Dennis G Pelton Posted February 5, 2020 Share Posted February 5, 2020 (edited) Could someone help an old guy who isn't up on all the latest tech & terminology? We're upgrading our home studio, got a new Windows 10 machine and installed the latest Cakewalk. I'm not a synth master (was once, those days are gone forever) but would like some quality instrument sounds for our recordings. I'm talking about piano, B3, drum kits, basses...bagpipes, pipa, crumhorn*, etc. So I get that "VST" is a plug-in (typically effects, or "FX" as you young folks say) and VSTi is a (virtual/digital) instrument. How do I get those instruments, discussed so enthusiastically in this thread, to play in Cakewalk once I have the MIDI recorded? * Well, probably not a crumhorn. But maybe a sackbut. Edited February 5, 2020 by Dennis G Pelton Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reginaldStjohn Posted February 5, 2020 Share Posted February 5, 2020 2 hours ago, Dennis G Pelton said: Could someone help an old guy who isn't up on all the latest tech & terminology? We're upgrading our home studio, got a new Windows 10 machine and installed the latest Cakewalk. I'm not a synth master (was once, those days are gone forever) but would like some quality instrument sounds for our recordings. I'm talking about piano, B3, drum kits, basses...bagpipes, pipa, crumhorn*, etc. So I get that "VST" is a plug-in (typically effects, or "FX" as you young folks say) and VSTi is a (virtual/digital) instrument. How do I get those instruments, discussed so enthusiastically in this thread, to play in Cakewalk once I have the MIDI recorded? * Well, probably not a crumhorn. But maybe a sackbut. First you need to buy, download etc the VSTi's you want. Then you install them on your system. Once Cakewalk has scanned them either on startup or after you "reset and scan" from the plugin manger window then they should show up as instruments you can insert. I would suggest looking through the Cakewalk Manual for Simple Instrument tracks. These are a combination of a midi track feeding a Virtual Instrument which then outputs its audio to an audio track. You can also set this up manually by adding a midi track, pointing it to a synth you load in the synth rack and then creating an audio track who's input is assigned to the output of said synth. From the Manual: Insert Soft Synth Options dialog This dialog box appears when you use the Insert > Soft Synths > (name of the synth you want to insert) command, the Insert > ReWire Device > (name of the ReWire device you want to insert) command, or click the Insert button in the Synth Rack view and choose a synth from the pop-up menu. This dialog box inserts the soft synth whose name you clicked into your project. Inserting it means that the synth’s name is added to the synth and audio tracks’ Input menus and the MIDI tracks’ Output and Channel menus. Besides inserting the synth, the dialog box has some options: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abacab Posted February 5, 2020 Share Posted February 5, 2020 (edited) I would start with the Cakewalk by BandLab included Cakewalk Studio Instruments, and/or the included TTS-1 GM 16 channel multi-timbral synth, to get familiar with adding instrument tracks to the DAW. The Cakewalk SI includes a usable (some folks like them) bass guitar, electric piano, string section, and drum kit. The TTS-1 includes sounds that cover the old General MIDI spec. This thread has pretty much covered it! You can see there are a lot of free or inexpensive virtual instruments that you can add (to roll your own collection). But the caveat is that you're not likely not find an extensive collection of *high quality* band, orchestral, and/or obscure instruments all in one place for free. You will have to search and download to find what you like, or buy sample collections to fill in any gaps. Edited February 5, 2020 by abacab 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starship Krupa Posted February 7, 2020 Author Share Posted February 7, 2020 @Dennis G Pelton, welcome to Cakewalk and welcome to the thread. As mentioned, orchestral sounds are the most difficult, but there are some recent posts in this thread about them. B3's are another toughie. The thread's supposed to be about free instruments, but the following are inexpensive enough to almost count. ? At Pluginboutique, you can currently pick up SONIVOX' Film Score Companion Suite for $29. It includes their Strings, Woodwinds, and Brass instruments, as well as a sampled piano and orchestral percussion. I've spent $10-$15 each on licenses for the Strings, Woodwinds, and Brass as individual instruments and consider it money well spent. As for the B3, they also have AIR's DB-33 for $15. It's one of the best B3 and Leslie emulations I've found. (and if you buy something from PB right now, you get licenses for 2 of their sound banks and the player to use them-a nice add on) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starship Krupa Posted March 29, 2020 Author Share Posted March 29, 2020 I've been having outlandish amounts of fun playing around with The Free Orchestra by Project Sam, which is a Kontakt instrument that is compatible with Kontakt Player, the free version of Kontakt that has been mentioned in this thread and that everyone should get because it comes with a load of great freeware sampled instruments all by itself. The Free Orchestra is a set of instruments specifically oriented toward cinema scoring. It has a bunch of those workhorse cues and hits that signify "this is scary, heroic, funny, tense, or whatever," plus gloomy drones, evocative strings, I've been exploring it for literally hours now. I dare you not to hit the "Octaver" button and work out the first 9 notes of "Dragnet" after you load up "Pandora Bursts." Also, if anyone were not aware, IK Multimedia SampleTank 4 CS has finally shipped, and I am pleased to report that unlike its predecessor the VST3 works without crashing its host. I know this has been announced in this forum more than once, but since the intent of this thread is to be a "virtual sticky" compendium and resource, I wanted to mention it here. The free version comes with a ton of content, it looks like they're taking on Native Instruments in that regard. It's nice to see that IK have sorted that nasty crash issue. It's now my go-to acoustic piano. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeGBradford Posted March 30, 2020 Share Posted March 30, 2020 Both good recommendations there Starship (though IKs authorisation procedure might be a bit forbidding to newbies). I've been playing around a little with the Project Sam freebie and as you say it has a small number of great sounds. Not done much tweaking with it yet but look forward to exploring more I've mentioned them in the Deals forum but the Palette and Soundscapes plugins from Flintpope have some very pleasing soundscape / pad sounds. There are a few other freebies there but none grabbed me https://flintpope.net/free/ 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mánibranðr Studios Posted March 30, 2020 Share Posted March 30, 2020 (edited) Quick note, Orchestools 306 and 153 are versions of Orchestools ONE that are standalone from Sampletank. A lot of the sounds are based on samples provided by the VSCO CE. https://musictop69.wixsite.com/orchestools/news Edited March 30, 2020 by Freyja Grimaude-Valens 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeGBradford Posted March 30, 2020 Share Posted March 30, 2020 13 hours ago, Freyja Grimaude-Valens said: Quick note, Orchestools 306 and 153 are versions of Orchestools ONE that are standalone from Sampletank. A lot of the sounds are based on samples provided by the VSCO CE. https://musictop69.wixsite.com/orchestools/news Are the sounds in these VSTi's as good as or better than those in Miroslav Philharmonik 2 CE and Garritran PO? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starship Krupa Posted March 30, 2020 Author Share Posted March 30, 2020 13 hours ago, Freyja Grimaude-Valens said: Quick note, Orchestools 306 and 153 are versions of Orchestools ONE that are standalone from Sampletank. A lot of the sounds are based on samples provided by the VSCO CE. https://musictop69.wixsite.com/orchestools/news Thanks, Freyja. I've messed about with the VSCO samples in a couple of different forms but being able to load them into a version of SampleTank that doesn't crash will really help. (BTW, Freya is the name of one of my favorite characters on one of my favorite TV shows, Norsemen) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mánibranðr Studios Posted March 31, 2020 Share Posted March 31, 2020 17 hours ago, JoeGBradford said: Are the sounds in these VSTi's as good as or better than those in Miroslav Philharmonik 2 CE and Garritran PO? I don't own either of those, so I don't have a reference point to compare with. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yeto Posted May 8, 2020 Share Posted May 8, 2020 I found this free software for creating backing tracks. I have been trying this software for a few days now and I am finding it very useful for creating quick backing tracks for song writing purposes. The home page gives you an overview of the software. It really is free. There is no trial period type catch or anything of that sort. It has a good forum and help pages. You can get a response from the person who wrote the software. I am not connected with this company in any way, shape or form except that I have been using the software for a few days now. https://www.jjazzlab.com/en/ Hope this helps someone, yeto Also posted here: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kurre Posted May 9, 2020 Share Posted May 9, 2020 (edited) There's a new free synth out. It's name is Odin 2 and it's a vst3 plugin. Still in beta but already amazing. You'll find