Reason vs Gigasampler?

[wonderfall]

Hi guys.

I want to achieve the most realistic sounds possible for acoustic drums, bass and piano.
I'm not into electronic music at all...

So is Reason good for non-electronic music? I tried the demo version, and although the interface is impressive, I was not convinced by the sample songs... And mostly Redrum : is that right that there are only three velocities to chose from?

The alternative is to buy the USB external soundcard Tascam US122, provided with Gigastudio 24. I would just plug the outputs of it into the inputs of the MBox... sequencing in ProTools...

I know there will be latency, but we can set up MIDI to play earlier for compensation can't we?

Please I'd like to hear your advices!

Thanks.

[da BaSsTaRd!]

I want to achieve the most realistic sounds possible for acoustic drums, bass and piano.

use loops. if you want authentic acoustic drums especially, you won't be able to get that sound from any midi drum kit. you have to be a great drum programmer to even come close. even then it still doesn't sound real.

check out the drumkit from hell demo mp3s. that's the slickest drum programming i ever heard and it still doesn't sound like a live kit...

[Carl Fuehrer]

I use Reason is more for synth stuff and electronic music production. I also use GigStudio. It's mainly for the most realistic samples and sound.

[wonderfall]

Thanks guys.

DaBastaard : Well I guess loops are fine, but I still would like to programm exactly what I want and not use the closest match. With the velocity randomizing thing in PTLE I've heard very convincing results... Second, I'd like much flexibility on the tempo. Varying humanly. And I guess with loops it's hard to get that isn't it?

Carl : well then I guess I need more Gigastudio than Reason (confirming my first impression)

Any other comment?

Thanx

[j old school]

"I want to achieve the most realistic sounds possible for acoustic drums, bass and piano.
I'm not into electronic music at all... "


I'm kind of like you in that respect. I can't really get into the idea of using loops - I may in the future, but I enjoy creating my own parts. When I want a real sounding piano, I use an Oberheim MiniGrand module I got real cheap used. I'm very happy with the piano sounds - very realistic down to pedal and hammer noises. It also comes with electric piano sounds that are pretty lame. For drums, unfortunately it is tough to come close to a real drummer. I use an Alesis DM5 and sometimes a Roland module that came with my friend's electronic drum kit. Using the drum pads really gives you much more realism than using a keyboard. I have a bass and can play bass, so i have no advice for you there. If you need a good Hammond B3 sound, I haven't heard anything better (aside from the real thing) than Native's B4 softsynth. One day I will have a grand piano, a drum kit, and a B3 - but for now, this midi stuff will have to do.

[Calvin]

I can't tell ya a whole lot about either of these programs, but from the research I have done, gigasampler just seems to be more realistic to me. However the sound banks for gigasampler are almost all more expensive, but they all seem to be larger. If you go to www.soundsonline.com, they have a nice giga library that has lots of demos for you to download to get an idea of the quality of the libraries.

[Cliffy_Boy]

Check out Kontakt by Native Instruments. Any day ( or week) it will be RTAS plug in and would work great inside Protools. Ths quality is tops and it can play Direct from Disk streaming like Giga and also read Giga and many other formats. I've used it as a playback sampler in VSTi as well as Giga and prefered Kontakt because Gigastudio does not integrate properly in DAWs unless you have multiple cards and even then I had misery getting audio out.
Just my 2 cents

[B.Ray]

Hi guys.

I want to achieve the most realistic sounds possible for acoustic drums, bass and piano.
...

I'm kinda' in the same boat as you, except I do electronic and acoustic stuff. On the acoustic side I like Samba, Bossa Nova, Salsa and Straight Ahead Jazz. I've found that there are some pretty good libraries in Akai format for Drums, Acoustic Bass and Piano (Reason can read Akai via their Reload tool). However, many people believe that the best libraries for acoustic instruments are in disk streaming formats (Giga, HALion, etc.).

For that reason, I'm thinking of jumping on the Giga Studio bandwagon. Although Kontakt might be the ticket if it indeed does read Giga libraries with disk streaming technology, as opposed to RAM based. (There are utulities that convert Giga format to RAM based formats but with those, you miss the sound quality benefit from disk streaming...streaming allows long whole notes without artificial loop points).

You might want to check out Northern Sounds forum. Many composers for Film & TV hang out there.
Northern Sounds Forum.

[B.Ray]

Thanks guys.

...Second, I'd like much flexibility on the tempo. Varying humanly. And I guess with loops it's hard to get that isn't it? ...

Not to speak for DB, but I'd like to add my dos centavos to the loop discussion. Working with loops isn't that hard at all. With a tool called Recycle, you create REX files of your loops and load them into Reason's Dr. Rex loop player. Once in Reason, the tempo of your loop will track to your PTLE tempo.

There is a limit to how far you can slow-down or speed-up a drum loop before you get artifacts though. It depends on the starting tempo and the kind of music you're writing. I've done some extreme tempo changes (+50%) that sounded OK but I was writing a Drum&Bass tune.

There are some pretty good drum loop libraries out there too...some already in the REX format. With Recycle and a REX player I have a lot of fun with drum loops. I've been known to snatch a drum groove off of a record or CD that I liked. (We did that a lot back in the day...before you needed permission from the publisher). And as DB points out, you can end up with a more realistic sounding piece using drum loops, that is, if the loops are of a real drummer playing live.

But, as Marvin Gaye once said, "...Ain't Nothin' Like The Real Thing..".

[Castaliamusic]

I want to achieve the most realistic sounds possible for acoustic drums, bass and piano.
I'm not into electronic music at all...

Giga. Definitely. I'm a Mac user but I'm planning to add a PC dedicated to Giga. Best choice for piano, strings, guitars and most acoustic stuff. If you need something better, hire some amazing players