it like the virus picking sounds from th library or creating new/derived patches as private instruments.
Ableton instruments : these are plugins but don't work in any host except ableton. Tend to use midi drones for these. Again don't use sound selections via synfire.
Reaktor instruments : I sometimes use these hosted in a drone.
Garritan personal orchestra : I did try this, running in a drone. However I found I couldn't get used to using the mod wheel to control volume. So now I've switched to ableton instruments.
General workflow
Tend to drag a load of drones into ableton, will then go to synfire and start thinking about the instruments. When I need a new one, I decide what to use then create a private one in synfire selecting midi drone or drone depending on what's supported. I then enter the category and name the sound, switch to ableton and load or program a patch.
When the song is nearing completion I will go tweak the sounds.
One thing that's a pain is if i start with au instruments then decide I want a midi drone I have to redo everything to switch between au to vst so I can get the midi out.
Well that's probably filled up the storage space in the forum. If this isn't useful, let me know and I'll remove it, r Andre feel free to remove it once you've gotten anything from it.
Wed, 2013-07-03 - 03:06 Permalink
I use a Yamaha Tyros 4, and Motif XS rack. I also use several plug-ins, real guitar, Pianoteq, Native Instruments (have a large assortment of libraries for it). IK multimedia Philharmonic, Rob Papen synths (sometimes).. Mostly I use the Midi hardware..
I work back/forth with Logic and Synfire Pro. I export the file as MIDI and load into each program.. If I start in SFP, and then load into Logic, it of course now becomes a 'linear file'. I sometimes will go back to SFP, generate a part, and then import that into Logic.. Sometimes I play something in Logic then static import in SFP, analyze, and alter.
Bashfully, I must say, I haven't tried Clones, (1st they can't use MIDI hardware)
I also use Tyros 4 part generators. I wish that SFP could also act as sync master, so I could drive the part generators directly in Tyros 4.
I also use Band in a Box to generate lead and solo lines sometimes. I sometimes take it's output and put into SFP.
Wed, 2013-07-03 - 09:50 Permalink
100% MIDI in Synfire.
Using LoopBE30, from SF to my DAW which is hosting my plugins via Vienna Ensemble Pro on 3 networked slaves, works great.
Tried clones and hosting in SF by it just can't handle that many plugins and I need way more advanced routing.
Control:
Yamaha weighted 88 Keys
Axium Pro 49 semi weighed keys
2 X Behringer BCR2000 for quick manual level control.
Libraries and plugs in frequent use (everything below is hooked up in SF and ready to go hosted on the slaves)
Kontakt:
Audiobro LA Scoring Strings.
ProjectSAM:
Symphobia (Mostly for "epic" type stufff, sym can be a little on the hard side for suttle things)
True Strike 1 & 2
Spitfire Albion I (Great for underplayed stuff, great library for not stepping all over a cue even though it's older, and Spitfire keeps supporting it with updates A+)
Cinesamples:
CineBrass Core+Pro
Cinewinds Core+Pro (There's even bagpipes for terrorizing your cats and neighboors)
Cineperc Core+Pro+Aux+Epic (A 1 gigabyte snaredrum? yes please :D )
Voxos (Choir with phrase building, very good)
Drums of War 1 & 2 ( You hear this library everywhere, so easy to drum up epic war stuff)
8DIO:
Adagio Violin
Adagio Cello
1928 Legacy Grand Piano (Best mood piano ever)
Requiem Professional (Choir library, latin phrases that can be played in chords with full legato, LOTR type stuff if easy with this library)
Epic Taiko Ensemble (Great taiko lib, but the reverb is baked in and can be hard to blend)
Epic Taiko Solo
Epic Framedrum Ensemble (Like the taiko lib, baked in reverb can be hard to blend)
Epic Framedrum Solo
SampleModelling: (Really expressive, but can take much fiddling)
French Horn Tuba
The Trombone
The Trumpet
Other:
Eduardo Tarilonte Desert Winds (Fantastic Armenian Duduk Library) Running on Best Service "Engine" player.
Wavearts Trackplug (10 band EQ, 2 comps, brickwall limiter and noisegate, almost no CPU hit)
Zebra2 (Only synth you ever need)
2C Aether Reverb
Spectrasonics Omnisphere & Trillian
Powercore MKII with Virus Unlimited, VSS Source Reverb, NonLIN Reverb.