Can anyone recommend any good plugins for general purpose strings sounds, for use in a rock band context? I’m looking for orchestral strings (as opposed to synthetic pads), but I don’t require the kind of super-realistic stuff you’d use for a film score. General purpose strings for use behind vocals, mixed with a piano, that kind of thing, with a variety of different envelopes/tones to suit different contexts (or a plugin that allows these to be edited and stored as patches).
I’m currently using the strings sounds in my Kurzweil PC3x for this, but I’m keen to move all my sound generation into Cantabile to give me more control/flexibility.
same background here - I have a PC3K8 and a PC3x (back-up) and have moved everything to Cantabile.
My string layer rack consists of one instance each of
Korg M1
Korg Wavestation
u-he Hive (for analog type synth strings)
FabFilter Pro-Q (for EQ and filter; I often use a lowpass filter controlled by a fader on my keyboard to fine-tune string sounds)
Between these three synths, I get all the string and pad sounds I need. And the M1 is pretty intuitive to edit, so this is my main work-horse. The Wavestation is more for evolving, deep textures.
I’ve always been in search of strings that sound like “As Tears Go By” (dating myself). I use Kontakt 5 with Session Strings and East-West Gold for many thing, Also HALion and SampleTank 3. Best sounding “classical-type” (at lest to me) is Garritan Personal Orchestra. The drawback to Garritan is that the instruments don’t respond (intentionally) to the sustain pedal. It forces you into some funny fingerings, but if you have organ chops, no problem.
Thanks for your recommendations everyone! I think I’m going to set up a strings rack like Torsten, containing a small variety of plugins, exposing the best strings via rack states.
Forgot to mention the M1 Korg Legacy VSTi is also just $49 - with like 5000 patches or something insane like that!
(They start you off with 2,700 patches, but there is an additional free library, Numb1, that you download from their download area that doubles that, I believe.)
Thanks Terry!! Last night I bought M1, and didn’t realise I could also download Numb1…that’s another evening I’m going to be going through patches then
Korg USA
MS-20_Korg_USA_Expansion_Bank2.zip 07/12/2010
Polysix_Korg_USA_Expansion_Bank2.zip 07/12/2010
MonoPoly_Korg_USA_Expansion_Bank2.zip 07/12/2010
Roland Kuit
MS-20_Roland_Kuit.zip 12/21/2009
Korg USA
MS-20_Korg_USA_Expansion_Bank.zip 04/10/2009
Polysix_Korg_USA_Expansion_Bank.zip 04/10/2009
MonoPoly_Korg_USA_Expansion_Bank.zip 04/10/2009
Jase from Outta Space (JaseFOS)
MS-20_HardLeads_JaseFOS.zip 2008/04/25
MS-20_Basses_JaseFOS.zip 2008/04/25
MS-20_Pads_JaseFOS.zip 2008/04/25
MS-20_SFX_JaseFOS.zip 2008/04/25
Jase from Outta Space (JaseFOS)
MonoPoly_JaseFOS.zip 12/21/2007
Chris Liebing
Monopoly_Chris_Liebing.zip 8/2/2007
NUMB
M1_NUMB.m1all.zip 7/6/2006
Francis Preve
Polysix_Preve_bank.fxb.zip 3/16/2006
LegacyCell_P6_FX_Preve.fxb.zip 3/16/2006
Apollo 440
MS-20_Apollo440.fxb.zip 11/18/2005
Richard Devine
LegacyCell_Devine_set.fxb.zip 9/30/2005
MS-20_Devine_bank.fxb.zip 9/30/2005
Polysix_Devine_bank.fxb.zip 9/30/2005
WAVESTATION_Devine_bank.fxb.zip 9/30/2005
