Soft Synth Beginner Options

[soylentjosh]

I'm looking to get into the world of soft synths, but I sort of don't know where to start. I'm wondering what the best software is for the money for my purposes. I actually have pretty basic needs, I'm mainly looking for top notch sampled acoustic piano, rhodes, wurlitzer, and hammond b3 sounds. Other samples would be fun to mess around with but my primary concern is high quality sounds for the basic keyboard instruments for the most reasonable amount of money.

Can anyone help me out with what to consider?

Thanks,
Josh

[soylentjosh]

Oh, and i forgot to mention, I'm running an 1.25 gHz eMac with 768gb RAM, OSX 10.3.9. I'm also recording/mixing through Pro Tools LE 6.9 (with my Mbox).

Thanks!

[ArolaMorre]

Mac Audio Guy (http://macaudioguy.com just compiled a list of the best Mac freebies on the net which is posted in the Article Section of this site. Number 3 looks like this:

3. The best completely free virtual synth avaiable is called Crystal from Green Oak Software and it is as powerful as any soft synth out there. And it's available as a VST or an AU plug-in. Download it from www.greenoak.com.

Read the rest http://www.macmusic.org/articles/view.php/...lang/EN/id/102/

[rickenbacker]

I would say Logic Pro 7 is as good as place as any to get the sounds you mention. Logic has some brilliant virtual emulations of the classic keys, plus a bundle of other keyboard-related samples for the EXS24 sampler (also included). A cheaper alternative would be Reason 3 - that has decent Rhode and Hammond sounds, plus they also just issued the Mechanical ReFill (featuring more of the same) free to download for registered customers. 'Snice.

As for individual plug-ins, I think the best acoustic piano is Ivory. Electric piano, a lot of folk like the Lounge Lizard. Hammond/B3, I don't know.

Synth-wise, it's hard to beat Arturia's Moog emulations or GMedia's impOSCar. They're both classics in the making (again). The M-Tron is cute, too. And if you like old spooky hippy noises (I do), Spectrasonics Atmosphere is great.

[ArolaMorre]

oh yeah, I forgot that GarageBand has some excellent instruments/sounds and is great for getting started because its piss easy to use...

iLife 05 includes GarageBand and is about £50

[soylentjosh]

Should I maybe be considering samplers for my purposes? Is there a mac compatible equivalent to Gigastudio, or some mac program that can play giga format samples?

-Josh

[DANO10]

I can recomend LinPlugs "daOrgan" ($49.) for the B3 and Native instruments "Electrik Piano" ($229. pricey but very good) for the Wurly and Rhodes. I use them myself and I very happy. As for the piano, there are many very good ones around but I wouldn't be the one to recomend one as my instrument is trumpet and I am a lousy pianist.

http://www.nativeinstruments.de/

http://www.linplug.com/

Good Luck'

DANO10

[gdoubleyou]

Garage Band and Logic Express contain simplified versions of the EVB3,& EVP88 that comes with Logic Pro.