it here: https://www.thewavewarden.com/odin2 There's more info in this thread on KVRaudio: https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=542997 And you can see it in action on this YT video: Edited May 9, 2020 by Kurre 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Fort Posted May 11, 2020 Share Posted May 11, 2020 I don't recall seeing this posted here. I found a pretty decent FREE program to manage my ever increasing hoard of samples/loops. It's ADSR Sample Manager. It does a great job of letting me search and audition the sounds in my many files. Allows you to search by key, tag, BPM, genre, etc. Also it lets you add tags. When you select a file, it shows you the waveform and allows you to preview the sound with the ability to apply some minimal processing to the signal. My favorite such program is actually Loopcloud, however to get all the features of the program enabled you need to become a member. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nigel Mackay Posted May 19, 2020 Share Posted May 19, 2020 This Sax sounds pretty good. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Fogle Posted June 27, 2020 Share Posted June 27, 2020 (edited) Found this one today! Link to 200+ VST Plugins Edited June 27, 2020 by Jim Fogle 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Didazne Posted June 28, 2020 Share Posted June 28, 2020 I found on the landr page: https://blog.landr.com/best-free-vst-plugins/ a blog with about 200 vst free, from Free Synth, Free Drum, Free Guitar, Free Effects, Free Utlities They also have a free compressor blog : https://blog.landr.com/es/plugins-vst-gratis-compresion/ At the bottom of the page you will be able to find different blogs with plugin categories / Vst for different occasions and each vst has its direct link to its official page for download is a very good page to find vst free Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hillmy Posted June 28, 2020 Share Posted June 28, 2020 (edited) For anyone looking for good free alternatives to sound morphing and granular synthesis. I have found two cool VST's that do that. They are however 32-bit. But thanks to Cakewalk's built in bridge a lot of 32-bit VST's work for me, including these two. - Sound morphing/combining two audio tracks together and with different pitches and effects: Quilcom Bridgit - Granular synthesis of audio tracks: Quilcom Harvester They look like they only take in WAV files. So use those types only. The person making them made a ton of VST's of all different kinds. He also included video demos to most of them. You can find the VST's here: http://flowstoners.com/quilcom Just use your browser search function to go straight to these two. Edited June 28, 2020 by Hillmy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kurre Posted June 30, 2020 Share Posted June 30, 2020 Poise and Grace samplers is free. Links in this post: 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starship Krupa Posted July 17, 2020 Author Share Posted July 17, 2020 I'm really pleased to be able to bump the thread with that rarest of creatures, a freeware Hammond B3 emulation that comes in 64-bit form. It's specially issued by Sampleson and other sponsors to be of help to musicians who are shut in due to the big health crisis: https://sampleson.com/collab3-free-tonewheel-organ.html I also somehow stumbled across a company called Fanan Team Pro who make some virtual instruments including Stringya, a string machine, and Clarinetica, an "ethnic clarinet instrument" that have UI's that must be seen to be believed. Not since Terry West have I seen such apparent attempts to emulate the slot machines at an off-the-Strip Las Vegas casino. Check them out if you're into unintentionally weird virtual instruments. The string machine has a 3-band "Trance Gate" as one of its built in effects. So if you've ever yearned for a trance gate in your string machine, they have you covered. 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kurre Posted July 17, 2020 Share Posted July 17, 2020 7 hours ago, Starship Krupa said: I also somehow stumbled across a company called Fanan Team Pro who make some virtual instruments including Stringya, a string machine, and Clarinetica, an "ethnic clarinet instrument" that have UI's that must be seen to be believed. Not since Terry West have I seen such apparent attempts to emulate the slot machines at an off-the-Strip Las Vegas casino. Check them out if you're into unintentionally weird virtual instruments. The string machine has a 3-band "Trance Gate" as one of its built in effects. So if you've ever yearned for a trance gate in your string machine, they have you covered. I've used Fanan plugins. Lacks a bit in user friendliness and loading time of samples is a bit longer than other brands. But besides that it's ok plugins. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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