Wich keyboard sounds ?

You can't go wrong w/ Arturia for synths. Top-notch stuff. I wouldn't be w/o their MiniMoog.

I do own NI's Vintage Organ. It is a nice one, but there are alternatives which are just as good. Retro Machine has been on my list for a while - it does pack many of the classic essentials.

Dimension Pro and Rapture are great but I wouldn't necessarily think of them for bread and butter sounds, even though there are a couple of expansions.

Native Instruments Vintage Organs are my "goto" organs.

I've not tried GSI's VB3, but I did have the free version at one time before buying Kontakt and Vintage.  I also tried a few Gigastudio compatible organs and a few other freebies.

Vintage was the best, IMO, out of those.

If you are able to stretch your budget Komplete 8 at $399 would be the best one stop solution. You get Vintage Organs, Vintage Keys, Retro Machines and several acoustic pianos. But thats just for starters, there is the whole Kontakt factory library with choirs, orchestral instruments, sampled synths etc,etc. 

Also included is Reaktor, Absynth, Massive and FM8, four very different and powerful synths.

It also opens up the possibility of using the many free and low cost Kontakt libraries and Reaktor ensembles, FM8 patch banks etc. that are out there.

Alternatively

For grand piano by my goto these days is SampleTekk's Black http://www.sampletekk.com/proddetail.php?prod=STDELIVER-039-KONT Normal price is $99, but their spring sale starts in a couple days so you should be able to pick it up for $50. Note this is the only SampleTekk piano that will work in the free Kontakt player.

Z3ta+ 2 is well worth looking at as is Rapture

Just wanted to put in my two cents--VB3 is like the best thing ever for organ sounds! I honestly don't see myself needing any other organ emulator plugin any time soon...

+1 for stretching the budget to Komplete. You get so many great organ sounds - Retro Machine is excellent, and the Scarbee Mark I, A-200 and Clavinet are superb. Plus there's Vintage Organs which includes the B-3, C-3 and M-3 among others. 

Not only that, but you also get a great big bag of top class instruments and effects like Reaktor, Kontakt, Prism, FM8, Absynth, Transient Master, the Traktor effects, Guitar Rig etc. The value is just out of this world. 

If you need a variety of sounds and can get a good upgrade price on Rapture and DimPro that would be the way I'd go.  Add a few "free"  packs (like francesco's) and you'll have your palate covered.  DimPro includes many orch sounds and the many acoustic sounds, plus a series of weird sounds (need Legiti?).  Rapture covers most synths, plus a lot more organs than DimPro.  You said you needed synths and organs, right?  While Rapture might not be the best organ emulation, it does fine (I use the "Jimmy" a lot and Francesco's Farfisa is very good).  between the two Cake synths you have a variety of organs, eps and acoustic pianos.  Plus thousands of synth sounds that are easy to manipulate and once you know one synth you know the other.  The samples and SFZ files can be used in the other synth, too.

The only cavet I have is both Cake synths are sharp, cutting sample engines.  Which works, but sometimes you want a smoother, rounder VA sound.  Alchemy is a nice complement.  But you ain't concentrating on synths, so the Cake stuff ought to work fine for your purposes.  If you wait until sale time, you can pick them up cheap.

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AT


If you need a variety of sounds and can get a good upgrade price on Rapture and DimPro that would be the way I'd go.  Add a few "free"  packs (like francesco's) and you'll have your palate covered.  DimPro includes many orch sounds and the many acoustic sounds, plus a series of weird sounds (need Legiti?).  Rapture covers most synths, plus a lot more organs than DimPro.  You said you needed synths and organs, right?  While Rapture might not be the best organ emulation, it does fine (I use the "Jimmy" a lot and Francesco's Farfisa is very good).  between the two Cake synths you have a variety of organs, eps and acoustic pianos.  Plus thousands of synth sounds that are easy to manipulate and once you know one synth you know the other.  The samples and SFZ files can be used in the other synth, too.

