Soft synths?????

[Nokatus]

some sort of Audio to Instrument which turns it into Midi, allowing us to play the sample up and down our keyboard same as we would midi, without affecting sound quality or color of the original sample. Any VST's that do this?

No such thing exists.

Kontakt does a good job over +/- 1 octave or so.

I use it all the time for exactly this purpose.

Yep, I use Kontakt in pretty much every project I do , and still, in my opinion no such thing exists that Obi described there.

[ian_halsall]

Well you have to do a bit of work but you resample your vst or whatever and load it into Kontakt - depending on the material and how particular you are about your sound you can get a few notes of pitch shifting without artefacts if you use time machine pro mode.

Do you have v5?

[Nokatus]

Do you have v5?

I'm using v4, have demoed v5 though (and have some library licenses that specifically work with the Kontakt Player version 5, but anyway). Just noticed the -50% autumn special at NI, haha, maybe I actually have Kontakt 5 in like... 5 minutes

But yes, I agree it's perfectly usable, it's just the idea of taking ONE single sample and playing it "up and down our keyboard without affecting sound quality or color the original sample" I took issue with. That sort of performance, when taken literally, is still sci-fi imo.

I actually do a lot of layering and sound design (with original recorded material) using the Sampler in Live. It's the most useful bit of extra stuff in the Suite for me. I love the workflow Sampler (combined with Live's racks) gives me.

[ian_halsall]

Do you have v5?

I'm using v4, have demoed v5 though (and have some library licenses that specifically work with the Kontakt Player version 5, but anyway). Just noticed the -50% autumn special at NI, haha, maybe I actually have Kontakt 5 in like... 5 minutes

But yes, I agree it's perfectly usable, it's just the idea of taking ONE single sample and playing it "up and down our keyboard without affecting sound quality or color the original sample" I took issue with. That sort of performance, when taken literally, is still sci-fi imo.

I actually do a lot of layering and sound design (with original recorded material) using the Sampler in Live. It's the most useful bit of extra stuff in the Suite for me. I love the workflow Sampler (combined with Live's racks) gives me.

Of course you're right - time machine pro is a bit better than time machine - I went from v3 to v5 - is that stretch mode in v4?

[Nokatus]

Of course you're right - time machine pro is a bit better than time machine - I went from v3 to v5 - is that stretch mode in v4?

They added that in v5, only time machine 1-2 algos in v4. I think the pro mode is the same elastique one as in Live ("complex pro"), actually?

[Sage]

Operator is a workhose. Collision can be usefull. electric is a one trick Pony. I dont care for tension and analog lacks sound quality for its intended role (analog sound), operator is better for a lot of the stuff analog does.

Analog is absolutely fine. Have had people asking me what synth was making certain sounds at gigs and by producers, often the answer is Analog, strangely.

Personally I find it a touch bright, so sometimes it works, other times it doesn't.

[ian_halsall]

Operator is a workhose. Collision can be usefull. electric is a one trick Pony. I dont care for tension and analog lacks sound quality for its intended role (analog sound), operator is better for a lot of the stuff analog does.

Analog is absolutely fine. Have had people asking me what synth was making certain sounds at gigs and by producers, often the answer is Analog, strangely.

Personally I find it a touch bright, so sometimes it works, other times it doesn't.

I would take with a pinch of salt what producers say they use to make their tracks.

Often it's just a sample library or nexus...

[Sage]

Operator is a workhose. Collision can be usefull. electric is a one trick Pony. I dont care for tension and analog lacks sound quality for its intended role (analog sound), operator is better for a lot of the stuff analog does.

Analog is absolutely fine. Have had people asking me what synth was making certain sounds at gigs and by producers, often the answer is Analog, strangely.

Personally I find it a touch bright, so sometimes it works, other times it doesn't.

I would take with a pinch of salt what producers say they use to make their tracks.

Often it's just a sample library or nexus...

I meant when people ask me. I find it surprising myself.

[Nick the Zombie]

Interesting to hear what others think of the Suite instruments. I'm personally a huge fan of Sampler, Analog & Operator and use them for most of my bread and butter sounds along with Alchemy. The interfaces are simple and combine well with instrument racks for easy layering. Very little fluff, which I like a lot.

[antarktika]

Kontakt - every time - expensive but very very very highly recommended

+1
also, much less expensive this week than if you wait!

[naujpablo]

I believe your best bet is to buy Ableton Standard (you get all the mastering and creative effects) + Native instruments Komplete ELEMENTS ($49 bucks, you get a pair of nice softsynths like spark and carbon2 and nice samples) + u-he zebra ($199, the swiss army knife of softsynths, you can get almost every sound from there).

you can also get amazing free synths like tone2 firebird and synth1.

[Regrind]

^^^ yep.

[login]

Depending on what genre you produce Komplete might be or not a good bet. All the included synths are excellent and can be used to get good results the question is: Do you really need Massive, Absynth, Fm8, monark, Razor and Reaktor? Do you intend to use them all?

And then there is the problem of integration with push.

[ian_halsall]

I use kontakt in every track I make. Massive too. Fm8 on 50%. Reaktor on 50%.
I own absynth but I never use it any more.

[Airyck]

I write progressive house fairly often (not along those artist lines but I know how they sound). I'll give my suggestions but I believe you ultimately need to decide for yourself.

For progressive house basslines I don't think you can beat a Moog.

The best emulation I've heard and the best prog basslines I've been able to make have been from Native Instruments Monark. It's my go to now 75% of the time for basslines.

For those really RAW sounds and general versatility you can look into
Native Instruments Massive and Also DCAM Synth Squad (also good for most everything).

For plucky or pretty sounds and even arps or pads z3ta+ 2 is really great.
Pads/Strings or Atmospheric stuff I turn to Padshop Pro or Absynth usually.

Anyway figure out what you need, don't buy too many, just focus on getting the best sounds you can out of what you have. Make sure to try demos wherever you can, and don't just listen to the presets, try to use them if you can. My judge of a synth is usually how easily, quickly, and often I'm able to get inspiring sounds of them. If it's a lot then It's one I usually buy.