synthesizer/sampler/module realistic sounds instruments?

[jambo7 tzq]

Hi
I'm looking for a synthesizer/sampler/module that gives me realistic sounds of musical instruments like,
Guitars, violins, wind instruments, pianos, saxophones, orchestral instruments and the like.
I play music from the 60s, 70s, 80s, old music.
(I don't play electronic music and I don't need to synthesize sounds.)
Thanks

[garrettendi]

Orchestral instruments are covered nicely by Spitfire BBCSO for free, and their free Labs instruments also cover some ground.

Miroslav Philharmonik 2 CE is free from IK Multimedia at the moment, in exchange for subscribing to their newsletter. But I believe tomorrow is the last day of this offer.

EDIT: I realise now they requested modules not VSTs.

My apologies!

[MarkOne]

Hi there...

There are probably a whole slew of things that can achieve what you want to do.

A lot will depend on your budget, what you have already and how you want to use it.

Are you wanting to play this live, or will it be used as part of your DAW setup?

Do you want it to include a keyboard? If so, does it need to be a weighted piano style keyboard, or will a smaller synth keyboard do?

All the big name manufacturers have keyboards full of sampled sounds that can be pretty realistic in many situations. Yamaha's various Motif keyboards, Roland's Fantoms, Korg's Nautilus, Krome and Kross offerings.

Many people here like the Kurzweil keyboards like the PC4 and K2700

If you only need a sound module, the Roland Integra has pretty much every sound that Roland have to offer,

If you are happy with a software/computer based solution, the Native Instruments Komplete packages have more or less everything you would need.

I also like the Arturia Analog Lab V, but it is a bit more classic keyboard focussed and there is less there in guitars/strings etc.

Let us know a little more about what your needs are.

[jambo7 tzq]

Thanks
I don't like vst software , I want a hardware synthesizer.

[MarkOne]

Thanks
I don't like vst software , I want a hardware synthesizer.

So, again, what is your budget? Is it for studio or live use? Will it need a keyboard?

[jambo7 tzq]

Sound module, Roland Integra
(According to YouTube) It is an excellent tool but expensive and it has elements that I don't need.
I want realistic ready-made instruments with few effects.

[Arpangel]

Ensoniq EPS, or an S1000, or similar, but it’s not worth it, I’m a died in the wool hardware fan, but when it comes to doing what you want to do, I could that with my iPad using Garage Band, and the sampler in there is great, plus, GB comes with tons of free sounds. Honestly, it’s not worth using hardware, a laptop and a keyboard and you’re already ten laps in front of my iPad.
Gigging it all fits into a back-pack, you’ll soon get used to it, it just "does the job"

[Wonks]

Again, what budget? That will determine the age of any module or keyboard.

The older you go, the smaller the size of the sample memory. Even with small sample sizes some of the older modules can sound very good to listen to, though you wouldn’t mistake them for the real thing (at least in isolation).

How realistic do you want them to sound?

[ajay_m]

The Roland sonic cell can be picked up fairly cheap and has all the sounds from the Fantom series plus has space for two srx expansion cards. It's a lot cheaper than the integra and worth considering. (I have one). It also has an audio interface with a high impedance switch for guitar and midi.

[ef37a]

I know OP does not want soft synth sounds but, my son recently sent me the first movement of Eine Kleine nachtmusik that he had 'constructed' from the score and MIDI sounds, freebies.
He told me that whilst they are pretty natural in isolation if you play repeated notes of the same sample, that is when they sound synthetic,e.g. multiple E flats on the oboe.

I cannot see that a hardware synth would be any better?

Dave.

[tea for two]

Thanks
I don't like vst software , I want a hardware synthesizer.

The Roland sonic cell can be picked up fairly cheap and has all the sounds from the Fantom series plus has space for two srx expansion cards. It's a lot cheaper than the integra and worth considering. (I have one). It also has an audio interface with a high impedance switch for guitar and midi.

