What type of music to you generally play/make and how much do you want to spend?

Asking which synth/sample playback synth is recommended, or worse which is "best" is like asking which flavor ice cream is "best" or or which one to recommend without knowing your taste preferences (you hate fruit - so strawberry is out)

Assuming Real Tracks aren't sufficient for type/style of music or you need MIDI flex the usual go to's are:

1. For GM either Coyote Forte or Cakewalks TTS-1

2. For more versatility and larger sample library's of bread and butter sounds: (and any one of these three are probably the 97+% solution for a lot of folks)

Native Instruments Kontakt, or

IK's SampleTank, or

Cakewalk's Dimension Pro or now Rapture Pro (Rapture Pro can replace Dimension Pro),


3. Beyond those depending on kind of music a more "specialized" set of sounds can be had with a Garritan program like Garritan Personal Orchestra or Garritan Jazz and Big Band, or IK's Miroslav Philharmonik.

then there are truly specialized (one kind) sounds drums Addictive Drums, eZdrums, BFD, ...; keys Addictive Keys, eZkeys, etc.


But there is also UVI Falcon, Spectra Sonics OmniSphere 2, AIR Structure 2, Steinberg HALion 5, Magix Independence Pro, East-West Quantum Leap, Vienna Symphonic Library, Reason,...

and countless free and paid-for analog, digital, FM operator, and otherwise unique/niche/specialized or "one trick ponies" synths.

EDIT FORGOT

The above is all if you want to keep it all "in the box" there is a world of external HW synths (I use a LOT of those) - becasue I can make/record/sequence music and never turn PC on.

good luck

Larry







Last edited by Larry Kehl; 04/03/16 11:03 AM.
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