Anyone know of a good VST general MIDI synth?

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apalomba
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Anyone know of a good VST general MIDI synth?

Post by apalomba » Tue Dec 13, 2005 6:39 pm

Does anyone know of a good VST GM synth for use with Live? Ideally
something with decent quality sounds. Any recommendations?



Anthony

gfea
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Post by gfea » Tue Dec 13, 2005 6:47 pm

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mikemc
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Post by mikemc » Tue Dec 13, 2005 7:17 pm

Did you mean only free? :-) how about Operator?
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gaspode
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Post by gaspode » Tue Dec 13, 2005 7:21 pm

Native Instruments Band in a Box
Cakewalk Dimension/Dimension Pro I think too...

gaspode
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Post by gaspode » Tue Dec 13, 2005 7:22 pm

mikemc wrote:Did you mean only free? :-) how about Operator?
Operator does General Midi now too? nice!

Tarekith
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Post by Tarekith » Tue Dec 13, 2005 8:06 pm

I don't think the new schoolers know what GM is :)

icedsushi
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Post by icedsushi » Tue Dec 13, 2005 10:02 pm

That's right.

When I heard about the new native instruments bandstand GM instrument, I wasn't sure what they meant. I've heard the term before, but I don't know the meaning...where the sounds are coming from or if it's just a midi spec, or if it's a midi setup with samples to go with it. Manuals will sometimes mention it, but never explain what it is.

Even after reading about it I still don't know. Guess you just had to be there.
Last edited by icedsushi on Tue Dec 13, 2005 10:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.

icedsushi
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Post by icedsushi » Tue Dec 13, 2005 10:04 pm

Is bandstand any good? Is this like nice pleasing generic sounds included in garageband?
Last edited by icedsushi on Tue Dec 13, 2005 10:07 pm, edited 2 times in total.

mikemc
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Post by mikemc » Tue Dec 13, 2005 10:06 pm

gaspode wrote:
mikemc wrote:Did you mean only free? :-) how about Operator?
Operator does General Midi now too? nice!
ah, ok, my bad-- thought he meant, like, a general midi synth... so what is General Midi?
UTENZIL a tool... of the muse.

amo
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Post by amo » Tue Dec 13, 2005 10:11 pm

Have you checked that one ? I didn't, but from what I understand, it has general midi capabitlities...

http://www.steinberg.de/ProductPage_sb_hy2_eu.html

Cheers,
amo
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apalomba
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Post by apalomba » Tue Dec 13, 2005 11:42 pm

Yes Gerneral MIDI refers to a MIDI standard that includes samples.
So when you create a GM file and play it on a GM synth you will be
sure that your piano/strings/drums/etc. will always be set to the right patch.
I did look into NIs Bandstand, it comes with a 2gig GM sample
set that sounds pretty sweet.

gaspode
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Post by gaspode » Wed Dec 14, 2005 2:32 pm

Sorry, I haven't been creating music *that* long, maybe five or six years now... and I just sort of figured everybody new what General MIDI was.

As was mentioned it is a spec for MIDI sound sets... essentially what it defines is I believe 128(possibly 256) different instruments, such as a drum kit, a piano kit, saxaphone, etc... that will always be on a particular patch number.

For a made up example, but to illustrate the point... when creating a MIDI song what you would then do would be to say track one uses pianos, which for everybody using any general MIDI synth would be patch #1 (I made this up, it might be #12, can't remember). So anybody playing this MIDI file in a general midi synth would then hear essentially what you had intended. Now patch #1 for the pianos may sound different from the GM set on your sound card compared to a Yamaha GM kit, or even a Korg or Native Instruments GM kit, but when you program a GM song at least the sax part will be a sax part, the pianos will be pianos and the drums will be drums.

Does this illustrate the idea of general midi? It is just a way to organize a sound bank so that no matter what synthesizer you play it on, you will always be able to hear the song as 'intended', with varying degrees of quality for the sound samples.

mikemc
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Post by mikemc » Thu Dec 15, 2005 5:54 am

Does this illustrate the idea of general midi? It is just a way to organize a sound bank so that no matter what synthesizer you play it on, you will always be able to hear the song as 'intended', with varying degrees of quality for the sound samples.
Yes, thanks.
UTENZIL a tool... of the muse.

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