Wyndham,

NI makes other synths besides Kontakt. But before you spend money on more synths or sound packs.....

Let me ask you a question. What kind of music are you looking to create? The answer to that question will tell you what direction you need to go.

I have the Komplete collection of the NI package....and a bunch of other soft synths from other companies both purchased, discounted, and free. I rarely use them. Since I mostly write country, rock and tv cues, I don't really have a use for them in my style of writing. I use them occasionally for bass, piano and choirs, and sometimes strings.

Kontakt is one of the better synths you can buy. It's a bit pricy BUT.... not only does NI make lots and lots of sound packs for it.... it also happens to have hundreds of smaller companies whose sole purpose is making 3rd party sound packs that work with Kontakt. I bought one of those for $30 or so that included acoustic guitar, dulcimer and something else if I recall..... the problem with them.... oh they sound good...certainly, but there are no "human elements" to the sound. Good quality samples played by a midi trigger still sounds stiff and robotic. To add the human factor takes a huge amount of time and effort and the knowledge of how a real player would play... in intimate detail. Most non-players can not grasp that concept.

You mentioned in the OP that you wanted to "take my tracks to a higher quality"....

I contend that for the most part, unless you are a professional player on a given instrument, PG's BB & RT is the best solution on the market for getting a realistic track on a given instrument. I have found nothing better... yet.

Having said that.... most folks don't go much past the rendering of the tracks out of Real Band. They accept the default tracks because....lets face it... they are pretty freaking awesome.

However, IMHO.... the secret to getting the most out of BB/RB is to export the tracks into a DAW that is flexible. Yeah, I know RB is a DAW. But to me, it doesn't have the functionality and power of something like Sonar.

Secondly, and most importantly, you would probably be wiser to spend your money on a package like Ozone if you want to "up the quality" of your tracks. Ozone is a fairly user friendly mastering suite of tools that can bring out the punch in the drums, shake the earth with the bass, add the sparkle to the highs and does wonders for the entire mix in general. Using the tracks straight out of RB, you will notice that the sound is good, but kind of subdued and perhaps a bit muffled sounding..( I would say "dull", no offense to Peter Gannon and crew) ..... there's not a lot of punch or definition in the music and certainly, the highs are not as present as they could be. Ozone, properly applied will fix that. That one step, will take the quality of the tracks up a few steps.

If you have not done so.... listen to my music. I use Ozone in my master buss in Sonar with a custom preset that I tweeked for the sound I want to achieve.

I am providing 2 examples below. Listen on some good speakers or good headphones so you can hear the subtle aspects of the music.

Here is a song without Ozone: http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=6547494

Here is a song with Ozone: http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=12633485

Quite the difference. It's also noteworthy to disclose that I used Melodyne for vocal fixes on the song with Ozone. Another disclosure.... Corridors was recorded without BB/RB I hadn't bought PG at that time.....so, if you think that skews the example, simply listen to the vocals. Between Melodyne and Ozone.... I would say those 2 software purchases were among the best decisions I ever made that have moved my music up on the quality scale..... aside from PG, of course.

Now days, 95% of my music, and all the tracks you hear in my songs are either real band tracks or me playing the guitar/piano live in my studio. I haven't loaded a softsynth except to do some custom stuff with bass tracks or when I play the piano.

Anyway, that's my 2 cents.


Last edited by Guitarhacker; 10/05/14 08:04 AM.
You can find my music at:
www.herbhartley.com
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