I would say the easiest place to start would Be Cakewalk's free TTS1 as was suggested by Mike. Price is right on that, but sounds are a bit outdated. (15+ years)

The next, I would try VSTsynthfont. I believe it comes free with BIAB, if its not, it is cheap enough. It uses SF2 Soundfonts / Banks, which come in all shapes and colors. Meaning, you get a whole GM bank at around 20 megs or a single instrument at 300Megs+. You can find a lot of free or fairly priced SF2 instruments online. VSTsynthfont requires some tweaking, but it can sound much better than old trusted TTS1.

The step up is Halion Sonic 3. A 25+ GB standalone or VST module that has a selectable GM mode (if you are into it). I believe Sonic 3 is the only current synth that has General Midi. Sounds much better than choices above and very "tweakable". Much easier to use than Kontakt. The only major drawback, you get what you get. The 3rd party libraries are almost non-existent.

Kontakt VST sampler....Very versatile, you can get amazing sounding instruments. No GM mode. "Factory Library" is very mediocre in my opinion, so all "instruments" if you want a better selection, would have to be purchased separately.





Last edited by Rustyspoon#; 01/09/20 05:54 PM.