This Sonic Cell looks sounds a cracker.

Without knowing OP's budget another hardware unit I would suggest is a home arranger keyboard as AK-X1100.
https://www.thomann.de/gb/thomann_ak_x1100_set.htm
They have progressed a long way such as this AK-X1100 with its 7inch colour touchscreen, Mic input, Aux input, 2x USB ports.
There's Ketron which goes upto £4K !
So much so that JMJarre uses a home arranger keyboard Korg Pa series in his studio to get ideas down quickly. I'm considering picking up small Casio SA47 minikeys just to get ideas down quickly.

[Wonks]

The Roland sonic cell can be picked up fairly cheap and has all the sounds from the Fantom series plus has space for two srx expansion cards. It's a lot cheaper than the integra and worth considering. (I have one). It also has an audio interface with a high impedance switch for guitar and midi.

How well does it work as an audio interface these days? Driver support ended many years ago (Win 8/8.1 and OS 10.9 on Mac). Will they still run today?

Obviously the drivers doesn’t affect stand-alone performance, but if it won’t connect to the latest Win or Mac systems, it’s probably best to ignore the AI side of things.

[Arpangel]

I know OP does not want soft synth sounds but, my son recently sent me the first movement of Eine Kleine nachtmusik that he had 'constructed' from the score and MIDI sounds, freebies.
He told me that whilst they are pretty natural in isolation if you play repeated notes of the same sample, that is when they sound synthetic,e.g. multiple E flats on the oboe.

I cannot see that a hardware synth would be any better?

Dave.

That’s the catch with electronics, all acoustic instruments never sound the same with repeated notes, every not is different, and velocity variations don’t help much using electronics.

[ef37a]

I know OP does not want soft synth sounds but, my son recently sent me the first movement of Eine Kleine nachtmusik that he had 'constructed' from the score and MIDI sounds, freebies.
He told me that whilst they are pretty natural in isolation if you play repeated notes of the same sample, that is when they sound synthetic,e.g. multiple E flats on the oboe.

I cannot see that a hardware synth would be any better?

Dave.

That’s the catch with electronics, all acoustic instruments never sound the same with repeated notes, every not is different, and velocity variations don’t help much using electronics.

Oh! Thanks for that Tony. I thought it might just be my son being a cork sniffing "moocisian"! But then I am very mutton.

Dave.

[Arpangel]

I know OP does not want soft synth sounds but, my son recently sent me the first movement of Eine Kleine nachtmusik that he had 'constructed' from the score and MIDI sounds, freebies.
He told me that whilst they are pretty natural in isolation if you play repeated notes of the same sample, that is when they sound synthetic,e.g. multiple E flats on the oboe.

I cannot see that a hardware synth would be any better?

Dave.

That’s the catch with electronics, all acoustic instruments never sound the same with repeated notes, every not is different, and velocity variations don’t help much using electronics.

Oh! Thanks for that Tony. I thought it might just be my son being a cork sniffing "moocisian"! But then I am very mutton.

Dave.

Yes, it is quite funny really, you get these high quality orchestral samples, doesn’t matter how good they are, you’ll still get the same note repeatedly, the subtle or not so subtle variations of a real violinist just aren’t there, not even close, no matter what you do with velocity patching.

[Folderol]

That’s the catch with electronics, all acoustic instruments never sound the same with repeated notes, every not is different, and velocity variations don’t help much using electronics.

This is where a synth of my acquaintance {cough} shines. It is actually very difficult to get two notes to sound exactly the same

[Wonks]

Yes, it is quite funny really, you get these high quality orchestral samples, doesn’t matter how good they are, you’ll still get the same note repeatedly, the subtle or not so subtle variations of a real violinist just aren’t there, not even close, no matter what you do with velocity patching.

Apart from the sample instruments with round-robin samples so you do get a slightly different note from the one before. Still a limited selection of notes that get repeated, but better than exactly the same note.

