Location: Near Cambridge UK and Near Questembert, France
Posts: 22,754
Hi and welcome to the forums!
If you didnt already, download and check out both the free User Guide and the excellent series of video tutorials, all at reaper.fm
Have you tried all the free options already? First stop for most people is the Kontakt Player, which gives you a good selection of basic noises at reasonably high quality.
Specific Synth suggestions? Ragnarok (free) Several of the AIR synths are free or as good as right now, also TyrellN6, also the free UVI workstation which comes with a fair few decent instruments.
Worth having a look at BedroomProducersBlog for their exhaustive list of free stuff.
Synth1
SQL8
Dexed
Spitfire Audio LABS (good strings and a decent Piano)
So many really quite good free ones.
Synthmaster One is good in its own right. Depends how much synth programming you want to/can do which determines where you might go with paid for instruments.
I went through a phase of trying out loads of free soft synths. I've always had commercial ones since I moved over from hardware many moons ago but I went through a phase of just seeing what I could do with nothing but Reaper and free plugins.
From more of a conceptual/philosophical point of view than a practical, I much preferred plugins that were just completely free all together, as opposed to free versions of commercial plugins like the Kontakt Player that just offer a few free patches. Again, that was me coming from already having the full versions and non-free libraries and doing it as an experiment; in practical terms if you have nothing and don't want to spend much money then the free players are a no-brainer.
The best totally free synth I found was the aforementioned Tyrell. It really is amazing for a freebie. If you're a preset surfer* then you might not like it as the presets included aren't great and are completely unorganised but if you want to actually programme it yourself, the sound is good.
Another good one I found was the Organised Trio Hammond emulator. I remember it sounding quite good.
*P.S. if you are, indeed, a preset surfer and you do have the money but are hesitant about spending, I'd urge you to at least have a look at Omnisphere 2. It's pretty much everything I could ever imagine wanting from a synth and has the best preset browsing interface I've seen.
Great advice and thank you for your messages of welcome!
I've been an on-off user for some years, gearing up to be more "on" in the near future. I find Reaper very immediate and learning anything seems to take a few short steps.
First up - Newb Alert (and this my friends is my virgin post - yes been trying hard to do the research first before bugging anyone with duplicated questions).
One I do have on VST Synths is simply how do you use those that dont have a Keyboard as part of their UI?
I grabbed some from VST4free and some like ART PYRITE and Esfera very kindly include a Keyboard, but say for something like the aforementioned TAL Noise Maker, where can I create the sounds from? I thought magically if I loaded the default midi (AltB) Id be in luck, but thats not it. Hope its not too obvious a question. By the way, this is a super forum. Finally looking forward to making progress.
First up - Newb Alert (and this my friends is my virgin post - yes been trying hard to do the research first before bugging anyone with duplicated questions).
One I do have on VST Synths is simply how do you use those that dont have a Keyboard as part of their UI?
I grabbed some from VST4free and some like ART PYRITE and Esfera very kindly include a Keyboard, but say for something like the aforementioned TAL Noise Maker, where can I create the sounds from? I thought magically if I loaded the default midi (AltB) Id be in luck, but thats not it. Hope its not too obvious a question. By the way, this is a super forum. Finally looking forward to making progress.
I think most people use usb MIDI keyboards - you can get basic ones pretty cheap.
Failing that, Reaper has a UI Virtual MIDI Keyboard, which lets you use your computer keyboard. I've never used it, but here's a Kenny G video on how -
Thanks Guys. using a virtual Midi is there a way to keep the key pressed/sounding so when I tweak the controls the sound continues? Whether pinned or unpinned, as soon as I click on any of the controls the sounds stops, its as if the controls dashbaord takes precidence over the keyboard. Making it very hit and miss, tweak a control, click the virt keyboard, strike a key, hear the sound, back to the control panel again. Hope this question makes sense.
Using a few notes in a loop lets you tweak the sounds (OSC's Filters etc)as well as things like the ADSR to help you get to the patch you want …
Of course you can also bang in a few chords if you are designing pads, and program in the notes into the range where you expect to use the patch you are designing.
Thinking of getting SynthMaster 1+2 Bundle (currently $77).
What would be good/comparable alternatives (also price-wise)?
Many thanks in advance for any advice.
cheers - Buzzgrowl
Yeah I actually purchased an Akai LPK25, cheap isnt always the best idea, 5 mins out of the box, the onboard socket is faulty, if you breath the cable moves and its on/off/on/off. They're sending a replacement but to be honest Id opt for something more robust than USBMini, and go with a USB Type B or similar. Certainly my experience anyway with cheap.
advice for VST synth
Linear Mode
