RECCOMENDATIONS

[DLinares]

Hey wats going on Virtual Instrument users. I am very new to the Virtual Instrument world and was wondering if anyone can reccomend some good VI's and a good place to buy them. (i.e. WEBSITES). I generally work on Hip-hop and R&b projects if that helps. I appreciate any type of feedback and cannot wait to begin working with VI's because i hear very good things about them. Thank in advance. -DL

[Ray Lyon]

My .02

All the Spectrasonics products are excellent... (Stylus, Atmosphere, Trilogy) Stylus really takes it to the next level with their SAGE expander library...
NI and IK stuff are good for sampling libraries but are probably not coded as cleanly... I've found they can lead to some problems with hangs, crashes...
Synthogy Ivory is the best piano, hands down...
Bread and butter, nuts and bolts, use the free Xpand! ...
These are all RTAS, you might want to investigate a TDM synth (McDSP, Aurora, etc.)
Indigo comes with PT and is an excellent choice for analog stuff... it is also TDM...

Places to buy: altomusic.com, macmidimusic.com, zzounds.com... I have saved a few dollars with altomusic but they all sell for about the same. YMMV.

Have fun!

[spkguitar]

A good starter app for hip-hop is Reason (http://www.propellerheads.se/products/reason/index.cfm?fuseaction=mainframe). Lots of "bang for buck" there.

You can get Reason just about anywhere.

[Sonny in London]

Another shout for Reason.

Versatile, stable, fun to use and genuinely useful.

Lots of libraries and online sounds available too.

[degs7]

Reason for sure!

try the free demo to see if you like it!

[DLinares]

How does actually Reason work?... everything online just tells me all the features. I'm running PT7 with a 002 control surface and was wondering if the sounds that come with REASON are the only stock sounds available. Is their upgrade sound bundles or expansion packs? I need the Virtual Instrument that gives the best bang for the $buck$! Would u just apply reason to an Instrument track on PT7 and use it like any other soft synth or is there something different about REASON? I really appreciate all the comments. Thanks. -DL

[spkguitar]

Reason is a rewire application, but it works just like a softsynth; you just have more options. (WAY, more options)

There is a DiskFlix Tutorial (http://www.digidesign.com/disk/diskflix/qt/Reason.cfm) about using the light "Reason Adapted" version that comes with all new systems now.

Propellerheads also has a Tutorial for PT 6 (http://www.propellerheads.se/support/reason/rewire/index.cfm?fuseaction=get_article&article=protools61) on their website (which is where you can also find additional sounds).

Since both of those are about PT v6.x, they describe using the old technique of a MIDI track and an aux track, but you can apply the same ideas to instrument tracks.