Cheap instrument plugins for teenage beginner?

Rich_S

Member
My 15 y.o. daughter wants to start recording the music she makes up. She's a pianist, but she's talked about making it "sound like an orchestra'. Her interests lie in the new-agey sort of music she hears as soundtracks to video games and anime cartoons.

My experience to date has been all audio-based, remixing old 4-track cassette demos. I haven't yet delved into MIDI tracks and virtual instruments. As it turns out, our DAW of choice, Reaper, is virtually (no pun intended) devoid of instrument plugins. So we'll need to add some instruments for her to use.

Since this is a learning exercise for a teenager, quantity of various instruments is more important than quality. She doesn't need a hundred subtly different and audibly perfect pianos, she needs "a piano". Same for strings, other orchestral instruments, as well as more modern sounds. We're talking the big 64-crayon box of Crayolas here, not fancy oil paints or pastels.

Looking at Sweetwater for virtual instrument plugins was s short-lived and discouraging exercise. Day-um those packages are expensive and the add-ons add up fast.

Where does a cash-strapped Dad look for a big assortment of cheap instruments to get her started?
 
Look at something like Acoustica Mixcraft. It has loops, samples and synthesizers. I think it's fairly easy to learn, which helps keep a 15 yo attention engaged.

My 15 yo uses it to create all his dubstep crap... er, I mean songs..... :D
 
You could download Native Instruments Komplete Players (free after registration), it has the basics in it, for 50 bucks you could even upgrade to Komplete Elements and get a little more.
Then there's the free edition of IK-Multimedia's Sample Tank.
And you can buy one Computer Music Magazine, wich give's you access to a load of free instruments and effect-plug ins. (enough to get you started, unfortunately no piano as far is I've seen.)

All of the above should give you an abundance of instruments to pick from.
 
For the Soundfonts you also have this vst player
Download Free Sampler plug-in: Sfz by Rgcaudio
and when dealing with whole general midi banks you can extract from them the individual instruments you like with this "sf2 splitter" (download next to latest version 1.1) soft,
Download SF2 Splitter by Tsvetozar
here are some sf2 (soundfont 2) instruments
Index of /sounds
Index of /samples/SoundFrontz
For piano, a member of the forum has just brought a good one
https://homerecording.com/bbs/general-discussions/user-contributions/free-520mb-steinway-piano-soundfont-388608/

Soundfonts are the solution if you are not too demanding on sound quality, broke or/and have an older not too performing computer, but it takes some work downloading/choosing ....
For a paying "ready to go" option, Mixcraft 7 with a load of instruments, is a good option.
http://www.amazon.com/Acoustica-ACTA-73-Mixcraft-Home-Studio/dp/B00U9XNJ38
You can use the soundfont piano to replace mixcraft's one which is not as good,
or use the free "piano one" as a vst, also in reaper of course.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJ0UjmmuwLQ

But if you have a powerfull enough pc, Reaper with the free (but cpu and ram demanding vs sf2), vst instruments mentionned in the thread (Sampletank custom shop, Kontakt 5 player factory library, + UVI workstation with its free instruments pack) would be the best choice for quality sounds.
 
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As it turns out, our DAW of choice, Reaper, is virtually (no pun intended) devoid of instrument plugins.
It is not entirely true. Reaper has plenty of sound F/X plugins although they lack of a proper appeal. As for instruments keep in mind that no one DAW has the obligation of come with some because differently from sequencers such as Fruity Loops (and others) it is not intended to be a composition tool but a recording mixer.

;)

Although Reaper has the ability of push MIDI stuff, I cannot do it myself because I think it's weird to sequence things in a DAW. Maybe it's just me. Anyway I always prefer to program drums, keyboards and all virtual instruments at FL and then export their tracks as PCM. Not only because the CPU burden, but also for me all the mixing stuff is overwhelming enough to have more than just that on DAW...

:laughings:
 
Buy a copy of Computer Music, maybe its special on the basics of homerecording...comes with a dvd chock full of VSTi's and VST's


even the online copy give you access to downloading it all
 
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