In this episode you learn about the joys
of software instruments, and what they
can do to bring you to the next level.
When you look at yourself as a musician,
you are only one person unless you're
a one man band. You need a means of
getting your musical ideas out into the
world, and if you're not a drummer, a bass
player, a soloist, a keyboard player a
string section, a brass section... etc etc
etc.... then you may have a problem.
MIDI and external instruments are
brilliant for building up your
arrangements, though expensive, if you
keep buying outboard gear.
So what if you had a whole Orchestra and
a range of session musicians and
instruments from all over the world,
right there in your computer.
Well you have with Software Instruments.
Plugin software as part of your DAW,
that lets you select any instrument you
may wish for, and play it
as part of your arrangement, song or even
for your sound design.
Whatever endeavor of creativity you
are involved in,
you should have very serious look at
these tools.
A really great start is something for free!
Native Instruments is a real powerhouse
in this area.
They offer Kontakt player, which is a host for
their instrument banks.
You get the hosts for free,
and you buy the instruments as
you go.
So if you fancy one of their
instrument packs you just buy it, and now
it's available to you in your DAW.
There are expensive bundles, and there's some
really great value ones.
It allows you to build up a library of
sounds and effects,
allowing your mind to go wherever it wants.
When it comes to composing your
music, a lot of the packs are sampled from
real instruments in various amazing
venues around the world.
So you can have the actual piano that you
heard in your
favorite tracks sampled in some
extraordinary venue right at your fingertips.
All I can say is Empire State of Mind I
rest my case.
Download the Kontakt player which comes
with a selection of free instruments
just to get you started.
Software instruments bring you freedom
and choice, they're not just for keyboard
players either, you can get software drum
machines sampled from all the classic
hardware instruments from
back in the dark ages of the 1980s...
of course there's every type of keyboard
and synth and even orchestral
instruments and ensembles.
One very old friend of mine is from IK Multimedia,
and works as part of the SampleTank
host it's called Miroslav philharmonic.
It hosts all the instruments of a complete
Orchestra, and it's very beautiful when
arranging your tracks and if you need any
orchestral instrumentation Miroslav is a
really beautiful addition to your
library of options.
Let's face it the sample string sounds
coming from a synth
can be really awful and should never see
the light of day.
Having real instruments sampled and
available to you is a real luxury.
These are not the only software
instruments out there, if you have a
DAW you probably have some already.
Studio One from PreSonus ships with
some great instrument choices.
I know Cubase also
has some really high-quality instruments
on board.
There are also a lot of free
VST instruments available to you.
So have a really good look around.
Controllers are hardware interfaces that
enable you to play your instruments.
We all know the MIDI keyboard,
but there are other controllers out there
that allow you to physically play all your
wonderful instruments...
have a look at some of the
controllers in the links below.
The iPad also has lots of apps out there that
allow you to interact with every manner
of instrument on offer.
I have to mention and only because I love
stuff given to the world AudioKit Pro...
it's an open source project,
that gives you the source
code to develop your own virtual
instruments for the iOS platform
absolutely amazeballs.
Go to the App Store to download their
Synth One Synthesizer for free.
It's an extraordinarily good piece of kit for
any person that wants to create noise.
Your imagination is your only constraint
when it comes to bringing your art to
the world.
It's nice to have these virtual
instruments to give you stepping stones
to your dreams.
I'm Keith Alexander and
you've been watching Adorama TV.
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