Decent and affordable exotic virtual instrument recommendations?

[KyRo]

Hi, all. Well, since my Yamaha synth's audio jack circuit board took a poo, disabling me from using the keyboard's onboard sounds for my project as originally intended, I'm now on the hunt for all the necessary instruments I need in VST format.

I got BBCSO Discovery for most of the classic orchestral stuff, which is actually quite nice, especially for a free program. But there are still a handful of oddball instruments I need, so I would really appreciate recommendations for decent, streamlined, and affordable (~$50 or less, total) virtual instruments/suites that include the following (preferably in as few packages as possible):

• Steel drums (AKA steel pan)
• "Ethnic" drums
• Reggae style palm-muted guitar
• Accordian
• Harpsichord
• Electric and wurlitzer organs
• Eastern wind instruments like the duduk and pungi

I skimmed through the virtual instruments included in Cakewalk and either didn't find these or any decent quality versions, but let me know if I may have missed something and I'll have another look.

Thank you!

Edited January 3 by KyRo

[Starship Krupa]

As far as free goes, get A|A|S Swatches.

It's a buffet of half a dozen or so patches from each of their soundpack add-ons. Totaling around 700 sounds last time I checked.

This includes patches from their modeled guitar instrument, Strum GS-2 with various articulations like palm mutes, string squeaks, etc. Their synth Chromaphone has won "best virtual instrument for ethnic sounds" in the KVR yearly poll, and there are plenty of Chromaphone patches. Look for the patches from the Masala and Masala 2 packs.

For not very much money, there is AIR Xpand!2, which is currently on sale for $9.99 at BHPhoto. It's a virtual ROMpler workstation with about 2000 sounds, and a staple for many people. Certainly for me.

[Mr No Name]

this for your exotic sounds, you will need a VST sampler.

 

https://www.benaylon.com/samples

[southcoaststeve]

Bandlab's Studio Instruments are excellent and I believe they're included with Cakewalk?

I use the SI-Electric Piano and SI-String Section a lot.

Loads of great sounding presets on the Electric piano in particular.

[Bass Guitar]

There's a huge list of free stuff here 

 

I have gleaned a lot of good stuff from this web site too- https://plugins4free.com 

My band likes to play Trop Rock re makes of popular songs. So steel drums defiantly is a must. 

The only steel drum I found  was Papaya https://plugins4free.com/plugin/182/  is 32 bit which sucks. So what I did was I sampled the notes. It had too much low end in it as well so I fixed that and then all you need is a sample player like Kontakt   https://www.native-instruments.com/en/products/komplete/samplers/kontakt-7-player/free-download/

I find the SI Piano can be made to sound real good with a touch of other effects like some phaser or chorus. It's actually well sampled. I also have one I got free called Sweetcase https://noiseash.com/sweetcase-vintage-electric-piano/   I use this one a lot. 

And don't rule out the guitar patches in the awful TTS-1. They can work in a pinch when you run them through TH3. 

 

 

[KyRo]

Thanks for the recommendations, guys. Some good stuff here. I also did give TTS-1 another look, after breezing over it before. There's actually a handful of decent-sounding basic patches in there. With the help of some of these recommendations, I've think found just about everything I need.

Out of curiosity, does anyone know what type of patch was used in the synth at the very start of this track (if it is, indeed, a synth)? That eerie, icy, airy tone? Is there anything like it in the plugs included in CW or the ones that have been discussed here?

 

[Lynn Wilson]

Look for any pad with the words glass or ice in the name.

[Starship Krupa]

2 hours ago, KyRo said:

Out of curiosity, does anyone know what type of patch was used in the synth at the very start of this track (if it is, indeed, a synth)? That eerie, icy, airy tone? Is there anything like it in the plugs included in CW or the ones that have been discussed here?

What Lynn said.

Not difficult to nail with any number of free synths. You'll likely find something similar in Swatches.

I'm sure that freeware Vital has something like that, and there are multiple pads in the aforementioned Xpand!2 that can do it. There's a whole category for Bright Pads.

Don't neglect the idea of adding your own FX and EQ; an EQ with an "air" band can help bring that iciness out in front.

Edited January 5 by Starship Krupa

[57Gregy]

On 1/2/2024 at 10:03 PM, KyRo said:

since my Yamaha synth's audio jack circuit board took a poo, disabling me from using the keyboard's onboard sounds for my project as originally intended

Which Yamaha is it? Can it send audio through USB?

[KyRo]

1 hour ago, 57Gregy said:

Which Yamaha is it? Can it send audio through USB?

It's the MOX6. It can send audio through USB to record, but in order to hear it, you need to run out from the keyboard's analog jacks to your speakers/headphones. Its driver is ASIO, so I can't use my normal audio interface at the same time for audible output.

Also, that's just straight audio recording. If you wanted to use controllable MIDI notes with the onboard sounds, which I did, you need to loop back through the synth's tone generator and (again) out through the analog jacks.