But not the sort of think you're likely to get on a synth module (unless very top of the range).

[Arpangel]

That’s the catch with electronics, all acoustic instruments never sound the same with repeated notes, every not is different, and velocity variations don’t help much using electronics.

This is where a synth of my acquaintance {cough} shines. It is actually very difficult to get two notes to sound exactly the same

If it was simple to use, and had sampling capability, Yoshimi would be here now.
Regarding samples, it’s also funny that people start off trying to make things as realistic as possible, then, after people realise that the side effects of some samplers are actually rather interesting and they forget about realism altogether and just accept then for what they are, that’s what we have to do, look beyond the obvious uses.

[ef37a]

That’s the catch with electronics, all acoustic instruments never sound the same with repeated notes, every not is different, and velocity variations don’t help much using electronics.

This is where a synth of my acquaintance {cough} shines. It is actually very difficult to get two notes to sound exactly the same

You are being tantalizingly vague Will! Is this something my son could use and if so would it cost dad a lot?

Ooops! Cocked that up but I think you get my drift?
Dave.

[tea for two]

I'm not so fussed aboot a composer using sampled Orchestral instruments sampled Choirs so long as the composition does something for me.

As this :
Constance Demby - Novus Mgnificat (1986).
Performed mostly on Emulator 2.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_GzIxlPS1 ... UgZGVtYnkg

Vangelis used Sampled Orchestral instruments on 1492 and Alexander soundtracks.

Then again nobody is Constance nor Vangelis.

::

There is
https://www.tecontrol.se/products/usb-m ... ntroller-2
Here's this TEC MiDi breath controller with Leap Motion on SWAM sampled Violin.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zDm7LqbV5 ... VyIA%3D%3D

Worth checking ooot Fluid Pitch plugin 14day free trial
https://www.pitchinnovations.com/products/fluid-pitch/
Here's Fluid Picth on an Indian Flute with TEC MiDi breath controller.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=l0dYS5eV9 ... ggcGx1Z2lu

I chose these two utube because they get straight to the meat instead of waffling for minutes on end.

::

I am at the moment putting together scratch ideas for a pseudo sus-sus-sussudio Orchestral Choral albuume using free samples. I would never in a million years release this commercially because it sounds whack due mostly to my playing as I'm not using any expression controller. Were I to consider releasing it, I would hand it over to an Orchestrator an Orchestra and Choir.

[ajay_m]

The issue with sampled sounds is mainly that you want in playing them realistically, that the attack and release are inconsistent across repeated notes. This requires a keyboard sensitive to pressure and even the newer keybeds with polyphonic aftertouch don't really work well here because the weight of the keys introduces too much inertia. What *does* seem to work well is the kmi qunexus because the pressure sensors here map much more naturally to the force required by a string or brass player to articulate notes. The larger kboard 4 I haven't tried but I imagine it would also work very well here and possibly the roli seaboards.
As you play, every note will have a distinct and different pressure envelope. This makes a huge difference to the realism of repeated notes

[James Perrett]

This is where a synth of my acquaintance {cough} shines. It is actually very difficult to get two notes to sound exactly the same

You are being tantalizingly vague Will! Is this something my son could use and if so would it cost dad a lot?

My son has been using it for the last couple of years - but it only runs on Linux so you would need a Linux computer or a Raspberry Pi to run it. Will has built a stand-alone version -

http://www.musically.me.uk/YoshimiPi/index.html

which would be useful if you don't want to get into Linux.

[The Elf]

An old Roland JV, or XV module might be enough for you. Worth taking a look.

[MarkOne]

Or an EMU Proteus 2000 module. Particularly if you can find the orchestral ROM too

[N i g e l]

physical modeling is good for realistic sounds & performance variation.

The Korg Prophecy had some physical modeling stuff in it [as well as the VA synthy sounds]. The Sax was a favourite of mine.

To try before you buy, Korg have a VST prophecy, the demo of which will run for 20 minutes.