Hi,

I'm after a general purpose sound source, mostly for fairly acoustic type sounds: strings (individual and group), double bass, jazzy drums, vibes, bell percussion type things (think Hang, Kalimba, tank drums), general percussion, pianos, etc. to trigger by midi from keys and guitar (with hex pickup and midi converter).

It doesn't necessarily need to be particularly high quality - this is principally for composition (although if it's good enough for the final cut, that's obviously a bonus). Key requirement are:
- ease of use (I don't want to have to spend ages configuring sample libraries)
- low cost

I'm guessing software and probably sampler is the way forward, but am willing to consider anything - e.g. second hand hardware modules, etc.


Any suggestions?

Many thanks,

Dan

The Roland JV/XV series of Rompler sound modules would do what you want, and can be had second hand for very little money (comparatively speaking).

While you say sound quality isn't important, I'd argue that it is. Good quality sounds will always give that extra bit of inspiration, plus they will sit well together in an ensemble, and you might as well get something that is good enough to record with - you never know when it will come in handy.

Other candidates would include Korg Triton, the older Trinity and Kurzweil K series, all of which would give you plenty of good quality bread and butter sounds to build up your compositions with, and like the Roland stuff can be had for very reasonable S/H prices.

If you are writing in one of the main sequencers, they all have patch scripts that will allow you to select the sounds from the track settings; alternatively leave the program change settings alone and select sounds manually from the module interface.

Software has so many options - like NI Komplete - but may end up being more costly. I find it frustrating stepping through sounds with the mouse, at least with hardware you have the option to use a scroll wheel or a button.

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musics

Thanks.

I was actually toying with a s/h JV1080 (or possibly JV2080, if it's worth the extra). Any thoughts on those? Or should I be looking to spend a bit more?

I should add that I have a Korg Oasys PCI card that I've not really explored all that much (it has to be run in an old Windows 98 PC!). From what I recall when I was using it years back, it sounded good and had some great filters. But it didn't have much by way of decent acoustic sounds - at least, not pre-programmed - and I'd not found many else where (e.g. on the Yahoo user group). I probably ought to be making more of that card, but it does tie my to an ageing PC. The freedom of a soft-synth/sampler or a hardware unit are rather more appealing.

Cheers,

Dan

The JV/XV range are great, but if I was going the hardware route a Kurzweil K-series would be my first choice - make sure it has some sample memory installed and you've got a workhorse machine that will get you just about any sound you can scratch up.

For software then Kontakt would be my choice. The supplied library is very good indeed and it is compatible with most of the common sample libraries.

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An Eagle for an Emperor, A Kestrel for a Knave.

Since it's acoustic & real instrument sounds that you're really after, it might be better to go down the software route - presuming you use a sequencer for your composition, Elf's suggestion of Kontakt will definitely give you the widest range, and lots of possibilities for expansion without breaking the bank.

The kind of hardware Romplers mentioned tend to be fairly limited in each category of sound, so you'll be hunting for sound expansion add-ons if you want a really wide range of sounds.

The advantage of a hardware unit is always the tactile experience; software is generally better at integration with sequencers and has larger libraries.

I've never used Oasys but as far as I know it is a synthesis based product? Different beast altogether

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musics

Quote un_quantized:

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Since it's acoustic & real instrument sounds that you're really after, it might be better to go down the software route

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...particularly if you're after sounds like Hang and Tank drums - you can get sample libraries of these, but you'll be extremely lucky to find them burned into a ROM inside a keyboard/rack unit


Martin

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YewTreeMagic

I would go for a JV1080. You can pick them up for just over £100 (There are a couple for sale in the readers ads IIRC).

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And Bagpuss, once he was asleep, was just a saggy old cloth cat.

If that's all they're going for I won't bother to advertise mine - it can continue to sit in my rack looking immaculate, even if I don't switch it on


Martin

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YewTreeMagic