Recommended Gear: Software

[hazineju]

Hey Gang, I'd really love a run-down of the software in your studio that you deem "Must Haves" for the type of music you create, or an in general "must have." There are so many things out there and many of us are looking to expand our palettes with quality products that get the most bang for your buck. So please share what works best for you. I realize it's a bit subjective based on the type of music you do, so if it's a sort-of genre specific software, list that too.

My list is short (but not for long!)

-Sampletekk Black Grand Close - looooove it for it's rich warm tone! Two major thumbs up.
-EWSO freebie sampler - It's awesome and you couldn't beat the price

[mazz]

OK, here goes:

Spectrasonics Stylus, Ominsphere, Trillian

LA Scoring Strings

SampleModeling Trumpet, Saxes, Trombone

Superior Drummer

Alchemy

Morphestra

Evolve and the Mutation Expanders

Kontakt 4 and various third party libraries.

SAM Orchestral Brass

East West: various depending on project, the percussion and harp in QLSO are outstanding

Sampletekk 7CG

Reason 4

HollywoodWinds, Drums of War, Deep Percussion Beds (Cinesamples)

Tonehammer Epic Guitars

Shreddage, Sitar Nation (Impact Soundworks)

These have been making regular appearances in my recent stuff.

[cardell]

A good drum program: Addictive drums, EZdrummer etc..

Stuart

[Fullertime]

Here are 6 that I would not want to produce/write without:

Spectrasonics Stylus
Spectrasonics Ominsphere
Spectrasonics Trillian
BFD2.0
MOTU Ethno 2.0
Waves Rennaissance Vox/Axx Compressor

[hazineju]

Thanks mazz, cardell and Fullertime, I'm loving this so far Lots of stuff to look into.

Keep them coming!

[Cruciform]

FWIW:

Drums-on-Demand

Native Instruments:
- Komplete 6
- Kore 2
- Evolve Mutations 1 & 2
- True Strike Tension
- Paranormal Spectrums
- Acoustic Refractions
- Sonic Fiction
- Absynth Spectral Expansions
- Absynth Twilights

Crysonic plugins:
- SpectraphyLE
- Spectralive
- nXstasy

And I'm still waiting on EWQL Custom Composer's Collection to arrive which I believe will quickly become indispensable.

[davewalton]

Core Stuff
East West Orchestral (anything) - I use Hollywood Strings along with Platinum Plus but Gold, even Silver is really good
Spectrasonics stuff (Omnisphere, Trillian, Stylus)
Kontakt (because you can use a lot of third party stuff written for Kontakt like Sampletekk in addition to everything that comes with it)

Additional stuff
East West RA (ethnic instruments)
East West Storm Drum 2
East West Ministry of Rock

I have a smattering of third party loops and samples but the above is pretty much what I've got now (although I still want some more stuff).

[ckbarlow]

OK, here goes:

Spectrasonics Stylus, Ominsphere, Trillian

LA Scoring Strings

SampleModeling Trumpet, Saxes, Trombone

Superior Drummer

Alchemy

Morphestra

Evolve and the Mutation Expanders

Kontakt 4 and various third party libraries.

SAM Orchestral Brass

East West: various depending on project, the percussion and harp in QLSO are outstanding

Sampletekk 7CG

Reason 4

HollywoodWinds, Drums of War, Deep Percussion Beds (Cinesamples)

Tonehammer Epic Guitars

Shreddage, Sitar Nation (Impact Soundworks)

These have been making regular appearances in my recent stuff.

DAMN, son!

[matto]

- Universal Audio UAD-1/UAD-2 cards with lots of their powered plug-ins (I guess the cards are technically hardware but it is the plug-ins that make them so much worth having)

- Spectrasonics Stylus RMX and Omnisphere

- XLN Addictive Drums

- Vir2 Basis

- NI Komplete, especially Kontakt 4, B4II, Absynth, Elektrik Piano

- EWQLSO Gold (still running on the NI platform which I prefer)

- Samplemodeling Trumpet and Trombone (I have the saxes too and they are also excellent I just don't use them quite as much)

- Garritan Stradivarius Violin and Gofriller Cello (no longer available)

- Westgate Woodwinds and French Horns

- Sampletekk Pianos (mostly 7CG, Black Grand, White Grand)

- Heavyocity Evolve

- EW Ra, Silk, Gypsy (World Music)

- Best Service Ethnoworld 4 (World Music)

I wouldn't say all of these are "must-haves" cause honestly you could make great music with just Kontakt 4 and its factory sounds but the above are my most used tools, all of which I'd miss if I didn't have them. Obviously their relative importance varies with the musical style I'm working on.

[llama]

Good question......My two "Must have" pieces of SW would be NI Komplete and EW Composers pack............ OK... I cheated since each single item actually consists of multiple items. But who's counting.
Seriously NI komplete would keep me occupied for an eternity just exploring its possibilities and EW composers pack is brilliant for orch, world, piano, choir, percussion ....etc. etc.

Derek