PG Music Home Forums General Discussion Off-Topic Your thoughts on a replacement synth

I finally have to admit that my Roland JV-1010 was either lost or stolen during one of many moves last year and needs to be replaced. I have a couple of questions for the group.

I'd prefer the identical unit as I am familiar with it and have the documentation for it. I also like the portability and ease of using it on with than one computer. If one of you has one for sale, I'm interested. (I'm looking at two on eBay for $135 and $149, with shipping included.)

I'm also interested in your thoughts on other hard or soft synths in the $100 range. New gear is probably out of the question. I know about the Coyote VSTi, but don't like the idea of buying one for each PC; not ruling it out, but how does it stack up against a hardware module?

Any of your collective thoughts on the matter will be of value.

Thanks,

Richard

The Forte Coyote VSTi is "ok to good" - I own it, I use it to knock things out (scratch work) but is not my idea of the "one and only" VSTi (actually I've found even on much higher end VSTi's none are "end all be all")

I also had a JV-1010 , as evidenced by the pat/ini file I contributed here years ago, and I liked it but moved up and on to the XV-5080 (and Fantom XR and….)).

In my opinion, if your entire MIDI sound palette (don’t want to start fire fight over synths/MIDI/VSTi's versus RT's - different animals) was an "either or" situation (i.e., either Forte OR JV-1010) - I'd opt for JV every SINGLE time and that is sans an additional SR-JV card. However, that does NOT imply that I think the JV is/was an "end all be all" item either.

as far as you other question - I've not shopped for any small, inexpensive, or eBay (used) HW in a long while so have no idea what can be had in the ~$100 range.

good luck
Larry

Larry,

Thanks for your response, especially in light of your experience with both of the synths I mentioned. It mostly reinforces my own thoughts.

When I moved to Win 7 from XP I lost the use of my Creative Audigy Platinum hardware synths, which were pretty good for preproduction work. I tried the Coyote, but it was quite a while ago and I wasn't certain about my memory of it. I'm not sure whether I actually need something for finished work as the plan is to import most pieces into Propellerhead Reason for mastering, but I really did like the JV. Although somewhat dated (in the sense that there are several easily recognizable patches), it had a great GM section and some really nice pads.

I never had any of the extra sound modules either, but never felt I needed them. Reason, with its optional Refills (proprietary sound sets), blows away all but the most esoteric VSTi's. Mostly I want something to give me a polished feel while working in BIAB/RB. If I never port a piece into Reason, the JV would be at least adequate for what I have in mind.

I did get one PM which mentioned IK soft synths, but I really think I have those covered with my Refills. I'll just have to share some new music and let y'all decide.

***

There were other valuables in the box which was lost/stolen, not the least of which was a Roland GI-10 pitch-to-MIDI converter. I had hoped to use it with my GK-equipped guitar to control some hard and soft synths directly. I don't know whether I'll be able to replace it any time soon. Oh, well; plenty to keep me busy without that.

R.

I use an old Yamaha DX-27S in my studio. It doesn't have touch sensitive keys or weighted keys so that's the downside to it for me. But since I already own it, and have for 28 years or so, I use it when I need to play something manually.

I never use the sounds in it for recording it's audio, other than on occasion I turn the volume up with a piano default to hear what I'm doing. It's sounds are sub-par to the synths I have and they also are "dated" sounding.

99% of the time I use it simply for midi input. I exclusively use softsynths "in the box" to create the instrument sounds I need.

The quality of softsynths and sampled sound libraries these days is simply amazing.

To me, Coyote and TTS are good basic level synths on about the same bottom level as GM sounds but slightly better than the GM stuff that was built into soundcards along the lines of Wave Table synth.

If you're going to buy something for sounds..... buy Kontakt from Native Instruments. It is a professional level synth. The samples it comes with are realistic enough that you can use them on commercial projects without problems. In addition to the stuff that Kontakt comes with, there are literally hundreds of small companies making sound packs that are compatible with Kontakt for every conceivable musical instrument on the planet. Kontakt has a complete orchestra sampled instrument by instrument, guitars, basses, pianos and organs, brass instruments, and even vocal choirs. (I used the choirs in Give me a Chance in the part where the little girl is singing the chorus near the end) and a bunch of other things as well.... including percussion and timpani.

Another sampler synth I absolutely love is the Cakewalk Sound Center. It comes with just about all of their DAW's now including the little MC6T. They too are adding lots of expansion sound packs @ $20 each to expand form the 150 sounds included. (that's how many were with my CSC) I've added a Steinburg piano collection and world instruments to the lineup.

