Larry Wilson
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Newbie Needs SoftSynth advice
Have almost no experience with softsynths. Done only simple drum and bass parts. Do mostly country and soft rock. Ready to expand my capabilities. What synth do you guys recommend? Would like to use X1 and previous SONAR bundled if possible but don't mind investing in something that is: 1. intuitive/easy to learn; 2. Well documented/good tutorials 3. Versitile/many instruments; 4. lots of samples already bundled or less expensive to acquire. 5. Other criteria?
Also, while trying to insert synths about half of those listed are "failed to insert soft synth". What's happening here?
Thanks.
Larry Wilson X1 Producer Windows 7 Echo Layla 24/96
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Kalle Rantaaho
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Re:Newbie Needs SoftSynth advice
2012/07/21 13:19:54
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In X1 you have Dim Pro and Z3ta+2, don't you? They certainly are powerful and good and can keep you busy for months and months. If you want something third party, and you want sample based realism, something with relatively simple basic functions, but possibility to go really deep as you learn, I'd say it's Kontakt. It's the mother of samplers. To comment the failing soft synth insertions we'd need to know if you work in 32 or 64 bit environment, and confirm if you're really working with 96 kHz sampling rate. Some names of synths that don't load (as well as names of the ones that do load) would maybe help as well..
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Mystic38
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Re:Newbie Needs SoftSynth advice
2012/07/21 14:06:16
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Dim Pro is probably the most flexible for the style of music you make..comes with lots of ready to use presets and can easily be tweaked.. z3ta2 is a great synth but typically more electronic focussed.
i would not get carried away with lots of different synths... learning them and playing with them really gets in the way of making music... (i spend most of my time making sounds..lol)
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Larry Wilson
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Re:Newbie Needs SoftSynth advice
2012/07/21 16:12:49
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Thanks Guys.
Kalle,
I'm at 64 bit (in Preferences, at Audio Driver Bit Depth, "64 - bit Double Precision engine" is checked. The rest of error message I'm getting is "the synth may not be properly installed.
Mystic 38,
I'm with you on keeping it simple. DimPro looks like a good option. Unless great wisdom comes forth from someone else, that's the way I'll go. I see a lot of free and low cost tutorials for DimPro too.
Larry Wilson X1 Producer Windows 7 Echo Layla 24/96
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AT
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Re:Newbie Needs SoftSynth advice
2012/07/21 16:59:28
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Considering the genrés you are working in, a sampler (sample playback, really) is what you want. While NI's Kontack is probably the "standard" for sample playback w/ lots of libraries, you already have DimPro w/ Producer. Simple to learn and use; good, basic library w/ some good expansion kits if you need them. Use it and see if it doesn't fit the bill. For drums, there is session drummer, which I like for realistic drums, tho I mostly do more electronic stuff. You should also have amber piano, which is a good piano if DimPro doesn't float your boat for everything. You are pretty much already covered. If you then get the synth bug, everybody here will tell you there favorite for other types of music.
As for 64 bit engine - that is different than having a 64 bit software OS. The double precision engine just does the mixing math at a higher quality - I use it on my 32 bit computer. Make sure that your system is 64 since otherwise you can load in the wrong version of software.
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konradh
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Re:Newbie Needs SoftSynth advice
2012/07/21 17:10:39
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If you are doing Country and Soft Rock, by all means check out RealGuitar from MusicLab.com. There is no better product for strummed acoustic guitars (or lead acoustics, for that matter). If you buy this, PM me and I will send you some files to help you get started using it. No one has ever known that my acoustic guitar parts were not humans. MusicLab's RealStrat (Stratocaster) and RealLPC (Les Paul) are also awesome (and my favorite electric guitar virtual instruments), but there are some competitors out there. For Piano, I highly recommend Synthogy's Ivory II Grands. There are some other choices but I have not yet heard one I like better. In my opinion—and many will disagree—it is better to spend the money and buy one or two top-rated virtual instruments than to keep buying less expensive products hoping to find something good. (Not saying you would do that—just sharing my experience based on many wasted dollars.) Session Drummer 3 and SI-Bass (bundled with X1 Producer) + Ivory II and RealGuitar would give you a rhythm section good enough for any record. The SI-Electric Piano is decent, too. There are better bass products around, but SI-Bass sounds great for my needs, although it does not have the articulation choices of some libraries. I also am a heavy user of Vienna Symphonic Orchestra and Hollywood Strings but now you are talking about some serious money, and for most country and soft rock, you may not need this type of elaborate orchestration.
