how to bring out the sound in synthesized or midi instruments?

[jugalo180]

okay there maybe topics on this already but i just couldn't find any that really answers my question. i have a midi keyboard that i use to make my instrumentals via fruity loops. now how do i get my music to sound crisp and not lifeless. i read topics on reducing frequencies to bring out certain instruments. on top of that is there other techniques and or plugins to make the following sound colorful. can someone be specific on what to use for what.
bass-kick drum
snare
bass guitar
rimshot
hand clap
french horn
trumpet
cowbell

[jugalo180]

i'm running cubase sx, soundforge, and acid pro

[kendall rownd]

An out-board piece of gear that I really love for what it does to clearify and define the sounds is...the BBE Sonic Maximizer. It is not an enhancer, but a re-phaser and dynamic tone controller. Try one if ya get a chance. Really brings things out...sort'a like fresh air to the sounds.

...kendall

[crosstudio]

i don't know how rich fruity-loops samples are, but I made a big improvement in the fullness of my sounds when i got the Roland XV-3080 and the Ensoniq ASR-x drum machine/sampler.

there is no substitute for rich, full, crisp sounding samples. otherwise, it's garbage in, garbage out.

[OneWatt]

Don't know if others would be satisfied, but I've been pleased with Yamaha's XG Softsynth sound quality - in fact, although I do a lot of compression/eq work on my live audio tracks, I find fairly little has to be done to any XG-generated sounds (other than tweaking for how things sit in the mix and/ or the bass - which seems to be a trouble child no matter what).