Those are my 2 "Go-To" synths when I need to play something and BB/RB won't fit the bill or do the job. As a good example....on the last song (Hard Way) in my version, the bass guitar when it first comes in on the held notes is played with the CSC using the Ricko bass until the groove starts and then it's RB. Since CSC had a sample that sounded close enough to the RB track's bass sound, I played the exact notes I wanted using CSC.

CSC can be had for around $40 or so with a purchase of MC6 from Cakewalk. Kontakt is a bit pricier so shop around to find the best price. Older versions can be had in the $300 price range. Well worth the cost for a synth at this professional level.


BTW: You can often find older copies of Komplete for sale on Ebay or Amazon at really nice prices. The synth you want is Kontakt BUT>>>>> if you can find KOMPLETE 6 (or up) at a good price, buy it. Komplete is a collection of several of the NI synths. I picked up K-6 several years back. The other synths in the package have some really nice pads and strings as well as all sorts of other sounds in their libraries. In the komplete package you also get a drum synth called Battery. It's a really good purchase that you will not regret.

Richard it sounds like you are looking for a GM module that will replace your Creative Soundfonts. If so then DL SFZ+ Professional. It is a free VSTi soundfont player that is really good. Read about it here:
http://www.cakewalk.com/products/SFZ/


Get it here: http://www.store.cakewalk.com/b2ceuro/ProductInfo.aspx?productid=35-CWSZ1.40-20E

This of course assumes that you still have your soundfonts.

I hope this helps.

I used the SFZ basic font player for quite some time before I bought the NI komplete 6 package.

If you look at some sites on the net, you can find some fairly decent sounding fonts to use with it. If you go to my website and click on the LINKS, you will find a few links to pages where I found some decent ones. And they are free.

Hi Herb,

Like you I used SFZ basic for SF2s until I purchased Kontakt. I still have a quite large collection of SF2s that I rarely use. SF2s are a thing of the past but as Richard was looking for a GM replacement, at least I think he is, then I suggested the SFZ+. Personally I think SF2s are very close if not as good as some of the free or the under $100 GM VSTis. YMMV

Agreed

Yeah...if I check my laptop, I probably have all those SF2 fonts in there still.

When I built my custom DAW, I had purchased K-6 and some other high quality synths so I never bothered to migrate the old SFZ/SF2 stuff into the new DAW.

I agree totally that if money is a problem, and you are realizing that the TTS/Coyote/GM Wavetable stuff isn't cutting it anymore.....SFZ and fonts are the next logical step with free fonts. And there are thousands of fonts on the net for free. Check that KVR website.

Being a regular on the KVR Audio site, I'm not sure it's the place to go looking for soundfonts. Most folks there are using softsynths, but not in a general midi sense of things. Very few 'orchestral' composers there. Mostly electronic stuff, some rock, less folk and very few folks using GM as a backing track mindset.

I'm trying to remember the old sites that were the treasure trove of soundfonts and I'm drawing a bit of a blank. Soundfonts.it used to be one of them, but Guido has moved on to much more interesting stuff with physically modeled instruments that are actually outstanding.

Ah yes, google is our friend. Hammersound.net is a huge one: http://www.hammersound.net/

I used to use a Roland XV-3080, which probably has a lot of the same sounds found in the Roland JV1010 synth. General Midi sounds tend to be kind of unspectacular.. and I find that the results I get from the Coyote forte GM synth are not that different from the GM in my hard synth.

what I liked about the hardware synth was all the other non-GM patches... but, IMO today's soft synths are better.

Best bang for the buck is the occasional $99 deal on one of the better soft synths, and use it in conjunction with Coyote forte if you need GM sounds. Forte is cheap and quite passable for a lot of GM applications

Thanks for your responses despite my intermittent presence here. My wife and I are undergoing a sort of relaxed crisis. You have given me some good information upon which I plan to base my eventual decision.

Gratefully,

Richard

Richard, you did answer one question with this inquiry - you are cool with joysticks for modulation.

I hate them. I'm a wheel guy. This rules out nearly all KORG and Roland boards for me.

Another board to consider as a killer gigging axe is the Casio Privia PX5s. Before you buy anything, check that bugger out.

-Scott

Richard,

If you have soundfonts then FlStudio is a good place to look.

There are many versions but the interesting part, for you, is that one can use the demo, full program with some limitations ie save a project, indefinitely. I did so for a year (!) and bought the Producer edition, when my finances settled out and now have free updates for life!!
You can overcome the save by exporting each track as a wav, a bit of a limitation but it works.

It runs as a VSTi OR via rewire.
Also has good proprietary effects and instruments
I find it excellent and use it in every song I produce with BIAB although I haven't tried it as a vsti in BIAB.

try it, it's free and the demo shows how good this program is.

Alyn