I started with the Wavetable sounds, built into the early sound cards. It was totally amazing and I loved it. To hear all those sounds coming out of the speakers was so freaking cool. At some point, the General Midi sounds took over when I came back to music after a short time away.

GM sounds were better but not by much. There were 128 of them and that was enough to make some respectable music.

I never used the sounds in any of my hardware synths. Although I knew that I could send the midi data back to the synth and trigger those sounds...... nope, I never bothered..... because, the next thing I discovered was SOUND FONTS.... these things for the most part, sounded better than GM. Some not so much.

The next step in the process was, for me, the sampled synths. They used high quality sound samples that were actual audio and not oscillators trying to sound like a cello, or cymbals.

The limiting factor with samples is the cost. The better ones that are sampled in dozens of layers are very costly.

Garritan Pocket Orchestra was one of the first sampled synths I picked up on. I've added some Native Instruments and some E/W stuff along the way.

PG likes to say they are not sampled and that they are in fact real audio tracks and notes that are played back..... so call it what you will..... I think PG is the pinnacle so far, of what music made inside a computer can be..... for now.

The entire goal in MIDI was to have instruments that sounded like real instruments..... sampling does that best.

What you choose depends greatly on the style and genre of the music you produce and write. There is not a one size fits all kind of synth. That's why there are hundreds of synths on the market from free to very, very costly.

You can find my music at:
www.herbhartley.com
Add nothing that adds nothing to the music.
You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both.

The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.