I have been looking for and trying to create a satisfactory tubular bell sound for a long time. Nothing that I have found in GM or the samples I have available comes close to the majestic sustain and resonance of the real thing, or the perhaps idealized sound in Mike Oldfield's album Tubular Bells.

One thing about the GM soundbank is that you can get some interesting results if you use patches for other than their intended purposes. I'm thinking that a triangle with a load of compression and some nice reverb, but played down several octaves, might be a good starting place. Layering it with the GM tubular bell sound might add something. (By the same token, a nylon-string guitar sound makes a pretty good orchestral harp when played in lower registers.) Use your imagination and see what happens.

I am still experimenting with various samplers and synths in Propellerhead Reason, but that is an entire program, not just a plugin. Something I have considered but haven't tried yet is a ring modulator, which has been suggested for achieving clangorous sounds. Everything I've heard out of an RM has significant harmonic artifacts, so I don't know.

Interesting post. Let us know what you come up with.

R.

"My primary musical instrument is the personal computer."