What is BEST Drum kits and Synth/Piano plug ins........

[Charles William]

I am looking for the best "out of the box" drum plug in and also one for synth and piano....

For drums, I would like amazing acoustic as well as electronic kits, ability to easily sequence, etc....I don't want to have to fiddle and build..........same for the keys....

But an M1 Korg type of plug in would be great.....polyphonic of course........

Thanks...


CW

[fiddler69]

Charles:

I just replied to your post about PC vs. Mac as well. So you'll know already that I am NOT a PT expert - and I'm actually a complete noob to computer based recording. But as I mentioned earlier I do "overanalyze" all this stuff. I have listened to all kinds of software because I wanted to have really good drums and a really good piano.

You will get all kinds of answers, based on each persons own ear and preferences. But from my research here is what I have found.

Drums:

I wanted something eazy but realistic and I didn't want to have to spend weeks learning to program etc. I first thought I wanted BFD - then I got turned on to EZDrummer. I have watched all kinds of demos on YouTube as well as getting a couple demos at different stores. It really sounds great and from what I have seen it is VERy easy to learn to use. You can build up the kits to your liking by adding extra modules to the base EZdrummer software. Just give it a listen and check some stuff out - I think you will like it.

Piano:

By far the best thing out there I have heard is Ivory by Synthogy. However, I didn't choose it.
It is "recommended" that it has it's own HD for the sample library (that is really big by the way).
I also really like Akoustik Piano from Native Instruments. It is what I settled on - in big part because I wanted some other sample libraries and decided to buy NI KOMPLETE and it had Akoustik Piano included. Another sample that I really liked the sound of (it's brand new actually) is the Garritan authorized Steinway option. SOME DAY - I will probably own all of these. Ivory, in my opinion, seemed to have the best sound - but honestly there wasn't a HUGE difference in any of them.

Check out KOMPLETE for synths too - it is pricey to buy the entire bundle, but it comes with a ton of stuff.

Also keep in mind that I have read that NI has had some issues with PT - but I'll have to wait and really see if that is the case or not.

[Rail Jon Rogut]

You can hear some drum tracks programmed with BFD at our site (with no additional EQ or compression):

https://www.platinumsamples.com/JoeBarresi.html

Rail

[ronwasserman]

Drums Check This: http://www.xlnaudio.com/
Best Piano Samples (You'll need Kontakt or similar) here:http://www.sampletekk.com

Hope this helps.

[Soul Fader]

I'm using M-audio Drum/bass rig and key rig for mine. $99.00 each. Works great and has stand alone as well. Xpand! also works well and its free

[SixChurchStreet]

For drums...

I have used and/or currently use EZDrummer, Addictive Drums, and BFD1.5

I most frequently turn to EZDrummer. Addictive Drums sounds really cool when you're messing around with it, and you can really get in there and tweak everything, but EZDrummer seems to work out so well without all the backbreaking that I always end up using EZD.
For electronic drum type sounds the Claustrophobic EZX is awesome.

BFD, I never liked at all, some of the kicks and snares sound good, but none of the cymbals sound good. And I realize there are better expansions for BFD, like the Andy John's stuff, but for $249 per expansion, there's no way I'm doing that. Not when companies like Toontrack offer their EZXs for 70 or 80 bucks a pop. And a crossgrade to Superior Drummer 2.0 will be about $220 soon. Even Addictive Drums offers their Retro/Vintage expansion for only about $130.

All in all, it's fortunate that EZDrummer is the most affordable, and the one I happen to like the best anyway. Addictive Drums comes in 2nd place, but it still very good. BFD, don't like it and expansions are insanely expensive. I'm sure defenders of the price will say the multitude of sounds you get with a BFD expansion is worth it, but maybe they should try not giving so much in one pack and knocking the price down so people can afford a little at a time.


For piano, I don't have as much experience, I use the pianos they have in Miroslav Philharmonik sometimes, but I have a real acoustic upright piano in my studio, so most of the time, that's what I'm using.

[GunnyT]

I would recommend checking out DFH Superior (to include Custom and Vintage). I use these with MIDI stuff from Groove Monkee. Plus, with Superior 2.0 coming out next month, it will be even more of a treat to use.

I wouldn't forget about Reason. There are 2 refills I would highly recommend: Pianos and Drums. each of those refills is $100. Not bad, for what you get. IMHO Reason will have everything you are looking for (piano, drums, electronic drums, synths, etc). If you have reason adapted (free with some digi gear), really give it a chance.

[manyrains]

I'm surprised nobody's mentioned Strike? I'm still figuring out how I feel about it. I have no experience with others, just moved out of the caveman era when I got my PT set-up. I havn't worked with it as much as I'd like to, but it seems pretty good sounding and very effective sound editing -wise. My big complaint- I've posted about this before, and a few have been aware of what I'm talking about- the high tom sounds like crap when played in a preset pattern. Every time I hear it I think it sounds like drumsticks clicking together. Somebody had mentioned notching the eq; the other day I just went ahead and replaced it with the mid tom in the various fill patterns I was using in a session. With that gone I think Strike sounds pretty good- and I haven't really worked with it seriously. I think alot of the ambient/trance stuff sounds great- easier than trying to make a drums sound real in a acoustic sound ing tune. I can't wait till I have some time to start playing around with that stuff.

[greg1]

Thanks for mentioning Strike. I just purchased and should be arriving this week. Looks pretty amazing from the demo and I like the virtual drummer and the fact that you can change the intensity and complexity of the player as well as use a midi-controller and bang on it yourself. But anyway, I can't really comment on piano (I use the samples in Structure LE and they sound fine to me), but I think that the GForce synth plug-ins are very good. I have the Virtual String Machine and the Oddity plug-ins. While I never had any of the string synthesizers I did own an Odyssey from 76 to 83 before it's untimely and unfortunate demise and I can tell you that playing the Oddity is just like playing a real Odyssey, it's scary how close it comes to the real thing.