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konradh
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Re:Newbie Needs SoftSynth advice
2012/07/21 17:18:40
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See my response above, but mystic38 is right that Kontakt 5 gives you a huge library all in one place. I am so dependent on strummed acoustics and pianos that I could not live without RG and Ivory, but Kontakt is great. Note, however, that its reputation is as a sampler and sampler player, so the bundled content you get free with it ranges from fantastic to so-so depending on the particular sound. Nothing bad in it, though, for sure, and I believe you get a starter set of Vienna with it, if memory serves me. Once you have the full Kontakt player, you can buy lots of inexpensive but very good libraries that will not work with the free Kontakt player (e.g., Wavelore's Pedal Steel guitar, which I have and which is mind-blowing).
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Bristol_Jonesey
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Re:Newbie Needs SoftSynth advice
2012/07/21 21:18:11
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Also, while trying to insert synths about half of those listed are "failed to insert soft synth". What's happening here? Well, this has got me thinking - I think the only way forward on this one is to list your full system specs, OS, Sonar version etc, pc config.
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ampfixer
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Re:Newbie Needs SoftSynth advice
2012/07/22 00:53:27
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Larry. the synths that come with producer will do everything you need. Dim Pro, Rapture and Z3ta are all powerfull and cover tons of styles. The true piano amber is also great. If you don't want to invest a ton of time, stick with those. Pentagon, square 1 and others are 32 bit and can be problematic with a 64 bit install. I steer clear of all the 32 bit stuff and have virtually no problems now.
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skylightron
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Re:Newbie Needs SoftSynth advice
2012/07/22 01:10:53
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Guitarhacker
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Re:Newbie Needs SoftSynth advice
2012/07/22 09:07:28
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Larry....
I didn't see where you mentioned the real instruments you play... if any.... Piano? Guitar? Bass? Drums?
For country, you probably will be using more real sounding instruments than synths..... but some synths can obviously imitate the real ones quite well.
Since you have X1, you should also have the Cake Walk Sound center synth as well. I like and use the Ricko bass in that on quite a few of my tracks. The sound center also has some nice sounding piano samples for very little out of pocket. The Steinburg piano set is about $20 in the cake store an it works with Sound center. Has about 12 pianos in it IIRC. CSC also has some pads and strings that are pretty decent. Check of the things you have at your fingertips already. Then move on to the specialty synths if you need them.
Plus.... lots of people here play real pianos, guitars and drums and bass and it's pretty easy to talk some really talented people into working on a song project with you.
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bobguitkillerleft
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Re:Newbie Needs SoftSynth advice
2012/07/23 08:37:46
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konradh
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Re:Newbie Needs SoftSynth advice
2012/07/23 10:02:03
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When I got the "failed to insert soft synth" message, it was caused by one of two related things:
• I was trying to insert a 32-bit VI (synth) while running 64-bit.
• There were dlls for both the 32-bit and 64-bit versions and Cakewalk was finding the wrong thing.
The second problem is odd beause some manufacturers call their 32-bit and 64-bit dlls the same thing and install both files, one in the 32-bit folder and one in the 64. If Cakewalk finds the wrong one, you get a failure. You can fix this a couple of ways: 1-Save a copy of the original files somewhere, but rename or delete the version you don't want to use from the VST folder. 2-Mess around with Plug-In Manager to make sure Cakewalk searches in the right order. Someone else helped me with this and I do not recall exactly what we did.
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