VST with Banjo?

SampleTank has some Banjos in it's library but whether they are good or not is a matter of opinion.

On the Sample Tank 2.5 XT World Instruments Collection there are a few banjos that sound really good (one of the reasons I got it). It does however not have the different articulations of the Lyricaldistortion library.

nnonname


Thanks all,

Are both of those working okay on Sonar LE & Win7?

There should be no issues, however it would be useful to know if you are using 64 or 32 bit when answering such questions.
 
I am not sure whats included in LE. To use the Lyrical Distortion stuff you will need a VSTi sample player. If you want to use the SFZ format version The producer version of Cakewalk has it covered with Dimension Pro (the LE version will also work), Drop Zone and SFZ.  SFZ is a freebee so it may already be included with Sonar LE. If not you can get it here. http://www.cakewalk.com/support/project5/sfz.aspx  (Important note. you need SFZ, not SFZ+, that only plays SF2 sound font files so is no good in this case.)
 
You will certainly get more out of the Lyrical Distortion stuff using a high end sampler that supports key switching etc. It won't work in the free Kontakt player for sure. I am not sure if it will work in Independence Free, but I think it will, it is no where near as disabled as Kontakt player. In any case Independence Free is an excellent give away with some great features and sounds http://www.yellowtools.us/cp21/cms/index.php?id=842 so its worth getting in its own right.
 
The Lyrical Distortion Banjo comes in several formats so what ever way you choose to go in the future you will still be able to use it.
 
The way into Sampletank is discribed here.
http://www.ikmultimedia.com/xpansiontank/features/
 
The world pack will set you back $50, and you get the Sample Tank XT player thrown in. You get a lot of good, but not earth shattering, sounds for your money.
 

Band in a Box in it's real tracks has banjo's. In BB however, you can not tell it exactly what to play... it will compose a part for you that might or might not work.... just a background banjo part.... BB is good for that.

Thanks,

So then, if I go here:

http://www.lyricaldistortion.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=3_7&products_id=27

and buy the Sfz format version, that should work with either my Dropzone, or with the free sfz player available on Cakewalk's site, right?

Thanks again! 
 

nnonname


Thanks, my computer is 64 bit and the LE program I'm running has Dropzone, it came with it. I'm most interested in the Lyrical Distortion that you first spoke of. I don't know what SFZ is though, or Independence for that matter. Continue my education please.

If you buy the Lyrical distortion Banjo you will get a folder full of WAV files for the different string and fret positions etc.
 
You will also get files that map these in various VSTi sampler formats so you can play them back from a midi keyboard or midi track in Sonar.  You get the following formats Kontakt, Sfz, EXS, Independence, HALion, Reason, MachFive, Giga2.
 
You will need a player for one of these formats. As you have Dropzone this is probably the first thing to try as it will load SFZ files. The free SFZ player is another, simpler, one. I would have thought it would have been included in Sonar LE.
 
Independence is a high end sampler (similar to but not as fully featured as Kontakt), The Pro version it comes with a great library of sounds and a lot of effects and you get the ability to create your own sampled instruments. The free version is more limited and comes with a small but useful selection of instruments from the Pro library.
 
You can create your own instruments in the free version but you are limited to 24 samples. I do not know if this limitation applies to third party instruments, like the Lyrical Distortion stuff, if it does the banjo will not work properly in the free version.
 
Why try Independence Free as well? If it does work you will have access to a lot of features you won't get with Dropzone or SFZ such as key switches (key on the keyboard outside of the instruments range that change the sound (say from a full sustain to a mute) when you press them), You will also have option to use it's effects like compressors, reverbs, delays etc. Worst case scenario is it won't run the LD Banjo (so you go back to Dropzone), but you will still have a nice range of free, new sounds to play with and the experience of using a first class VSTi.