Banjo and Mandolin - 2nd Attempt to Post This

Totally agree!  

Join us down on the software forum
http://forum.cakewalk.com/tm.aspx?m=2827913
 Anyway these are great, highly recommended.

JClosed, I totally understand.  I recently bit the bullet and upgraded to the full Kontakt player and it opened up a world of affordable (and sometimes free) samples.  (By the way, on NI's US site, Kontakt is $399 USD, not 399 Euros.  Still expensive, but a bit better at the current exchange rate. )

I guess the choice is pay for more expensive products that use the free player (or their own players), or pay one time for Kontakt and then have access to the lower-priced options.  People's situations and needs are different.

For me, I acutally did not need most of the bundled content that comes with Kontakt because I had other soft synths/VIs; however, I use some of the free content and many people on this forum swear by it.  You could make great records with nothing but the free Kontakt content if you had no other soft synths.

Anyway, some of the smaller companies (like Bolder Sounds and Noisefirm) are making great stuff if and when you decide to go with the full Kontakt.  And both of these companies offer great support.  Not sure how they afford it.

If you do make this choice at some point, feel free to send me a PM if you want me to share anything I learned along the way.  (I'm not that smart, but sometimes I learn a few things from my dumb mistakes!)

Thanks Konrad, will definitely check these out.

Konrad, I might look at these myself. Is what you describe as Banjo VI equivalent to Bluegrass Banjo on the Bolder Sounds website?

Cheers

Garry Kiosk

Hey, Garry.  I am talking about the Mandolin and Banjo you see at the top of the Boldersounds.net website: Pure Mandolin and Bluegrass Banjo.  I might have caused a little confusion accidentally.  When you buy Bluegrass Banjo, you get four different things you can load into Kontakt (plus some loops) included in the price:

1.  "Normal Banjo" (Bolder calls this "Strings") which can play any notes, rolls, or licks you program in MIDI.  This may be all you need

2. A VI that is specifically created to play rolls and licks that are triggered with a single note.  For example, you can put a whole note in the staff and the instrument will play whichever roll or lick you have selected.  This is in case you don't want to program your own, or if you are in a hurry.  I found this function just a tad confusing but the online video explains it perfectly.

3.  A VI that specifically plays chords.  This isn't for strumming, but to give you super-relastic chords to add to your sequence, for endings, etc.  Since I have played banjo, I may not need this much, but it is handy because it plays the chords in the right inversion and voicing which might be challenging for a non-player.

4.  An instrument that lets you play the banjo using your MIDI guitar.  I will never use this but it is cool.
 
www.boldersounds.net
My apologies to Bolder if I am not explaining this in the proper terms, but hopefully it will make sense to you guys.  Considering the depth of programming and the options for Bluegrass Banjo, I am quite surprised by the price.
 

konradh


Hey, Garry.  I am talking about the Mandolin and Banjo you see at the top of the Boldersounds.net website: Pure Mandolin and Bluegrass Banjo.  I might have caused a little confusion accidentally.  When you buy Bluegrass Banjo, you get four different things you can load into Kontakt (plus some loops) included in the price:

1.  "Normal Banjo" (Bolder calls this "Strings") which can play any notes, rolls, or licks you program in MIDI.  This may be all you need

2. A VI that is specifically created to play rolls and licks that are triggered with a single note.  For example, you can put a whole note in the staff and the instrument will play whichever roll or lick you have selected.  This is in case you don't want to program your own, or if you are in a hurry.  I found this function just a tad confusing but the online video explains it perfectly.

3.  A VI that specifically plays chords.  This isn't for strumming, but to give you super-relastic chords to add to your sequence, for endings, etc.  Since I have played banjo, I may not need this much, but it is handy because it plays the chords in the right inversion and voicing which might be challenging for a non-player.

4.  An instrument that lets you play the banjo using your MIDI guitar.  I will never use this but it is cool.
 
www.boldersounds.net
My apologies to Bolder if I am not explaining this in the proper terms, but hopefully it will make sense to you guys.  Considering the depth of programming and the options for Bluegrass Banjo, I am quite surprised by the price.
 

Thanks for the info Konrad, if the finances permit when I check the account, I may dive in. Thanks for taking the trouble to go through the banjo set up...


Garry

Kontakt has become the "Swiss Army Knife" in the musical world. 


It seems that everyone is making compatible sample sets for it. 

As has been pointed out, some of them are very good quality sounds.