Some of my high end hardware MIDI synth solutions contain some very stellar sounding Tubular Bell patches.

The past few years I've not been too excited over Software-based MIDI sounds, something's not working out along those lines for whatever reason. Was once willing to put up with the foibles of software-based MIDI sounds that work one day and not the next, at a time when the sounds were getting better and the hassle was maybe worth it, but those software solutions, while certainly being less expensive for the most part, have been rather disappointing soundwise, at least when compared to some of these newer high end MIDI synth hardware solutions.

The hardware not only sounds better, there's that zero latency inherent in using them as well.

Spent a lot of money on both hardware and woftware MIDI solutions over the years here, Gigasamples that cost a small fortune and now lay around virtually unused, hardware synths, ditto, simply because there seems to be a limited shelf life of these things and all too soon something newer is released and the scenario repeats itself over and over again.

Out of all of 'em, the Ketron and the Roland hardware stuff has proven to be the better value over time for me, those things are still very viable and still sound good, although I don't recommend trying to mix and match sounds from the two, which can be a very difficult mixfit session that could be avoided. Pick one good MIDI synth solution and spend the time to get to know and use it well seems the better path, at least for me. Each manufacturer has designed and tweaked their sounds to work and blend well together, why fight it?

One rule I use often: If a certain Instrument Patch idea doesn't come together in a reasonable amount of time, I won't waste any time trying to find another patch source for that particular instrument or sound with the idea that the one I happen to have is problematic due to bad sampling or the likes, the problem is usually one of that particular sound not being a good call for that particular set of tracks, which really means that my time is better spent either changing those other tracks to suit that particular sound and showcase it better -- or even faster and often better -- just try dropping an entirely different Instrument Patch on it and keep on trackin'.


--Mac

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