The only cavet I have is both Cake synths are sharp, cutting sample engines.  Which works, but sometimes you want a smoother, rounder VA sound.  Alchemy is a nice complement.  But you ain't concentrating on synths, so the Cake stuff ought to work fine for your purposes.  If you wait until sale time, you can pick them up cheap.

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  The sounds I want and need most are organ,vintage/analogue synth,and pianos,mainly B3 organs and analogue synths.Upgrading to Dimension Pro and full Rapture would be easiest on my wallet but,I'm willing to spend a little bit more to get better quality.There some patches in the Le versions of Rapture and Dimension that I like and have me thinking about upgrading.The reason I don't upgrade to the full versions of Rapture and Dimension is that they've both been out a while without any major updates or new versions. 

StevenMikel

  The sounds I want and need most are organ,vintage/analogue synth,and pianos,mainly B3 organs and analogue synths.Upgrading to Dimension Pro and full Rapture would be easiest on my wallet but,I'm willing to spend a little bit more to get better quality.There some patches in the Le versions of Rapture and Dimension that I like and have me thinking about upgrading.The reason I don't upgrade to the full versions of Rapture and Dimension is that they've both been out a while without any major updates or new versions. 

One fairly low cost option would be to not upgrade DP at all, but buy some sound packs from Digital Sound Factory.  They have a number of DP-compatible offerings that should inlude the types of sounds you're after.  DSF wares are frequently offered at a discount in the Cakewalk store ... but I suspect the most recent sale just ended.  But there may be an advantage to buying directly from DSF.  I've found the DSF folks very good to deal with.  They even offer a "satisfaction guaranteed" claim and I have no reason to doubt they'd honor it if you found your purchase to be other than what you expected.
 
So save money now and reserve it against the eventual purchase of Komplete.  That's where you're eventually going to want to be, even if you don't realize it yet. 

 I considered upgrading to Dim.Pro because there is a B3 emulation in one of the free expansion packs then,I could get the Classic Keys expansion from DSF and I'd have all of the keyboard sounds I need. Then I found out I was getting some extra $ and I started looking around to see what was out there. 

AT


Kontakt is the big sampler these days that people seem to make the most expansions for.  I picked it up for $200 a couple of years ago so there are sales on it.  I was hoping to find Komplete cheaper than $400 but no go this last year.

I'm not sure if one can even buy Kontakt as a standalone product any more.  The only options I can find to acquire Kontakt (OK ... after not very rigorous checking) are to get it by purchasing Komplete.

NI is like Cake (and just about everybody else) - once you get a registered product (even the freebies I think) you are in the family.  I think I got Razor or something first for nothing or next to it.   

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AT


NI is like Cake (and just about everybody else) - once you get a registered product (even the freebies I think) you are in the family.  I think I got Razor or something first for nothing or next to it.   

@

 I know,I have AR 70's Drums,pre-Bass and,J-Bass, that's part of the reason why I'm having a hard time deciding what to get.

 So Cakewalk may have just helped me out.Until March 15th you can upgrade to X2 Producer for $99,that'll get me Dimension Pro,Rapture and TruePianos.I listened to some of the sound samples for Dim Pro and Rapture on the X2 page and was impressed,I liked what I heard but still wanted more.The sound I want to be the most accurate is the organ,I want a realy good,real sounding B3 and/or C3 organ.

 

  I saw that there is a B3 emulation in one of the free expansion packs for Dimension Pro,how good is it,does anybody use it on a regular basis?

StevenMikel


  I saw that there is a B3 emulation in one of the free expansion packs for Dimension Pro,how good is it,does anybody use it on a regular basis?

It's OK, but it misses the amp and Leslie modeling options you get on VB3 or Vintage Organs. Its a bit cryptic but Dim Pro's knobs actually control the drawbars so in terms of tone its more versatile than it would first appear. I think its good for the person that just needs the odd organ sound here and there, but VB3 or VO is the way to go if its going to be a key instrument.