Originally Posted By: Larry Kehl
Originally Posted By: Bernier
Since I plan to do a lot of Chicago tunes, I think I'm going to invest the $200 for Kontakt.
I have been reading lots of tutorials lately. As I understand it, a VSTi (plug in) is something that modifies a track, with effects or different instruments, is that correct?
Thanks! Bernie



1. If you find Kontakt for $200 you may want to post that sale link for others! (it's usually $299 unless on sale, or crossgrade from various products for $249 - go to Native Instruments site for that info) and the Kontakt horns (that John mentioned above) Session Horns is $99 and the Session Horns Pro is $299 (or upgrade from Session Horns for $199) again unless on sale. So it will be a bit more than $200 to get both Kontakt and one of its horns packages.

BTW until Jan 4 you can get a $25 eVoucher off on anything there.

Don't initially get "target fixated" on amassing plug-ins or Kontakt, Kontakt is not the ONLY game in town. However, Kontakt, at some point, will probably wind up in your tool box so not a bad way to start if you have the scratch.

No matter what go ahead and get the FREE Kontakt player - ditto the free Sampletank 3 Custom shop at IK multimedia (and check eSoundz for sales on Sampletank and
MAKE sure you check these two PG forum links (the first one has another link that is little dated, in that only one of the free soundfont players mentioned can still be found, the SForzando player, but good stuff anyway)

http://www.pgmusic.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=387132#Post387132

and this one

http://www.pgmusic.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=386953#Post386953


Beyond free soundfonts here are some other free sounds http://www.dskmusic.com/


2. Plug-ins come in TWO "kinds:"

a. instruments: piano, guitar, drum kit, four piece jazz band, or entire orchestra AND

b. effects: delays, compressors, reverbs, eq's, etc.)


3. And these plug-ins can come in multiple "types" (code specifications) I will only list TWO here, the two that BIAB, RB and PTPA can use:

a. Virtual Studio Technology (aka VST)

b. Microsoft Direct X (aka DX)

They call a Virtual Studio Technology "instrument" (see #2a above) a "VSTi" (i=instrument) and effects only plug-ins (usually only effects) "VST"

DITTO Direct X forms - ALL DX instruments (see 2b above) are called "DXi" (i=instrument) and all FX only, usually "DX"

As to "modifying a track" with these plug-ins (I like to think of it as sending the track data to the plug-in - not the other way around).

If you have a MIDI only track (MIDI only data: note on, note off, note number, note velocity, MIDI channel, et./c) you would send that to a VSTi or DXi (instrument) to generate some kind of sound.

If you had a Audio only track (actual sound) you could send that to a VST or DX to add eq., delay , compression, etc.

That's the SIMPLE version.

Larry


Larry, although I already knew this, I found your explanation quite impressive in clarity. It's really a good first step explanation to get folks started.



Charlie

BIAB Ultra Pak+ 2024:RB 2024, Latest builds: Dell Optiplex 7040 Desktop; Windows-10-64 bit, Intel Core i7-6700 3.4GHz CPU and 16 GB Ram Memory.