Robert Bone

Thanks - I too was blown away by the capabilities of the Synthmaster plugin. It can really stretch in a bunch of directions, to provide a wide set of really different kinds of sounds - I was just amazed. I cannot afford to pick it up this month, but WILL be doing so, when feasible. In the meantime, I will continue to try to find a way to create the needed Genesis sound with the various synths I already have. Or, maybe I can do it by first creating a midi track with any synth that gives the basic short sort of sound like in the song, sequence up the repetitions of it, and then sample that audio output and map/script it into a Kontakt instrument. I have only tried anything like that once in the past, and that was quite a few years back, but I think that might work, if there isn't some easier way I can find without resorting to that. I am certainly open to ANY assistance with coming up with a way to create this sound. It doesn't seem very difficult of an undertaking, so I will keep digging into it and see what I can come up with. I GREATLY appreciate you guys helping me out with your replies.

Is there any chance either of you two could record a little snippet of whichever Mamy sound from Nori Ubukata Historical Synth Giants Collection Vol.1 emulates the repeating chord sound from Mama, and send it to me or put it online and post a link to it? I would like to hear how closely it represents that Genesis sound, prior to my laying out the cash for the Synthmaster plugin and the expansion pack. Thanks SO much, Bob Bone

OK - THANKS, first off. I have the Synth Magic Arp Quadra library for Kontakt, which is supposed to have all of the functionality of the original hardware Quadra, so in theory, I should be able to manufacture this sound within that Kontakt emulation. For sure there is an arpeggiator within this Quadra emulation, so I will try to decipher the information you provided in your post (quoted above). Perhaps I can figure out how to do this within the Quadra. I am ABSOLUTELY clueless on the Quadra architecture, and am trying to get up to speed on it all, going through the manual, etc... I may look into just picking up the Synthmaster you both were referring to, since it may well have the patches. Thanks - I will post back on my adventures, later tonight, after dishes and more dishes. Bob Bone

Hi - I have no idea how to build a preset to take the notes of a chord and repeat them as 1/16th notes, like the chord pad sound in the intro/verses of the Genesis song, Mama. In the song, Tony plays that haunting Synclavier lead sound with his right hand, while his left is holding down an Em chord, and a D, etc... and though the chords are held, the notes of the held chord are repeated like 1/16th notes, the whole time a chord is held. Obviously, I could sequence it up in a midi track, but I would like to play it live. I have the Arturia V Collection 6, Native Instruments Komplete 11 Ultimate, and some Reaktor Quadra ensembles from the user library, as well as the Synth Magic Quadra Kontakt library, as well as the EastWest Composer Cloud Plus libraries and instruments. I think Tony Banks likely used an Arp Quadra to create that repeated chord sound, but I have never done much at all with tweaking sounds on that synth (either hardware or this Kontakt instrument). Can anyone give some pointers on creating this sound? Thanks, Bob Bone

Yup - I will echo what Tim said above. Sonar, and now Cakewalk by Bandlab, has always been both feature-rich and chock full of actually useful plugins. The ProChannel modules are indeed VERY capable, and I use the sounds of Rapture Pro all the time. Bob Bone

Voxengo also has a dozen or so freebies, at least one of which is a modeled guitar amp: https://www.voxengo.com/group/saturator-plugin-download/ Also VST4Free has a category for free modeled amps: http://www.vst4free.com/index.php?plug-ins=Guitar/Amp And VST Planet has some: http://www.vstplanet.com/Effects/Saturation.htm And another: http://www.wiredguitarist.com/2016/12/30/top-5-free-guitar-plugins/ DSK Music: (10 amps included) https://www.dskmusic.com/dsk-electrik-guitarz/ I got the above doing a couple of quick Google searches for things like: free guitar amp vst, and guitar amp model vst free. There were LOTS of other links listed, so you can likely find a whole bunch of them. I use the TH3 and Guitar Rig 5 Pro plugins, which are both paid, but the free version of Guitar Rig 5 Player is likely quite good, as the paid version is outstanding. There is some overlap with the above links, and you will want to check versions when you DO find duplicates, so that you get the latest versions you can find for a given plugin. I would also encourage you to check out the other VST categories for these types of sites, as there are usually TONS of things like free effects and even synths, as well as presets for some popular synth plugins. One more thing to check when looking for plugins to download - I HIGHLY recommend sticking to using 64-bit plugins, when using 64-bit hosting software, such as Cakewalk by Bandlab. 32-bit plugins in a 64-bit environment can be quite troublesome, and prone to crashing unpredictably. Yes, bridging software is potentially helpful, but not always, so I always try to avoid using any 32-bit plugins when possible. Bob Bone