Can anyone reccomend any good instrument samples for a modern country project?  Fiddle pedal steel and banjo are the main one's I need.

Sony Classic Country http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/classiccountry

I learned 2 things today. 1 I did not know country musicians used samples and 2 I did not know Sony was still making acidized loops. i thought that went away when sonic foundary did.      

Not the cheapest thing around for sure, but Band in a Box can provide some pretty decent fiddle, steel and banjo. 

Go to my web site, and listen to some of the music there. The fiddle, steel, banjo and dobro in the various songs are BB. The downside to BB is that you can not get it to play a precise melody line, but if you take your time, use a few tricks and are determined enough, you can often get it to give you a respectable rhythm or back ground part. 

  If you have questions on how I did something in any of my songs....PM me.  

BTW: while those instruments are considered to be classic country instruments, they are not as popular in Nashville these days. I actually had a Nashville industry source tell me to "lose the fiddle and steel" and send the song back after it was edited. Go figure..... they wanted crunchy guitars, not fiddles and steel guitars.  If you are writing for Nashville, keep that in mind.

Indiginus used to offer a nice Folk music instrument set (for Kontakt) including Mandolin and banjo, but they seem to have been discontinued.  Their guitars and dulcimer are still available and top-notch.
 
Here's another quality "country" instrument (Full Kontakt needed):
 
http://www.orangetreesamples.com/lap-steel-guitar
 
 

http://samplebase.com/results.htm?subtype_id=7&type_id=2

You can give this a try

BB is one of the things I was looking at.  What version do you use?  I called and talked to a sales rep a while back but he wasn't much help as far as knowing what version I would need.  Gave a few of your songs a listen.  Did a nice job with them.  Thanks for the offer BTW.  I've been messing around with converting guitar parts to midi in Melodyne and moving notes around in piano roll. A bit of a pain but workable.  I was looking into some of the midi guitar type controllers the have out now.  I'm not much on keys.
  
  As far as the Nashville thing goes,  I hope you're right.  It appears that way to me also judging from the newer songs on the radio but my writing partner who plays in Nashville fairly regularly was told that if it didn't have a fiddle on it ,  it would not be accepted.  I'm going to mention what you said though.  It would make my job much easier.    

Guitarhacker


Not the cheapest thing around for sure, but Band in a Box can provide some pretty decent fiddle, steel and banjo. 

Go to my web site, and listen to some of the music there. The fiddle, steel, banjo and dobro in the various songs are BB. The downside to BB is that you can not get it to play a precise melody line, but if you take your time, use a few tricks and are determined enough, you can often get it to give you a respectable rhythm or back ground part. 

If you have questions on how I did something in any of my songs....PM me.  

BTW: while those instruments are considered to be classic country instruments, they are not as popular in Nashville these days. I actually had a Nashville industry source tell me to "lose the fiddle and steel" and send the song back after it was edited. Go figure..... they wanted crunchy guitars, not fiddles and steel guitars.  If you are writing for Nashville, keep that in mind.

Actually I have one of these ( Nashville Wire ).  Has it's uses  but it's all loops.  I'm mainly looking for sound patches.           Thanks bz2838

bz2838


Sony Classic Country http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/classiccountry

jimmyrage


BB is one of the things I was looking at.  What version do you use? 
 
As far as the Nashville thing goes,  I hope you're right.  It appears that way to me also judging from the newer songs on the radio but my writing partner who plays in Nashville fairly regularly was told that if it didn't have a fiddle on it ,  it would not be accepted.  I'm going to mention what you said though.  It would make my job much easier.    

I have the EverythingPak.... the only thing better is the audiophile version. (maybe one day.....)  It comes on a USB hard drive since it is so huge with all the samples and stuff. I do not have the latest 2012.5 version, I'm still on 2011. I have so far skipped a year on my upgrades.... so I'm due for the 2013 version.... we'll see.....  I actually started a number of years back and ended up doing the upgrades to get where I'm at with it.  The cost is pretty steep ($570) to get going at the higher levels where the good stuff is located......but..... you have to weigh that against what it can and will do for you.  I weighed what it would cost to hire some good Nashville cats for a few sessions.... 


As far as the instrumentation in Nashville these days...all I can say is listen to the music you can hear on the top 40 country radio stations.   You will still hear fiddle and steel guitar but.... notice the production and how they are used are much different from what was popular 5, 10 or 15 years ago. They are mostly used in a more sparing way.  It also depends greatly on the artist.  George Strait, and Alan Jackson can get away with using the old timey fiddle and steel guitars where Thompson Square and Lady A can not...or do not....