Favorite VIs per instrument
Posted: Tue Jun 28, 2022 7:09 pm
Wondering what others are using and how they stack up....some thoughts offhand for me:
Grand Piano: the Denver Grand and Ivy 162 are both free and IMO both excellent. I see no need to buy or get anything else
Upright Piano: the Rain Piano by Sampletekk is great IMO; as advertised, a "lot of character"
Organ: I don't use organs much at all, but CollaB3 is a nice B3 tonewheel organ emulation IMO, and various synths have solid organ patches
Electric Pianos (Rhodes etc): Lounge Lizard EP4 wins this one for me, but tbh I have heard numerous respectable patches in many synths for these as well, including free ones
Sax: I haven't found a truly good one, but while it has a niche sound, the very inexpensive Sensual Sax was well worth the price.
Guitars: I haven't really messed with these too much yet, but Ample Sound's acoustic and electric offerings are the best I've heard. I have heard good things about Shreddage and Orange Tree's stuff but haven't used.
Strings: I have 8Dio's Anthology Strings and am very happy with it. Really good sound IMO. They have a lot of sales, so definitely go that route if interested.
Brass: 8Dio again, with their Century Brass ensemble.
Trumpet: Norrland. Free trumpet and the best I've heard, including paid.
Violin: Embertone's Joshua Bell violin. Excellent
Drums: I tried EZ Drummer but IMO the free MT Power Drum Kit, if you're not looking for anything crazy, is plenty.
Synths: too many to mention. I have tried many, free and paid. Full Bucket has some great free retro synths. NI's Absynth is good despite being older. u-he is probably king of synths though, both free and paid.
Grand Piano: the Denver Grand and Ivy 162 are both free and IMO both excellent. I see no need to buy or get anything else
Upright Piano: the Rain Piano by Sampletekk is great IMO; as advertised, a "lot of character"
Organ: I don't use organs much at all, but CollaB3 is a nice B3 tonewheel organ emulation IMO, and various synths have solid organ patches
Electric Pianos (Rhodes etc): Lounge Lizard EP4 wins this one for me, but tbh I have heard numerous respectable patches in many synths for these as well, including free ones
Sax: I haven't found a truly good one, but while it has a niche sound, the very inexpensive Sensual Sax was well worth the price.
Guitars: I haven't really messed with these too much yet, but Ample Sound's acoustic and electric offerings are the best I've heard. I have heard good things about Shreddage and Orange Tree's stuff but haven't used.
Strings: I have 8Dio's Anthology Strings and am very happy with it. Really good sound IMO. They have a lot of sales, so definitely go that route if interested.
Brass: 8Dio again, with their Century Brass ensemble.
Trumpet: Norrland. Free trumpet and the best I've heard, including paid.
Violin: Embertone's Joshua Bell violin. Excellent
Drums: I tried EZ Drummer but IMO the free MT Power Drum Kit, if you're not looking for anything crazy, is plenty.
Synths: too many to mention. I have tried many, free and paid. Full Bucket has some great free retro synths. NI's Absynth is good despite being older. u-he is probably king of synths though, both free and paid.